February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Earle Hitchner
Let’s drop this "jam band for Irish music lovers" label slapped on Lúnasa by the New York Times. Sure, it’s a catchy compliment, but Lúnasa isn’t the Dave Matthews Band, Phish (now phinished), or even Kíla, the Dublin-based septet whose hiberno-bohemian sound sometimes mistakes mind-numbing for mind-altering. Long, destinationless explorations of a single melody or an otherwise short medley are not Lúnasa’s forte. There are no "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" licks looming in their future.
What they do better than any other all-instrumental Irish band today is create live-wire excitement through fresh, intricate arrangements of traditional tunes performed with ear-pinning virtuosity. Lúnasa knows in advance where their music will take them, and that ensures the audience’s ride with them will not sputter or stall in self-indulgence.
It certainly helps that the band has the best one-two rhythm punch in Irish traditional music today: guitarist Donogh Hennessy, whose shuffling beat has been aped by others, and bassist Trevor Hutchinson, building tension without bluster. In flutist Kevin Crawford, fiddler Seán Smyth, and uilleann piper Cillian Vallely, Lúnasa has a melody frontline also second to none. Combined, these five musicians are a potent force, able to mesh in ways many other all-star lineups can’t.
Lúnasa’s third album, "Merry Sisters of Fate" (Green Linnet), due out on June 5, is perhaps their finest of all, and the band will be touring in support of it this summer in America. Seven of those dates will be opening slots for Mary Chapin Carpenter, a singer-songwriter offering a thinking person’s mix of country, folk, and pop-rock.
Here’s the summer tour itinerary for Lúnasa: June 28, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Baltimore (with Carpenter); June 29, Norva Theater, Norfolk, Va. (with Carpenter); July 1, Meadowbrook Amphitheater, Detroit (with Carpenter); July 3, Ravinia, Highland Park, Ill. (with Carpenter); July 5-8, Festival d’Ete, Quebec; July 11, Wingfield Park, Reno, Nev.; July 16-18, Florida International Festival, Daytona Beach; Aug. 23, Proctor Theater, Schenectady, N.Y. (with Carpenter); Aug. 24, Chautauqua Amphitheater, Chautauqua, N.Y. (with Carpenter), and Aug. 25-26, Wolf Trap, Vienna, Va. (with Carpenter).
Follow us on social media
Keep up to date with the latest news with The Irish Echo
That gap between mid-July and mid-August will find Lúnasa in Europe for some touring. There’s also a can’t-miss concert slated with Altan in Dublin’s National Concert Hall on Aug.19.
Festival hiatus
Outdoor Irish festivals are neither easy nor cheap to mount, and enough bouts of bad weather can turn profit to debt. The annual Washington, D.C., Irish Festival is easily one of the best we have, but it has been plagued by rain over the years at Glen Echo Park, Md., Wolf Trap, Vienna, Va., and more recently at Montgomery County Fairgrounds, Gaithersburg, Md.
This year would have been the festival’s 25th anniversary, but there’s no immediate silver lining to what would have been a silver celebration.
Its sponsor, the National Council for the Traditional Arts, has been forced to place the festival on hiatus for 2001 because of a heavy deficit. This was a very difficult decision for the NCTA, given the festival’s worldwide reputation as a "performers’ event," offering Irish and other Celtic music and dance of the highest order. The NCTA is working on plans for the festival to resume in 2002, and relocation is a possibility.
Moving Cloud disbands
A traditional band who performed at the Washington Irish Festival in 1999, Moving Cloud got its start in the late 1980s in County Clare during the set-dance boom there. The quintet of button accordionist Paul Brock, fiddler Manus McGuire, fiddler M’ve Donnelly, flutist Kevin Crawford, and keyboardist Carl Hession have issued two superb albums on Green Linnet, "Moving Cloud" in 1994 (the Irish Echo’s No. 1 traditional recording of that year) and "Foxglove" in 1998.
It was a great run, but Moving Cloud have now called it quits. Two founding members, Brock and McGuire, have become the cornerstone of a new group, the Brock-McGuire Band. The quartet will include Galway’s Enda Scahill, a five-time All-Ireland champion on tenor banjo and a senior All-Ireland champion on mandolin, and Aberdeen-based keyboardist Denis Morrison as guests. Don’t be surprised if the Brock-McGuire Band makes its American tour debut later this summer.
Cruisin’ with Gaelic Roots
Happily, an event that has experienced only rapid growth and maxed-out attendance is Boston College’s Gaelic Roots, a music and dance summer school and festival headed by Séamus Connolly, B.C.’s Irish Studies music program director.
