This music is dedicated to a friend who is recovering at a hospital right now. He sent this track to me and I shared it to the people close to my heart. Now I am sharing it to all of you my readers.
I have to note that these two make an excellent musical pair!
A blurb about Tommy from his website:
Hailed by many today as the world’s greatest guitar player, Tommy Emmanuel came out of nowhere, literally. Born in rural Australia, Tommy picked up his first guitar at age four, touring with his family’s prodigious musical troupe from town to town across the wild Australian outback. Today, Tommy is touring the world with his guitar still in hand, dazzling audiences with spectacular playing and unforgettable showmanship.
THE BOMBADILS The Bombadils are a five-piece ensemble based out of Montréal, Québec. They met in 2009 shortly after beginning their classical and jazz studies in music performance at McGill University. The band shares an eclectic variety of musical interests, which they bring together to create a unique, folk inspired sound. It is their sense of discipline and attention to detail, acquired through their formal experience and training, that helps them create a sound that is at once accessible and virtuosic. http://www.thebombadils.com/
Welcome to my discovery …where everything sounds fresh, awesome yet with the touch of traditional. This site is constantly pushing the boundaries of what is defined by the genre yet staying true to the roots.
Brian Fitz gave me a shout out of his new vid featuring the music from Zelda. Are you a fan? If not, you will still enjoy this one of a kind presentation of multi-instrumentalism. I had the honor in featuring this guy in my earlier interview and I love his innovative spirit.
Notes from Brian:
People have been saying for a while now that I if I had a bunch of myself, we’d start a band. Turns out they were right the whole time.
Thanks to my sister for working the cam when not mounted on the tripod — massive help!!! She’s a monster musician, check out her channel at:http://www.youtube.com/brennafitz
This came from my friend. The speed of how they performed the step dance is jaw dropping. I haven’t seen anything like this before. have you?
Notes from TapTronic:
Follow us at http://twitter.com/Tap_Tronic
Like us on Facebook: http://goo.gl/ch2fw
TapTronic is a progressive fusion of Irish dance and electronic music. This is TapTronic’s premier video remixing Flight Facilities (Adventure Club) remix of Crave You.
TapTronic would like to give a special thank you to Surefire Music Group, Bojan Vanovac and Brian Doherty for making this project possible. Enjoy!
Fusion is the thing with this band. Now they are back on tour!
Afro Celt Sound System Live in Bristol – May 7th 2012
Towering and tribal, twice-Grammy nominated Afro Celt Sound System fuses traditional Celtic tunes with driving African rhythms and hypnotic, cutting edge dance grooves. One of the most inspirational and innovative collectives ever, eight of the best musicians on the planet promise to bring the Festival at Colston Hall to an unforgettable close.
Further May shows are listed on our website. Definitely a show not to be missed!
Canadian Celtic band The Bombadils have finished recording their new album. They won cult following both from East and West coast. They always bring something new to the table. These band members are all talented and cute!
Charismatic singer/songwriter from Northern Ireland discusses the creation of the band’s album as well as a glimpse into his musical childhood.
Like a veteran stage actor, singer songwriter Baz Mcsherry uses his mastery of pacing, vocal delivery and charisma to his advantage. His voice has the nuance and depth of Christy Moore while possessing the soaring seraphic range of Sting. His first name is catchy…Baz. You can’t miss it. And judging from the videos for The Lookin’ Drawer, you can tell that this artist has what it takes for mainstream appeal yet never losing the things that define his music: solid harmonies, entrancing melodies and mesmerizing vocals. Even the album artwork can catch one’s attention. It conjures mystery and nostalgia. It already tells what you can expect in this album-rich atmospheric tracks and deep lyricism. Together with the talented band members, The Lookin’ Drawer is an album that is artfully crafted and worth enjoying for years. And yes the album title is also the name of his band.
It is an honor to have an interview with Baz Mcsherry . Something I was looking forward to ever since a link to his video A Song of Tribute to Sarah Jane got sent my way by a friend. It was destiny.
1.How did you come up with The Lookin’ Drawer as an album name?
We were looking to name the album and didn’t want to name it after any particular track. The name, “The Lookin’ Drawer”, originated from a conversation between myself and Jonny Toman, (the album’s Producer).We got to talking about our grandparents and Jonny mentioned that when he came to visit them as a boy, he would run past his grandmother to play in his favourite drawer in the kitchen. The drawer contained items his grandfather acquired from antique auctions, e.g. old fashioned playing cards, pocket watches, flick books, lighters, marbles , trinkets etc. His grandmother used to say about her grandson , “ There he is away into the Lookin’ Drawer again!” . I thought Wow I wanna Look! That’s the name of our Band now too, from the album our band was born.
