Hey Everyone,

Karen and I are going to begin recording our videos again.

This time, so we don’t run out of ideas and therefore lose our momentum, we’d like to invite you to ask us questions and offer your video suggestions.

Karen has a few ideas already involving some of our famous Newfoundland recipes. I can only imagine how that’s going to turn out. As we all know, she has a fantastic sense of humor.

We’re going to have a lot of fun with this.

Post your questions or ideas to our ENNIS Facebook page or send them to us at info@ennismusic.com.

You can always sign up to our blog and comment directly to this post.

We hope to hear from you soon.

Maureen

Mark and I had the pleasure of performing in a songwriter’s circle with Jerry Stamp. It took place the Thursday before Valentine’s Day, in lovely downtown St. John’s, NL in a very trendy restaurant called Get Stuffed. We were set up in the front of the restaurant in the front windows with Duckworth St. as our backdrop. The snow was falling which made it even more magical and romantic.

We played two shows. One beginning at 6:00, the other at 8:30. Our guests had already pre-ordered their food and we entertained while they enjoyed the specially prepared menu for the evening.

I loved being a part of this songwriter’s circle for many reasons but the main one was supporting Jerry’s initiative for starting an event of this kind in St. John’s. We’ve played at The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville and The Carleton Restaurant in Halifax as well as Hugh’s Room in Toronto. All of these venues put off beautiful, intimate concerts while the audience partakes of great food and drink.

For years, we’ve had conversations with local musicians and music enthusiasts who wished we had such a venue here in our own home town.

This was always something that someone would get to at some point someday. The conversations continued but no progress seemed to happening.

Then Jerry Stamp decided to test out the idea. He had the first “Sing for your Supper” this past Christmas with songwriter’s Matt Wells, Teresa Ennis, Chris Kirby and of course, himself. He involved a local venue and got support from local sponsors. It was a success.

Jerry then decided he’d try it again for Valentine’s Day.

This is where Mark and I came in.

We had a fantastic evening singing our original songs that we don’t usually have the chance to sing.

And at the end, we got to enjoy the fabulous cuisine from Get Stuffed.

This is an event that Newfoundland singer/songwriter’s and the fans of original music and the craft need to encourage.

We’d like to thank Jerry Stamp for thinking of us and including us in his latest “Sing For Your Supper” song writer’s circle.  We had a wonderful time and we hope to do it again soon.

Jerry is hoping to put off another one sometime this summer.

You can expect fine food and drink, amazing company and great original music.

You won’t be disappointed.

Hopefully, we’ll see you at “Sing For Your Supper 3″.

Check out Jerry Stamp’s MySpace Page.

We had a wonderful time on our first Irish Cruise. What a fantastic experience.

There was so much to do and eat. There were endless buffets of food.

During the afternoon you could take in the variety of workshops available to the guests of the Irish Cruise. The workshops featured many of the performers on the cruise. You could learn how to dance, play the Irish tin whistle or bodhran and even learn how speak Irish Gaelic. One of my favorites was the How to Spin a Yarn workshop with Mairitn de Cogain. We were on the edge of our seats for the entire 30 minutes.

Then we would all gather in the main dining hall for dinner at 5:30 PM and enjoy not only great food but amazing company. Karen, Mark and I had the honor of sitting at the same table as The Matt Cunningham Band (Larry Cooley, Matt Cunningham and Malachi Murray), and the Captain Mackey’s Goatskin & String Band (Jimmy Crowley and Mairtin de Cogain). We became good friends over some excellent Italian cuisine.

Then every evening, beginning at 8:00 PM, the Irish entertainment began. There were four bands every night. The Emcees, Mike Mazur and John Gleeson, were incredibly interesting and very funny.

We listened attentively as Tommy Sands told the most captivating stories and sang his beautiful original songs. I learned a lot from watching him perform.

We learned how to dance in the traditional Irish way as The Matt Cunningham Band lead the way. Karen had no problem getting up and joining in with whatever dance they were doing. I needed a little coaxing. But Mairtin managed to get Mark and me up and dancing at one point. I even got to enjoy a traditional waltz with Mark. Very rare indeed.

We were completely entertained when Captain Mackey’s Goatskin and String Band had a set.

We thoroughly enjoyed Patsy Whelan & Brian Gaffney.

Eugene and Kevin Byrne were fantastic. However, they did encourage Karen’s joke telling by telling her more jokes, which I will have to suffer through for years to come.

We laughed and sang along to The Odd Couple From Brigid’s Cross. The Two Tap Trio were outstanding and such great folks to get to know.

We danced until our feet hurt when The Elders took to the stage and of course, we were very humbled to be in the presence of The Black Family.

There were two nights when all the performers had a Hootenanny. This was so much fun. During the second one, which was the grand finale, Mary Black sang the Ron Hynes classic, “Sonny’s Dream” and we joined her in the chorus.

From the second I knew we were doing this Irish Cruise with The Black Family, that was the one thing I wanted more than anything.

Mark, while on stage, let Mary in on a little secret of mine…She is the only singer/performer that I have ever met that made me feel a little star stuck.

