I bought the CD Alison Krauss and Union Station.
The woman is some sort of genuis as a vocalist
and a formidable fiddle player. I’ve been
playing flute along with it, trying to duplicate
her voice, which is extraordinarily nuanced;
she’s thought a lot through, especially on
the ravishing love song, ‘when you say nothing at all.’ (Bb flute)
Other tunes come from Brother, Where Art Thou?
I’m convinced that the Irish flute, also the whistle,
can be played in Bluegrass and Country, that
even though it’s not one of the standard instruments,
it works well. The ornamentation and technique
that we’ve learned playing ITM can be used
to mimic the voice, the wooden sound
blends in where a silver flute could not. And we can be bluesy, too. A way to extend
the instrument’s domain and our own
expressive technique.
Ms. Krauss is indeed a marvelous vocalist, and one who only gets more impressive with additional listening. The CD you mentioned is excellent, but I especially love the two pieces she did from the movie “Cold Mountain” that were nominated for academy awards.
The whistle is not unknown in the country genre. The Dixie Chicks make good use of it (oh, I forgot - they’re now evil) and one of Kathy Mattea’s sidemen occasionally makes good use of what appears to be a Walton. Why would this be a surprise(?) - country and bluegrass share roots with American mountain and traditional music, where fifes have always had a small place. A local folk musician friend of mine insists that a flute would have been unusual but hardly unknown in the backwoods or on the frontier.
My focus is more Old Time music than country or bluegrass, so I was very interested when a PBS program on Stephen Foster mentioned that he started out on flagolet as a boy, and then graduated to flute. “Hard Times” lays out very well on the flute.
99.99 percent of what I play on whistle is old-time music, or American traditional. I belong to a dulcimer club (which includes lap and hammered dulcimers, fiddles, guitars, autoharps and an occasional banjo) and I get lots of positive comments about the whistle.
I saw Kathy Mattea in concert last year and she played what looked like a Waltons on a couple of her songs.
I have always thought I fife would be much harder than a whistle mostly because of embouchure. What do you all think?
Thanks for mentioning “Hard Times”. That one falls right under the fingers on the whistle. I’ve added it to my practice list.
Jim, if you like AKUS, you might also check out Rhonda Vincent. Alison actually sings harmony on one song (“When the Angels Sing”) on Rhonda’s “The Storm Still Rages” CD. She tends to play more traditional Bluegrass and honky-tonk material than AKUS, but “Don’t Lie” and “My Sweet Love Ain’t Around” are both pretty mournful and nuanced–and Stuart Duncan’s fiddle is outstanding, as always. From an ideological standpoint, I enjoy “You Don’t Love God if You Don’t Love Your Neighbor”.
I think someone mentioned “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” on the Patti Loveless “Mountain Soul” CD as something that might work well on whistle. Patti has a more “traditional” voice, but it’s might nice. In fact, she’s probably my favorite female singer in the genre, even if she does tend to sing more C&W material. (I’d put Rhonda’s voice somewhere between AK and PL–stylistically, that is.)
Here are most of the old-timey, folk, and blues songs I’m playing now (along with the first note, which helps me remember how to start them off as I work my way through my list):
Little Sparrow (Jean Ritchie) - Low A
Sweet Sunny South (minor) - low F#
Old Hog in the Wood - low A
Roving on a Summer’s Night - low D
Barbara Allen - low D
Railroad Boy - low E
Greenland Whale Fisheries - low A
Santy Ano - high F#
The Cruel Mother - low B
Henry Martin - low E
Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender (Mike Seeger) - low D (E-F#-E-D)
Lord Franklin - high D
Lady Nancy - low E
Summertime - high F#
St. James Infirmary - low E
Darktown Strutters’ Ball (not a very PC title)- low B
Alberta - low A
Thanks for all of these suggestions,
both tunes and vocalists. Darwin, I’ve
played some of the tunes you mention,
on the street.
Let me just say that yes the fife is
harder than the whistle.
The low instruments, both whistles
and flutes, have a lot of possibilites
as part of these ensembles.
I have noticed, as others mentioned above,
high whistling on Dixie Chicks cuts. Best
I hate to drop names, but when I saw Altan a couple of years ago in Nashville, Kathy Mattea was in the audience- as well as Sam Bush. Obviously, her recent music has been influenced by IrTrad. Likewise, modern Irish music is, I think, greatly influenced by traditional American music- Dolly Parton sings on Altan’s “The Blue Idol.”
There’s a lot of cross-fertilization between the US and the Gaelic lands right now. Examples (and I’m too lazy on a Sunday to dig out the CDs and read the titles) include Americans like Elvis Costello playing with Matt Molloy and the Chieftains, Dougie McLean with Kathy Mattea, and others almost too numerous to mention.
As I see it, its not only appropriate but overdue - sort of a long-delayed reconciliation between the branches of a family.
I’m glad this thread hasn’t gone away. Although completely different, some of you might want to check out Eliza Carthy. The only similarities between her and AK are that I first heard of both as fiddlers and they’re both even better vocalists, and they’re both young but seasoned veterans. Liza is 24, but made her first album (with Nancy Kerr) at 15. Her latest album is called Anglicana (still available only from UK shops, thank God for the 'net), and it’s an album composed entirely of English traditional songs and tunes done largely in a traditional setting, including one that was recorded in a friend’s living room on a somewhat out-of-tune piano. She’s also quite a good one-row accordion player, although I don’t think there’s any on the latest.
(Her other trad albums are the ones with Nancy Kerr plus Heat light and sound, Kings of Calicutt, and Rice and also the ones with Waterson:Carthy, which I haven’t enjoyed as much.)
