I saw Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul in concert last night.
Had heard of Eileen, read the words “Irish Fiddle Champion”, and thought the concert would be good…
The group had some very accomplished musicians. I really enjoyed the playing of Ivan Guff, the piper/flute/whistle player whom she recruited from Riverdance (and who plays a Susato Low D).
And Eileen is definitely a performer who knows how to play to the crowd. Her energy is great.
But what can I say? I came away disappointed. Had I known what the music would be like, I can’t say that I would have gone.
I kind of felt manipulated - the show was so… produced. Even the sweetest aire was ruined by all the reverb. It wasn’t Riverdance but it was as close as you can come with just a group of musicians. I guess I was just looking forward to something a little more trad and got something that was a little more like a rock-n-roll band. I mean, when she gets wailing with some of the effects on that Zeta fiddle… Jimi Hendrix, eat your heart out.
A friend of mine commented that with her personality, he could see why she ended up leaving Cherish the Ladies. Her personality is pretty strong. But maybe she should stick with more straight Cetlic stuff. Right now there’s so many different forms of music being thrown together in the show that there’s no focus. Or something. Nothing seemed to speak to me.
The first time was in the mid-90s at the North Texas Irish Festival (in Dallas), where she was performing with Seamus Egan (pre-Solas) as Egan & Ivers. That was an absolutely incredible performance, and the only thing “non-traditional” about it was their choice of percussion (a bongo player). Seamus and Eileen seemed to feed off of the energy of the audience (and each other), and they had just about everyone in the tent dancing.
The second time I saw Eileen was a year or two later at a concert (again in the Dallas area) with Mick Moloney and Tommy Sands. Not quite as energetic as the Egan & Ivers concert, but still quite good.
I haven’t seen her since then, so I can’t really compare her current concerts to the older ones.
I’ve never seen her live, but I have a few CDs.
She is fond of pushing things out a bit but her playing is very firmly rooted in the Tradition. A very accomplished musician no doubt, not to everyones taste maybe,but I have a great respect for her.
She knows the Crack…
I saw Eileen Ivers and Seamus Egan perform in LA when I was 15 or 16 years old ('88?). I think Seamus was about 18, and I was just blown away by his playing, as well as his dashing good looks… (Eileen Ivers was pretty good, too). Ah, those were the days. Really good, traditional stuff that inspired me as a beginning musician.
Hate to tell you, but as far as I’m concerned it was all downhill from there. They got all famous and gradually the quality of the music became more and more produced, fusion, pop, etc. I don’t know if they were trying to cater to the bland tastes of the masses, or if traditional music became too “boring” for them or something, but their concerts have not been at all the type of music I like ever since.
It’s sad to me to see people who are so amazingly talented abandoning the traditional music. Why does this happen?
There were similar sentiments expressed when Dylan went Electric,
I suppose that when some people find a vehicle to express themselves they find that they want to go further along a road which is their own and in doing so get to places that others would not care to go to…
Somehow, I can’t imagine that she sounds that much like a bad, frustrated jazz musician when she’s just playing at home.
If Eileen Ivers can give Jimi Hendrix a run for his money with her forced, contrived attempt at “modernizing” tunes, then I think it’s another sign that perhaps we as a civilization have passed our sell-by date…
No need to feel bad about E and I going for the big dollar. Nor can you blame them. Not everybody wants to sit around in a pub making small change when they can go for the big buck.
But there are plenty of other great traditional musicians who are happy just to play the music wherever they can find other musicians and people who like trad music. The ‘new’ sound of Danu, Deanta, Solas, etc, doesn’t turn me on. But I don’t have to listen to them.
The true sound of Irish trad is one musician sitting alone playing just to be playing.
eillien is mighty musician,and she plays the syle that she wants to play.if you had listened to her anytime in the last ten years you would know that.
if you want very traditional playing then go and listen to someone like tommy peoples or paddy glackin.you cant expect everyone to play the same traditional style.all these styles are good in there own right be it traditional or not.
Actually Eileen’s Wild Blue album (1996) is more trad than her subequent one (1999). The trend for her seems to be further away from trad.
