Killashandra

 

Well, the highly coveted award for "Craig's favorite performance at the Dublin Irish Festival this year" goes to Killashandra. Killashandra, otherwise known as "Ted and Debbie," play their music in a way which is thoughtful and speaks volumes about the musicians. I think it is really music which could not be made by two people who had just met for the first time. At the same time, they have not allowed their years of making music together to make their music stale, either. It reminded me, in that way, of hearing Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, or June McCormack and Michael Rooney. Not so much in the musical style, but in the way that they worked together as partners.

Ted and Debbie play tunes slowly when it fits the tune and their own style, and they play less common(-ly performed today) rhythms, like barndances. They improvised and experimented with tunes in a way which seemed to surprise even themselves. Their performance was punctuated by occasional anecdotes about some of the tunes and where they learned them.

Unfortunately, they have no recordings released that I'm aware of. I'm hoping that will change. In the meantime, you'll probably be able to hear them at the Dublin Irish Festival next year, and they occasionally lead the session at Claddagh downtown. Regretfully, however, I've seen very few sessions in the Columbus area which made room for even occasional solo performances, and a lot of what is really special about Killashandra's music would be lost in the din of a local session.

Where I'll Be At the Dublin Irish Festival

Click the title to see where I'm planning to be this weekend.

Téada

I've decided that I had better post more photos from the 2007 Dublin Irish Festival before the 2008 Festival rolls around! So here are some photos of Téada.

It was raining cats and dogs when I pulled into the festival on Sunday afternoon. The police had shut the festival down because of the danger of lightning. They told me at the entrance that only "participants" (entertainers) were being allowed in. When I produced a participants' ticket, they told me that I still couldn't go in. Go figure.

Eventually, the gates were opened. When I got to the tent in which Téada would be performing, it was almost empty, although it filled up quickly as people came back into the festival. The band came in and started setting up their instruments and doing sound checks.

Here's a photo of flute player Damien Stenson during the sound check.

 

Yes, that is a B♭ flute on his lap. No, he didn't play it during the show. Before the show started, an audience member (not me!) walked up and asked to try his flute. He handed it over to her, seemingly without a second thought.

The band also includes bodhrán player Tristan Rosenstock:

 

...fiddler Oisín Mac Diarmada, Paul Finn, playing button box:

 

Seán Mc Elwain plays guitar and bouzouki.

 

Readers familiar with Téada's earlier incarnations will notice that this is a substantial change in lineup from the performers featured on Téada's first couple of albums. To my ear, their sound is different as well. No matter how you felt about their previous work, I think that their most recent album, Inné Amárach, deserves a listen with a fresh ear. There's a wide variety of tunes, mostly dance music, but not just jigs and reels. There are no songs; the album is strictly instrumental. It really is a "new band." The title is Irish for "Yesterday Tomorrow," and I think it perfectly captures the spirit of the album — an obvious knowledge and respect for the sources of traditional music inside of a contemporary sound. The US version of the album includes a promotional DVD about the band which is in much the same spirit. Besides featuring Téada, it also includes (short) interviews with Peter Horan, Sean Ryan, and Verona Ryan. The DVD is interesting, but unfortunately doesn't focus on performances of complete tunes. The CD, however, is first-rate playing from start to finish. I really like Inné Amárach.

General Guinness Band

The photo above is the Columbus-based General Guinness Band playing at the 2007 Dublin Irish Festival. The members, from left to right, include guitarist Steve Steele, bodhrán player Tom Davis, vocalist James O'Shea, flute player Larry Dulin, plus fiddler Charlene Adzima, who is not, I believe, a regular member of the band, but who played with them during all of their Dublin Irish Festival shows.

 

Niamh Parsons and Graham Dunne

 

Well, it's been entirely too long since I've posted any photos from the 2007 Dublin Irish Festival, and since I took a bunch of pictures at the CCÉ show last night I'd better work on clearing the backlog.

Niamh Parsons and Graham Dunne played a nighttime show in the pub on Saturday, mostly featuring songs from their latest album, The Old Simplicity.

For recent comments and photos from Niamh, check out Niamh's Musings, her blog.

 

Boys of the Lough

Here are some photos from the Boys of the Lough performance at the 2007 Dublin Irish Festival.

The photo above is from flute and whistle player Cathal McConnell's excellent, solo whistle rendition of Harvest Home. He played the tune three times, with increasingly complex variations. I recorded his performance of this tune and will post the recording if I can get his permission to do so. When he received a well-deserved cheer after he finished the tune, one of the other band members said, "You've just made an old man very happy!"

Fiddler Kevin Henderson is from Shetland, and brought an interesting musical color to the group. He played a solo set of Shetland fiddle tunes which were quite striking; a bit slower-paced and less driving than the dance tunes which comprised the majority of the group's performance.

