Tuesday, July 29, 2008

"Hanging with the Heatons"

Boston-based husband-and-wife duo Matt & Shannon Heaton (who performed at ICONS last year) are profiled in a short documentary, "Hanging with the Heatons," produced as part of a school project by Justin Bell and Christine Giordano. The film includes interviews with Matt and Shannon about their musical roots and the challenge (and joy) of sharing both lives and careers, as well as footage from their "Fine Winter's Night" CD release concert last December in Club Passim.
If you know the Heatons at all, or even if you don't, the film offers a terrific, and very charming, portrait of a couple who have quite deservedly become one of the more popular Irish-American acts to arrive on the scene during the past several years. You can view the film here.
--Sean Smith

Falling dollar: Will it make US festivals sing the blues?

Give thanks that ICONS has a great lineup this year. Booking a festival is hard – and it's getting harder now that the dollar is losing ground to the euro. It's something that not everyone wants to talk about, but it's an increasing concern.

"There's definitely an issue there,'' says Cillian Vallely of Lunasa, which is playing ICONS. "And I think it's not just about festivals. I think a lot of bands find it tough to tour the States. A lot of tours are marginal enough and then with the currency so much lower and the music business maybe not going as well here (the U.S.) as it was a few years back, there are acts that are not coming at all. For bands starting out, it's a hard time to get going. There are visa issues and if you go through a lawyer, it's very expensive. It's sort of prohibitive for a new band to get in. But in terms of Lunasa, what we generally do is tour the U.S. in the spring and fall – maybe do Sanders Theatre [at Harvard University] in the spring, then in the fall maybe do a festival in September. But we'll go to Europe in the summer because one thing about Europe is that in a lot of the countries, there's no kind of touring circuit, so the opportunity to go to these countries is in July or August when they have outdoor concerts.''

Aoife O'Donovan of Crooked Still (another ICONS 2008 act) agrees. "A lot of acts from Europe don't want to come here,'' she says, "because [what they get paid] is worth nothing to them when they get home. It's hard. But you can go to Europe and get paid X amount for a festival. And when you convert it back into dollars, it's worth way more. Plus, you can sell CDs for $23 over there. But, yes, hotels are expensive. You can't get a Super 8 or Motel 6. The concept doesn't exist.''

* * *

Speaking of Crooked Still, they're still talking about one of the their most unusual gigs this summer – the Orkney Folk Festival, which occurs on a very remote stretch of land overseas.

"The Orkney Islands are Scotch. They used to be Norwegian,'' says Aoife O'Donovan. "They're not as far out as the Shetland Islands, but they're in between Scotland and Norway, a little closer to the Scottish mainland. But they're remote islands and it didn't get dark and there was this crazy, wild folk festival. That was the highlight of our European trip … The concerts start at 7 and go until 11, then you get out and it's still not dark. You're driving home and the sun is barely going down and then it comes up at 2:30 in the morning. And people are up all night playing music. It's pretty crazy. And it was the first festival with our new band!''

-- Steve Morse

NOTE: Crooked Still's intrepid double bass player Corey DiMario offers a flavor of the band's travels through Orkney, and elsewhere, via his blog "Play the Bass, Drive the Bus."

Friday, July 25, 2008

Steve's in our corner

When you go to the ICONS Web site (and you should, really), make sure you check out "Morse's Corner" -- it's a series of exclusive feature stories by Steve Morse, who for years covered the length and breadth of the music scene for the Boston Globe. In addition to his recap of the 2007 ICONS Festival, you can read Steve's profiles of Lunasa and Crooked Still; and there'll be pieces on Liam Clancy and Solas coming soon.
Here's the link.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Falcon Ridge takes flight


It's not a "Celtic" music festival, per se, but is a very popular, highly anticipated annual event: The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, which takes place this coming weekend in New York's Hudson Valley. While the festival tends to focus on singer-songwriter acts (like Dar Williams, Chris Smither, The Nields and Janis Ian, to name a few), it does have a pretty healthy representation of music with traditional (and New England) roots.
In addition to Eileen Ivers & Immigrant Soul -- a fascinating combination of Irish, American, African and Latino styles -- and Boston-based ICONS 2008 performer Crooked Still (whose new CD, by the way, is phenomenal) Falcon Ridge this year will once again have a roster of top-flight bands for its contra dances, including: Vermont's Nightingale, the trio of Becky Tracy, Keith Murphy and Jeremiah McLane that appeared at ICONS last year; The Sevens, including Flynn Cohen and Stuart Kenney of Annalivia, another New England-based act appearing at ICONS this year; and the legendary Western Massachusetts ensemble Wild Asparagus.