2. How long did it take you and the crew to finish this project up?
It took us about a year and a half. We recorded it ourselves. We literally had to build a studio ourselves and make it fit for the purpose. We had some technical problems, blew three computers up, lost some material, started over, wrote new songs and took our time.
3.Wow! Sounds like so many challenges there. Ok, I know that recording and also the production process can be a hassle as they involve staying late at night and making sure the finished product is something that you can listen to for years. What kept everyone sane during this album-making process?
Two things mainly – the music and ourselves. We took the clocks off the wall, turned all phones off so we had no concept of time until we were driving home or woke up. There is this incredible motivation generated when your listen back and like what you hear, and that’s what happened. We knew the songs were not finished until they told us they were, and the more we added the closer we got to hearing, that’s it lads!
I say, “ourselves” because the craic was really really good, when the concentration started to fade we would act the wag, mess about, have a drink, go for a feed, have a coffee, make prank phone calls etc. The band have a pretty childish sense of humour (thankfully) and it takes little to amuse the innocent and less for us a lot!
4. How was childhood for you and how did you become a musician?
Childhood was a great time, I am still there. Most of it was spent looking out the window, (just the same as now really). Spent a lot of the time listening to my folks’ record collection at the kitchen table, collecting old tapes and songs. I had a great system in the class room for collecting songs, my circle of friends were heavily into football and football cards/ stickers for scrap books. They would give me the ones they didn’t need, (the extras) and I would barter these with the other boys for the parents’ tapes and records. This meant they would have to go home sometimes and steal to order. It’s amazing the lengths a young pup will go for a Mark Hughs and Hank William EP! They would be going through my stickers saying – “Got –Got- Need –Got”, and I would be going through their parents records saying the same. Then a deal would strike.
Once I heard Christy Moore sing I wanted a guitar, that’s how it all started.
5. Do you have another talent that we don’t know of?
I have none, but….
Jonny makes a deadly scrambled egg,. mmm !
Rachel is very funny, can do any accent, and is my all time favourite singer.
Darren has a great musical trivia, is tall, (which comes in handy for reaching things), and is the calmest member of the Band – bringing the Chill vibe.
Alison remembers the names of everyone she has ever met, and is a great organizer too, keeping us all right.
The Lookin’ Drawer is available for purchase through his website and itunes.
I always tune in to Martin Bridgeman’s shows. He is our special guest and he tells us about his experiences working with the medium for years. Radio has been an integral part of our society and a force that shaped generations and still continues to. What’s very interesting about this piece is that it is actually an insider’s look at the history of radio in Ireland.
Radio Daze
Being a brief(ish) ramble through my radio career from Dublin to Kilkenny
By
Martin Bridgeman
Martin Bridgeman with Brian Cash of Dublin outfit, Halves at the festival hub at Left Bank.
Where to start? To sound like a cliché, I have simply loved music all of my life and heard a lot of it first on radio. I have an early memory of hearing the Beatles in their early prime when I was very young, so we’re talking early 60’s anyway. I would have grown up listening to pop records that my older cousins would have bought and played so many of the big pop and rock acts from then are implanted in my brain.
I entered my teens – where I believe your musical soul is forged – in the 1970’s, the era of Rock giants like Led Zeppelin, and the emerging glam stars like David Bowie and Marc Bolan, electronic pioneers like Tangerine Dream, Eno and Kraftwerk and the edgier folk players like John Martyn. I admired Paul McCartney’s early DIY phase, John Lennon’s searing honesty. Although Punk kind of passed me by (I didn’t share the anger) I can see how it shook up the prevailing trends and pared things back to the essentials of rock and roll. Through these artists I came to appreciate the roots of rock and roll, the early starters, the players, the singers, the legends that have now been appreciated for the trails that they blazed for the artists since to travel. I’m happy to say that our children have always been open to new music and have respect for what has passed before, which is all I can hope for in anyone starting out in music. Listen, then decide!
I found US bands like Talking Heads intriguing and love how they have all taken many musical journeys as artists and still keep us enthralled. Blondie straddled pop and new wave and Patti Smith followed her own artist’s path and instincts and continues to do so. Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush and Leonard Cohen were always in the background, never disappointing and proving how important an artistic manifesto is the key to making great, timeless music. All the time, Irish bands were making their presence felt, some more than others, to a point where we have an enormous wealth of talent relative to the size of our country (in my opinion).
