The East Coast is coming to Okotoks at the start of November.
Hailing from Newfoundland, the Ennis Sisters are bringing their decidedly Celtic-Maritime flair to the Rotary Performing Arts Centre on Nov. 2.
“We like to try and bring people to Newfoundland and feel like this is a kitchen party,” said Karen Ennis in a phone interview. “This is what we do, we sit around, we sing songs, and we tell stories – and some of them are even true.”
Comprised of sisters Karen, Maureen and Teresa Ennis, family ties and where they come from plays a major role in their music and the journey they’ve taken to create it.
“There’s definitely a sibling dynamic, there’s a lot of humour that goes through it as well, but storytelling absolutely is a very important component of what we do in our songs and just in the whole show itself,” Ennis said.
“We grew up in Newfoundland, so growing up we had a big influence from Irish music – the Irish Newfoundland Show, we listened to that every Saturday morning.
“The music of Newfoundland is heavily influenced in that way, and the instrumentation, I play tin whistle, we have guitars, we have bodhrans (Celtic drums) – there’s definitely that Celtic undertone to our music.”
The three perform a mixture of classic Celtic folk, but also original compositions, the latter of which Ennis said has set them apart.
“Maureen is an incredible songwriter; she’s able to put into music and words what we are all thinking, and I feel like when we go on stage, performing our songs, we’re speaking about things that matter to us, matters to people we connect to,” Ennis said.
“For instance, we lost our dad in 2018 to dementia, and so our last project, called Keeping Time, a lot of songs on that were inspired by the things we went through in our journey with that, and just realizing how short and how precious time is.”
Relaying those sentiments is a key component of the sisters’ music.
“There's a lot of hope in what we do - we like music to be very hopeful,” Ennis said. “And so we absolutely love to do songs that are meaningful and that people can relate to.”
While their singer/songwriter repertoire has more of a contemporary feel, they do mix in a few old folk classics, such as Paddy McGinty’s Goat, which tells the tale of the titular ungulate wreaking havoc in a small community.
“We learned that on the Southern Shore, which is where our mom is from,” Ennis said. “It’s a heavily Irish-settled community in Newfoundland, and you would swear you were in Ireland if you ever visited.
"But yes, that is definitely one of our more popular songs – I mean who doesn’t love a song about a goat?”
During the pandemic, Newfoundland was mostly spared with the closure of its borders, and the Ennis Sisters were still able to perform and create, such as a collaboration with Great Big Sea frontman Alan Doyle, as well as The Once, Fortunate Ones, and the Rachel Cousins in a song titled It’s Okay.
Fast-forward two years later, the sisters continued their collaboration, recording and producing their latest album, a collection of original songs titled On We Go with Doyle in Quidi Vidi Village.
“We got to spend a whole month recording with Alan,” Ennis said. “I’m telling you, nobody laughs as much, ever. He’s so funny, he has a story about everything, and he’s the most creative, talented person that we’ve ever worked with.”
The new album marks 25 years for the Ennis Sisters as a band, but their journey in music went well back into their childhood, encouraged by their parents John and Ceilie.
“I remember when we got started, there was a huge focus on East Coast music,” Ennis said.
“That was when the Rankin Family, Great Big Sea, Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie McMaster, they were all coming on the scene in a big way.”
It was the encouragement by their parents who seeded that start.
“We were in high school when we really started taking it seriously, and we begged our father because we really wanted to make a CD,” Ennis said. “He had to put up the money because it was very expensive to make CDs back then.”
He made the trio promise they would make that money back, and make it back they did.
“We had this vision of going door-to-door begging people to buy our music,” Ennis said. “Within four weeks, we had sold 1,000 copies of that CD and we were starting to get calls from record labels.”
Their first record deal was signed with Warner Canada and their 1997 debut album Red is the Rose sold over 40,000 copies and garnered several accolades.
“We’ve seen a lot of changes over the years, some good, some bad,” Ennis said, but the thing that we are so grateful for is that three sisters from Newfoundland got to do a career together, they get to sing, make people happy, and travel the world.”
The Ennis Sisters play at the RPAC at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 2, with doors opening at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $35 in advance, $40 at the door, and can be purchased at okotoksculture.ca.
For more information about the Ennis Sisters, visit theennissisters.com.
