Jennifer Roland
"Wings"
CD Review
Review by Kimberley @ The Canadian Celtic Music Website


Clickety-click...clickety-click...those are the first sounds you hear when you put Jennifer Roland's new CD "Wings" in the CD player. Already you can tell this is going to be a fast-paced, energetic CD.

Alder Point, Cape Breton's Jennifer Roland puts all her talents up front on her latest CD - from fiddle playing to step-dancing to piano playing. This young dynamo has so much energy and she's able to keep the pace going from start to finish. Almost an hour in length, with 13 tracks, this is a delightful piece of work. Each tune shows the progress of Jennifer's' talents since her last album.

The packaging of this CD is equally as beautiful as the playing inside of it. The cover art has Jennifer with a butterfly outfit on reaching out to cradle a butterfly and on the back she's dressed in a cocoon-like dress. A very important factor these days is how you package your product. This product is beautifully packaged capturing the essence of the theme throughout.

The CD booklet contains the following quote..."What the caterpillar thinks is the end of the world, the butterfly knows is only the beginning." A beautiful quote to describe the CD...just the beginning of Jennifer's career, nowhere near the end!

Like a lot of Cape Breton fiddlers, Jennifer also composes. Some of her tunes appear on this CD along with compositions by Jerry Holland, Dan R. MacDonald and Brenda Stubbert, just to name a few. Jennifer is also accompanied by some of the finest Cape Breton musicians: Tracey Dares-MacNeil, Matthew Foulds, Al Bennett, Fred Lavery, Howie MacDonald, Gordie Sampson, just to name a few. No shortage of talent or energy here! Cape Breton musicians love to support each other and you'll often see them appear on each other's albums.

Jennifer honours some of her inspirations in the tune titles such as "Jerry Rocks" for Jerry Holland and "Thank You Winston" for Winston "Scotty" Fitzgerald. Vocalist Stephanie Hardy appears on the song "Back to Your Shores", a tune she also wrote. This tune is dedicated to Cape Bretoners who long to be "back to your shores."

Come and list to Jennifer take flight on "Wings"...you'll be glad you did! She can work all your emotions...from the smiles from the reels, strathspeys and jigs to the tears from the beautiful waltzes...the sign of a talented fiddler.

I look forward to hearing where Jennifer's talents will take her next. And with her drive and determination, I have no doubt that she'll go where she wants to. Drive er' Jennifer!


For more info on Jennifer Roland, check out her website: http://www.jenniferroland.com

Jennifer Roland was the Celtic Cafe Canada May 2001 Artist of the Month...read the feature here - http://www.celticcafe.com/canada/jenniferroland/

If you're interested in more Canadian Celtic Music, visit Kimberley's Cafe page at http://members.shaw.ca/kimberleyw/canadacelticmusic