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The Cape Breton accent describes variants of Canadian English spoken on Cape Breton Island, a large island on the north-eastern coast of the province of Nova Scotia in Canada, comprising about one-fifth of the province's area as well as population. Most of the inhabitants of European ancestry descend from people long resident on the island, and the community has had time to develop a local dialect. Many on the Island are descended from Highland Scottish settlers fleeing the Highland Clearances. But there has long been a French-Acadian element on the island, as well as Irish.^[1]

The accents can be divided into three categories: the Western or Scottish Gaelic accent (Inverness, Judique, Mabou, the Margarees), the Industrial accent (Sydney, Glace Bay) and the French Acadian (communities surrounding Cheticamp, L'Ardoise and Isle Madame). There are also influences of the Irish Gaelic accent that can be heard in numerous communities throughout the Island.

Western accent[link]

The primary influences on the accent are Scottish Gaelic and Scots. The rhythm of speech is generally quick-paced, with unstressed syllables often completely elided. Examples can be found with the speaking voices of performance artists The Rankins, Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie MacMaster, or the comedy duo Hughie and Allan.

Some characteristics:

• the s sound can be overstressed, almost approaching a soft th sound.
• the a sound can be shortened- the name John Allan can be pronounced junall'n.
• the a sound resembles the broad a type, similar to some English dialects

Industrial accent[link]

This speech is heavily influenced by Irish settlers and is often the accent referred to as the Cape Breton accent. This accent has been popularized by comedians coming out of the Rise and Follies theatre/recording series and Maynard Morrison.

Some characteristics:

• the long a sound is often pronounced like the a sound in the word baa as in Baa, Baa, black sheep
• the oo can resemble a short u sound.
• the d and t sounds can be dropped from some words where they appear in the middle, ie/ metal sounds like me el, bottle like baa el. The t sound is even dropped from the Breton portion of Cape Breton.
• the r is trilled resembling dialects of Scotland and Ireland.

French Acadian accent[link]

This speech stems from the influence of Acadian settlers residing in French communities throughout Cape Breton, resulting in many loanwords.

Some characteristics:

• Voiced th, as in "that", is usually replaced by a d sound, and voiceless th, as in "thin," is usually replaced by a t sound. For example, "three" can be pronounced as tree and "that" as dat. This can be seen in the stereotypical phrase "Dis, dat and de udder ting" (This, that and the other thing).

In other areas this also is the result of Gaelic influences where the sound "th" does not exist in the language and in some communities there is a notable mixture of both the Gaelic and French Acadian accents, particularly in the Richmond County area.

Other characteristics[link]

Cape Breton speech also has some idiosyncratic expressions.

One feature of Cape Breton dialect is common use of the term "boy", but is given the spelling "b'y" and pronounced "bye" as in 'good-bye', to address a person to whom one is speaking in lieu of use of the person's name or a more common term such as "sir", "ma'am", "man", "my son" or "mate", originally when the addressee is male but now is used to refer to both genders. A plural form "b'ys" is used to address numerous people. The terms can also be used to refer to a person or people not being addressed. This feature of Cape Breton vernacular is also characteristic of Newfoundland English.

References[link]

v t e    Dialects and accents of Canadian English West British Columbian English · Chinook Jargon · Canadian Prairies English Ontario Midwestern Ontario English · Ottawa Valley Twang · Eastern Ontario English · Toronto English Quebec Quebec English Atlantic Maritimer English · Newfoundland English · Cape Breton accent · Lunenburg English

Cape Breton may refer to:

Geographic locations[link]

• Cape Breton Island, a Canadian island on the Atlantic Ocean coast
• Cape Breton, a cape located at the eastern tip of Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island
• Cape Breton Highlands, a mountain range in northern Cape Breton Island
• Cape Breton County, one of Nova Scotia's geographic counties

Communities[link]

Canada

• Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM), a regional municipality in Nova Scotia

France

• Capbreton, a commune of the Landes département in southwestern France

Companies[link]

• Cape Breton Development Corporation
• Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation

National parks[link]

• Cape Breton Highlands National Park

Universities[link]

• Cape Breton University

Sports teams[link]

• Cape Breton Breakers, former team of the defunct National Basketball League
• Cape Breton Crush, former team of the defunct Canadian Elite Hockey League
• Cape Breton Oilers, former team of the American Hockey League
• Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, current team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League

Electoral districts[link]

• Cape Breton (electoral district)
• Cape Breton North and Victoria
• Cape Breton South (federal electoral district)
• Cape Breton South (provincial electoral district)
• Cape Breton—Canso
• Cape Breton Nova

Political parties[link]

• Cape Breton Labour Party
• Province of Cape Breton Island

Newspapers[link]

• Cape Breton Post

Accents[link]

• Cape Breton accent

Railways[link]

• Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway

Music[link]

• Cape Breton fiddling

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis in July 2009
Background information
Birth name	Hugh Anthony Cregg III
Also known as	Hughie Louis (stage name 1972-1976), Huey Louis (1977-1978), Huey Harp (1978)
Born	(1950-07-05) July 5, 1950 (age 61) New York, New York
Origin	San Francisco Bay Area
Genres	Rock, blue-eyed soul, doo-wop
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, actor
Instruments	Harmonica, vocals
Years active	1971–present
Labels	Chrysalis, EMI America, Elektra, Jive, Capitol
Associated acts	Huey Lewis and the News, Clover, Thin Lizzy, Orleans, King Harvest
Website	http://www.hueylewis.com

Huey Lewis (Hugh Anthony Cregg III, born July 5, 1950) is an American musician, songwriter, and actor.