Another Boston act of note at Falcon Ridge this year is Blue Moose & the Unbuttoned Zippers, who are appearing at the festival's Emerging Artist Showcase. "BMUZ" plays an extremely creative and often mesmerizing blend of Appalachian, Scandinavian and Celtic music fused with hip-hop and funk, using instruments such as the Hardanger fiddle, nyckelharpa, octave fiddle, accordion, mandolin and guitar. What's more, the individual band members (all current or former Berklee College of Music students) have cool names: Mariel Vandersteel, Bronwyn Bird, Stash Wyslouch and Andy Reiner.


(Yes, I'm sure there's an interesting story behind their name -- I just haven't gotten around to asking them yet.)
--Sean Smith

Monday, July 21, 2008

CCE Boston fall classes announced

Is it too early to think about school?
Certainly not if you're talking about the music school run by Boston's Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann Hanifin-Cooley branch. Here's the faculty for the fall semester, which begins Sept. 6 at Harvard University (the spring semester classes are at Boston College):
Oísin McAuley (ceilidh band)
George Keith (fiddle)
Tina Lech (fiddle)
Carol McIntyre (harp)
Chris Stevens (concertina)
Shannon Heaton (flute, whistle)
James Hamilton (flute, whistle)
Andrea Mori (flute, whistle)
Mike Reynolds (accordion)
Patrick Murray (
Uilleann pipes)
Matt Heaton (guitar)
Steve Brown (bodhran)

Not bad, eh?
For more information, go here.

--Sean Smith

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Wait, what?

Boston's own Laura Cortese (Halali, Uncle Earl, Jolly Bankers) playing fiddle with Jeremy Irons? Yes, that Jeremy Irons -- "Damage," "Lion King," "Brideshead Revisited," etc.

Full story here.


--Sean Smith

Globe: "Crooked Still's new line-up stirs it up"


Joan Anderman of the Boston Globe reports on the Boston-area debut of the new Crooked Still line-up at Club Passim: "Crooked Still - a smart, funny, and exceptionally attractive bunch - played a quietly brash set at Club Passim on Thursday, as rousing as it was elegant." Full story
--Sean Smith

Monday, July 14, 2008

Kieran Jordan: A jolly good "fellow"

If you've ever seen Kieran Jordan perform -- whether at ICONS, "Christmas Celtic Sojourn" or the Boston Celtic Music Fest, to name a few -- then you know she is one terrific dancer, choreographer and innovator, continually finding ways to bring a contemporary sensibility to the Irish dance tradition while maintaining a deep respect for its roots.
So it's nice to hear that Kieran's been selected as an "Artist Fellow" by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, in the category of Traditional Arts. Artist Fellowships provide assistance to individual artists "to recognize excellence and creative ability and to support further development of their talents."

(Photo: Kieran Jordan and Niall O'Leary at ICONS 2007)

By the way, Kieran is getting set to release her first self-produced DVD, a mini-documentary about old style Irish step dancing, featuring Kevin Doyle and Aidan Vaughan, two of her longstanding collaborators, teachers, mentors and friends. The DVD, "Secrets of the Sole: Irish Dance Steps and Stories," has very much of a home-spun feel to it, she notes: Interviews and performances were filmed in her living room, in the presence of a 10-person "studio audience." Boston-based musicians Geroge Keith (fiddle) and Sean Gannon (accordion) provided the music.
Kieran says she hopes to have copies ready for release by September -- be sure to check her Web site for updates.
--Sean Smith

Friday, July 11, 2008

ICONS adds Alison Brown, Derrane-Connolly-McGann trio, Boston Kiltics, BCMFest showcase

There'll be more details on this to come, but ICONS has added yet more excitement to an already stellar performer line-up:

*Alison Brown Quartet -- Alison is a true innovator of the five-string banjo, bringing different musical influences and styles to bear on her bluegrass roots.






*Joe Derrane, Seamus Connolly & John McGann--Three immensely talented and popular musicians, blithe spirits all, and one amazing trio.










*Boston Kiltics--They're not just a band, they're a full-blown Cape Breton kitchen party -- high-driving tunes and lively step-dancing.





*Boston Celtic Music Fest Showcase--You can get a sampling of Boston's grassroots, performer-run festival at ICONS, with a special showcase featuring some of the area's best Celtic musicians, singers and dancers, plus the BCMFest "Bard Squad," who'll be causing all kinds of wonderful music mayhem during the course of the weekend.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Hello and New Bedford Summerfest

Hi everyone! Abbie here. This is my first blog so please be kind! I returned from my second year of studying at University of Edinburgh a few weeks ago and I am so excited to be working for ICONS again this year.

