'Song For The Mira" Earns Notable Recognition

The East Coast Music Association has partnered with the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame to induct a new song written by an East Coast artist into the Hall of Fame.

This inaugural year the ECMA recognition goes to "Song for the Mira" by Allister MacGillivray, that has made the secluded, picturesque Cape Breton community of Marion Bridge and its Mira River famous.
 
The award will be presented to MacGillivray during the ECMA’s on Sunday, May 6, in the Nova Scotia Ballroom of the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel. Cape Breton artist Heather Rankin will provide a performance of the song in the program.
 
A Cape Bretoner, MacGillivray is a graduate of Xavier College and St. F.X. University and is a songwriter, guitarist, folklorist, author, and record producer who has served as music director for Celtic television programs out of St. John’s and Halifax. As an accompanist, he has toured internationally with Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy, John Allan Cameron, and Ryan’s Fancy, and also worked for a short time with Canadian songwriter Gene MacLellan.
 
His Celtic ballad "Song For the Mira" was recognized by Billboard magazine as a folk classic and is a favourite song with roots musicians and choirs in Atlantic Canada and beyond, with various translations available, including Scots Gaelic, Italian, Japanese.
 
Known also by the title "Out On the Mira," the song has been performed or recorded  by Nova Scotians such as Denny Doherty, The Men of the Deeps, and Symphony Nova Scotia; by other Canadian acts, such as Amy Cervini, John McDermott, The Elmer Iseler Singers, and The Canadian Tenors; and by Irish singers Foster & Allen, Mary O’Hara, Daniel O’Donnell, and Celtic Thunder. The song was popularized outside of Canada by Nova Scotian icon Anne Murray, who recorded the song on her gold-selling 1982 album Hottest Night of the Year.
Tickets are $10 and will be available at the door 30 minutes before the event. Festival & Conference Passes and VIP Passes also provide entry, and are available here: http://ecma.com/festival/tickets.