I couldn’t believe he told her.

I thought I was holding myself together nicely.

Obviously, I wasn’t doing that good a job.

Okay, I admit, I may have stammered a little.

Then when the show was over, the late night jams began… We heard some of the greatest tunes, stories and songs during these late night sessions.  Definitely one of the highlights of the cruise for us. That’s my kind of party for sure.

We’re so grateful to have performed on the Irish Cruise. We met so many wonderful people who made us feel so welcomed. There is a very family oriented connection with all of the people on the Irish Cruise and to be accepted into the circle of friends was a gift in itself.

Mary Rowley, our Cruise Director, did a stellar job of keeping everything on schedule. Until you’re there you really do not appreciate how much effort goes into organizing such an event. Mary Rowley truly did on outstanding job.

If you like Irish music you would really enjoy this cruise and you should definitely look into it for next year.

If you love Irish music this is an event you simply have to experience.

Maureen and Karen

Mark and I are performing with Jerry Stamp in a Songwriter’s Cirlce on February 11th at Get Stuffed in downtown St. John’s starting at 6:00 PM.

It’s going to be a fantastic evening of great food and original music.

The perfect way to start off the Valentine’s Weekend.

We hope to see you all there to hear us sing for our supper.

Click on the link below for more information.

Sing For Your Supper 2

Check out our latest video. This is video footage from our Newfoundland CD Release.

We had the honor of playing these shows with Mark Murphy, Billy Sutton, Graham Wells, and Dave Clark. Heather Kao joined us on our St. John’s show.

We know some of you couldn’t get to our show so we have a few clips from our shows for you to enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIc9Tc8a_qk

ENNIS had the pleasure of playing an intimate show at Daffodil Place last night in St. John’s. We were honored to be asked to perform for the families who are in St. John’s for cancer treatment and might not make it home for Christmas this year.

We were welcomed in from a rainy Newfoundland evening into a cozy room which was a beautifully decorated by festive decorations. It really felt like we were singing in our own living room. The people we met were wonderful and made us feel so at home.

We sang songs from “Lessons Learned” and “Christmas on Ennis Road”. Mark Murphy sang a his version of the Christmas classic,  “The Christmas Song”.

Our Dad, John, came with us and played a set of Christmas tunes on his accordion. Our Mom, Ceilie, watched from the sidelines and cheered us all on as usual.

We want to say a special thank you to our good friend, Gord Delaney.

Maureen & Karen

Title: CBC Turkey Drop
Location: CBC
Description: ENNIS will be helping with the CBC Turkey drop.
Start Time: 13:00
Date: 2009-12-19
End Time: 14:00

Title: Wassail
Location: Cochrane Street United Church
Description: A Christmas carol sing-a-long
Start Time: 14:00
Date: 2009-12-12

This is a live video of ENNIS singing “I’ll Be There Christmas Eve” at our CD release in Corner Brook, NL.

This video was taken by our amazing friend, Tracie Redmond who just happened to be in Corner Brook on business. She was kind enough to come to our show and take some video footage for us.

This is one of our favorite Christmas songs. Written by the man of a thousand songs, the very talented,

Ron Hynes. He actually re-wrote the original version of this song to make it more appropriate for us to sing. You should get him to tell you the story sometime.

We hope you enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwG_GZuIDcA

Hi Everyone!!

We’ll be releasing our new CD, “Lessons Learned” this Thursday - December 10th, 2009, at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre.

We had originally planned to release our CD this past Sunday evening but had to postpone due to the first major winter storm. We were very fortunate that there was still another evening available to us before Christmas.

Karen and I could have chosen to wait until the spring to reschedule our show but we felt it was too important to put off until then.

For the last number of years, Karen and I have had the opportunity to travel on the CPR Holiday Train, raising awareness for the food banks in the US and the Western part of Canada. It was a fantastic, magical experience. If you’re ever lucky enough to have to Holiday Train roll through your town, make sure you make the effort to go out and see it. It could become a special part of your Christmas tradition. It captures the true meaning of Christmas in every way.

The Holiday Train experience made us aware of the food banks and the many people that need them right here in our own Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. This year, we were lucky enough to partner with the annual CBC Turkey Drive, our local food banks and the Community Food Share program with the release our new CD, “Lessons Learned”.

I should mention that we should be aware of our local food banks all year round. There is always a need for food. But at Christmas, when it’s such an important part of the festivities, no one should ever have to worry about something as important or as basic as food.

Even if you cannot come out to the ENNIS CD Release on Thursday night, we encourage you to donate in some way to one of these important and necessary food organizations.

If you are attending the show, we have a beautiful evening of harmony-filled, contemporary, Irish/Newfoundland music. With new songs from “Lessons Learned” and old favorites from “Christmas on Ennis Road”.

Make sure your voices are warmed up because we will be encouraging you to sing a-long with us. And we know, for a fact, that there will be people in the audience that have fantastic voices. So lets hear them.

Come out and know you’ll be helping to feed families this Christmas season. Great music and a great cause…a great way to kick off the Christmas season.

See you there.

Maureen