Craig Downie was born in Scotland and raised in Canada. He started playing bagpipes when he joined a pipe band at 12 years old. After pursuing an acting career in the early 1990s, Downie formed Enter the Haggis in Toronto in 1995 shortly before the band’s first performance. The name was chosen as a humorous reference to the 1973 kung-fu film Enter the Dragon.
Since then, Enter The Haggis have led the charge among Celtic Folk Rock bands, delighting fans with their memorable performances, inspired songwriting, musical proficiency and high quality recordings. The Toronto-based band has released eight acclaimed studio albums, the most recent debuting at #9 on the U.S. national Billboard Heatseekers charts. Their original songs such as “One Last Drink”, “Down With The Ship” and “Gasoline” have become folk rock anthems, appearing in films such as “Goon”, “10mph” and “Addicted to Plastic”, and reaching as high as #25 on U.S. radio.
The band’s new album, “Broken Arms” is the bands third EP (fourth if you include the one the released as Jubilee Riots) to go along with their eight studio, five live and, one compilation (which you can listen to on the playlist below).
Praise for Enter The Haggis has appeared in major publications, including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post and Canada’s Globe and Mail. The band has also performed on national television shows like “Live With Regis and Kelly” and “Breakfast With The Arts” on A&E.
After multiple Canadian tours in the late 1990’s, ETH made waves in the US in 2004 with a feature-length performance documentary called “Live at Lanigan’s Ball”. Following extensive airing of the special on PBS in more than 80 markets around the US, the band was invited to perform at Celtic and folk festivals across the US, Canada and Europe. Touring tirelessly, they amassed a legion of diehard fans who are known to cross continents and oceans for shows. Shunning the traditional industry model of a band maintaining distance from its fans, Enter The Haggis has worked hard to develop personal relationships with their supporters, (affectionately known as “Haggis Heads”), taking the necessary time to shake hands and chat after performances, broadcasting shows online for free and even inviting fans to join them in the studio to sing and play on record. It’s thanks to this close connection that the band’s last three albums were entirely financed through crowdfunding platforms that raised over $150,000 US.
Hello
Hey ho, how are things on the old side of the Atlantic?
Good morning!
I can’t speak for the rest of Europe but I’m embarrassed. I went to pay for some groceries with my debit card to find that there was only 44p in my account. When I got home I found out a couple of bills came in that I wasn’t expecting. *facepalm*
Good morning! Sorry to hear about your groceries, Garf! I hate it when that happens to me.
Yeah, garf, that’s a good example of a major difference between spending cash and ‘racking up numbers’. I had something similar happen to me in May (a largish expense getting paid through a sub-account I didn’t know could be accessed — and which I didn’t spot), and it took me about four months of belt-tightening to set it straight (not the two months I had thought, of course).
One of the better opening lines I’ve run across lately, edited to preserve the effect: “Due to ethical concerns — specifically, the sudden having of them — the supply of…”
Hiiiii yoooo….. (as Craig Norris used to say).
I’ve never heard of Enter the Haggis…. I’ll give ’em a gander….
“Due to ethical concerns — specifically, the sudden having of them — the supply of medical cadavers in Europe dried up in the late 18th century.” (…is the whole sentence. From a bit in Cracked.)
Hi Justin, I hadn’t heard of them before yesterday
I had heard of Enter the Haggis. A few years back. In the context of bagpipin’ rock and stuff.
@BfO #07:16, That might be one reason why they needed to import and American body for a BBC documentary about anatomy I watched a couple of months ago.
We have had ethics for centuries, it’s not far from thuthics
I’m new to Enter the Haggis as well, but am looking forward to listening to them.
7:21 Huh. I imagine you might see some bodies transiting if you owned a bonded warehouse. Weird, when things unordinary, well, are seen as ordinary.
Due to ethical concerns — specifically, the sudden having of them — the Bowling Proprietors Association will no longer use the phrase “Beat Your Wife Tonight” in any form of advertising.
@BfO, You can find the show here but it gets a little gross
Obesity – The Post Mortem
https://youtu.be/RLu_hdlWUkI
Garf — a little gross, eh?