Armagh Rhymers

Imagine a group which plays songs and tunes with the following combinations of instruments:

• Four bodhráns, plus vocals
• Three bodhráns plus a tin whistle
• Melody on guitar with accompaniment on a tin whistle

Would you enjoy such a group? Well I've seen 'em, and they're fantastic. The Armagh Rhymers (no points for guessing where they live) are an on-stage manifestation of the mumming and wrenboy traditions which dates back to at least medieval times and possibly quite a bit further. It's a custom of house visiting in disguise, and performing tunes, songs, poetry, and dancing. There's a track of part of a mummers play on the RTÉ disc Come West Along the Road, and if you've seen that, you know roughly what the Armagh Rhymers do.

If you haven't seen that, well, I'll try to describe it, but I'm not sure I can really do the show justice. The group performed traditional dance music along with melody-less drumming, poetry recitation, songs (including "Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone," and the occasional, brief, historical lesson.

Normally, the entire group would appear in disguise, but it seems Delta Airlines was still working on getting the rest of the group's luggage to Ohio.

The Armagh Rhymers performed at the 2007 Dublin Irish Festival, and I have to give credit to the festival organizers for booking such an interesting act.

By the way, you can click on the images to enlarge them.

2007 Dublin Irish Festival

I've just had a look at the 2007 Dublin Irish Festival entertainment lineup. Tucked in amongst the "Celtic rock," I found some pretty good reasons to attend, including the following out-of-town acts:

• Téada
• The Boys of the Lough
• Eileen Ivers

There are also some local bands I like. My teacher's band, The Kells, who played a great house concert in April will be performing. Occasionally-local Changeling is a husband-and-wife duo featuring the fiddle playing of Deborah Clark Colón. Aisling reformed last year after significant personnel changes; I haven't heard them in their current incarnation, but they were quite good in the past.

An intriguing-sounding group I'm unfamiliar with is the Armagh Rhymers, from, of course, Co. Armagh, who do folk theatre from the mummer tradition.

There's also a great deal of utter dreck on the bill. I'll elect to follow the "if you can't say anything nice about someone, say nothing at all" rule here, and simply write this off as the price of having a festival which can bring good acts in from overseas.

But since the festival generally has at least four stages running concurrently, plus session tents and other stuff, you can generally find something good to hear or see.

Green Fields of America at the 2006 Dublin Irish Festival

This past August I caught Mick Moloney's band Green Fields of America at the 2006 Dublin Irish Festival. The announcer noted that when the festival began 19 years ago and was held in a tennis court, there was only one band the first year: Green Fields of America. This year the festival spanned several acres and attracted 80,000+ people, plus many well-known bands, and once again Green Fields of America played.

Green Fields of America is not so much an ongoing band as it is Mick Moloney and his rotating crew of Irish music all-stars. This year the band consisted of

• Mick (guitar, mandolin, tenor banjo, and vocals)
• John Doyle (guitar, vocals)
• Billy McComiskey (box)
• Robbie O'Connell (guitar, vocals)
• Athena O'Lochlainn (fiddle)

I have heard some of Mick Moloney's recorded music before; I just bought the CD which accompanies his book Far from the Shamrock Shore a couple of months ago. But while that CD, and most of the other recordings I've heard from him, lean almost entirely towards song, the Green Fields of America performance had a roughly even mix of songs and dance tunes, and featured local, live dancers for two of the sets. Mick's albums of song aren't bad at all, but in the end I decided that I like his dance tunes even more.

Friday's performance started late due to problems with the monitor mix, which seemed not to be resolved for the whole show; John Doyle left his chair several times during the show to have a word with the monitor mixer. The front of house mix was some better, but the guitars were way too high in the mix; they frequently drowned out the other instruments. Even at the Irish festival I sometimes wonder if the mixers realize that the guitars are frequently playing accompaniment. Sunday's show seemed to be much better mixed overall.

Athena O'Lochlainn was a new name to me, but as soon as she started playing it became clear that she had more than enough talent to earn a place with such distinguished company. Her fiddle playing was simply delightful, packed with lift and cheer. It was fun to watch her face as she played; she seemed to react to the sounds coming from her instrument in much the same way as the audience did. According to her personal site she has a CD, produced by John Doyle, in the works.

Three guitarists might seem like rather a lot for an ITM group, but the performance would not have been the same without Robbie O'Connell's excellent singing. You can sample his songwriting at his web site.

I didn't recognize Billy McComiskey by sight and had missed his name during the introductions, so I didn't realize who he was at first. In retrospect, I really respect the way he held back for the better part of the performance, letting other band members take the spotlight. But when it came time for him to let loose and show the audience what he can do, I realized that he was a first-rate talent. When I finally caught his name at the end of the show all of the pieces fell in place. Like John Doyle, his talent comes not just from his ability to play his instrument really, really well, but also his ability to not overwhelm the rest of the band in every number.

At the end of Friday's show, the band was joined by bodhrán builder and player Albert Alfonso, who provided rhythmic accompaniment for the last two sets.

