Villages
The Frolic'n Folk Pub & Grill 4115 HWY 223, Iona, Nova Scotia, Canada"We didn't want anything to do with it," says Matt Ellis, who sings and plays guitar in Villages and grew up in Cape Breton. "Our siblings played the fiddle or the pipe—we wanted to play something loud. But it's in you, man. You can't escape it."
That's how Ellis ended up fronting his own traditional band, along with his brother Travis, Jon Pearo and Archie Rankin, a group of men you may also know as the excellent rock band Mardeen (or as Ellis puts it, "all the same crew"). That band, a longtime local favourite known for...