"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."

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.

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

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

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