Green Fields of America can be an elusive band. They don't tour a lot, and as far as I can tell have only one album in current release. That's a shame, because the two sets I caught at the Irish festival showed the current lineup to be a remarkably cohesive band. The music they played wasn't what I had expected, but I have no complaints at all. The band played great dance music punctuated with occasional songs, and seemed to enjoy listening to each other.

Family obligations caused me to miss many of the other performers at the Irish festival this year, but I think I caught the best show there. This was easily the best show I've seen all year.

Photo: Burke Forest

A forest of Burke whistles at the 2006 Dublin Irish Festival.

Shows: 2006 Dublin Irish Festival Entertainment Announced

The Dublin Irish festival is, I think, the best ITM entertainment value in the midwest U.S. It's simply amazing how many great bands you get to see for eight bucks a day, when you'd have to pay several times that amount to see any of these groups individually. I also got to interview Colin Melville of the Tannahill Weavers. Here's my roundup of posts on last year's festival, for those who couldn't make it.

The festival just announced this year's entertainment lineup. See you there!

Shows: 2005 Dublin Irish Festival

Michael Burke sells his wares in the music vendors' tent.

This is an index to my other posts on the subject of the 2005 Dublin Irish Festival.

• Brian McCoy's whistle workshop
• Oisre
• Cherish the Ladies
• Dulahan
• The session tent and Bardic Circle
• Eileen Ivers & Immigrant Soul
• A review of two performances by the Tannahill Weavers plus an interview with Colin Melville, their piper / whistler
• The Kells

The Irish Festival is an incredible value. For $8 per day you get to see lots of great bands which would cost twice that individually. The only negative is the beer they serve (two Coors products); I can only conclude it's some sort of thinly-disguised anti-drunkenness campaign. So I was delighted to hear this song wafting out of the pub tent on Saturday....

Shows: The Kells [DIF]

The Kells performing at the 2005 Dublin Irish Festival. That's Brian McCoy, who taught the festival whistle workshops on the right. I only got to see about half of their performance since it was getting close to the end of the day and my three-year-old daughter was ready to leave. The Kells play energetic, traditional music; you can hear it here.

Shows: Eileen Ivers & Immigrant Soul [DIF]

Eileen Ivers and Immigrant soul play the 2005 Dublin Irish Festival; that's Ivan Goff whistling.

Seisiún: Sessions at the 2005 Dublin Irish Festival

The photo above is my daughter dancing in the session tent. She loves Celtic music. She walked into the middle of the session and was leaning in close to the musicians to get a good look. Stuart, the fiddler with the green shirt, said to her, "You know, this is dance music. You could dance..." She did, and for the rest of the festival she was asking me, "Let's find more dance music!"

For the most part my whistling skills were too weak to keep up with the session. But I made a point of sitting down and playing when the session tent was empty or when there were only one or two people there, to keep things going.

Bardic Circle session playing at the Emerald Isle stage. I sat in for one tune, but I had my daughter with me on Sunday and it was kind of difficult to play with her crawling all over me!

The session tent again.

Shows: Dulahan [DIF]

Dayton, OH-based Dulahan, with Leo Butler playing the tin whistle, performs at the 2005 Dublin Irish Festival.

By the way, you can click on the pictures on all of my recent posts to enlarge them.

Shows: Cherish the Ladies [DIF]

I saw Cherish the Ladies on Saturday afternoon at the 2005 Dublin Irish Festival. Chiff and Fipple forums favorite Joanie Madden was excellent as always. She stomped to the beat so hard while she played I feared for the structural integrity of the stage!

But as good as Joanie is, it was hard to pay attention to her playing when the bodhran player started singing. Her name is Heidi Talbot and wow does she have a gorgeous voice! I hadn't heard her before as I've only heard CTL's older recordings, but I guess I'm going to have to get up-to-date.... Heidi also seems to have a solo record I might need to check out.

Update: CTL's new album Woman of the House, released a couple months after this show, is in my opinion their best record to date.

One of the things I've always liked about CTL is that step dancing has been a part of their sound — even on audio-only releases — from the beginning, and although I wasn't in a position to get a good photo, it was true of this show as well.

Shows: Oisre [DIF]

Oisre is a new band which includes Charlene Adzima of the Columbus-based band Aisling (Aisling also played the festival, but I couldn't make their sets). Oisre played on Saturday for at least two hours!

Shows: Whistle Workshop [DIF]

This is the first of a series of posts about the 2005 Dublin Irish Festival. They were expecting 85,000 people, and judging by the crowds and great weather I think there were at least that many.

You can look forward to lots of photos and comments on shows by Cherish the Ladies, Eileen Ivers, and the Tannahill Weavers (plus an interview on the subject of whistling in Scottish music), but it will take me a while to write all of that. So I'll start out with the first thing I saw when I entered the festival, which was my whistle teacher giving an introductory level ("introductory" in the "which end do I blow into" sense of the word) seminar on playing the whistle to a standing room only crowd of over 100 people. Brian did a great job keeping the crowd engaged and laughing.