Mary Beth Carty, winner of the 2024 Canadian Folk Music Award for Traditional Singer of the Year, is from Antigonish County, Nova Scotia. She blends the ancestral sounds of her Gaelic heritage with multicultural influences, soulfully accompanying herself on accordion, guitar, and wooden rhythm bones. With a knack for weaving wit and warmth into her shows, she invites audiences to sing along to original compositions that sound old-fashioned, and to experience the breadth of emotion expressed in the Gaelic and Acadian traditional songs she has uncovered from deep within the archives of various folklore collections. Her album Crossing the Causeway reached No. 8 on the Folk Alliance International Radio Play Chart for 2023 and has received airplay on BBC Scotland and BBC Alba. The songs from her first album, ECMA-nominated Les biens-nommés, are poignant portraits of imaginary characters, written en français. Her music has afforded her invitations to perform in France, Austria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, all across Canada, as well as aboard NCL, National Geographic, and Holland America Cruise Lines. Mary Beth is excited to return to Celtic Colours International Festival in 2025 with some top-notch collaborators!