Luka Bloom

What is DADGAD Guitar Tuning?

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It is fascinating how musicians like the late   Michael O’Domhnaill, Luka Bloom, Paul McSherry or even rocker Jimmy Paige and folk icon Neil Young made guitar sound THAT way. I did some research and came across this tuning called DADGAD which is also referred to as modal tuning.

It follows the art of how bagpipes are tuned with the drones. Unlike the standard    EADGBE, DADGAD tuning creates that warmth, ethereal sound that is distinctive in players of Celtic music.

Youtube has shown me  a lot of ways to tune the guitar in the DADGAD and I chose this video which I think is more helpful in explaining the procedure. If  you are an expert or a newbie, you might try considering this kind of tuning as an alternative, to create a distinct sound of your own. Check this one out by Jamie Roberts.

Following our DADGAD tutorial is a musician known for this : Paul McSherry.

According to his Myspace:

Originally from Finaghy road north in West Belfast, I now reside in Magherafelt, Co. Derry and have been playing the guitar (DADGAD tuning) from the age of 14.
At present, I am Head of Technology and Design in Drumcree College, Portadown, Co. Armagh.

http://www.myspace.com/paulmcsherry

http://www.paulmcsherry.com/

Check out his video playing here: http://www.paulmcsherry.com/video/index.html

Interview with Amazing Irish Singer/Songwriter Luka Bloom

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logo Thanks David Porter for giving us the link to your great interview. Luka Bloom is such an amazing artist and I think it is good to have an intimate glimpse of the man behind the music. That pic of him reaching for a cup is really neat. Good job.

Soundtrack for the Rain:Luka Bloom

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In this kind of weather, It make one yearn for something intimate and bare. You know, something that could accompany you over a cup of warm coffee. That is why,Luka Bloom’s music is very appropriate .

 

  Born Kevin Barry Moore, May 23 1955 ,he is the younger brother of Christy Moore. He had to change his name to Luka Bloom in order to avoid the pressure of being related to  his already successful older brother. The name “Luka” is taken from a Suzanne Vega song about ‘child abuse’ while Bloom is from the character in James Joyce’s Ulysses.

 

  His music is defined as ‘electro-acoustic’  . Problems with his fingers(tendinitis) made him give up  finger picking style and opted for a frenetic strumming which he is now known for. The first time I heard him was through a ‘Celtic Season” compilation album. The track is called ‘Listen to the River”.

 

  From then on I knew I have to look for his albums. Right now I have his 1990 album called Riverside. Comprised of 12 tracks, this album promises warm acoustic tracks that are either slow or simply rock and roll. The preference in  using  all acoustic guitars on each track makes the whole album lively without being noisy. It also showcases his husky baritone. I think the most humorous track is “An Irishman in Chinatown’ .

 

1. Delirious
2. Dreams In America
3. Over The Moon
4. Gone To Pablo
5. The Man Is Alive
6. An Irishman In Chinatown
7. Rescue Mission
8. The One
9. Hudson Lady
10. This Is For Life
11. You Couldn’t Have Come…
12. The Hill Of Allen Instrumental

Visit the official website and grab your own copy now 😉

Irish without being too remotely Celtic

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cranberries Hello there peeps. So what keeps me up these days? Listening to Irish rock such as the likes of Sinead O’Connor (whom I have given spot light on my previous post) and The Cranberries. U2 would have to be my first introduction to Irish rock and then followed by The Cranberries. It was an accident that a throw away Joshua Tree came to me in a box along with Duran Duran‘s The Big Thing. At first the guitars thew me off (blame it on my Frank Sinatra upbringing) but when I got through the noise I became a witness to sheer aural beauty and Bono‘s deep haunting voice. It seems the term haunting has always been synonymous with Irish vocal qualities. Except when I listen to The Corrs, I don’t really sense a trace of that Irish haunting quality in Andrea Corr‘s vocals.

It was around 1993 or 1994 when I picked up Everybody Else is Doing It So Why Can’t We.Dreams at that time was big on Modern Rock radio and I was attracted to that atmospheric quality of the music and Dolores O’Riordan‘s beautiful voice. I played it to my pals and I got along with people who were into modern rock at that time. It stayed with me for a long time as well as No Need to Argue, the band’s sophomore effort. But succeeding albums didn’t really warm up my taste. I found the band too engrossed with testosterone and that Dolores was missing the point why people came to like her in the first place. It seemed that she wanted to be ‘one of the boys’ which was a total disappointment because it’s the girlie girlie stuff about her that I came to like in the first place. But yeah, I will always list these two albums as my favorites.

Of course there are others such as  Waterboys, The Pogues as well as Luka Bloom and they added to the collage of this ideas why I love Irish music in the first place.