The Iona Heights Inn

Cape Breton Celtic Trad Sessions
2024-08-18 16:30 - 19:30, 2024-08-25 16:30 - 19:30, 2024-09-01 16:30 - 19:30, 2024-09-08 16:30 - 19:30, 2024-09-15 16:30 - 19:30, 2024-09-22 16:30 - 19:30, 2024-10-06 16:30 - 19:30, 2024-10-13 16:30 - 19:30 (America/Halifax) | The Frolic’n Folk Pub & Grill, 4115 HWY 223, Iona, Nova Scotia, B2C 1A3, Canada
Come and enjoy a casual gathering of musicians who have come together to play traditional Cape Breton celtic music.
Anyone is welcome to join in, or just sit back and enjoy the tunes.
Sundays at The Frolic 430 – 730pm
Full kitchen and bar service.
Minors allowed till 10pm

Lennie Gallant
2024-08-21 20:00 - 22:00
East Coast songwriter Lennie Gallant has released fifteen albums of original songs which have won him a host of awards and nominations from the JUNOs, Les Prix Éloizes, and The ECMAs. His songs have been described as “true slices of life delivered with a poet’s flair and a rugged emotional sensibility”. His multimedia production, Searching for Abegweit, ran for 190 shows in Eastern Canada. His song Peter’s Dream, from that show, was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Lennie is an international artist who has performed all over North America and Europe. His songs have been covered by many artists and he has shared the stage with several orchestras and with performers such as Lucinda Williams, Patti Griffin and Roger Hodgson. He has performed with the late Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefers and with David Foster and his band. Lennie struck up a friendship with Jimmy, has two co-writes on his upcoming posthumous album, and was invited to sing on both songs. One of Lennie’s albums also went up to the international space station and circled the planet 248 times. His album, Time Travel, was voted a top ten Album of the Year by a panel of Canadian music industry personnel, and his recent all original Christmas album has received rave reviews.
He and partner Patricia Richard also record and perform as the popular Francophone duo, Sirène et Matelot. Their songs have achieved strong radio play in francophone circuits and have consistently remained on the charts! Lennie Gallant is a member of The Order of Canada and has been recognized for his humanitarian efforts.
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Trivia Night at The Frolic
2024-08-22 20:00 - 22:00, 2024-08-29 20:00 - 22:00, 2024-09-05 20:00 - 22:00, 2024-09-12 20:00 - 22:00, 2024-09-19 20:00 - 22:00, 2024-09-26 20:00 - 22:00, 2024-10-03 20:00 - 22:00, 2024-10-10 20:00 - 22:00 and 1 more date
Come test your wits & win prizes!
3 Rounds – 12 general knowledge questions each round.
Play solo, or form a team. Funniest team name gets showered with accolades.
Hosted by your man – Ruarí Aonghas Lonce Murphy, every Thursday Night

Céilidh Matinee
2024-08-24 17:00 - 20:00, 2024-08-31 17:00 - 20:00, 2024-09-07 17:00 - 20:00, 2024-09-14 17:00 - 20:00, 2024-09-21 17:00 - 20:00, 2024-09-28 17:00 - 20:00, 2024-10-05 17:00 - 20:00, 2024-10-12 17:00 - 20:00 and 1 more date
Get a taste of local celtic music & culture with our Saturday ceilidhs (kay-lee).
Expect to see world-renowned talent & budding entertainers from all over our native Cape Breton.
General admission seating ranging from $5-$10
First come first serve at the pub. No reservations. Minors allowed up until 10PM

