Viewfinder Extras
By Mike Mathes, Kiel, WI
Thoughts and happenings in every day life in Wisconsin
Monday, January 28, 2008
Music on the Emerald Isle
Mike Mathes
We recently returned from a music filled trip to the Emerald Isle. A fellow bandmate of mine, Gerry Jost, inspired the trip with a desire to play with other musicians in Ireland, and it was a great trip.
Eight days in Ireland - like the MasterCard commercial - PRICELESS. A combination of great music, history, great scenery, politics, pubs, beautiful old ruins, great people and fun.......
It was an even better trip than we could have imagined. Though I must say, it was also a LOT more expensive than we could ever have imagined.
Music is everywhere in Ireland.
The word CEOIL means session, if I remember right, and every musical performance ends up looking like a "session" which we call a jam.
Performers welcome guests throughout to sing a song or two, sit in on an instrumental or two. They even welcome poets, storytellers, dancers, etc.
It's a lot like an RSE show only with total strangers, newcomers and audience members welcomed up to the stage.
My preconception of Irish music was based on what we typically see here in our country - either old Celtic tunes that drone on forever, or robust barroom drinking songs.
While that exists, it's only part of Irish music.
I was surprised by the prevalence (at least where we stayed and traveled) of button box/Irish accordian music. It was everywhere. A button box player is almost as revered as a good fiddler.
Fiddlers were hard to come by.
We saw few mandolins, probably because the Irish use the bouzouki and banjo in place of the mandolin. The banjos are 4-strings and tuned like a fiddle/mando. They are played similarly to how we play our mandolins here, but give a different sound.
The bouzoukis were also cool and got to play with a couple of those guys who could really pick. It's really a mandolin with a longer neck, giving it a lower octave. Most of the bouzouki players we picked with simply capoed up to match what we were doing.
Our first jam session was held in P. Egan's Pub in Moate, Ireland, a town of about 3,000.
It was billed as a "blues jam" and was hosted by a guy who served as a roadie for the Grateful Dead. He was a harmonica player, and could really knock the tar out of the harp.
Funny enough, they played most American and pop music - featuring a lot of tunes we were familiar with. Clapton, Dylan, Cash, and a few we didn't know.
The bass player and lead guitarist were plugged, but there was also a banjo - snare drummist, rhythm player and of course, Gerry and I.
They took a break after playing a lot of their stuff with us backgrounding, then asked if we didn't mind sharing our stuff during the break. The bass guy was even kind enough to let Gerry "plug in" with his cable.
We played Marie, Joe's Girl, Loose Livestock and the Fields of Athenry - an Irish Rebel ballad we learned for the trip.
The people in the pub went wild - gave us a lot of complements, and such. So much, in fact, that the jam leader made sure they didn't take another break to give us the "floor" to ourselves. He seemed to be the only one who was jealous. The rest were just fantastic about it.
I sat next to the former Dead roadie, and when it was my turn to pick - we performed Rider. Which he just loved, and played a great harp with.
All in all, it was a bit tough, as a terrible cold had both Gerry and I down to about 40% vocal effectiveness. All high notes were unreachable, and it sort of sucked that way most of the week.
A good night and we made lots of friends.
We were touring with approximately 26 people from Wisconsin, and Gerry and I both commented that we had to take care not to "wear out our welcome" among our own group, since they were mostly there to hear Irish culture and music, rather than ours.
Saturday, we got to watch the telecast of the Packer game on SkyCam via the NFL network in Bo Allen's Pub in Moate. That was a wild night, as we watched in a hallway, while a performer played in the main pub.
Again, he played many standard American tunes. The Eagles were big on his list. Like so many of the Irish pub performers, he was armed to the teeth with a sound system and a completely synthesized, amplified backup.
Sunday we got to take part in a couple of sessions.
We stopped in nearby Shannonbridge at Killeen's Pub, a bar known for its music.
The 27-year-old daughter of the owner, Louise Killeen, is a recording artist, and has earned national acclaim. She finished third in what amount to the Irish version of American Idol.
A great balladeer, she led the group in music along with another gal on button box.
One of the ladies in our group heard her turn to her partner during the first song - an Irish reel, and comment - "These guys are good." That was a nice compliment.
From there we went to Athlone, where we knew of a Ceoil in Sean's Pub, reputedly the longest running operated pub in all of Europe. This was the true Irish session that Gerry and I had expected.
