Jimmy Rankin to play Summerside after 'refreshing break'

Jimmy Rankin is coming out of a self-imposed hiatus for a show Sunday night in Summerside, P.E.I.

The Cape Breton singer-songwriter has only performed live once in 2016 during the Fire Aid concert in Edmonton on June 29.

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"I haven't been doing a lot of touring and it's actually been a very refreshing break," he told CBC Radio's Mainstreet P.E.I.

"I started 25, 26 years ago touring and making records, and constantly making music, with little breaks in between but no real time just to step back."

'A skeleton of a show'

But even when he's on a break, he said he still thinks about music and coming up with new ideas. He's currently planning a Christmas album with his sisters Cookie and Heather, due in 2017.

We kind of have a skeleton of a show and then it can take whatever shape the night calls for.- Jimmy Rankin

For his 90-minute show Sunday night at Harbourfront Theatre kicking off the Summerside Lobster Festival he'll be accompanied by a guitar player and upright bass player.

The show will include a mix of old Rankin material and some newer songs from his solo albums, he said. He'll also take requests, "as long as I can remember the songs."

"We kind of have a skeleton of a show and then it can take whatever shape the night calls for."

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