Russ — hahaha, baboom!
sorry about that, I forgot links posted the thumbnail
Over and out! —>Changing my wheels from summer to winter, not that winter’s upon us right now, but there is snow forecast for Thursday, so…
*car* wheels
Not roulette wheels!?
I love that you’re digging up obscure stuff, because ETH is pretty obscure. If you were into Celtic stuff and lived in TO in the 90s, though, you probably knew about them. I had a Haggis Head t-shirt.
They were a blast live, and have become a much more serious band as they grew up than they were back in the days when I saw them play
case in point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9wQV-3RFZg
they did a great cover of this old chestnut from Andy Stewart, too
the original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yw0bLHTOb0
and the ETH cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_VwcgEoA24
There’s another twist in the Bob Dylan Nobel prize winning saga.
His silence since he was awarded the prize for literature has been labelled “impolite and arrogant”, by a member of the body that awards it – and now it’s been revealed that if his silence continues – he won’t be given the $900,000 (£735,000) prize money.
As a condition of the prize, the winner must give a lecture on a subject “relevant to the work for which the prize has been awarded” no later than 6 months after 10 December.
“That is what we ask for in return,” said Jonna Petterson, spokeswoman for the Nobel Foundation, and she said Dylan could opt to give a concert instead of a lecture.
“Yes, we are trying to find an arrangement that suits the laureate (Dylan).”
Even if he doesn’t get the prize money the Nobel Foundation does not accept a rejection of the prize – Dylan’s name will still be listed as the 2016 winner.
Is this the first time someone has rejected winning it? Not that Dylan has overtly rejected it, but his silence on the matter seems to be speaking volumes.
Seems a bit like sour grapes to decide that he won’t get the money if he doesn’t give a concert/lecture. Though I can understand not wanting to award the money to someone who doesn’t need it and doesn’t seem to want it.
Two Nobel Laureates Declined the Prize
Jean-Paul Sartre, awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature, declined the prize because he had consistently declined all official honours.
Le Duc Tho, awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. They were awarded the Prize for negotiating the Vietnam peace accord. Le Doc Tho said that he was not in a position to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, citing the situation in Vietnam as his reason.
Interesting…. I wonder if they didn’t get the prize money either. And if the committee’s feelings about the prizes being rejected come across as hurt as they seem to with Dylan’s rejection.
Hurt feelings are speculation. Most large organisations work with regulationa of some kind, and —> As a condition of the prize, the winner must give a lecture on a subject “relevant to the work for which the prize has been awarded” <— is completely believable, IMO.
That is a good point, I’m speculating that the feelings are hurt. I guess because it seems to be such a media spectacle that Dylan isn’t responding I’m projecting that the committee must feel a bit embarrassed to give the prize to a guy who seems to not want it.
I have no issue with giving a lecture to receive the prize itself, makes sense to ask someone to demonstrate their mastery on a subject if they’re receiving a prestigious award. Or even a non-prestigious award.
I think the media are making it a bigger story than it needs to be.
hidy ho!
hi funhug
new tunes! thanks @garfielduk.
something to think about for next summer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXjzsoCPGPc
it takes place on a beach, with a floating stage?
cool!
yes it does! it is un to paddle up to back stage and see what is going on too …
fun
not
un
Kaslo Jazz fest is now on my list of summer vacation goals! Time to start saving for the trip!
the early bird tickets go on sale soon. the camp ground fills up quickly too. there are a few hotel rooms in the wee town of kaslo but i have never stayed in any of them.
let me know if you can pull it off @janet, i live in nelson which is just over an hour from the festival site.
@Morgana, May I book my usual room for the 2018 edition (I might be able to afford the flights by then)
Kasslo Jazz Fest looks pretty great!
@Morgana I sure will! I’ll talk it over with my sweetie and see if he’s in, but if not, I might be tempted to go by myself!
we can make a tent city in my yard for prevent gathering and all go together!
for now i have to go back to the mundane … groceries and then off to work.
