Kelly Russell

Kelly Russell, recognized as a multi-instrumentalist, record producer, music educator, and ethnomusicologist, has elevated Newfoundland's musical traditions onto global platforms. He helped establish Figgy Duff and later appeared alongside the Wonderful Grand Band, whose fusion of folk traditions with comedic elements marked its style, as well as the Plankerdown Band and its subsequent project the Planks. Additional touring partnerships included the late fiddlers Rufus Guinchard and Emile Benoit, plus the trio Russell, Joyce, and O'Byrne formed with Jin Joyce and former Ryan's Fancy participant Fergus O'Byrne. Through Pigeon Inlet Productions, the company he founded in 1979, more than 30 albums documenting traditional Newfoundlandian repertoire have appeared. Creative lineage traces to his late father Ted Russell, co-author of the children's collection The Chronicles of Uncle Mose -- Tales From Pigeon Inlet. Alongside Guinchard and Jim Payne, Russell supplied the theme and incidental music for a 15-episode television adaptation of that book. In 1982 he completed the volume Rufus Guinchard -- The Man and His Music, containing notations for 60 of Guinchard's fiddle pieces. Within Figgy Duff he advanced a contemporary reinterpretation of Newfoundland's folk sources, departing and rejoining the ensemble across three periods: 1975–1977, 1984–1987, and 1989–1992, while also serving as producer of its 1990 release Weather out the Storm. Initial notice arrived in 1974 through Rakish Paddy, a cover band devoted to British and Irish folk-rock, after which he entered Figgy Duff. During his first absence from the latter group he pursued multiple endeavors, among them membership in the Wonderful Grand Band from 1978 to 1980, appearances on the CBC-TV program The Root Seller, and the 1978 album Wonderful Grand Band. He further acted as resident musician for CBC-TV and performed as featured soloist with Ray Walsh and John White on the series Come All Ye. A 1992 collaboration with Peter Gardner and the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra yielded a fiddle concerto presented on CBC Radio, at two Arts Council Awards broadcasts, and during a gala presided over by the late Governor General. For more than two decades Russell has remained at the forefront of Newfoundland's recording sector, overseeing the province's inaugural CD All the Best: Folk Music of St. John's, Newfoundland as well as Another Time, both employing updated treatments of regional folk material. From 1993 to 1994 he performed with the Plankerdown Band, whose only album The Jig Is Up, issued that year, earned placement on a Top 25 roster assembled by CBC Radio's nationally aired Roots & Wings. In 1995 he united with Plankerdown Band colleagues Frank Maher and Adam Staple plus musicians from Staple's concurrent project Drive to create the Planks.