Cormac O Caoimh

Album Reviews and Happy Weekend

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In this edition: Dave Hum, Cormac O Caoimh, Frost at Midnight, Lignit, Kevin McKidd, Dave Martin and Gillian Boucher

Clockwise: Dave Hum, Cormac O Caoimh, Kevin McKidd, Gillian Boucher and Dave Martin

The midweek edition became a weekend post due to ISP issues. Now everything is back so we are back in business. How are you lovers of Celtic music and beyond? A couple of days ago, I had an interesting chat with Martin Tourish which turned into a nice interview. So you will see Gillian Boucher in this edition because I was reminded when he said he played with her along with other artists when they were in Asia specifically the Philippines.

Next you will see Kevn McKidd who recently starred in a critically acclaimed animation The Brave. It is great to see Hollywood stars being proud of their Celtic roots. We also have a featured MP3 from Roby Atkins who is part of Frost at Midnight and yes they play great Welsh tunes. You see the guy doing techno stuff in the pic with the penguin shirt? That is no other than Scottish producer and percussionist Dave Martin who will be our next featured artist. He is part of the Big Fat Electric Ceilidh. The two men above are in my featured reviews: Dave Hum and Cormac O Caoimh. I enjoyed their CDs and I am sure you will too! You will see a video by Czech Republic based Bluegrass band Lignit with Jeremy King on the bodhran. Please enjoy and drop me a message so I can improve this site further.

Album Review: Celtic and Bluegrass 5 String Banjo by Dave Hum

Depressed? Annoyed because you are having ISP issues and it has been more than a week and they were not able to fix the problem? Just crank in one of Dave Hum’s CDs and you will forget your frown. He has a happy way of playing that every track shines with optimistic vibes. I think he is the only one I know who plays the five string banjo as of the moment and he plays it like no other kind of master. Credit goes to the fact that he plays all the instruments including the guitar, mandolin, harmonica and percussion.

His years of busking and playing all over London with the band The Huckleberries have done him well and now he is gathering enthusiasts who love traditional Irish, Celtic and Bluegrass music. My experience listening to his nontraditional album Traveling Light made me aware that he is very much into the music of the times. Well in that one he experimented with a little bit of electronic music and reggae. Here, he is playing the standards which people who listen to this kind of music will surely love. We all know that traditional music is no longer traditional when it isn’t played in a certain way and Dave knows this path so well that he actually gave tribute to the tradition by coming up with a CD composed of 21 delightful tracks.

This is a perfect kind of music if you are having little bit of traditional music party over the weekend. Just put this in your player and you will be guaranteed with tracks that will last you a while. And after one listen, the album tempts you for another spin. That is how good it is-excellent playing but music that is not intrusive you can just talk while you let this play in the background. Tracks like Cripple Creek, Farewell to Erin, Mason’s Apron and the theme from ‘The Third Man’ (taken from the 1949 BBC movie) will put a smile on your face. There are other greats like his interpretation of Raggle Taggle Gypsy and Drowsy Maggie.

You also need to check out the artwork that Dave did himself. It show’s a traveller(as the cover is meant to depict the Irish travellers having to leave their country and head for America which is how a lot of the Irish and Scottish tunes merged with the blues, gospel, oldtime and bluegrass music-Dave) carrying a staff while running around with a kite. A dog runs before him carrying a stick. There’s a girl on near left playing a fiddle. There’s also a woman beyond riding a horse. On the right looks like a trailer house with a woman watering azaleas. Then there’s the 5 string banjo where the peacock is sleeping. The colors almost remind me of ‘flower power’. Well, this goes to show that the artist is an all around kind of guy. Makes you wonder more and wait for more recordings from Dave Hum.

First track off his 5-String Banjo CD1. Yes that is Dave without his disguise!

More about the artist here: http://www.davehum.com/

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Album Review: a new season for love by Cormac O Caoimh

Like water color painting still running and moist, the music of Cormac O Caoimh seeps into your heart rendering you speechless with emotions. His classical guitar style combined with other influences is a joy to listen to. It makes you feel filled up, like you’ve just eaten a good meal. The spiritual nourishment that his music imbues is no accident.