Since then I hope I’ve been ever open to new music and my list of favourites continues to grow (as does the physical space in our home has to accommodate more and more music, books, magazines and mementoes). I’ve been blessed to have had many broadcasters, fellow musicians and a small number of true friends to lead me metaphorically by the hand, opening my horizons musically and continue to do so.
Radio
Until the later part of the 1970s Ireland had just one radio station. In a spirit of punk, and following from the popular movement 1960’s in England, pirate radio flourished across Ireland and, despite constant government harassment, made sufficient impact and held public appeal that it helped to create a new national music station playing music people wanted to hear. (Incidentally, it was an Irishman that helped set up Radio Caroline – Ronan O’Rahilly). That’s not to be overly critical though: the (single) national station had a public service, news, current affairs and broad arts remit so it was never going to be able to satisfy all tastes and was national in tone.
What the pirates did was to provide truly local broadcasting, offering new voices an opportunity to play their passions on the airwaves. Many bands had their first outings on legendary pirate radio stations such as Radio Dublin, ARD and Sunshine, the three main stations that took on the mainstream and won handsomely. Many rightfully esteemed national broadcasters in radio started out there…a thriving local radio network is still playing what people want locally.
Radio and Me – Part 1
My neighbour was the legendary DJ Pat James who started his broadcasting life on Radio Dublin. He gave me my first break on radio in 1978 and I still remember pushing in the heavy doors in Inchicore, Dublin every Friday to play my wilfully broad range of music, cycling back home late/early filled with all the energy I needed to get up for work the following morning and with a head full of ideas for next Friday. Thankfully Pat is back on the air in a unique slot on a Dublin-based Classic Rock Radio station called Nova (itself a name harking back to the golden age of pirate radio). His rocker soul is still very much intact
I was left the freedom to play what fired me and I never took notice of genres, regularly playing Steely Dan and the Bothy Band on the same night. I still do, now admittedly over two nights.
The Wilderness Years?
I spent most of the 1980’s playing music for fun (never for profit anyway), cover bands such as Calling Card, original bands such as Geoffrey’s First Affair , La Bata and the Sad Anoraks making me open to even more styles of music.
Radio and Me – Part 2
Time passed as it does, like a thief, stealing the years and finding me relocated from Dublin to Kilkenny, where love and family have kept me since 1993. I found myself hankering back to my Radio Dublin days as a new local station came into being in Carlow and Kilkenny, KCLR96FM. I approached the management and they seemed to think (a) I wasn’t completely delusional and (b) I was worth a try. Circumstances and luck combine in life and my particular combination in 2007 led me to the music shows I present there at present. Together, they speak to my interpretation of the word ‘eclectic’ I hope anyway.
The Eclectic Light Programme
The Eclectic Light Programme is a place where you can’t anticipate what styles of music will appear. That is deliberate and often left to chance. I feature a lot of what is new in Irish and International music without looking over my shoulder to see what other people think.
I have met some many talented people it gives me great hope for the future. There is a serious amount of talented young people in Carlow and Kilkenny and I’m happy to offer them a place to come in and share their passion about the music they make.
And in case you’re wondering about the title…It has multiple layers of pun-infested meaning.
“The”: I believe that many great bands have that as the first part of their namers, who am I to judge?
“Eclectic”: No style turned away.
“Light Programme”: Back when I was growing up, my radio hummed into life and displayed these exotic locations, including the BBC Light Programme.
So there it is, my Saturday night dip into the waters of what is good non-mainstream music. With puns in.
Essentially you could argue that the name means a taste of Irish, but in truth our folk traditions are so closely interlinked that you will regularly hear Scottish, English and Breton music too.
Being from Ireland you can take so many things about our traditional music and song for granted but I would have listened to the legendary Seán Ó’Riada and the Chieftains in the 60’s while listening to Irish rock bands such as Thin Lizzy and Horslips and great artists like Van Morrison and Rory Gallagher whose own take on the blues and R&B was washed through with sometimes subtle Celtic melody and phrasing. As for rock bands, I would have been brought back to the traditional players that had passed by largely unknown by comparison with the popularity enjoyed by today’s players; fiddlers like Michael Coleman, pipers like Séamus Ennis and singers like Joe Heaney and Margaret Barry were all revealed to me by the musicians of the 60’s and 70s, the Dubliners, Planxty and most by the group most important to me, the Bothy Band.
The explosion of recording in Ireland in the 70’s provided some of the most timeless Irish music, artists such as Mick Hanly, Andy Irvine and Paul Brady creating classic albums, as did the Chieftains as they moved out of Ireland, paving the way for a new generation of players and singers. What appealed to me as a listener and gig goer initially was the openness of the new generation of traditional players, breathing new life while respecting its roots. Each week brings me yet more evidence of how a living and breathing tradition is safe in the hands of those who play Irish music.