Lewis sings lead and plays harmonica for his band, Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many of the band's songs. The band is perhaps best known for their third album, Sports, and their contribution to the soundtrack of the 1985 feature film Back to the Future. Lewis previously played with the band Clover from 1972 to 1979.

Early life[link]

Huey Lewis was born in New York City. His father, Hugh Anthony Cregg II, was an Irish American from Boston and his mother, Magda, was a Polish refugee.^[1][2]

Lewis was raised in Marin County, California, attending Strawberry Point Elementary School (where he skipped second grade) and Edna Maguire Junior High School in Mill Valley. When he was 13, his parents divorced and he attended and later graduated from the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, in 1967, where he achieved a perfect score of 800 on the math portion of the SAT.^[3] Lewis applied to and was accepted by Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

In an interview with David Letterman,^[4] Lewis talked about hitchhiking across the country to New York and how he learned to play the harmonica while waiting for rides. He talked about hanging out at the airport for three days until he stowed away on a plane to Europe. In future interviews Lewis would reveal other encounters while traveling Europe. He claimed to sleeping rough at times. While visiting the Scottish city of Aberdeen with no money and nowhere to sleep Lewis claimed that the locals were very hospitable and would often offer him somewhere to stay. In Madrid, Spain, Lewis became an accomplished blues player and he hitchhiked around and supported himself by busking with his harmonica. He gave his first concerts in Madrid, earning enough money to buy a plane ticket back to the USA.

Upon his return Lewis entered Cornell University where he entered the engineering program. While there he made friends with Lance and Larry Hoppen who later played with Orleans and Eddie Tuleja of King Harvest. Initially an active student and a member of the fraternity Eta Lambda Nu, Lewis soon lost interest in college. He signed up with a band called Slippery Elm and in December 1969, during his junior year, he dropped out of Cornell and moved back to the San Francisco area. His aim was to continue playing music though along the way he also tried other fields of work including landscaping, carpentry, wedding and event planning and natural foods. Lewis lives on a ranch near Stevensville, Montana.^[5][6]

Music career[link]

Huey Lewis at O'Hare International Airport.

In 1971 Lewis joined the Bay Area band Clover. Around this time he took the stage name "Hughie Louis", the spelling of which he would tinker with for some years after.

Other members of the band (at various points) were John McFee, Alex Call, John Ciambotti, Mitch Howie, Sean Hopper, Mickey Shine and Marcus David. Lewis played harmonica and sang lead vocals on a few tunes. Clover's main rival band (which developed into a friendly rivalry) was Soundhole (Johnny Colla, Bryan Davis, Ben Miller, Mario Cipollina, and Bill Gibson were band members).

In 1976, after playing in the Bay Area with limited success, Clover went to Los Angeles. They had their "big break" in a club there when their act was caught by Nick Lowe who convinced Clover to travel to Britain with him. However, Clover arrived in Britain just as their folk-rock sound, known as pub rock in Britain, was being replaced by punk rock.

The two Clover albums produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange under the British Phonogram label were not successful. By this point the spelling of Cregg's stage name had changed to "Huey Louis"; it is under this spelling that he is billed on both of Clover's albums for Phonogram.

Clover—without Lewis—also backed Elvis Costello on his 1977 debut album My Aim is True.

In 1978 the band returned to California, McFee joined the Doobie Brothers, and Clover disbanded.

Under the name "Huey Harp" Huey Lewis played harmonica on Thin Lizzy's 1978 landmark album Live and Dangerous. That same year Lewis was playing at Uncle Charlie's, a club in Corte Madera, California, doing the 'Monday Night Live' spot along with future members of the News. After recording the song "Exo-Disco" (a disco version of the theme from the film Exodus) as Huey Lewis and the American Express, Huey landed a 'singles contract' from Phonogram Records and Bob Brown became his manager.

The band played a few gigs (including an opening for Van Morrison), before adding new guitarist Chris Hayes to the line-up. On Brown's advice they changed their name again to Huey Lewis and The News.

Lewis performing in 2006

After a failed self-titled debut in 1980 the band finally broke through to Top 40 success with the gold album Picture This (1982). It rose to No. 13 on the Albums chart thanks to the Mutt Lange-penned "Do You Believe in Love" (No. 7), the band's first hit.

The band's third LP, the No. 1 Sports (1983), is one of the best-selling pop releases of all time. It has sold ten million copies in the US alone.^[7] That well received album was followed by Fore! (1986), another No. 1 multi-platinum smash.

