For some strange reason Davy Spillane and fiddler, Kevin Glackin are playing in Nebraska this weekend and they are stopping off in Lincoln to play with some of us crazy locals.
So should I ask him every ten minutes if he actually made the whistle he’s playing?
Should be a good time.
Another group, Chulrua, is coming through and playing for our annual ceilli. They are giving a concert Friday and workshops most of the day Saturday. No whistle classes though.
Better break out a fresh pack of minidiscs.
Mark V.
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Monday after music filled weekend…
First off I have to say that the afternoon session with Davy Spillane and Kevin Glackin was a great experience. Davy is very aproachable and GOOD LORD THE MAN CAN PLAY!
We had a great time talking and playing for a couple hours before they had to head off to Omaha to play a gig that night. It was interesting finding common tunes since we play a broad mix of old time and bluegrass tunes and not a great deal of Irish but we certainly found some common ground and introduced Davy to some of our favorites that he’s never heard before (Liberty and Kitchen Girls, favorite set of ours for dances). He could tell we were used to playing for dancers since we played at a more sedate pace.
In short…Great guy, fantastic musician, and I can’t wait till they pass through again.
Now the big tidbit.
Davy does make his own whistles, no doubt about it. I have the feeling that he didn’t want to take the time to become a whistle maker more than player just because everybody wanted a “Riverdance whistle”. He did have some interesting news on something he is working on but I don’t know if I should let it out yet. Hopefully in a month or so the news will come out.
What whistle was he playing…
Overton
I got the feeling it was an old favorite of his. He had some of his own whistles as well.
Chulrua!..and no whistle classes? They’ve come through Bloomington 2 or 3 times and Tim Britton usually did whistle/flute workshops. They’re all great guys…just go sign up for whatever workshop they’re offering…sitting in on one of Paddy O’Brien’s accordion workshops should be fun (even if you don’t play accordion…be warned tho, you might decide you like it and they’re more expensive than whistles).
Why bring it up? You have an opportunity to play and have a good time. Why be antagonistic?
However, if you want to possibly make someone annoyed and probably spoil the evening for people who have no clue about this tempest in a teapot, go ahead and ask him whatever you want.
I’ve never heard the guy play, never seen Riverdance (more than a few minutes on public TV when I got so annoyed at the three second camera work that I turned it off), never heard a CD. If I had the opportunity, I’d go and listen, and hope to enjoy myself.
According to the Chulrua webpage, Tim’s gone, and now the third member is fiddle player Patrick Orceau. (Who, by the way, is giving a fiddle workshop the day after Chulrua plays in Michigan this month.)
Speaking as someone who has been the lone whistle player in a number of Patrick’s fiddle workshops, he’s a great guy, and a wonderful fiddler. (Also a fine composer!) But it’s hard to imagine Chulrua without pipes.
Don’t ask, of course, but you might want to take a tiny little peek at his low D when he isn’t looking. The suspicion is that he plays Overtons isn’t it? Well I just checked a few of mine, including my low D, and all have Overton clearly engraved and marked in black near the bell on the opposite side of the tube to the key mark. Mine are all Bernard-made and I don’t know if Colin marks his the same way. Now, I suppose there might be ways of cosmetically hiding the mark without it looking obvious—perhaps some whistlesmith could confirm.
Actually I have quite a few CDs with Spillane playing, none of them pure drop but all of them impressive to my ears. He played on a co-produced at least one Sean Tyrrell CD, The Orchard, a true classic of Irish music, broadly construed. Listen to the title track, or ‘The Rising of the Moon’ or ‘The Ghost of Billy Mulvihill’: stunning. I also love Moving Hearts and, to my ears, this was an awesome band who, at its best, did play successful fusion music.
Now that would be a bit harder to check out without making it look obvious. I couldn’t find anything like that on my Bernard-made Overton low D just now but it could do with a good cleaning inside.
Well, as a practical suggestion, it might not be as easy to check as I had hoped. I think most Overtons around these days are Colin-made.
I can pull it off. Shouldn’t be too hard if I get a chance to handle one.
The guy can’t be too bad. This isn’t a scheduled stop but they wanted to get a chance to play with some of us on route to Omaha for a paying gig. Lincoln is actually a pretty good town for folkies with a very well organized group LAFTA (Lincoln Area folk and Traditional Arts) that helps promote local musicians. We’ve got some great musicians around here and occasionally I get to hang out with some even though I’m pretty middling when it comes to playing.
I really am looking forward to it.
Mark V.
If there is anything to report I’ll update the thread Monday.
If you get a chance to speak to Davy, please extend to him my warmest regards.
And, now:
I’d like to add that I have (almost) no doubt that the whistle Davy plays is not an Overton but is, as he claims, one he built. What I have always considered a mystery is why, after all of his statements that he makes & sells whistles for other players, have I NEVER heard from anyone who owns one. I would also bet that he has made and sold a few. And I also bet he truly intends to do more of that. I bet he just can’t find time.
I don’t hate Davy and I have no reason to dislike him. It just turns out to be the unfortunate truth that the only contact I’ve had with him was a bit, well, unfortunate…
Anybody who can play like that (not to mention write “The Dreaming of the Bones”) has the spark of the divine in him/her. That collaboration with Sinead (who, by the way, was my first wife), is exquisite.
