My brain is now fried. I spent the weekend playing the Dublin (Ohio) Irish fest (Yes! Wendys AND Irish music in one great location!) and had a truly amazing time. I had never been to the festival before (living in Atlanta as I do) but took up the offer of a small gig there this year from my friend and fiddle player (and fellow band-mate) Charlene Adzima as the chance to attend. Others have already comented on the great line-up of bands so I’ll just distill some of my favorite moments. Getting to see folks I hadn’t seen/talked to in some time was fun (Eileen Ivers, for instance and her band guitarist James Riley for another. We called up our mutual friend, piper Isaac Alderson in New York on James’s cell phone and played with his head. Probably woke him from a deep sleep. Oh, well. (Isaac is soon to join Eileen as her new piper/flute player; check him out, it’ll be brilliant). I also got to finally meet multi-instrumentalist Craig Markley, whom with I had only previously talked to by e-mail. He has a great new band called Lone Raven (Loneraven.com) which expands on a number of different musical influences Craig has had over the years. His daughter Kara is a stunning lead vocalist (as well as fiddler) for the group. Also had a impromptu gig with Karl Colon, an amazingly inventive DADGAD guitarist who plays with his wife Deborah (fiddler extraordinaire) in the duo “Changeling”. Karl is one of the funniest people I have ever met and a hell of a nice guy. It was worth the drive to Ohio just to hear his rendition of Adam MacNaughton’s “Hamlet” song. Sadly, the two are moving to Iowa soon. They will be missed by the Ohio Irish music community.
I also spent a lot of time in the tent provided for instrument makers. I met up with my friend Michael Vignoles, bodhran/uilleann pipe maker from
Galway and had some lovely chats and tried out a few of Michael’s new chanters. It was also nice to see whistle maker Michael Burke again. Michael has absolutely perfected the technique of seperating Irish musicians from their hard-earned money. Ah, to be independantly wealthy…sigh. I found a composite low A and a brass Bb that I lust after. We did manage to wear my bandmate Charlene down and she walked away with a brand new session pro D whistle.
So many wonderful performers. I had not seen the Tannahill Weavers in quite some time and it’s always a treat to hear the Tannies (although I speak with a Scottish accent for about two weeks after every show). Cherish the Ladies were great as always (with the surprising addition of Triona Ni Domhnaill on keyboards, now) and it was cool to finally see Eric Rigler (Braveheart/Titanic piper) in concert with his band, Bad Haggis.
The best part of the festival for me was The Cottars. Oh, my, The Cottars. Two brother/sister pairs from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. They range in age from 15 to 18 and are brilliant musicians and great stage performers all. I had never heard them live, but their CDs are great. You must rush to their website and buy a CD immeadiately: http://www.thecottars.com
We ended up hanging out with them much of the weekend and formed fast friendships and had some great tunes and times (and I discovered that Ciaran MacGillivrey desperately wants a set of uilleann pipes(aside from the keyboards, whistles, guitar, flute and button accordion he already has, damn these multi-instrumentalists!), so I gave him full reign with my set for a while. To Ciaran’s parents: I apologize profusely for corrupting your son! I am sorry!) And listening to Fiona sing “Cape Breton Lullaby” gave me no choice but to spill mustard all down the side of my leg, it was so gorgeous (and is it just me or is that horrible festival/ballgame mustard a blinding, neon yellow that does not occur anywhere else in nature?). Cool kids and some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. If you see they are coming to your area for a concert, do yourself a favor and GO AND SEE THEM. You won’t be sorry.
The finale for the festival was insane. Sitting up on a stage, sandwiched between Phil Smilie of the Tannahill Weavers and Joanie Madden with all the drum and bass players from all the rock bands going nuts was just surreal. Also, the first set of tunes in the finale ended up being for highland pipes only (in Eb/Bb in otherwords) though many of us only discovered this on stage (Charlene said it was like that bad dream where you have a this great gig on stage in front of thousands of people and then discover the everyone but you is a half-step up. Actually it wasn’t a dream). So I sat on stage (had to sit, as I was playing u-pipes) next to Rosie and Fiona of the Cottars and we tried to keep straight faces while miming the fingerings to “The Geese in the Bog/Jig of Slurs” that were actually in the wrong keys.
We also had chance to briefly meet legendary legend herself, Triona Ni’Domhnaill (I THOUGHT those keyboard intros to old Bothy band sets that Cherish had been playing sounded awfully authentic!). She was very nice considering we were in awe of her and mumbling profusely. That voice! She sounds just like herself! And we wished Triona and Heidi Talbot of Cherish good luck as they navigated the toll roads of Pennsylvania and New Jersey (I hope they live…)
And then Sunday night was the big blast of tunes. We set up a great session in the hallway of the hotel and proceeded to draw a large enough crowd to warrent a fire hazard. I think we played for about 4 hours straight. The session was absolutely cooking and blazing at points, due to a great mix of thoroughly talented melody and rhythm players, though it was a bit frightening at times to know that musicians of the caliber of Joanie Madden, Triona Ni’ Domhnaill and Tommy Makem were in the crowd listening. One of the best moments of the session was coming back from a drink run and seeing that Rosie (fiddler with the Cottars) had the entire session copying her rhythmic head/body movements as she played (she’s pretty much entirely a blur when she plays, but I’ll describe this example: every eighth beat of Silver Spear, slam your body forward, and then repeat - you get the idea). The session became like some gigantic, manic flower, opening and closing every few seconds. I almost snorted Cherry Coke out my nose (the bar was closed).
All in all, I had an amazing time at the festival. I think, speaking from a musicians perspective, everyone was happy to meet and sorry to part. I love the music, but part of the fun and continual inspiration of playing is the wonderful people you meet. That is as much a part of why I play this music as anything. So, if you have never been to the Dublin fest, make plans to attend next year. And do support all of the wonderful groups and bands gave their time and talent to make it such a triumph. My only festival complaint is that I am absolutely sick of Killians Red and I would dearly love a good Smithwick’s or Guinness about now.
Zac