J.P. Cormier
2024-08-28 20:00 - 22:00
Nobody really knows who J.P. Cormier is for sure. That’s to be expected, believe me.
In 1974 he was a five year old boy, discovering an innate talent for playing the guitar, I had a little hand in that, guiding him through the beginning stages. He learned faster than I could teach.
By the mid eighties, not out of his teens, he was a sideman for bands and artists of many different genres in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, and all across the deep south. As he travelled and worked he added more and more instruments to his arsenal of capabilities. He became indispensable to the bands he worked for.
In the early Nineties, he became a sideman for one of Canada’s favourite sons, Stompin’ Tom Connors and also became a staple of the recordings at Studio H in Halifax. His work with the CBC there, spanned musical, production and arranging duties.
All this before he was 20.
In the mid nineties he reentered the musical scene of his beloved East Coast and the Island called Cape Breton. He exploded onto the trad music scene there as a fiddler, performing some of the most difficult music ever produced by legends like Winston Fitzgerald and Angus Chisholm with a facility that stunned onlookers. Especially those who knew he wasn’t born there, but born in Ontario to Cape Breton parents. Somehow, some way, his music was the real thing, sounding like he had been steeped continually in a handed-down brew of family tradition from the old country.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
His previous gig was in Nashville playing mandolin and banjo in a grammy nominated bluegrass gospel band and performing on the Opry, and playing television shows with the likes of Waylon Jennings. All those people also thought he was one of them, American, reared in the ways of bluegrass, old time and Americana music. They knew he was from Canada, but it just didn’t seem possible.
Then in 1997, something amazing happened.
An album released in Canada, out of nowhere, called Another Morning. This time it was him as a songwriter and a lead singer.
And what a songwriter he turned out to be. Some of the performances on that album are literally part of the musical vocabulary today in the East Coast. Songs like the title cut, and Kelly’s Mountain, The Molly May (co written with his cousin Gervais) and others. It inspired, 25 years ago, some of the biggest names in the business today. People like Dave Gunning, Matt Andersen, David Myles, Joel Plaskett, all of which will tell you: that record changed things.
The Canadian industry thought so too, and it received a juno nomination and won an ECMA.
And that was just the beginning.
36 years later after stepping on stage as professional union musician for the first time at the tender age of 13, JP is still going, and frighteningly, still getting better.
16 albums followed the success of Another Morning, winning 12 more ECMA’s, another Juno nomination, a Canadian Folk Music Award and 5 Music Nova Scotia Awards. Each album was a snapshot of each thing that he can do. There are fiddle albums, Mandolin, Banjo, Guitar, tribute records, songwriting collections, a purely astounding spectrum of talent and musical vision.
His catalogue of recordings and the 150 or so records he’s produced on other artists, resemble the tapestry he weaves in live performance. Where he used to carry 3 and 4 piece bands, he tours alone now.
Just him and the instruments.
People still leave his shows confused, amazed and wondering what they just saw. Did they see a storyteller? A Songwriter? Arguably one of the best guitar players in the business today? Someone who crosses the lines between different instruments like there are no lines? Who was that masked man, anyway?
Accolades aside, and there are many from people like Chet Atkins, Marty Stuart, Waylon Jennings, Gordon Lightfoot; JP sees himself as just a performer. He’s shy, but has a razor sharp wit and lightning sense of humour. He can be reserved or edgy to the point no return. He speaks for soldiers, first responders, other artists, the forgotten and lost. He speaks sometimes only for himself and refuses rebuttal.
Of all the things he is, foremost he is an entertainer. I think one of the best. After you’ve seen what he does, I’m certain you will too.

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Songwriters Circle - Woody Woodburn, Steve McIntyre & Dennis Ellsworth
2024-09-20 20:00 - 22:00
Words that make you think. Melodies that get stuck in your head. Steve MacIntyre offers up both in abundance. An East Coast storyteller who makes his home in Cape Breton, Steve grew up surrounded by the best artists and entertainers in the world. It is here that he honed his craft and ability to capture an audience. It is here that he began writing songs of love and loss, travel and reflection, and it is here that you can find him spinning stories that leave people wanting more!
Born & raised in Mississauga, Ontario, with roots in Cape Breton. Woody now calls the small town of Rockwood Ontario home. He has spent time in Cape Breton every summer of his life. His music gives life to your own struggles. Like listening to an old friend. The kind of melodies that linger in your head well after you’ve heard them. Woody is an unassuming, humble guy that will surprise you with his powerful voice. A voice that combined with the real & “come from the heart” lyrics will leave you more hopeful & inspired in your life.
Dennis Ellsworth is a songwriter, performer, sideman, and record producer from Charlottetown, PE. His songwriting career started in high school, filling notebooks with lyrics and poems. He grew up on the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Ray Charles, Kris Kristofferson, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. His tastes evolved in grade 6 and he began collecting cassettes. His personal music collection is stylistically expansive. Some might call his love for music an addiction, but whatever.
Over the years he has collaborated with Josh Finlayson and Andy Maize from Skydiggers, Gord Downie from The Tragically Hip, Joel Plaskett, Donovan Woods, Rose Cousins, John Smith, and David Barbe (producer of Drive-by Truckers and bass player for 90’s alt rock band Sugar.)
In 2015 Dennis signed a publishing deal with Cymba Music Publishing in Toronto and has since written songs in a wide variety of styles His music has appeared in television shows for CBC, Netflix, HBO and was featured in the award-winning film, The New Romantic.
Ellsworth has released 2 full length albums with his previous group, Haunted Hearts, an album as a duo with Kinley Dowling, two EP’s and 10 full length solo albums, including his most recent triple album project called Bound by Love.

Lookout Tower
2024-09-27 20:00 - 22:00
Lookout Tower hails from memories of days gone by and of moments yet to come. Storytellers inspired by the cultural landscape of Cape Breton and woven from the yarn of hard times – their songs are the culmination of musical paths not commonly crossed. Defying genres with a no holds barred approach, vintage soul meets modern Americana where footstompin’ old-time harmonies and influences are dashed with Acadian roots, creating their original Winter Swamp Sound – a sonic palette of soulful ballads, rousing blues rock and hypnotic funk.
Their album ‘Fields’ was nominated for ‘Blues Recording of the Year’ at the 2024 ECMAs and for ‘Americana Recording of the Year’ at the 2023 NSMW.
Rankin MacEachern / vocals
Bryan Picard / guitar, vocals
Franzi Habith / bass, vocals
John Pinnington / drums

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