Enter the Haggis w/The Hooligans

Enter the Haggis

http://www.enterthehaggis.com/
http://www.myspace.com/enterthehaggis

There aren't many groups in North America who are literally impossible to pigeonhole or classify, but Toronto's Enter The Haggis is one of them. To engage this quintet is to indulge rock, fusion, bluegrass, traditional Celtic fare, folk, even Latin flavors. Sounds awfully confused, right? Wrong. ETH is one of those rare jewels that actually pulls it all off as if to own everything.

Back in the mid-nineties, the band was but a glimmer in the eye of piper Craig Downie. Busking on the streets of Toronto, Downie's original intention was to get reacquainted with the bagpipes he'd put down while trying to make a go of it as an actor and create a job for himself. At the time, Craig was listening to a few things that had hinted at the fusion of rock and Celtic music. He saw the future. By the end of the decade, the formative Enter The Haggis lineup was in full effect and by the release of Enter The Haggis Live! in 2002, the band would become quite a larger animal, amassing fans from coast to coast.

Brian Buchanan, says regarding the title of their new release, "'Soapbox Heroes' refers to all the millions of people who make the mistake of thinking that holding a strong opinion about something is as good as doing something about it- people who hold a sign and chant a slogan and then go home, watch Wife-Swap 2006 and forget about the problem for the evening. North American voters are more polarized now than ever, but the dismal voter turnouts in the last Canadian and US federal elections don't reflect that fact at all. Apparently it's hard to reach a ballot box from a soapbox."

The Hooligans

http://www.myspace.com/thatcelticband