This year’s Gaelic Roots will take place from June 17-23, and the weekday classes of music and dance instruction on campus as well as the farewell concert on June 23 in the Robsham Theater have long been sold out. But there are still some tickets available for the June 20, 7 p.m. music seisiún and dance cruise around Boston Harbor. Why? This year Gaelic Roots got a bigger boat, able to accommodate up to 1,100 people. The vessel will sail from Commonwealth Pier (on the city side) at Boston’s World Trade Center.
If mal de mer isn’t a problem for you, and even if it is (bring Dramamine), you can enjoy the salt-spray sessions, dancing, and craic by contacting Séamus Connolly, Gaelic Roots, Connolly House, 300 Hammond St., Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3930 ([617] 552-0490, connolsb@bc.edu).
Tweed CD a gem
Former Silly Wizard piano accordionist Phil Cunningham admitted that, on first hearing her, he was "flabbergasted" by the ability of fellow piano accordionist Karen Tweed. It’s a common reaction to her playing, full of brilliant trad chops and an infectious sense of swing learned during years of competition (she’s a five-time All-Ireland champion), endless sessions, and inspired ensembles (Kathryn Tickell Band, the Poozies, Two Duos Quartet, Swåp).
Daughter of a Kerry mother and English father, Karen Tweed has released a new recording, "May Monday," on Fyasco Records, her own cheekily named label in Derby, England. She collaborates on the album with Timo Alakotila, a gifted pianist and arranger known for his work in such Finnish bands as JPP, Troka, and Aldargaz. Last November, the two recorded at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, where they were joined by a number of Scandinavia’s top instrumentalists, including five-row button accordionist Maria Kalaneimi.
It’s some of the most beautiful music I’ve heard so far in 2001, a thoughtful, immaculately executed blend of Irish, English, and Scandinavian traditions, laced with jazz and chamber music. The album is challenging and often soothing, free of any New Age or ambient artifice.
What Tweed has done is further liberate the piano accordion from the oompah band and pie-eyed wedding reception stereotypes of the 1950s and ’60s, and demonstrate the instrument’s full melodicism. Even if you break out in hives at the sight of a piano accordion or are haunted in your dreams by the likes of Lawrence Welk and Dick Contini, do yourself a favor and listen to this CD. It’s transporting music, centered on piano box and piano, each in the hands of a master.
"May Monday" can be ordered for £13.50 (postage and packing included) from Karen Tweed at Fyasco Records, P.O. Box 5009, Derby DE1 9FQ, England, UK (011-44-1332-677046, karen@kstweed.co.uk, www.cutting-tweed.demon.co.uk).
On the horizon
Forget about the advent of summer doldrums. The next couple of months will offer some spirited live Irish music.
On May 11, fiddler Kevin Burke, button accordionist Joe Burke, and guitarist Anne Conroy Burke will be in concert at the Blarney Star, 43 Murray St., lower Manhattan. Sets are at 9 and 10:30 p.m. Call (212) 732-2873.
Other notable Blarney Star concerts coming up include N.Y. uilleann piper Jerry O’Sullivan on June 1; former Tulla Céilí Band flutist Mike Preston and friends on June 8; fiddler Tommy Peoples and singer/mandocellist Seán Tyrrell on June 15, and button accordionist Damien Connolly (son of Martin and nephew of Séamus) and guitarist Pete Mancuso on June 22.
Former Solas and current Eileen Ivers Band guitarist John Doyle, whose solo debut should be out soon on Shanachie, is doing at least two area concerts this month: May 18 at the Blarney Star and May 20 at Tressler’s Barn, Easton, Conn. Call the Shamrock Traditional Irish Music Society at (203) 256-8453 for further infrmation on the Connecticut date, which has been advertised with an unnamed "very special guest."
I also recommend upcoming concerts by two non-Irish performers, singer-songwriters Buddy and Julie Miller. (Julie’s monumentally moving "Broken Things" was sung at the memorial service for the victims of the Aug. 15, 1998, bombing in Omagh.) On May 18 and 19 at the Bottom Line, 15 W. 4th St., Greenwich Village, N.Y. ([212] 228-6300), this husband-and-wife tandem will be on the bill with folksinger Lucy Kaplansky. And at 8 p.m. on Sunday, May 20, the Millers are at the Towne Crier Cafe, 130 Rte. 22, Pawling, N.Y. ([845] 855-1300). They’re alt-country at its best.