Some of you know my day job in Michigan is announcer/producer at WMUK, Kalamazoo’s public radio station/NPR affiliate. So I occasionally get to do really cool things in the name of duty. Most of the people I interview are classical artists, but in this case, the Chieftains came to town.
Mr. Molloy gave me a rare interview after the show, in the London Grill Singapore, a downtown pub that supports the music. He was the only original Chieftain to come out, although Carlos Nunez and other Galicians touring with the band also showed (for those of you who are Nunez fans, I also interviewed him and will broadcast that at a later date). The music and shouting in the pub were intense, so we walked to the back of the restaurant and found a stairwell that was quieter, and I just asked him everything I could. “What are your favorite performing environments?” “Advice for flute players?” “Is there a common theme in folk music throughout the world?” “What do you do when you don’t feel like playing and you have to go on?”
He answered these questions and more, both of us stuttering quite a bit, but through the miracle of CoolEdit, I cut us down to about 10 minutes. It will air on the station’s website, www.wmuk.org, at 8 pm Eastern on Sunday, Feb 13, during our Irish hour, “The Pure Drop,” hosted by myself and a local fiddler, Dave Marlatt.
It’s very much an “in the field” recording, with pub noises and doors slamming, but I tell myself it just gives it character. Hope you enjoy it.
Again, it’s this Sunday night on www.wmuk.org at 8 pm Eastern. It will fall somewhere during an hour of Celtic music.
the Chieftains came to Santa-Barbara CA and friends from the session were exited to go on stage and play, but for some reason, I did not think Matt was touring with the Chieftains any more and did not bother going to the show, of coarse I was bumbed to miss Matt, is he playing the keyed Olwell?
I’d wondered about that too, Eddie. I may or may not be able to listen on Sunday, but I really want to hear it. I’ll certainly try to catch it on Sun., but what if I miss it???
The news director at WMUK thought it was a fine idea to post the interview to our web page. All I had to do was ask, but since I’m not part of the news department, I worried I was crossing the line. But, a happy ending.
Eilam: I’m sorry, I don’t know if it was a keyed Olwell he was playing. He didn’t have it with him after the show, and I didn’t think to ask.
Mark: No free lesson-- that thought didn’t cross my mind either.
What a treat! I especially liked the way he talked about leaning back with his feet up (I think he said that, or maybe I just pictured it from what he did say) and discovering things inside a tune…lovely.
Thanks for sharing that with us, Cara, and what fun it must have been for you!
