Athrú:Another traditional Irish band from Antrim Northern Ireland. The exuberant tunes and brilliant musicianship are not to be missed by lovers of Celtic music.
The Last Pint which is the first track off their online debut EP already tells you what this contemporary Irish trad group can create: beautiful melodies, exciting tunes and great instrumental renditions. I could not stop moving my head to the energetic rhythms. Bodhran,whistles,flutes, fiddle, banjo,bouzouki and guitar are all showcased each having its own spotlight in this wondrous carousel of instrumental fun.
The Inver Bank Set lights up the playlist with its own brand of rhythm and partying of instruments. By the time you hear Marga’s you will be smiling because the tin whistle sounds joyful. All the instruments sound like they like to be with each others company. Athrú is another example of such wonderful outcropping of traditional Irish bands in Northern Ireland. It’s the same place that gave us talents like Cara Dillon, Déanta, Realta and of course our artist of the week Eve Williams. You’ve got to watch out for this band because they have more amazing stuff waiting to be unleashed.
They are influenced by such diverse music of Beoga, Flook, Patrick Davey, Lunasa, John McSherry, Emma Sweeney, LA and Moxie among others.
Current update:
We’re playing at the “Trad for Rescue” concert tonight night in The Wild Duck Portglenone. Admission £6 and concert starts at 8.30pm. Niamh McGlinchey, Kask and Ioscaid will all be performing! If your free head on down :)-Athrú
There are amazing stuff going on in my news feed again so I want to share some of them with you:
This was originally shared and posted by 67 Music:
Pacific NW singer/songwriter, Colleen Raney is underway with preparations for a new album. It wasn’t to long ago that we caught up with her on the release of “Lark”. http://youtu.be/aNY32KeLtf8
Irish singer Colleen Raney has a wonderful new album entitled “Lark”, and held several CD Release Parties to celebrate. 67 Music caught up with her at The Secret Society Ballroom in Portland on Jan. 22nd, 2011, two days after the official release.
SkOt talks with Colleen prior to her show about her new record and other topics.
Learn more about Colleen, her music, tour dates and news at: http://www.colleenraney.com http://thesecretsocietylounge.com http://sixtysevenmusic.com
“Babel Pow Wow” is the fifth album by Breton singer/songwriter Dom Duff. He got this started through the Kiss Kiss Bank Bank program. So what’s thid album all about? According to Dom Duff :
This album pays tribute to the world’s cultures, languages, to all those people who use their words and their rhythms to sing, dance, laugh, … The idea came to me after many meetings with different fans, speaking about multilingual cultures : our imagery, rhythm of our words, of our music. As usual, I sing my native Breton language, adding my guitar licks surrounds by fiddle, bass and percussion to these stomping songs and tunes.It’s about local & global troubles, causes, …
So what’s my assessment of Babel Pow Wow? To those who haven’t heard it yet, Babel Pow Wow is a collection of folk/ rock inspired tunes laced with Breton music. It is composed of a richly layered album with a wide array of instrumental explorations. I think this is Dom Duff’s most successful work to date, with ambitious effort and sleek production to match.
This album aims to take nods on all Celtic music branches. It also highlights other musical genres, from all sides of the globe. It is an album that is a must for lovers of Breton culture and the rest of the Celtic nations. And even if you don’t speak Breton, the rhythm of the language will take you to places you’ve never dreamed of.
Buan yann buan starts the album with its inspiring guitar and percussion. The tune takes flight as fiddles, harmonica and other instruments wrap this track with passionate abandon. The mandolin takes the center stage in Bitter Lands of Llydaw, along with the strong and haunting vocals of Dom. Noa pulls us into the mysterious Breton landscape with that strange mechanical sound for ambience. Chikoloden has the groove that is definitively Celtic with its beautiful instrumental arrangement and also a jig in the second half of the track that nods on the Irish side of the influence.
