Last night I had the wonderful experiance of Dervish right in St Augustine, FL. This was a first, considering the ITM scene is non existant but judging by the size of the audience, there should be.
Ive heard them on CD, but let me tell you. If you ever get the chance to see them live, I would gladly pay much more than the $20 I spent for me and my wife each.
One Word: UNBELEIVABLE
All the band was great, but I have a new flute hero to add to the list, Mr Liam Kelly. I knew he was great from recordings but in person and on the stage all the better. The concert was intimate, because it was held in a restaurant area of the Lightner Museum, and I was all of 10 feet from the stage.
The Wilkes flute is nice too, the first time I’ve seen/heard one in person.
I saw them in the Fall here and got a copy of their CD, Spirit. Terrific.
I like their version of Swallow’s Tail reel so well that I’ve got it in our own sets now…sometimes in Eb even.
I started using Dervish’s Swallowtail as the intro every week to our radio show, The Fret and Fiddle, on KRCL in Salt Lake. It is so powerful with its simple, building arrangement. I agree about Liam Kelly’s playing… his name hasn’t been around as a lead man, so I don’t think he’s gotten his due, but he’s one of the very best players these days.
I agree; Liam Kelly is waaaaaay underappreciated. I wonder if this is possibly BECAUSE he’s such a great ensemble player – i.e., although he doubtless has the chops for solo work, he doesn’t do it much (or at least not near enough for my tastes !)?
Just a thought.
Didn’t he used to play a Murray?
If I were surrounded by the likes of Dervish’s brilliant musicians (as if for one millionth of a nanosecond I deserved to be surrounded by such!) I don’t know if I would step out to look for a solo career. I just read an article from '96 that mentioned that Liam and Shane Mitchell (box) have been playing together since before they were teenagers! And the flute/fiddle combination of Liam and Tom Morrow seems to define Irish traditional music, in my most humble opionion. When Liam Kelly takes the lead, it’s astounding, but I also really enjoy the intricate and driving sound of the flute/fiddle/box… and there’s noone better than Liam for that!
In my personal heaven there will be one giant Dervish session, and those guys will let me play with them, and I won’t humiliate myself. At least not too much.
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