Andrea Beaton grew up on Cape Breton Island, in Nova Scotia, Canada. The Beaton family, like the Rankins and the MacMasters, came to the attention of folk music enthusiasts in the 1960s and 70s through field recordings of house parties and dances. The main purpose of the music was social. It was something that knit together the small coal-mining communities.
Today, Cape Breton-style music is an important part of the tourist trade and one of the most identifiable Cape Breton exports. But when Andrea Beaton was growing up in the midst of it, her family was content to let her find her own way to the music.