Floc’har jabadao is typical Dom Duff with the driving percussion and strumming. A-du gant an avel is a beautiful ballad a sweet melody and beautiful guitar solos. Those who love psychedelic rock will love the title track Babel Pow Wow. Jigs, hypnotic percussion and driving rhythm are all explored to the max in one track. Houarn & lêr channels a bit of George Harrison with that beautiful and catchy chanting for chorus. This style is also found in the next track Buzhug’o’matik.
Koroll gouez starts with an adult alternative intro and then followed by the marathon run intensity of the verse and chorus matched by the energetic fiddle and percussion. The mysterious sounds make a comeback in Treizh. The style is Middle Eastern. En tu all d’an treizh gets us back to our feet with the signature Breton rock that’s always typical of Dom Duff. Foeter breizh closes this amazing album with the sound of Breton footsteps by Breton runners. The video of this song was published more than a year ago and it’s been widely shared across Brittany.
I will never get tired listening to Babel Pow Wow. It’s got all the grooves, the sound spices you need when you want a kind of music that not only inspired but also soothes the hunger for something rooted to tradition and the love for diversity. Better get your copy now!
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Huzzah!
Alan Cooke, The Wild Irish Poet
It’s Monday! Birds are singing, the sun is up and ground is wet from last night’s rain. How are you doing?
Last time I mentioned that I read in advance The Spirit of Ireland – An Odyssey HOME – Alan Cooke’s follow-up memoir to Naked in New York. Did I mentioned that the book moved me that I wept? perhaps not so I am telling you now. It is a beautiful work , richly layered in atmosphere and images. You need to get it when it is finally out. So here’s a passage:
From The Spirit of Ireland – An Odyssey HOME : I looked at an old cottage that was for sale because the picture struck me as haunting and evocative. It was dark and grey outside with the threat of rain. This house had no road, no gentle garden path with plants along the edges. It was muddy and full of rocks. I got to the door. A small river ran around the entire house. Inside it was chilling and desolate. A whole planet of despair resounded here in lost memories and lives that had been lived out. Old stained suit jackets hung in the window. Everything was dead. The house had shed its last breath. The windows were blurred with dirt and finger marks. The floor was broken and warped and an old kettle sat in the middle of the room awaiting an owner to bring it into life again. This house had kept generations enveloped in a kind of soft life. Yet hardship always lurked nearby in the form of poverty. I imagined coins counted to the penny and a soft shuffle out the door to get a loaf of bread and some meat for the week. Or some news brought to the door that would shatter the heart. Or the sound of a baby covered in her Mother’s blood born on the wet floor as the roof let in the rain at angles. A weeping newborn amidst the rain storms that took hold of the land and shook and drowned her till she was sodden and miserable.
I saw old cigarette boxes lying by the fireplace. I imagined rugged hands lighting wrinkled cigarettes shoved into the sides of black stained drinking mouths and scouring the land, planting and digging and heaving and sweating the years away. Or maybe a song that was hummed and filled their sleep in the night. Or a foot that tapped with rhythm on the black dirt floors. Or the eyes that were lit by the fire. Soft country eyes that had only seen the glory of nature all their lives. Yet I could feel the intense energy and loss of this ghostly cottage. A house withered and dying without human warmth felt terribly lonely to me. And above me a billion miles into the sky far above the ghosts in this house we were looked down upon by forces undefinable. This tiny house in this tiny land and this eternal terror of being. The light filled the soul, measured against the immense beyond. I felt the depth of it and the memory so thick down to my fingers which I traced along a window sill.
In an old drawer I spotted a faded photo of a Father and his child. The photo was half burned, the daughter looking away from the camera. The Father had a beautiful smile. His cap was in his hands. He looked humble and had soft eyes. Where were they now? Long gone. So far gone I could not sense any of their life in this sad place. Who would buy this place? I wanted the weeds and the fern and the branches of trees to grow tall and strong and wrap themselves around this cottage. Move inside the walls and windows. Creep along the floor and take this house back into the earth. It did not belong in the present. I put the photo back in its place. I felt like I had walked upon a grave. I was trespassing amongst the dead.
