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.

 

Echoes of Erin 4

The Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann 2007 Echoes of Erin tour is coming to central Ohio! Look at the incredible list of performers — or, better still, listen to the incredible group of musicians on the Comhaltas site. I'm in awe.

I haven't found a publicly-accessible link for the concert's Granville date, so here are the details:

Granville, OH
Wednesday 17 October 2007, 7:00 p.m.
Granville Schools Performing Arts Center

The concert is also coming to the following cities:

• Ireland Dublin
• Canada Saskatoon, Regina, Manitou, Winnipeg
• USA Pittsburgh, Pearl River, NY, Waltham and North Andover, MA

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.

The Kells

Some photos from a house concert featuring The Kells last month...

Tannahill Weavers Requests

The Tannahill Weavers are taking requests for which tunes and songs they'll play on their next tour.

Their blog is worthwhile, too, since it features "Roy's Joke of the Week.

Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares

OK, no Irish or Scottish content here whatsoever, but I saw a really memorable performance a few weeks back. CityMusic brought the Bulgarian State Television Female Vocal Choir to Columbus earlier this month. I first encountered this group's recordings in college, shortly after they were released. The singing is just astonishing: Filled with six part harmonies, noises, talking, pitch bending, dissonance, unusual time signatures, and a laundry list of other things which would be a train wreck if attempted by lesser performers, it's some of the most beautiful vocal music I've ever heard.

You can hear samples of the recording I have on this Amazon.com page.

The opportunity to see this ensemble live was especially nice because although the CD recording I have includes incredible feats of singing, the audio quality is not that great. I recommend the CD for the unusual and brilliant singing, but don't expect great fidelity.

WWW: Some Links of Note

Here are some things which caught my attention this past week:

• Donate to breast cancer research and maybe win a whistle. I sent in a donation, and I hope others do, too.
• The Shamrock Club of Columbus is having their annual Irish Music & Arts Festival this coming weekend, 14 and 15 July, promising "Irish music, art, dancing and food in a family setting." Performers include The Kells (my teacher's band) and The General Guinness Band.
• Skip Healy is holding Wind on the Bay, a weekend school of music featuring Skip, John Skelton, and others, 30 September - 2 October this year.
• The Summer 2006 Chiff and Fipple newsletter has been published.

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: Tannahill Weavers [DIF]

I've been a fan of the Tannahill Weavers since first hearing their "Lucy Cassidy" set on a RykoDisc sampler back in the late '80s, but I've been listening to their recordings with a bit of a new ear since taking up the tin whistle. But I'd never had the opportunity to see them perform live.

So I was delighted when I learned that they would be coming to the Dublin Irish Festival. I also requested an interview with the band, and Colin Melville soon agreed to spend some time discussing whistling in Scottish music; I've posted the interview separately. The band played three sets at the festival; I caught them on Saturday and Sunday.

The musicians in the Tannahill Weavers have changed over the band's 37 year history, but Roy Gullane (guitar, vocals) and Phil Smillie (simple system flute, whistle, bodhrán, vocals). Colin Melville (Highland bagpipes, Scottish smallpipes, whistles) is the most recent addition; he's been in the band for five years. Leslie Wilson (bouzouki, keyboards, vocals) and John Martin (fiddle, vocals) have both been in the band for over 15 years.

I was wondering what a band with 14 full albums (not counting compilations) to its credit would play in concert, and it turns out that their taste is pretty similar to mine, as they played most of my favorite tracks! They played music from across the history of the band, including several spectacular sets of dance tunes like The Geese in the Bog / The Jig of Slurs and the Arnish Light set. I really like their new version of Cam' Ye By Athol; they first recorded it on Are Ye Sleeping Maggie, but rearranged it on Arnish Light to include a Highland bagpipes bridge. They played two songs by Adam Skirving about the Battle of Prestonpans: Tranent Muir and Johnny Cope. Of the battle itself, Roy quipped, "...the most famous battle in Scottish history, because we won it."

Roy's inter-song chats were very much in the spirit of the Tannahill Weavers's frequently amusing liner notes (all of which you can read online). Here's one of the stories he told:

Two men were out fishing in the middle of a lake when a bottle floated up to the boat. One of the men leaned over and opened it and a genie floated out of the bottle. "I'll grant you one wish," said the genie.
"Don't I get three?" asked the man.
"No, only one," replied the genie.
"OK," said the man. "I'd like you to turn entire lake into whisky." There was a poof, his wish was granted, and the genie disappeared.
"You idiot!" screamed his companion. Now we're going to have to wee in the boat!"

The Tannahill Weavers were the first successful Scottish folk band to use the Highland bagpipes in a band setting, and their unusual tuning poses certain difficulties for whistle players. When Colin is playing the pipes the rest of the band has to adapt to this, especially when playing a diatonic instrument such as the whistle. Phil plays an E♭ flute with keys, and a B♭ whistle. When Colin is playing the whistle he is of course not piping and plays high and low E♭ whistles.