That would be so much fun.
Campout at Morgana’s!
Good afternoon all! I got here late and was reading through the posts, and I felt Garf’s ethics joke was underappreciated so I went to consult a map to come up with a good follow-up, then I got distracted by work and lunch and work again and forgot all about it, and now the day is almost over. Phew. Anyway, will you settle for a thainthburyth on the thrand in thwanthea?
thure.
There. Car wheels changed over to winter ones. (That’s still to be done on my “mountain” bike.)
Three or four times, as I was working, a little pellet snow fell, crinkling on dry leaves strewn by two days of wind.
Can’t we just cancel winter this year due to lack of interest?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiqcS1bIRW0
Loozrboy, see, if you were in a band, now’s the time you’d be going soon on a four-month tour of Australia and New Zealand.
Or you could always lose your soul by working on a cruise ship.
Hmm. Never been on a cruise ship, but I kind of assumed the crew would all be, like, Dominicans making $6 a day. But I guess they’ll hire anyone willing to work for $6 a day?
@krib – When I saw the post today I thought that you would probably know about these guys.
ON TOPIC: ETH are playing Ann Arbor in December.
Quick question,
Is this the type of post you would like to see more of?
I was going to post the question yesterday of what people wanted to see here.
To answer your question, I found I didn’t care much about this band but some may. I don’t mind finding out about bands I am unfamiliar with but I would rather they were up and coming ones personally. But that is just me and I like to diversity so different articles and different voices are what I am looking for.
@DBS, I would love to talk about bands that are just starting, but it is difficult to find out about them without them shouting “we’re here!”
@Garf – I hear ya. I have no problem with this post just giving some feedback on what I would like more if it were possible.
I do hear buzz about local artists. I am sure others have artists in their areas that they could share with us as well. Those ones that are known in their city or town but not the rest of Canada and the world yet.
I was just thinking it might be worth asking Indie artists to recommend upcoming artists when we talk to them at live shows
That would be cool.
I see nothing wrong with shining the spotlight on bands who have been toiling in relative obscurity for 20+ years.
They’re still working, releasing music, right?
I think the Paperboys* should be next…
*I’m not sure they’ve got any albums coming out anytime soon
speaking of the Paperboys, they’re playing in Portland Nov 12, Justin
they’re well worth the time to see live. Geoff Kelley from Spirit of the West plays with them now
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKJ0C5Cjar8
Exactly. I knew that you in particular would appreciate these kind of posts. It is just personal preferences.
honestly, though, the Paperboys shouldn’t be next, because it’s the same type of music
I would be all for an Extroverts article!
http://www.theextroverts.com/
there you go…now THAT’s a blast from the past
I always wondered if they intentionally misspelled that word just so it would stand out
Is it misspelled?
well, before Benoit comes along and corrects me with links to sites that show this, I’ll say there probably are two accepted spellings. In things like Meyers-Briggs, you’ll see extravert with an ‘a’
which is funny, because the opposite is definitely introvert
Interesting.
interesting…the Free Dictionary says extravert is a variant of extrovert, as opposed to the other way around…
maybe the version used by Meyers Briggs is one of those Noah Webster influences (the guy who thought all the u’s should be eliminated from words like colour)
it seems to me that extra- is the correct one, given that extra- is used as a prefix in so many other forms…I bet extro- came along just so it would match with introvert
because introverts LOVE company 😉
Ha! Makes sense.
yep. that appears to be the case.
funny that it was intro- and extra- given that we have intramurals and extracurricular activities
Intro itself means ‘inwards’, ‘to the inside’, and is used in that sense as a prefix in English verbs and adjectives. Intra is a Latin preposition meaning ‘inside’ and is the origin of the prefix in English adjectives, typically those found in biological contexts.
From
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/68955/intro-vs-intra
I will throw try to throw something together about The Extroverts for next week (not sure if it will be on Tuesday or Thursday)
I will have to bid you all (both?) good night because the dog keeps telling me it is past my bed time
Feel free to leave ideas for tomorrows post
Cool. Thanks Garf and goodnight.