“Down Where the River Flows” is a popular song by Cape Breton Music Hall of Fame songwriter Buddy MacDonald. It just so happens that the venue for this evening’s concert, the Whycocomagh Education Centre, is just north of where the Skye River feeds into Whycocomagh Bay. The river flows right past the school on its way into the bay at the northernmost tip of St. Patrick’s Channel, an arm of the Bras d’Or Lake system which is an integral part of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve designated in 2011. To the west of the Skye River is the Mi’kmaw community of We’koqma’q while the Scottish and English settlement of Whycocomagh lies to the east. The name Whycocomagh is derived from the Mi’kmaw language in reference to its geographic location at the “head of the waters”. Buddy will be on hand tonight to sing some of his songs alongside award-winning Scottish Gaelic singer Kathleen MacInnes. Kathleen will be accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Scottish musician, composer, producer, and arranger Mike Vass who has collaborated with many of the leading voices among today’s Scots and Gaelic tradition bearers. Rounding out the lineup is a trio deeply rooted in Cape Breton and Danish traditional music and dance featuring frequent collaborators Andrea Beaton, Troy MacGillivray, and Tove de Fries. Tove is a fiddler from the Danish island of Fanø whose keen interest in traditional Cape Breton fiddle music was inspired by the late Jerry Holland and the similarities between the music and dance culture of Fanø and Cape Breton.