Hey, she can do what she wants. I’m not saying she should play something different. But at a certain point, I think you should stop using the “Celtic Music” stamp if it’s no longer Celtic music. Stop claiming “Riverdance” if what you’re doing is more like Miles Davis or whomever. Where do you draw the line? I don’t know. But for those of us that haven’t been listening to Eileen for the past ten years (our musical attention being on other artists), you kind of feel suckered in when it says “Celtic” but really isn’t. Now I know better.
I will say that at least Solas still plays a good trad reel set every now and then.
Ah, but is she playing in the style she wants to play? I suppose she is, more or less. But when she goes in to the recording studio does she think “This is the sound I want to make; this is what I want to do with my music,” after cutting each track or does she sometimes think “well, this might make things sell a bit better, I guess.” I wonder…
I will not name names, but I have been told of some Irish musicians who are so disgusted by some of the keyboards and things on their own albums they feel like eating their own livers. The reason why that stuff is on there? “So the Yanks will buy it.”
Irish tradtional music is a pretty small niche market no matter how you look at it. For most musicians (and this applies to most any musical genre, really), making and selling albums results in little if any profit. The purpose of making them is self-promotion in order to get gigs and then maybe have something to sell at them. If somebody makes a CD of solo unaccompanied fiddle, it’s a good bet that those who buy it will be one of the following:
1.) Other fiddle players
2.) Players of other trad. instruments
3.) “Aficionados” of trad. music
In other words, hardly anybody in serious marketing terms. As with many other genres of music, if you want to gain any sort of remote widespread appeal, you have to add things that are likely to appeal to a broader segment of listeners. There are good and bad ways of doing that and what is defined as “good” or “bad” is purely up to the individual listener. If you like what Eileen Ivers does, then great. She is a musician of considerable talent and deserves support. I personally find her recordings of the past 10 or so years to be utterly boring, forced, and contrived. On the other hand, I have been very impressed with Iarla O Lionaird’s solo album and also the late Martyn Bennett’s experiments involving Scottish pipes and fiddle mixed with 808-style drum n’ bass. Listen to what you enjoy.
Solas playing “trad” reel sets? I wonder what that would sound like…?
I haven’t the experience of having seen as many groups as many of you, but I figure its always an option to make some money then go play as Trad as you want in a pub somewhere.
I am sitting at a computer not playing music for a living and I am ready to cut a New Age CD if that’s what it takes, to not have to be here.
Good luck to all of 'em, I say.
PS. That said, be discerning with your ticket dollars if you expect to hear Trad. Go to websites and hear samples, etc. You could ask here in fact about any given artists prior to purchasing a ticket. Pretty good knowledge base here.
Naw, but a) a lot of CD music these days isn’t necessarily for live performance but just for ambient noise and b) it’s just that “means to an end” thing.
I saw Dylan in a concert in Chicago in the middle 60s.
He did the first half acoustic.
Then, after the intermission, he
came out with an electic guitar and
a rock band.
And the audience booed him.
I guess I find it hard to believe that these
people have sold out. Of course, not
everybody who jumps out of a tradition
into something ‘more expressive’
lands on his/her feet!
You recall Calvin and Hobbes, sometimes posted
on the Pub now, and Bloom County.
In both cases the artists felt confined
by the formal constraints of comic
strips, and wanted to be more expressive.
Berkeley Breathed considered himself
a gag writer. But the funny thing was that
when these people began to do stuff
outside of that format, they were
much less good. The constraints
they rebelled against helped them
be good.
People seem surprised when i tell them that Berkeley is one of the most narrow-minded places I have ever been. They come from all over the country to get away from narrow-minded provincials then become fascistic politically correct types. The City Council passes more laws against the people in the name of the people than any other community around them. Above reminded me of it.
John Prine had the same experience as Dylan. First half of the concert was acoustic guitar and John’s solo classics but the second half brought out his Nashville buddies and powered instruments and, then, many empty seats.
Chicago used to have bars exclusively for folk music but no more. Some of the folk personnel have moved into the Irish music scene.
(Eileen Ivers was pretty good, too). Ah, those were the days. Really good, traditional stuff that inspired me as a beginning musician.