I saw Dervish recently. I had heard good things about them and was prepared to like the show. Here’s my review.
The melody players all played really fast and with tons of ornamentation. I recognized the tunes they played, but barely. Each one individually was pretty clean technically, but together they created a swamp of mangled melody.
I thought the guitar player to be weak, often relying on electronic gimmicks to keep his playing varied. He sang a song and it was agony.
And what’s up with the two bouzouki players? I’m sorry, one is bouzouki and one is mandola. Same thing. Who needs two of them in a band.
And my biggest complaint is about Cathy Jordan. Her singing alone did not bother me much; kind of like Triona in the Bothy Band. She was shrill at times, and I didn’t like the songs she chose (in contrast to most of Karan Casey’s singing in Solas). It was her body movements and stage demeanor. On tunes and songs alike, she flapped around her arms almost like belly dancing. She pointed, as if conducting, to the instrumentalists when they were to come in. She kept the attention of the audience fixed on herself. Clearly, she was “feeling the music.” In my opinion, part of a performer’s responsibility is to let the music speak for itself. If a performer is, like Cathy, infinitely more excited by her music than her audience could ever be, I think that is a failed performance.
I am not against innovation nor against bands. I have been tremendously excited, at times, by concerts and recordings by the Bothy Band, Solas and Lunasa. But I won’t pay to hear Dervish again. Am I missing something?
I’ve never seen them live (and probably won’t go too far out of my way to do so, based on your description), but I really like all their recordings that I’ve listened to.
Have you heard any of their CD’s? Maybe they’re a lot different live than they are in the studio.
I saw them several years ago and I liked their performance. I agree that I’m not crazy about that light, airy style of singing, but they put on a good show when I saw them. I liked them a lot better live than say…Solas.
Hopefully Dervish is not becoming like some of those traditional bands that try to appeal more to a pop audience when they get more famous. I saw one Irish band years ago that was starting to put these weird lighting efffects a la Led Zeppelin in their show, and I thought it was a little much.
They’re high-production, for sure. I like their album Playing with Fire, but their latest, Midsummer’s Night, doesn’t do anything for me for some reason. Dervish probably does better recorded than live given all the layering they’re dealing with in their arrangements.
In their defense (by my lights), even though they’re not Pure Drop, they’re trad-ish. But that’s pushing the envelope for you. Sometimes it works, and sometimes…
Actually Midsummer’s Night is three or four years old now, their latest is Spirit. It hasn’t made much of an impression on me, but I like Midsummer’s Night a lot. (Update – as I was writing this I put on Spirit, and there is a set called “Father Jack” which ends with smashing lovely versions of “Pull Out the Knife and Stick It Again” and “Banks of Lough Gowna”. Probably worth the price of the album.)
Dervish probably does better recorded than live given all the layering they’re dealing with in their arrangements.
Actually, their live album is by far my favorite of the ones I’ve heard, and I don’t remember noticing any drop in their standard of playing when I’ve heard them live. (Admittedly, it has been a couple of years now.)
Of all the Irish bands with singer that I’m familiar with, Dervish is easily my favorite. The Solas comparison particularly makes me laugh – Solas has some nice people (and good players) in it, but if you offered me the choice of a free Solas concert or an expensive Dervish concert, I’d take Dervish every time. They play great tunes well, and sing mostly interesting trad stuff.
None of that is really quite my cup of tea anymore, I must admit. I find the songs of A Crowd of Bold Sharemen infinitely more interesting, and would prefer my tunes a touch slower and played by one or two musicians with minimal accompaniment. (Still adore Lunasa, though.)
I just checked the Dervish web page – Midsummer’s Night is actually from 1999. So actually it’s five years gone. (You may be confused because it was years before it had a proper US release?) Similiarly, Spirit is over a year old, but its US release was sometime this year.
(personally I think that Dervish is a dynamic performing band - great technique great arrangments exciting show - yes they can sometimes play a bit fast for my taste but I think they are brilliant - and I have seen them live 3 times)
I only saw Dervish once. That was about five or so years ago and I thought they sounded great back then. Some of their earlier CDs were alright…some particularly nice sets of jigs I seem to recall. The last one I heard was “Midsummer’s Night” and that one had some nice stuff but was kinda hit and miss overall.
I remember the first time I saw Solas, they blew my socks off. When I saw them again a year later (after Karan Casey and John Doyle had left), I found them near agonizing.
Lunasa seem to be a pretty consistently satisfying live act although your mileage may vary with their recorded stuff. The first time I saw them was in Glasgow back in '98 when they were in a transitional lineup with Mike McGoldrick on pipes and Kevin Crawford on flute…one of the best shows I’ve seen…
Well, taking another view, Dervish, because of their lead singer, has a very distinct sound. That is worth a lot really when you consider how many neo-trads are out there trying to make a mark. I guess I would put them in a category of bands I didn’t NEED to see live but didn’t mind hearing once in a while on the CD player.
I first heard 'em on LiveIreland.com where they would pretty much play the same song every two hours or so. They have this mawkish sound that reminds me of the Scottish dark side of emotions and pathos…I think they are very successful at working with her voice in their band sound.
But I am somewhat morbidly fascinated by singer-driven groups in all genres. I was a Fleetwood Mac fan WAY back when Christine McVie was the lead singer. Then they got those two Lindsey/Stevie and got way more famous. I couldn’t stand Stevie Nicks then and still can’t but she
brought this “flair” into the group. Reading initial post about Jordan, it reminded me of her and how she changed their stage show, image and everything.
I tend to like singers without visual flair, but hey, I’m an ear guy, i guess. I think my favorite male singer in the trad is Andy Irvine. He really doesn’t have a great sonorous voice but he plays it like a fiddle. His version of Carrowclare is one of my all time favorite tunes.
but when I first heard the Blues it was Leadbelly singing Rock Island Line and after that I found a few great recordings of Robert Johnson. Since that time I must have heard thousands of bluesbands but I can’t remember the name of one - xcept Jimmy H -. I still listen to Leadbelly and Johnson.
A lot of recent Irtrad bands fall off the same wagon as the Chieftians, they all listened to O Riada, Cooley, etc etc etc. The fact is that not one of these wonderkids is the least bit original or memorable. I have heard better begging in Camden town London in the 60s and 70s where they might get a free pint but then be asked to shut the f** up so the locals could drink in peace. But thats another story.
The highspeed approach to Irtrad is like turning up the amplifier stack to the max with the blues. Look out for John Mayal who has made a career out of butchering Johnson licks by amplifying a dead bluesman’s acoustic genius.
So its either louder of faster, but its still shite.
The reason why Leadbelly and Robert Johnson are in every record store, even in small towns, is taht teh blues has gone form being unknown to being very popular in about 40 years. Had it not been for bands like Mayall, The Animals the Rolling Stones and others this would probably never have happened. So many people heard the music second hand at first, and then went on to the originals. BTW, I’ve heard quite a few John Mayall recordings but I can’t recall him trying to copy Robert Johnson on any of them.
Several people on this thread have admitted that they started out listening to bands like Solas and Dervish and then later moved on to pure drop recordings. I see the same process at work here. Apart from the (rather lousy) tune blaring out from the home page of the Dervish website, I’ve never heard their music. But even if it’s completely worthless in itself, if it turns a few people on to the really great artists, there’s the reasoned argument that you were after.
The same can be said of starting off into ITM with the Chieftains, and then getting introduced to the original music, except that I still like the Chieftains, whereas Dervish, Solas, Lunasa, and the other Planxty-wannabes still sound like shite.