Here amongst the ragged remains of an Irish home at once comforting and now cold and dead I sensed what the end might feel like. My own end. It sent a fever into the throat to think on this, the idea of ceasing to exist and of disappearing. Outside I could see a bird wet, on a thin branch still singing in this most terrible of winter days. His eyes darted with each note and his breathy reedy notes were a symphonic calming release against the singular bleakness of my emotions.
His was the constant song of aliveness. The paradox when God seemed to have bolted his door. It almost seemed to me that this messenger was all that kept the world from upending and falling apart. It is the voices of hope in the world that keep us from despair. The bird stayed for an eternity. Singing, for no purpose, but his own, and I selfishly took it for mine as well. To give my own presence meaning.
I left the house and walked back down the rocky path to my car. I looked in the mirror inside and I could see my own darkened eyes, this strange search for home within me always. The restless spirit misaligned with a race that itself was lost. Spinning on in this grey eternity called life.
Alicia Ducout (piano, harpe celtique et chant), Florian Baron (guitare et oud), Kenan Guernalec (flûte traversière irlandaise), Marc Blanchard (arrangements électroniques), Anthony Debray-Laizé (percussions)
The world can be a dark and scary place. That is why we have music to escape to when things start to get chilly. I would recommend Alicia Ducout’s (who also goes under the name Luascadh) ambitiously atmospheric project called Wezen. It is a CD-Book with accompanying artwork . Her works are always marked with her classical, renaissance and Celtic influences. This is an album that’s a treasure to own because this is not something you can find in mainstream music.
I like the Celtic harp because it conjures images of Tolkien’s characters. Alicia Ducout is based in France. A detailed information about the album can be found below. Wezen is not just eclectic in the musical sense but also in its use of different languages. This calls to mind works of groups like Dead can Dance and artists like Loreena Mckennitt (for the eclectic instruments) and Connie Dover (for the multi lingual approach).
I love it when artists venture outside the English language or from their own native languages. I think language is essential for an album in addition to the instruments and arrangements. I think it adds to the authenticity of the sentiments you are trying to create and also the feeling of the song. It gives that feeling of being transported into the native soil of the composer and not in an urbane setting which is always characteristic of English songs. This is not to belittle the English language because it is what i use to blog, but being bilingual myself, I appreciate the beauty of being able to walk in the two worlds of spoken and written words.
Back to the harp, the beauty of her playing is her understanding of the emotional range of the Celtic harp or other harp instruments. Ducout studied drama at Lyon, and after 10 years of piano practice, she joined several medieval ensembles. The artistic journey opened the doors of Celtic civilization and ancient traditional music to her and now we have Wezen.
Wezen is a tale written in 2008 by Alicia Ducout. It tells the story of a strange character and the essential question: how to fight fear? This story deals with issues of identity, trust in yourself and others. The graphic novel and its soundtrack was released in December 2012.
To echo a history, music is at the crossroads of several traditions, as shown by the choice of instruments: harp, bodhran and Irish flute for the Celtic sound. Oud for the Eastern source. The nyckelharpa for Northern anchor (Swedish), the piano like a familiar linking that connects us to our own history. The electronic sounds are even more subtle we can say connect this traditional matter and to present to the world today, bringing a breath of timelessness work.
This alchemy is born a minimalist style (inspired by Philip Glass, Bruno Coulais, Steve Reich) speaking we can say here instrumental or sung in several languages.
A journey through the sounds of German, English, Norwegian, Irish, Spanish, Aramaic, and even Elvish!
Trevor Lewington: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Octave Mandolin, Keyboards
Mark Abraham: Bass Guitar, Vocals
Bruce McCarthy: Drums, Percussion
This interview happened in the middle of the Enter the Haggis tour. Anita Daly became our go between because she has direct contact with the band and it made the communication easier between us. I made a review of their new album in my past edition and the band was pleased hahaha. So it was Trevor Lewington who answered all these questions. Let us welcome them as our band of the week! Also check out the cool videos at the end of this interview.
