Great music has always been a staple in New Waterford, a town on the Atlantic coast of Cape Breton Island with a proud history of coal mining. Many of the early settlers emigrated from the Irish seaport of Waterford, often referring to their new home as New Waterford. And the name just stuck. The collapse of the mining industry in Inverness County during the 1950s prompted many descendants of that area’s Scottish settlers to make their way to New Waterford looking for work in the coal mines there. With strong ties to both their Scottish and Irish roots intact, folks in this community love music and never miss an opportunity to gather for some tunes. So it’s only fitting that we should have a musical matinee this afternoon in New Waterford. Chicago native Liz Carroll has Irish roots and the internationally acclaimed fiddler and composer is considered one of Irish music’s brightest stars. Liz returns to Celtic Colours this year in a duo with multi-instrumentalist Jake Charron of Juno award-winning Prince Edward Island band The East Pointers. Lili Watson and Hannah Krebs will honour New Waterford’s Scottish roots with a set of Gaelic songs while singing, songwriting, traveling minstrel Bethany June adds some folky flavour with a selection of songs from her own wide-ranging repertoire of Irish and folk classics and original songs. Lively tunes, Gaelic songs, and folky favourites are the order of the day for today’s Coal Town Matinee.