Being from Ireland and having shared the stage with such artists as Declan O’Rourke, Damien Rice and Damien Dempsy to name a few; made his music eclectic but never losing that Irish spirit that is all over this CD. His lyrics are heartfelt and reflective as in the case of the opening track There’s Gold There Somewhere” –Who am I? Who are you? Who do we intend to be? It’s hard it’s hard when we can’t stand on our two feet…A combination of poignancy and passion is exemplified in the title track: With every morsel of muscle, Molecule of mind, I’d try to justify new oceans and new tides and new seasons, a new season for love…

On this side of the world it is the season of rain. And his music is the perfect soundtrack for that. There is a balance of musical precision and inventiveness that pull you up from the introspective lyrics that at times seem to overpower you with sadness. His voice is a fine instrument. I like the kind of ease he puts in singing like he is talking to you-almost intimately, close to your ears so there is no need to sing loudly …but rather in a breathy style. The transparency of the vocals and the gossamer arrangement make A New Season for Love a truly luminous listening experience.

It isn’t the kind of CD you will grow tired as in the case of those with too much fireworks in the production. This is something that grows on you. A kind of music you want to take with you anywhere when you need something warm and introspective.

One of my favorite tracks of the album A New Season for Love. This one is called Heart Attack.

More about the artist here: http://www.thecitadels.net/

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Tambourin by  Frost at Midnight

Frost at Midnight is a project band led by Welsh musician Robert Atkins. It is nice to hear refreshing Welsh music based on tradition.

Robert Atkins, guitar, bass, keyboards; Catherine Atkins, vocals; Catherine Handley, flute with Johnny Quick, vocals; John Tribe, harmonica.

More here:http://soundcloud.com/frost-at-midnight/sets

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Featured Video: Lignit – Balada o Jenny (Official Music Video 2012)

Let us check out the Bluegrass scene in the Czech Republic with Jeremy King on Bodhran.

http://www.lignit.wz.cz
Režie: Pája Junek
http://www.junekfilm.cz

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Interesting Documentary: A Journey Home With Kevin McKidd

I am currently working on a feature with Scottish musician/producer Dave Martin. He is involved in a musical project with Hollywood actor Kevin McKidd and I thought this is a nice intro to a feature I am doing with Dave. I found this video really inspiring and I hope you feel the same way too. Enjoy!

Travel with Kevin McKidd to his hometown in the Scottish Highlands as he revisits his childhood, performs and records the Speyside Sessions Album with classic Scottish folk songs with his friends, and reconnects with his roots.

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Gillian Boucher, fiddle, plays a lively set

My interview with Michael Tourish brought me back to the music of  Canadian fiddler Gillian Boucher. She is currently residing in Ankara Turkey. More of  her music here: http://www.myspace.com/gillianboucher

Corrina Hewat: Between Life and Music (Interview)

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Plus: Nova Scotia singer/songwriter Layne Greene for our EP review, Lady of the Woods: New Single from Jamie Smith’s Mabon album Windblown and Cormac O Caoimh

https://www.facebook.com/corrinahewat

http://www.corrinahewat.com/

http://www.unusualsuspects.uk.com/

http://www.myspace.com/unusualsuspectsscotland

Corrina Hewat is our featured artist this week. She is a mom, a harp teacher, and a good friend to the harp community. She is promoting her project the Harp Village . “We have The Duplets, Maire Ni Chathasaigh and me and David the whole weekend, so it is a lovely mix of music and company!! The more people who come along, the better, so all publicity is great.”

Corrina Hewat has an eclectic sound. She walks between the world of traditional and avant-garde music. Listening to her album My Favorite Place  her project bands including  BACHUÉ give me a glimpse to her wide influences. Her music captures the Celtic sense of atmosphere and space while her refined style made her recordings at home with the urban world.

You have a huge catalog or recordings now. Do you have recordings you wish you could have improved? I am not saying they need improvement because your recordings sound polished but personally what do you think ?