Lewis produced Nick Lowe's 1985 version of "I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)", and later produced several songs (including one where he sang backup and played harmonica) on Bruce Hornsby & The Range's debut album, The Way It Is. Hornsby thanked him by writing the song "Jacob's Ladder", a No. 1 single from The News' next album.

Lewis and his bandmates performed on USA for Africa's 1985 fund-raising single We Are the World, and spent the remainder of the 1980s and early 1990s recording 14 Top-20 Billboard Hot 100 hits and releasing two more hit albums: Small World (1988) No. 11 and Hard at Play (1991) No. 27. Lewis also performed in the song "Once Upon a Time in New York City" for the 1988 Disney film, Oliver & Company.

By the time the band released the album of cover songs Four Chords & Several Years Ago (1994) No. 55, their chosen lower profile and lack of promotion from new label Elektra saw their Top 40 appeal dip.

Huey Lewis has sung with Umphrey's McGee at several shows beginning with the 2005 Jammys and is featured on two tracks of their album Safety In Numbers.

The band, now in self-proclaimed semi-retirement, still plays over 80 dates a year in the U.S., and an occasional European tour. The average fee for Huey Lewis and the News to play a private college-sized show is around $200,000.

Lewis performing in Nashville, TN. November 2008.

On February 13, 2007, Lewis was interviewed on the podcast series "Stuck in the 80s". During the interview he revealed that the band has written several new songs that they planned to record in 2008. He also stated that, given how much the industry has changed since their last album, he was unsure how they would sell the new material.^[8]

During a show at the California State Fair on August 21, 2007 Lewis was named Sacramento's "Musician of the Year" by the fair's General Manager and presented with a gold statue of the California state bear.

Lewis recorded a duet version of "Workin' for a Livin'" with Garth Brooks, which was included on Brooks' 3-disc set The Ultimate Hits, in late 2007.

On July 4, 2008, the eve of his 58th birthday, Huey Lewis and the News were the opening act for the annual A Capitol Fourth celebration on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. More than a half million people attended, and was broadcast live on PBS. The band performed "The Heart of Rock & Roll", "The Power of Love" and "Workin' for a Livin'".

On May 29, 2011, Huey Lewis played the annual Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe, Illinois, along with Chicago-based progressive jam band Umphrey's Mcgee. They were billed as Huey Lewis and The Rumors. Together they played covers as well as songs from both their respective catalogs.^[9]

Ghostbusters lawsuit[link]

In 1985, Huey Lewis sued Ray Parker, Jr. over similarities between Parker's theme for the 1984 movie Ghostbusters and Lewis's "I Want a New Drug". The case was settled out of court with both parties agreeing to keep the settlement secret. In 2001, Parker sued Lewis, alleging that in a "VH1 – Behind the Music" Episode, Lewis had discussed the settlement in violation of their nondisclosure agreement.^[10]

Recordings[link]

See Huey Lewis and the News discography for albums and singles by the band. Below are specific contributions by Huey Lewis as a solo artist.

Albums[link]

• Oliver & Company Soundtrack (1988)
• Come Together: America Salutes The Beatles (1995)
• Duets Soundtrack (2000) #102 US (#16 Billboard Top Soundtracks)

Singles[link]

The following table denotes singles that Lewis has charted with solo credits.

Filmography[link]

In the acting world, Lewis' debut was a cameo in the 1985 film Back to the Future—which featured several Huey Lewis and the News songs in the soundtrack. His character is one of the teachers auditioning acts for the high school talent show early in the film.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Huey Lewis at the Internet Movie Database
• Huey Lewis at the Internet Broadway Database
• Lewis, Huey (2010-11-05) (Video & transcript). (Interview). The Tavis Smiley Show. KCET. Los Angeles. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/tavissmiley/archive/201011/20101105_lewis.html#video. Retrieved 2011-01-12. 

v t e Huey Lewis and the News Huey Lewis Johnny Colla Bill Gibson Sean Hopper John Pierce Stef Burns Marvin McFadden Rob Sudduth Chris Hayes Mario Cipollina Ron Stallings Studio albums Huey Lewis and the News Picture This Sports Fore! Small World Hard at Play Four Chords & Several Years Ago Plan B Soulsville Live albums Live at 25 Compilations The Heart of Rock & Roll – The Best of Huey Lewis and The News Time Flies... The Best Of Greatest Hits & Videos Singles "Do You Believe in Love" "Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do" "Workin' for a Livin'" "Heart and Soul" "I Want a New Drug" "The Heart of Rock & Roll" "If This Is It" "Walking on a Thin Line" "The Power of Love" "Back in Time" "Stuck with You" "Hip to Be Square" "Jacob's Ladder" "I Know What I Like" "Doing It All for My Baby" "Perfect World" "Give Me the Keys (And I'll Drive You Crazy)" "Couple Days Off" "It Hit Me Like a Hammer" "(She's) Some Kind of Wonderful" Related articles Discography Clover Back to the Future American Psycho Book:Huey Lewis and the News