I also believe that your own experience must shine through and inform, your music which is why I would hold that the Pogues are as representative of their upbringing as the children of emigrants as are those who emigrated from Ireland. Theirs was a fiery brew of passion and sadness, (lazily caricatured as drink-fuelled) but passionate through and through. Dublin native Damien Dempsey is a young man filled with passion and shot through with the balladeer’s soul, while may fine musicians mine the rich heart of Irish music to create something new, respectful and heartfelt, Mícheál Ó’Súilleabhán and Iarla Ó’Lionáird being just two.
My musical travels take me to England, Scotland, Wales and Brittany as well as over and back to the United States where Irish music moulded itself in to folk and bluegrass. We share common stories, hopes fears and history, but joined together by the people’s music in all its forms. Englishman Chris Wood and Scotswoman Karine Polwart are two examples of singers with a fine sense of the political tradition and a willingness to move it on and are regularly played on the show. Every year the Kilkenny Arts Festival brings more musicians to us, bring a new perspective, country or tradition.
If there’s a defined shape to the programme, the first hour is largely instrumental music and lively, the second more reflective and quiet.
Again, I’m heartened by the amount of talented traditional musicians and singers, fiddler Rebecca McCarthy-Kent being one, Kilkenny pipers Mick Foley and John Tuohy keeping the flame burning and recent resident Nell Ní Chróinín bringing her wealth of traditional sean-nós singing to us.
So here I am , Saturday night on “The Eclectic Light Programme” and Sunday night on “Blas Glas”. Not so much a job as a joy…
Bodhran players have all the fun in the world as shown in this interview I did with award-winning Bodhrán player Jacob McCauley. He moved around a LOT in February. His numerous gigs in Europe proved to be an exciting story and I am capturing that spirit here and what he took with him in his travels.
1. So what memorable things happened during your European tour?
Well, it wasn’t exactly a tour since usually a tour consists of travelling from one city to the next. For this last trip I was primarily in Glasgow, Scotland during the Celtic Connections festival. Although I wasn’t officially booked to play this year, I had a variety of other things on the go during my stay. Besides doing a bit of guest playing at the festival, I had some planning to do for an upcoming Scottish album, and a variety of teaching. I will be back in Scotland in a few months to start work on a new project.
Lastly, I spent a few days in Germany visiting with my Bodhrán maker Christian Hedwitschak. We have had some new projects on the go and are working towards a very special goal…but I’m afraid that’s all I can say for now!
2. March happened. What did you do last St Paddy’s day?
St Paddy’s day this year was another fun-filled day and night. I did two gigs with a new trio of mine. An afternoon gig at an art gallery and then a much less formal pub gig at night. This was a very nice change of pace to play a comfortable, easy-going pub gig as opposed to a big concert. A few years ago on St Paddy’s day I did a gig with The Chieftains at a huge concert hall in Toronto. As much fun as that was, I always enjoy the more easy-going gigs on Paddy’s day!
3. You are doing something in the studio again right? Tell me all about this facebook update about tinkering with your mic placement.
As you may have already noticed from many previous Facebooks updates… I am currently in the last few stages of Bodhrán testing for Christian Hedwitschak. I am testing his new TwinSkin innovation and seeing how they compare to his previous single skins, as well as how different skin combinations compare to each other. There are other small tests on the go comparing his latest Compressor tuning system as well. The mic placement update referred to working on finding the best mic placements for each specific TwinSkin drum. There are new sound samples that will be posted in a few days so take a look!
4.This month seems to be picking up for you with the Irish fiddler Maeve Donnelly and Guitarist Andy Hillhouse in Concert.Tell us about your part in this wonderful event and how was it for you.
I was very pleased to open for my good friends Maeve Donnelly and Andy Hillhouse this past Saturday. Our new trio (of which I spoke of above) did a half an hour opening set which kicked of the show quite nicely. I enjoyed doing some playing with Maeve and Andy as well. It was a great evening! There should hopefully be some live video clips posted soon.
5. More updates?
The drum testing is currently the main focus for myself right now, but there are many other projects coming up and some smaller side projects. We have started work on the debut album for the new trio and will be posting a Single off the album in the coming weeks. So keep an eye out for that. I will be posting updated information with new projects as soon as time permits.
***
Pierre continues to be a great force in the propagation of Celtic music via facebook.
My special thanks to Pierre Deragon for uncovering this old Gem that inspired generations of singers :
Irish Tradition : “Ailiu Ennai” sung by Mary O’Hara
Celtic Music Fan 