All my recordings are purely ‘snapshots’ of where I was then. All the recordings are affected by where they were recorded, who was playing, how I was/we were at the time. I only ever set out to capture moments of time, and I believe that is what they all are. Every single one of them I would change and every single one of them I would keep the same as well. I don’t tend to listen to myself too much, and it only ever comes up on shuffle in the car mostly, so I can press ‘skip’ and move on. Or sometimes I listen and say ‘woah, what the heck was I thinking?!!’. Or ‘ooh that is a surprising bit’ or ‘wish I had done that instead’ or all sorts. Anyway, it’s all past stuff, so I don’t really have time to think about what I would have done better. I could have done it all better. And I will always think that.

So far, how is the experience working with BACHUÉ. Is there another BACHUÉ project in the making ?

I loved Bachue very much. It was a good fun thing and a happy thing. But it got swamped with all the other stuff that was going on, so it took a back seat for a while. I am going to do a duo gig with David Milligan in September at the Harp Village (28th – 30th September in Cromarty, The Black Isle in the Highlands of Scotland http://www.cromartyartstrust.org.uk/the-harp-village-2010.asp) and that will be the first time in ages we actually have done a gig together in such an intimate format. I’m looking forward to it. We play well together!!

You also teach harp. Does teaching come first and being an artist second?

 Being an artist/musician comes first. Not that teaching comes second, but at the moment for me, I still want to write music, play and perform music, and if I can fit in teaching as well, then I do. I took on the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Principal Scottish Harp Tutor job last year, and I have the help and support of Heather Downie. If I didn’t have that secondary support, then I couldn’t have said yes to it. I believe I need to continue to work towards being an inspired, creative musician and writer and strive to better myself and my work. My students will then have a happy, sharing, generous, inspired teacher. I have very few private pupils, due to my time constraints and time away touring or teaching workshops/week-long schools.

How has motherhood shaped your music and what is different now compared to when you were starting being a recording artist?

Motherhood changed me completely. Life is a joy, not a struggle now. (I used to think it was all so hard. And had a heap of crap I was carrying on my shoulders which I needed to unburden myself of, to move on.) And I lived a very ‘messy’ lifestyle but now there is no need for all that. The joy is in me and around me. Music is a joy – although finding time for it is slightly complicated sometimes. But I love being a mother so much. It ‘completed’ things for me which I didn’t realise needed completing! And I still believe my life, the traveling, the ‘being all consumed by music when in the middle of writing it’, and all that goes with being a musician, is still worth it, as I am a more fulfilled person. And if I am happy then I am a better mum.

What are the things you want to introduce to the harp scene? What is your grand vision?

I wanted to introduce a more relaxed approach to harp, and a more relaxed and creative approach to arranging. I found when I started playing that there were very few arrangements out there I even liked! Boring chordal movements, same patterns over and over again, as if that was all the harp could do! So pretty much as soon as I started learning the harp, (around the age of 12 or 13) I started writing music on the harp, arranging traditional tunes, putting mad sets together, learning music off tapes (remember them??!). I had a great teacher to start me off – Christine Martin (who is the book publisher Taigh Na Teud) – she gave me the basics, introduced me to the Clarsach Society (who I eventually hired a harp from for many years), and introduced me to the work of Savourna Stevenson. That gave me the impetus to keep writing and playing and trying to make more of the instrument. I have had amazing teachers, although sporadic. Christine for a year, then yearly weekend courses until I went to the RSAMD (now called the RCS) where i had Sanchia Pielou for a year. Then Maire Ni Chathasaigh when I was doing the jazz degree course. These three teachers gave me so much input and I thank them for it. I was a ‘wayward’ child, and they steered me well. Sileas also gave me inspiration as they were doing fun things with the harp in trad music.

My grand vision?? I want to inspire folk with my music. Inspire them emotionally, move them. Write music which people can live with and enjoy. Move them like I have been moved by others music.