Hi guys, my name is Baxter. I write for The Celtic Music Fan online magazine. I listened to your album in its entirety and have been meaning to conduct an interview with you since 2009. I am glad for this opportunity…. With the release of The Modest revolution, what do you think has changed in the musical aspect of the band?
Our last album, Whitelake, was recorded at a cottage and the overall vibe was pretty folky. We went down to a studio in Kentucky to record TMR and cranked the amps back up again. Songwriting remains our first priority but the arrangement approach was to bring the songs to new highs and lows dynamically-speaking. Brian (fiddle/keyboards) played basically ALL the electric guitar parts, which changed the sound of the band rather dramatically. Craig (bagpipes/harmonica) picked up the trumpet on our last album and his playing is really solid on this record.
What are the technical aspects you have learned in terms of recording and playing live?
The experience of recording a new album always challenges us in different ways. Thanks to the success of our kickstarter campaign, we had more time than usual in the studio such that we didn’t feel rushed and were able to experiment with unusual sounds, parts or arrangement ideas. Sometimes it worked out and sometimes not, which is the exciting thing about experimenting!
In terms of the technical aspects of live performance, I don’t think anyone learned more than Brian. He’s always been a gear head but now that he’s playing electric guitar live he’s done a lot of research to get the right tones for all the new songs. Craig has added electric bagpipes to the live mix, which frees us up to play songs in more keys (the traditional highland pipes have a very limited range.) The highland pipes are still his instrument of choice but it’s nice to have the option of electric pipes.
How’s the tour going so far?
Great! We had a crazy March run where we played some amazing venues, including a sold-out show at Turning Stone casino. We’re now in the middle of a Canadian run and will be heading over to Ireland soon. The new music really seems to be connecting with people, which makes performing It all the more enjoyable for us.
Why the title The Modest Revolution?
It’s a quote from the front page of the newspaper that inspired the album: “Harper’s Modest Revolution.” The gist of the article is that our prime minister is trying to sway Canada’s collective psyche to the right, but we’ve taken it to mean that “even a small gesture can be the beginning of positive change.”
What can you say about each of your band member in terms of being together through the years, playing and recording together?
Well it’s certainly been quite the ride. I feel like we’ve always just kept our heads down, writing the best songs we can and traveling around playing shows. Only recently have we noticed that we have an actual history! College kids are coming up to us and saying they started listening to us when they were kids. It makes us feel old until we realize that most if us were pretty young when we started making music together.
Personally, the longer we do this for, the more I appreciate the other guys in the band. Not only are they amazing musicians, but that there’s a respect for each other as people. Musically I think the growth as individuals and as an organism has been substantial. I feel like with this album we’ve only now come to understand what this band is – but don’t ask me what that is as I probably won’t have an answer.
What’s your marketing goal for the album now that it’s release?
Being an independent band, we don’t Have a “marketing department” as such. I think the idea is to connect with as many people as possible who might enjoy what we do. This isn’t dumbed down pop music so it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea but that’s the way we like it. We’ve got an amazing group of dedicated fans and we feel like as long as we can make music that resonates with them they’ll want to share it with their friends. We’ve hired two publicists, a radio tracker and pay for online advertising but there’s no better advertising than getting up in front of a crowd and playing our asses off.
ETH has a kind of Celtic rock that is easily accessible. It is also radio friendly and universal. How are tracks conceived. What’s the science behind the songwriting?
Haha… Seriously? Celtic rock is about as radio-friendly as… well, bagpipes. Being radio-friendly definitely isn’t our intention, although there are so many great specialty online stations these days that any style of music can find a home. I could go on for hours about songwriting but suffice it to say that I try to remain a student of it. There’s so much incredible music out there so it’s important to keep listening to as much of it as possible. As a band I think we’ve learned how to take on the roll of a producer by focusing on the best parts of a potential song and losing the parts that distract from that.
