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SEVEN NATIONS

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Seven Nations
Orlando, Florida
On Stage at Paddy's Friday, January 9, 2009

Seven Nations Bio

Lead singer and guitarist Kirk McLeod recently sat down to tell the story of the band. Here, then, in his own words, is the genesis of Seven Nations…

I like to think the band started back in 1993 with our first show. We were from New York … New York City at the time and late ‘93 was the first time we added bagpipes to the show, bagpipes and tin whistle.

Before that, we’d just been a regular rock bank in New York and we played a show at Fordham University and did a couple of songs that we actually have in our set now, so ‘93 is probably the first year.

Released numerous albums since then, been through two major record deals -- first was with Q Records, which was under Atlantic Warner, second record deal was with Razor and Tie, which is a BMG Company.

Individually, most of us in the band grew up playing Celtic music as kids. We’ve only done our own music since the early ‘90s, late 80s even, but we always used our instruments, bagpipes and fiddle mostly, and that’s what makes us different.

Well, we’ve been to Europe , we’ve toured 48 states now I think, no, wait, wait, wait… we just did Alaska , so that’s 49 states. We’ve played 49 states, plus Puerto Rico , DC , Canada , and Europe .

In Scotland , we played New Year’s Eve on the Royal Mile for about 40,000 people, that was very cool. We did a National Trust-sponsored tour of Scotland ; we just played England back in May 2005.

We were sponsored by Dewar’s Scotch for about four years. As a result of that, they put us in, I don’t know, it was like 20-something different magazines. We appeared in some of those 20 magazines like three or four times, everything from Penthouse and Playboy to Rolling Stone, Billboard, Cigar Aficionado, Maxim, Stuff, FHM, GQ… so that helped out a good deal.

We also played the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake . We actually play for the Torch Lighting ceremony. That was amazing. Lately, we’ve been doing a lot of symphony shows. We got to play with a couple different symphonies, the most notable being the Grammy-award winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

We tour very hard actually. We’ve been touring now since ’94; we’ve been on the road full-time. We’re actually trying to slow things down a little bit tour-wise right now, because in 2002, our tour bus was on the road 301 days that year. Plus, we had recorded an album in LA that took us quite a few weeks, so we were hardly at home at all. So now, we’re trying to keep organized and stay home as much as we can. We just released a new CD, so thanks for waiting!

Also, the original lineup from back in ‘94 - the four of us just got together and released a “Best of” CD of the first five CDs, plus some additional recordings. That’s something we should mention, too. When we first started the band, we were called “Clan Na Gael” and we changed our name in ‘97 because of copyright disputes.

Sales-wise we’ve done probably a quarter of a million combined units that we’ve sold, and most of that was done independently. We’ve toured with a lot of great bands…we’ve opened for Live, and Cowboy Mouth, and Great Big Sea from Canada extensively. We’ve shared stages at rock festivals with a lot of acts from Black Crows, Counting Crows, ah, all kinds of Crows!

One of the astronauts took our CD up on the Space Shuttle one time. I thought that was kind of cool, because they don’t get to take too much stuff. Get lots of letters from Iraq . Lot of soldiers are fans over there, which is excellent. Got this So Piano CD, which is my independent release; probably because it is so mellow, probably helps to calm them down.

Scott Long is our piper from Halifax, Nova Scotia; Dan Stacey is the fiddle player, from Waterloo, Ontario; Christian (Crisco) Macelli is our drummer from Orlando, Florida; Jim Struble [“ Struby”] is the Bass player from Jacksonville, Florida.

One thing is since we’ve been on the road for so long, we eventually all left New York City and just moved to wherever we either came from or just where we happen to like to live. We just fly up and meet each other now.

The new album is the longest album we’ve ever done. It came out at 55 minutes with 16 tracks. There’s no electric guitar in it at all, which is cool and different. I got to play bagpipes on two of the tracks myself, for the first time since our very first CD.

Seven Nations Trivia Question: Where does the band’s name come from?

The name refers to the seven nations of the Celtic world, now known as Scotland , Ireland , Wales , Brittany , Cornwall , the Isle of Man , and parts of Spain.

Source:
Seven Nations Official Website

Career Highlights:

• Performed at the Torch Lighting ceremony at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City
• Subject of PBS Special “An Evening with Seven Nations”
• Chosen by Extreme Sports to create the music theme for their theme, which airs internationally
• Featured on CNN in a Worldbeat special airing internationally
• Selected by Dewar’s Scotch for a multi-million dollar profile campaign and sponsorship.
• Featured in national print campaign with exposure in over 20 major magazines
• Seven Nations CD flown on the Space Shuttle Endeavor by Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield
• First American band to be asked by the National Trust of Scotland to do a return engagement
• Rolling Stone Presents Showcase and VIP party in San Francisco in 2001
• Performed for the televised opening ceremony of the New York Marathon in late 2001
• National Major-market Hard Rock Café tour in 2001

Source:
Seven Nations Official Website

Whats being said about Seven Nations

• "Explosive Seven Nations blows Palace into orbit ... you'd be hard pressed to find a more original, unique but accessible group ... powerful self-penned tunes and transcendent live shows. A musical force to be reckoned with, Seven Nations' day has come." - Albany Times-Union
• "Arguably the best independent band in America." - Watauga Democrat
• "Seven Nations is blazing a new path in the "indie" music world for others to follow. Rarely has there been a CD with such variety so skillfully played, a testament to the multi-talented Seven Nations." - Brigid's Feast
• "Full of hooks, addictive melodies, and precise musicianship, Seven Nations may be the next frontrunners for the summer tour feel-good band of the new millennium." - MusicBlitz
• "The music was riveting ... folks were dancing in the aisles ... the cheers were deafening." - Independent Mail
• "Seven Nations, which melds bagpipes and fiddles with blazing electric guitars and drums ... exited their tour bus and walked in to a standing ovation." - San Francisco Chronicle
• "Absolutely hypnotic!" - The Item
• "Wow, what a discovery! Each song is laden with hooks and melodies that stick in your brain, thanks to songwriter Kirk McLeod, who pens the best lyrics since Phil Lynott. This is the stuff of legends."
  - Chaos Realm
• "The band's music is a highly textured blend of sounds, tones, and emotions, all uniting a common theme. " - Jacksonville Times-Union
• "Seven Nations taught a crowd of nearly 10,000 one important lesson: bagpipes rock." - Lancaster Intelligencer Journal
• "Not only does this music make you want to get up and move to the beat, but the band's overwhelming abundance of spirit and energy keeps their audience begging for more." - St. Augustine Record
• "One of America's soon-to-be-most-widely-recognized Celtic bands." - Creative Loafing
• "Billed by Planet Radio DJs as the "Dave Matthews Band with bagpipes," the five man group takes rock and roll, Celtic, and folk music and turns them upside down." - Indie Music.com
• "...if such a thing is possible, the band's stage shows are even more energetic than their recordings."
  -Rambles Magazine
• "The packed house chanted and rocked with enthusiasm. When the opportunity comes to see them again, I know I'll be there." - Global Music Evolution
• "Seven Nations could do for a Celtic and pop music mix what the Squirrel Nut Zippers did for rocked-up swing." - Denver Post
• "This is a group to watch for in the future." - Green Man Reviews

Source:
Seven Nations Official Website