The Rankin Family

The Rankin Family
The Rankin Family performing aboard the M/S Scotia Prince, April 18, 1990. From left to right: Jimmy Rankin, Natalie MacMaster, Bruce Phillips, Raylene Rankin, John Morris Rankin, Cookie Rankin, Heather Rankin.
Background information
Origin	Mabou, Nova Scotia
Genres	Country/folk
Years active	1989 (1989)–present
Labels	Capitol, EMI, Liberty, MapleMusic
Website	therankinfamily.com
Members	Jimmy Rankin Cookie Rankin Heather Rankin
Past members	Raylene Rankin (1960–2012) John Morris Rankin (1959-2000) David Rankin Geraldine Rankin (1958–2007) Genevieve Rankin

The Rankin Family is a Canadian musical family group from Mabou, Nova Scotia. The group has won many Canadian music awards, including 15 East Coast Music Awards, six Juno Awards, four SOCAN Awards, three Canadian Country Music Awards and two Big Country Music Awards.

The Rankins come from a family of 12 siblings, all of whom would entertain the neighbours musically every third weekend as part of a cèilidh. The first Rankin Family band formed in the 1970s when siblings Geraldine, Genevieve, David, John Morris, and Raylene Rankin began performing at local weddings and dances in Cape Breton. As the older siblings went away to college and university, the younger siblings Jimmy, Cookie and Heather took their places.

Jimmy, John Morris, Cookie, Raylene and Heather Rankin released their own independent cassettes, The Rankin Family (1989) and Fare Thee Well Love (1990), featuring original songs and a combination of traditional jigs, reels and Celtic folk songs. These independent recordings were distributed by the Canadian independent folk music distribution company 'Soundwright' until the band's major label breakthrough with EMI. Their television debut was on the CBC variety show On the Road Again in 1989. EMI's re-release of Fare Thee Well Love in 1992, went quadruple platinum, selling over 500,000 copies; the title track was a Top 40 single in Canada.

In 1998 The Rankins first worked with The Chieftains on their album, Fire in the Kitchen, performing the Celtic song, "An Innis Aigh" (The Happy Isle). On September 17, 1999, after recording the song "Jimmy Mo Mhile Stor" with The Chieftains for their album, Tears of Stone, the group issued a press release stating that they would no longer perform as a group in order to pursue independent interests and careers.