Do you think you have reached the part in your musical career where you can breathe? For those aspiring Celtic rockers, what’s your top 5 list of things that they should remember when they want to make music as a career?
Can we breath? Absolutely not! I feel like we’re being chased by the Minotaur and are barely staying one corner ahead. We’re having a spark of success but with that comes the pressure to stoke the fire.
1.) don’t do it unless you must
2.) get regular servicing done on the van
3.) eat fresh vegetables
4.) book your hotels through Priceline
5.) don’t room with a band member who snores
Where can fans buy your albums?
Come to a show! Or get them through our website, iTunes, Amazon and just about anywhere else online.
What’s your marketing advise to all bands trying to court online and offline listeners?
Don’t call it marketing! Just try to connect with your fans as often as you can and don’t put out music just to put it out – make sure it’s something you’ll proudly play for your grand kids.
I hope that works! Thanks Baxter.
Ok there you go. I hope it gets to them, Trevor
Videos:
AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE MARCH 30TH.
Thanks to Zach McNees for cutting this together, and Daniel Roher for some of the footage. 🙂
Welcome to our artist of the week edition featuring the band Enter the Haggis. For the whole week I will be putting updates in my Huzzah! column so that you will be informed about what’s going on with the band.
Now on a sad note I was shocked upon hearing the Boston Marathon explosion this Monday and the whole blogosphere mourns for the victims and their families. Actually I posted an essay on another site and I am glad to be able to talk about situations that belong to a particular venue and not just mix things up.
An Air For Boston – April 15, 2013
Here is a video that piper Patrick D’Arcy performed on the wake of the tragedy and I think this is very appropriate because Boston is one of the most Irish places in America. The Celtic Music Fan, being spiritually attached to Ireland mourns and condemns any violence inflicted upon the Irish and the rest of humanity.
My heart goes out to those affected by today’s bombings. May God help you all. This air came to me, The Wild Geese- Patrick D’Arcy
This is not just an American tragedy but a global one because people of all races were victims. And we are all human beings. We are not fighting people from another planet but our own kind. Very sad.
Players: Jim DeWan, Finbar Furey, Larry Gray, Kathleen Keane, Bill Lanphier, Maurice Lennon, Haley O’Donnell, John Rice, John William, and Jessica Willis
Style: Irish Country, Americana
Tracks:
A Letter Home
When I Was Young
Factory Girl
Downtowner Motel
Girl from Durango
Illinois & Michigan Canal
Camp-Farm Road
Rusted Dreams
She
The Ballad of Jackie Ryan Fagan
Saint Malachy’s Waltz
There are recordings that accomplish the purpose of entertaining. There are those that serve to tell. Deep is the Well by Kevin O’Donell accomplishes both of these aspects. The album reads like a biographical book as it explores the lives of Irish immigrants to the United States. Those who are fascinated by Irish history and the American Antebellum period will take this album close to heart as any jewels uncovered from the treasure chest.
The album starts with A Letter Home . The spoken letter takes us back to the sentiments of someone sending a message to those close to the heart more than a century ago. There is something poignant and also I sometimes feel the hair on my skin stand as I realize that that the owner has been dead a long time ago. To uncover these intimate details about another person’s life long after he or she is dead is such a fascinating thing.
Factory Girl is the promotional single which is available online. It’s a story of Mary Helen Dougherty (1879-1918)
Born a blue-collar daughter in an old river town,
where the slow-rolling water from the prairie run down
the bend of the river is the edge of her world,
there’s no place it seems for the modest of dreams of a Factory Girl…
Makes you want to find out more right? There are more vibrant lives through the liner notes of Deep is the Well.
