Ian Bell

Ian Bell (born 1954) is a Canadian folk musician, composer, and singer-songwriter who has been active in the Canadian folk music scene since the 1970s. With Anne Lederman, he was part of the seminal Canadian folk group Muddy York. He has been the leader of The Dawnbreakers and Professor Chalaupka's Celebrated Singing School. Bell has performed at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and the Mariposa Folk Festival, among others. He has contributed to the development and preservation of Canadian folk music for more than twenty-five years. He sings both old songs and his own original compositions. His music has a Celtic flavour. He is a versatile musician who plays several instruments.

Bell spent most of his time as a part-time musician, also working in museums, the last being curator of the Port Dover Harbour Museum on Lake Erie. He left the museum in 2013 and has been working in music and art since.

Early life Bell was born in Simcoe, Ontario, grew up in Waterford, and lives now in Paris, Ontario. Some of his original songs evoke the landscape and history of southwestern Ontario. The group's name, Muddy York, refers to an old epithet for Toronto. (See Name of Toronto.) They played in venues from church basements to barn dances to festivals, in Ontario and the western provinces. In 1982, Kate Murphy left the group but Bell and Lederman continued.

Bell was Folk Artist in Residence for 1993 at Joseph Schneider Haus Museum in Kitchener, Ontario.

In March 2011, Muddy York and the O'Schraves played a benefit concert to raise money for the Matthews Memorial Hospital Association to hire a doctor for the hospital in the central Algoma district, on the north shore of Lake Huron. Muddy York also appeared in Sault Ste. Marie at an Algoma Traditional Music concert with Jeff Beck of the Cowboy Junkies and the O'Schraves. They have also worked at the Algoma Traditional Music Camp as both performers and teachers. Patio Dave & The Lanterns The Bilge Rats The Dawnbreakers: Kate Murphy, Brian Pickell & Geoff Somers

Bell's accompanists and bandmates have included these performers:

Contributions to CBC: As a long-time freelance broadcaster, he has often worked with Stuart McLean on CBC Radio's Vinyl Café. Bell has co-written and been music director for five Vinyl Café national concert broadcasts. For seven years he was a regular contributor to the weekend Fresh Air program on CBC radio. Over the years, Bell appeared several times on Peter Gzowski's Morningside as well as these CBC programs:

Canadian Heritage Music - "Breathe life into Canadian history" Sound Production Program - "How do instruments work?" and instrument building classes From There to Here, From Then to Now - "celebrating our past through songs, dance, music, and humour" Unplugged but Resonant - "light-hearted exploration of the physics of sound on many traditional instruments" Tamaracker Down - "Old-time Ontario Step Dancing"

Bell was still delivering programs through MITS as recently as 2010.

Discography Bell's recordings include these albums: 2009 – My Pious Friends & Drunken Companions. traditional songs and tunes with Geoff Somers, Anne Lederman, Oliver Schroer, Denis Rondeau, The Bilge Rats, Pat O’Gorman, Shane Cooke and others. 2007 – Shallow Water. Original Songs and tunes music inspired by Port Dover and lakeside life. 2000 – Signor Farini & Other Adventures. Original Songs and traditional tunes, with The Dawnbreakers. Mostly original songs inspired by life in southwest Ontario. CDs available on request. 1996 – Free Range. Original Songs and instrumental music accompanied by the Dawnbreakers. CDs available on request. 1993 – Singing In A Strange Land. Shape note music from Waterloo Co., Ontario, on cassette tape 1992 – Brightest & Best. Early Christmas Music and shape note music, with Prof. Chalaupka’s Celebrated Singing School, on CD. 1991 – The Farmer Feeds Us All. Mostly traditional and historic music, on cassette tape. Out of print. 1990 – A Grand Musical Entertainment. Traditional and historic music, on cassette tape. 1984 – Scatter The Ashes - Muddy York. Innovative arrangements of old songs and fiddle tunes from the 19th-century Allen Ash (1818 – 1882) manuscript and other sources. with Anne Lederman.