Old wasn't even the word for this place, it was really old, with musicians stacked like slab wood in the corner near the "turf" fire. Turf fires are fireplaces that burn coal like bricks which are nothing more than dried, processed compressed peat harvested from the bogs.
If you were unfortuante enough to come in late, you usually got the place beside the turf fireplace, and as a result roasted your baguettes off. The only way to combat it was to keep the Guinness glass full.
At Sean's we walked in and promptly tried to burrow through the crowd to the back. But, all the old geezers sitting near the session, grabbed our arms and told us to sit down and jump in.
We were made to feel welcome.
With about 8 people already playing, it was a real interesting mix. Flutists, bagpipers, bouzoukis, and guitars. They were playing more of the traditional Celtic Irish music, to which we just tried to fit in.
The bagpiper/fiddle player had just come back from playing his way through the Netherlands. Not sure where he was from. The bouzouki guy next to me was from Dublin, just passing through. A real great guy, but with a true Gaelic/Irish brogue and somewhat difficult to understand. yet, we managed.
Lots of key of Em stuff at this bar. Then later more key of G. Gerry and I got our turn and sang/played a few of ours with good response. Again, vocals limited our repertoire to the comfortable range.
Later got to sit next to a guy playing guitar who said he was from a nearby town, and hadn't been to the ceoil in about two months. "I love to play, but everytime I come here, it's a terrible pisser!" he told me. "But, feck it, I figure I might as well be pissed tight tonight so here I am."
He thanked us personally for stopping in to play, as did many others. Got the sense if the bus didn't have a departure time, Mr. Jost and I might have been stranded there a lot later than 6 p.m. and might have well been pissed tight ourselves.
Back at the manor, we sat in with a hired accordion player, whom we were warned was weaning himself off the sauce via treatment. We were under strict orders not to buy him a beer. What we didn't realize that he was only 5 days out of the clinic.
Yet, we had a good time, and played a couple of sets with him. He picked up on everything we did, making it just a blast. We did a little Polka round - Just Because, In Heaven There is No Beer.
A Monday pub crawl gave us another chance to sit in with a pair of musicians well versed in both Irish and American music.
Wednesday, our last night at the manor, featured a terrific Irish group - The High Reels. They had four pieces, including a button box player, a bouzouki player, who also played a Martin guitar, a lead guitarist and an Irish drummer, who doubled on keyboards.
They were fantastic! They gave many people out of the audience a chance to do a few songs, and called Gerry and I up to share a set.
We chose to involve them. The button box player picked up on Marie, and Gerry loved it, playing the song much like Gerry and Sue due by trading off breaks.
We then tried to give everyone a shot by playing "Mama Don't Allow" and it came off famously. I had noticed that the lead guitarist was picking some bluegrass like breaks during some of their early numbers.
He jumped right in and ripped of a lead that was near-Nashville quailty when it came to his turn. Everyone else did as well. We even got a few people up from the audience for some handclapping, knee slapping and butt whapping.
Finished off with Rolling in My Sweet Baby's Arms to rousing ovation. Quite a deal.
But, the most gratifying and unexpected moment was yet to come.
All the Irish hired performers we saw finished off their evenings with the Soldier's Song - the Irish National Anthem.
This night, they asked Gerry and I to come back up and sing our US National Anthem.
Much to our fright - it's are hard song to pick out a key to - we accepted the challenge and sang with the help of all those present. It was truly a spine-tingling honor to sing our National Anthem on foreign soil.
We made many friends in music on the trip and handed out some of our CDs to our Irish hosts. They were such gracious folks and terrific people.
We had so many requests to "bring the whole band along next time" and a couple of offers of places to play. Who knows?
In addition to playing, music is so prevalent in the pubs. When people are drinking, they will often break out in song.
Fields of Athenry, which we played at several places, is a true Irish favorite. It often springs up impromptu at Irish soccer matches and Gaelic football matches. Everyone joins in the chorus for the rebel ballad about the famine.
Other Irish songs we heard quite often included
Maid in the Garret
Rose of Tralee
Grace
When Irish Eyes are Smiling
Danny Boy
Johnny Cash is particularly popular with the Irish. He wrote a song called 40 Shades of Green - which I wasn't aware of, but truly talks about the many shades of green in the country.
Well - so much for Irish music tales for now.
It was "BRILLIANT" as they say in the land of the Guinness.
|
Article Comment Submission Form
|
|