The rest of the album play like old pages with the breath of freshness. Something like old pages smelling of tobacco, dust and the lives exposed to it. The music is lush, vibrant but unhurried. It is a story teller’s album. The intention is to tell you something with the accompaniment of music. The spotlight is on the lyrics, although the musical depth and richness are always present. Cellos, viola, acoustic guitar, dobro and other beautiful sounds embellish this album.
Kevin O’Donnell has a resonant and expressive voice that can appeal to any genre. The production is crisp, clear and bright. Appreciation also goes to the album packaging. That cover artwork is a piece of eye candy.
Inspiration (at least the great ones) always comes from something deep. Something that’s steeped in history and the passionate lives led by people who handed out their legacy to us through books and songs. This is what I found in Deep is the Well. It’s an album that’s focused on something that is lasting. It speaks of feelings across time, and the wisdom comes with age and experiences.
Do you recall how older relatives tell us how life was harder and how they struggled to make ends meet. I realize how everything comes easy now, in this age of instant gratification. How we get spoiled and would like everything to happen when we want it. They struggled and fought just to get us where we are now. It isn’t hard to acknowledge all the sweat and blood that paved way for something like a generation of the free. It’s the very sentiment that’s found in Deep is the Well. Just acknowledging and not forgetting , I think is enough for those who came before us.
I recommend this album to people who are fond of history and ballads. You will get so much out of Deep is the Well, not just musically but something to feel your soul.
Singer, songwriter, musician, actor, and published author: these are the distinctive hallmarks of Kevin O’Donnell’s public career. He is affectionately called “uncle tunes” among his family and close circle of musician friends, and is more broadly recognized in Chicago music circles as the founder and front man for the Irish-American folk group Arranmore.
Kevin’s commercial success as a songwriter dates back to the 1986 release of Island Home. He has frequently been compared to such writers as Gordon Lightfoot, Cheryl Wheeler, and Bill Staines. Americana and folk artists have recorded his early works and his historically based compositions have been featured in television documentaries both in the USA and Ireland. Under Kevin’s leadership and direction Arranmore attained musical success in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
Kevin traded concert stages for theatrical stages in 2000, performing with the prestigious Racine Theatre Guild, playing leading roles in several plays including Twelve Angry Men, The Sensuous Senator, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Flowers for Algernon, and Neil Simon’s, I Ought To Be In Pictures.
Hi friends. Sunday edition comes too soon. That’s because this week is really hectic for me. And this is a good kind of busy because it’s all about music and writing projects. I hope your Sunday is being spent wisely: more naps and music. Yes those are good things. Anyway what you will meet below are links to what’s hot today. At least these are the things that people are talking about. So let me start:
An event for Battlefield Band:
“A warm welcome back to Scotland’s BATTLEFIELD BAND Thursday April 11th. This a a fundraiser for NC Chapter of Leukemia and Lymphoma. We hope you will come out and support the event . Local Celtic Musician James Olin starts of the evening at 7pm with a 45 minute set of Celtic Music, Award Winning Wake & District Pipes & Drums open for ” The Battlefield band. Tickets are $8 in advance on ticketleap.com. or $10 at Door. Great Raffle Prizes plus brilliant Scottish Dinner special will make this salute to Tartan Day a great Celtic event. Please call 919 833-7795 to reserve seats stage side for dinner.”-Tir Na NOg Annie
Wow if you are in the area better check this out. It’s filled with amazing artists. According to Corrina Hewat:
“A good day! And tomorrow will be even better as the CH Band are playing. Me and Fraser FifieldAlyn CoskerTom LyneDave Milligan Woop. I suppose the sensible thing to do would be to create an event and invite you all, but on the other hand, I could just catch up with friends, hear harpy goings on and not be in front of the computer. I choose the latter!”
Photo from Wild Irish Poet
Spring has Sprung in Ireland: Our featured artist Alan Cooke, The Wild IrishPoet this week has posted this photo of the sunny Ireland today. It looks like the sun is finally here to stay!
Celtic Music Fan 