At one point I was watching Phil whistle when I saw him repeatedly lift his right hand and start tapping it on top of his left hand as he played. I couldn't tell what he was doing, but I overheard another whistler ask him about this after the show and leaned in to hear the answer. "It's just a trick," he said. He plays a very fast fingered vibrato by running the first three fingers of his right hand, with a little space in between them, across the second or third finger of his left hand, which has the effect of quickly drumming the left-hand finger against the whistle hole.

It wasn't the only unusual technique observed that evening, either; at one point Roy played his guitar with a violin bow. It was also interesting when Roy stopped playing his guitar or when Les played the keyboards. This allowed me to hear the guitar and bouzouki in isolation, which normally intermingle. The Tannahill Weavers are so tight as a band and their performances are so well-arranged that it's interesting for me to try and pick them apart and identify the individual elements which make up the overall sound.

The Tannahill Weavers played for just over an hour and a half on Saturday night. The set list was substantially similar to Saturday's but reduced as the band had a shorter time slot. Sunday afternoon I brought my three-year-old daughter, also a fan of the band, to see their third show. We were a little disappointed that they didn't perform "The Great Ships" — which my daughter has memorized and likes to sing along to — but Roy told me after Saturday's show that it's one of the songs they don't ever play live. [Colin later told me why.] Nevertheless my daughter really enjoyed the show; in spite of the volume and having a three-year-old's attention span she wanted to stay for the entire show.

Shows: Eileen Ivers & Immigrant Soul [DIF]

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

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.

Shows: Gaelic Storm

I don't go to shows as much as I used to. The ideal show for me is unamplified or at least not uncomfortably loud, and promoters of live shows don't seem to share my taste. It's unfortunate to pay $15 for a show and have to listen through earplugs.

But with my family out of town for a week I found my way out to see Gaelic Storm a few days ago, and I'm glad I did. The band put on a first-class show, both in terms of music and engaging the audience. It threatened to descend unrecoverably into silliness as they covered their own song Johnny Tarr in the styles of Eminem and Led Zepplin, but let's just say that the crowd was sufficiently lubricated to appreciate the antics at that point. And when they returned to Irish sounds they proved they had lost none of their momentum in the intermission.

Pete Purvis, who started the show playing tin whistle, ran into a series of technical issues at first. The sound man had him way too low in the mix, and it was very difficult to hear him playing. He then tried to switch to electronic pipes, which didn't work at all. Moving on to the uilleann pipes, he again was shortchanged in the mix. Finally, he switched to the GHBs.

That took care of the volume problem...

And at that point everyone else on the stage could have just stopped playing and I don't think I would have noticed. He just blew me away! The man is the best highlands piper I have ever seen perform live (though I reserve the right to change this opinion after I see the Tannahill Weavers at the Dublin Irish Festival in August). It was an amazing performance, and I wish he had played the pipes on more than two songs.

Another standout performer was Ohioan fiddler Ellery Klein. During the show I was chatting with Deborah Clark Colón from the local duo Changeling, a high school friend of Ms. Klein's who told me that she (Ms. Klein) had polished her fiddling while finishing a masters in Irish music performance at the University of Limerick.

Opening band the Bogtrodders, a self-described "plague on sobriety," played a set consisting mainly of songs relating to their favorite pastime.

Miscellaneous links of somewhat related interest:

• Ellery Klein's album Salt and Pepper. (Don't believe the bit where it says the samples are in RealAudio format; they've got Windows Media, too.) It's a very different sound than Gaelic Storm!
• Deborah Clark Colón's article on learning fiddle any tunes by ear.

Shows: Fire the Sound Man

I saw Gaelic Storm here in Columbus a few nights ago. I really liked the show and I'll say more about it in a later post, but there's something that I've got to get off my chest, and I decided to post it separately since it's not really fair to the bands to knock them for something which they often can't control.

In short, there is a lot of room in the world for talented FOH mixers, because way too many folks in this line don't have the first clue as to what they are doing. This is especially true in smaller clubs. It's no minor problem, either. A bad sound man can easily ruin a show, no matter how well the band does.

Gaelic Storm brought their own mixer, I think, and he did OK. The fiddle was too loud and the whistle was too low for most of the show, but he was able to keep the overall level consistent, if a bit too loud, and the rest of the instruments were well-balanced. The electronic pipes didn't work at all, but that might have just been a fluke rather than being unprepared.

Openers the Bogtrodders unfortunately, had to make do with another guy who I've seen at Little Brothers before. The first and most reliable sign that the sound guy doesn't know what he's doing is that the overall level starts too loud and gets steadily louder as the show progresses.

Here's what I think must happen: Sound guy notices that the guitar isn't loud enough, so he turns it up a little. Later, he notices that the fiddle isn't prominent enough so he turns that up, too. And so on and so forth. It starts out loud and becomes deafening. It's made worse by the fact that having done this at so many shows he's probably partially deaf himself and getting deafer as the show goes on.

So although I wanted to watch the opening act, I kept moving further and further from the stage as the volume got steadily higher, and was finally driven right out the front door. I like the music, but my hearing is more valuable to me.