This fourth of July weekend marked the 13th anniversary of the New Bedford Summerfest. The festival showcased some memorable acts such as Boston fav Laura Cortese, Scottish song quintet Malinky, and Quebecois legend Benoit Bourque.
(Photos top to bottom) Laura Cortese, Malinky, Benoit Bourque

Although the artists do solo shows throughout the weekend, one of the features of the Summerfest is the main stage 'workshops.' Unlike the traditional idea of a workshop, the organisers pair three or more performance acts together to do a show together. This is the first time many of these performers have met, but they all join in one each other's numbers. Some of my favorite highlights were Benoit and Laura doing a Quebecois waltz together, and Malinky, Benoit and the Kennedys doing a Djano Reinhardt minor swing number.

Malinky is no stranger to the folk scene. The band will celebrate their tenth anniversary this winter. Founder Steve Byrne is from Arbroath on the northeast coast of Scotland, and is equally skilled at cittern, bouzouki, guitar, and song. The other original member Mark Dunlop is from Antrim, Ireland and plays the bodhran, whistles, and contributes vocals. Fiona Hunter, vocals and cello, hails from Glasgow, and her beautiful voice leads the band on many numbers. The two newest members are David Wood, from Derbyshire, on guitar and bouzouki and Mike Vass, from Nairn, on fiddle.

This new lineup was debuted this weekend (it being Mike's second and third days with the band), but their performances were as sublime as ever. The band is equally at home with tune sets as with songs, and their repertoire pulls from Scotland, Ireland, England, Brittany, and even Sweden. Although I know the band from Scotland, this was my first time to see the new lineup, and I was very impressed. Look out for their new CD in the upcoming months.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

In Praise of Andy

One doesn't like to throw the phrase "living legend" around too much, but it's awfully hard to resist applying it to Andy Irvine.
Andy performed at last weekend's Old Songs Festival in upstate New York, starting on the last leg of his North American solo tour (he'll be at The Waldo Theater in Waldaboro, Me., tonight and finish up at the Stan Rogers Festival in Nova Scotia this weekend).
In addition to performing at the Old Songs Saturday evening concert, Andy participated in a couple of special in-the-round type of shows, sharing the stage with the likes of Malinky, Liz Carroll & John Doyle and Priscilla Herdman, among others. He also led a "bouzouki jam" and a workshop on song accompaniment for bouzouki, mandola and mandolin, both of which were open to all comers.
The latter of the two afforded an opportunity to gain some insight into Andy, personally as well as musically. About 10 zouk/mando players (and a small crowd of onlookers) gathered at the far end of the festival grounds to watch Andy demonstrate his playing of "The Dream," the lead-in tune to his reverse-immigration song "Indiana" (from the first Patrick Street album). Andy explained that he tends not to think about the exact nomenclature for the chords he plays, e.g. A minor suspended 7 or the like, just simply puts together whatever seems to work; accordingly, as he went through the tune, he referred to one chord as "Peter" and another as "Oliver."
This is quite the year for Andy: In January he and Paul Brady reunited at Celtic Connections to perform the tracks from their classic late-1970s album that gave us songs like "The Jolly Soldier," "Plains of Kildare," "Mary and the Soldier" and, of course, "Arthur McBride." That album, happily, was re-released just last month on Compass/Green Linnet.
He is nowadays part of an intriguing band called Mozaik, which includes his old Planxty chum Donal Lunny, as well as American roots musician Bruce Molsky, one-man Balkan band Nikola Parov and Dutch multi-instrumentalist Rans Van Der Zalm. Mozaik blends seemingly disparate genres of Irish, Eastern European and American music traditions -- often in the same song or tune set -- and somehow it all makes sense; even more importantly, it sounds just great.
Their recently released second album, "Changing Trains," opens with a particularly distinctive track, "O'Donoghue's," penned by Andy. It's basically a capsule summary of the 1960s Irish folk music revival, with references aplenty to the people, places, events, songs and tunes of that era -- full of sly wit, fond remembrance and not a little wistfulness. You can regard "O'Donoghue's" as a sort of companion piece to Andy's "My Heart's Tonight in Ireland" and a prelude to "Lisdoonvarna," Christy Moore's salute to the famous, and possibly notorious, festival in Clare that launched a thousand tales, some of which may be true.
In a similar vein, Andy has on his Web site a fairly exhaustive autobiography that traces his musical involvement from childhood to present times: Sweeney's Men, the sojourn in the Balkans, Planxty, Paul Brady...all this and more. It's first and foremost a great read, as well as an enlightening portrait of an era whose legacy we still enjoy and no doubt will for some time.
--Sean Smith