Please visit the Harp Village project here: http://www.cromartyartstrust.org.uk/the-harp-village-2010.asp

Sample recordings:

A live clip of the Unusual Suspects at The Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, 29 January 2011 as part of the Celtic Connections Festival. Featuring the tunes “Sandy Broon’s” & “Bogle’s Majority”.
Line-up:
Corrina Hewat (harp/vocal)
Ewan Robertson (guitar/vocal)
Eilidh Shaw (fiddle)
Anna Massie (fiddle)
Catriona Macdonald (fiddle)
Patsy Reid (fiddle)
Mairearad Green (accordion/ pipes)
Calum MacCrimmon (pipes/ whistle)
Donal Brown (pipes/flute)
Rick Taylor (trombone)
Nigel Hitchcock (saxophone)
Ryan Quigley (trumpet)
Colin Steele (trumpet)
Dave Milligan (piano)
Tom Lyne (bass)
Alyn Cosker (drums)
Donald Hay (percussion)

Here’s a clip of Scottish harp player Corrina Hewat playing a jig she wrote for Martyn Bennett. This is from Corrina’s online Scottish harp (clarsach) course at ayepod.net. Check it out at http://www.ayepod.net/webcasts/teaching/teaching.htm

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Lady of the Woods: New Single from Jamie Smith’s Mabon.

Album art for 'Windblown"

Ok I have heard the entire song and I like it! It is catchy, well crafted and the vocal harmonies are amazing. First time I heard a vocal track from the band that is known to perform great instrumental tunes. If you haven’t yet have  a listen here and also download the track for FREE: http://www.jamiesmithsmabon.com/windblown/ 

If you are a band I’d suggest you get a photographer this band has. The pictures do an amazing way to promote the music!

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Nova Scotia singer/songwriter Layne Greene with Live!EP

Tea buddies: Layne Greene-Vocals/Guitar
Alexander MacNeil-Guitar
Artwork by The Celtic Music Fan.

Carving the modern Nova Scotia with the stories of people and places.

Genre: Folk

Released  August 30, 2012

Personnel:
Layne Greene-Vocals/Guitar
Alex MacNeil-Guitar
Shawn Bisson-Mixing/Engineer
Andy Cunningham- Photography/crew

http://laynegreene.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/LayneGreeneFolk

Knox Presbyterian Church located in Blue Mountain, Nova Scotia

Recording a crisp clear album impromptu takes a lot of skill to achieve. But singer/songwriter Layne Greene has been mixing and arranging music for years. So the live EP was conceived out of the desire to come up with songs that he recorded and arranged in the past but wanted a different take on them. This  Business Administration major from St. Francis Xavier University(now in his sophomore year) juggles between making music and seeing himself producing them in the future. He even jokes that :” If worse comes to worse, I can work a crappy, well

paying, desk job”. Well I am sure it won’t come to that because he makes excellent songs that are well crafted.

One of the songs here called Working Man is dedicated to his grandfather who is a carpenter and builder of musical instruments. There are other songs that are biographical in nature. His lyrics show an introspective and philosophical nature. Although he admits that he isn’t much of a lyrics guy. He is more prone to think of songs like cathedrals with their intricate structures and designs.

Alexander MacNeil is a jazz musician who is also working with Layne on another recording. He adds his distinctive guitar style to this project. He  also did the backing vocals in Iron Town. He has his own jazz Trio and Quartet. You can tell that these two made a great tandem in this EP.

One of the things that I really appreciate about this EP is the atmospheric beauty of all the tracks.  I asked Layne if they used studio reverb and he said no. Everything in this project- especially the acoustic density -is through the interior of the  Knox Presbyterian Church located in Blue Mountain, Nova Scotia, Canada. Engineering/mixing credit goes to  Shawn Bisson who flawlessly captured the soul of the venue with such exquisite attention to detail.

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Music VLOG: Cormac O Caoimh – Just Love here

http://www.thecitadels.net/

http://itunes.apple.com/ie/artist/cormac-o-caoimh/id467679675

http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/CormacOCaoimh

I recent;y got acquainted with this wonderful artist who just released his album A New Season for Love. I am impressed with his vocal quality. I love it and his music is really worth your ears after  a long day’s work.

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More album reviews coming up in a few days!