Reminder: Don't forget to move your clocks forward an hour on Saturday night :(
Across The Universe to Planet Folk and back (Celtic Connection article March 2015)
Star-date: 20150221. Planet Folk. Somewhere a long way from here. A darkened room full of expectant explorers, all a little groggy from traveling in space and time - and with their ears brim full of music, music, music. The lights come up, our intrepid Canadian leader - one Aengus Finnan - reaches the podium and introduces his fellow country man, Col. Chris Hadfield, NASA Astronaut, Engineer, and Musician. Chris takes the assembled "chosen" on a remarkable journey, from launching pad at Cape Kennedy, through the stratosphere and out into space. Floating in a tin can, as the David Bowie song goes. Chris recorded that song - Space Oddity - inside the International Space Station. Bowie told him later that it had him in tears, and that it was the most moving rendition of the song he'd ever heard. (Chris had been taught the chords by PEI singer Lennie Gallant a few weeks earlier, according to Lennie's nephew, Rowen, who mentioned this during the official showcase of his band Ten Strings & A Goatskin the night before Chris' keynote address. You can catch this fine young trad trio at The Rogue on May 30th, by the way.) Chris repeatedly emphasized the importance of music as a communication medium across time, space and language. "Give me a guitar and within ten minutes I could have any people anywhere on the planet smiling and joining in with a song," he quipped. With his faithful hinged-neck Larrivee travel guitar velcroed to his space "bunk", he would compose songs, sing and share music with Russian cosmonauts aboard the I.S.S. Back on earth he frequently teams up with Col. Kady Coleman on flute in his acoustic quartet, which showcased later that day. Kady plays on The Chieftains' 50th anniversary CD / DVD Voice Of Ages, playing a slow air on flute while floating around that tin can, before Paddy Moloney joins in and the band takes over. It was a magical, inspirational keynote address, illustrated with slides and movies and anecdotes - and a little music too. It made our 1,500 mile journey thoroughly worthwhile - even if we hadn't heard any great music! But of course, Margaret & I heard heaps of great music that weekend, from Quebec, Wales, Tennessee, PEI, Teesside, Vancouver, New Zealand, and even Estonia (oh, those Estonian bagpipes!!)
Crash-landing back on earth was - thankfully - a lot less traumatic than Chris' customary descent into the desert of Kazakstan (a soft landing in Seattle and a drive up I-5 is much easier to bear!) Like Chris, we brought home musical memories and new friendships from Folk Alliance 2015 (subtitled, Planet Folk.) But we were soon thrust back into the maelstrom of life on The Edge, with stellar concerts featuring some of the finest musicians on planet earth at The Rogue - and stages beyond - a radio Fundrive and festivals of Quebecois and Celtic music - enough to fill a space flight journal or two! Within 36 hours of "splashdown" we were hosting the marvellous soul singer Karen Savoca and BC's Shari Ulrich at The Rogue. The next night Lunasa introduced their new fiddler, Colin Farrell (not that one! This guy is from Manchester, and he's brilliant!) at the Blueshore Stage at Capilano University. Next came two extraordinary nights with Canadian songwriter Fred Eaglesmith and his travelling roadshow - with my CiTR Fundrive edition "live" on the morning between. The next day we set out for Festival du Bois in Maillardville, with great sets by the aforementioned Lennie Gallant, by BC fiddle prodigy Jocelyn Pettit, and Quebec's wonderful "gold diggers" Les Chercheurs d'Or, and more. There was also a lovely rolling session involving - amongst others - Michael Viens and Rosie Carver from Blackthorn with local accordionista John Krieger, fiddler Deborah Jackson, two visiting Breton musicians from Seattle, and the wonderful young fiddler Michael Burnyeat.
Now I'm writing this column in the lobby at Cap, listening to Welsh troubadour
Martyn Joseph through the in-house speakers. Tomorrow it's
Craig Cardiff's sold out show at CBC Studio 700, then another
4 hour radio show on Saturday on
www.citr.ca a
contra dance that evening, and the unlikely yet wondrous blend of Brazilian and Appalachian music concocted by
Matuto from NYC at The Rogue the next night! A "diet" of (
Arrogant)
Worms on
March 13th at St. James Hall (3214 West 10th Avenue) heralds the arrival of the heart of
Celticfest Vancouver, with a
Ceilidh at The Imperial on Main Street on the 14th featuring
The Paperboys and
Mark Sullivan and co., and the
St. Patrick's Day Parade on the
15th.
Roguelele (shillelagh?) night is next, on the
17th, with 150 ukulele players jamming and singing along.
On March 19th Donegal's magnificent Altan make a welcome return to these parts - at North Vancouver's Centennial Theatre, where they last played here in 1999! Their brand new CD, The Widening Gyre, is named after a line from a Yeats poem - sung on the new record by guest vocalist Mary Chapin Carpenter. Altan have played at The Rogue 7 times, dating back to 1989 at the Wise Hall. Mairead ni Mhaonaigh stills sounds impeccable on fiddle and her gorgeously delicate voice has lost none of its resonance and beauty lo these 26 years. Ciaran Tourish adds fiddle and Martin Tourish is the new accordion player in the band. The rhythm section is Ciaran Curran on bouzouki and Daithi Sproule on guitar (and vocals). The new CD may have been recorded in Nashville with such luminaries as Tim O'Brien, Alison Brown, Darol Anger & Jerry Douglas joining them to explore the common musical ground between Ireland and Appalachia, but it still sounds quintessentially Altan - honed in the hills and loch shores of Co. Donegal. Come and feel the Emerald Isle filling the sonic landscape of the Centennial Theatre on March 19th! Tickets are available from their Box Office 604-984-4484, as well as at Prussin Music on Broadway & Dunbar and at all Rogue events.
Old Time music with deliciously beautiful harmonies will fill St. James Hall on March 20th with Victoria's The Sweet Lowdown - three lovely young women who were a big hit at The Mission Folk Festival last summer and who have become the darlings of the BBC since then. On Sunday March 22nd come and hear the new sound of Irish trad. with the Limerick quintet Goitse at The Rogue at St. James hall. Kevin Crawford of Lunasa assures me that it's pronounced "g'witcha"; it means "come here" in Gaelic, apparently.) This superb young band recently won Trad Group of the Year in the Live Ireland Awards, and was voted Group of the Year by the Chicago Irish American News. Based on the powerful rhythms of All-Ireland Champion bodhran player Colm Phelan and the driving guitar of Colm O'Kane, the band features Aine McGeeney on vocals and fiddle, accordionist Tadhg O'Meachair and mandolin / banjo virtuoso James Harvey. Their 2012 CD Transformed was produced by Irish legend Donal Lunny and met with worldwide acclaim. Their follow up, Tall Tales & Misadventures, has just been released. I'm really looking forward to seeing them on their first Canadian tour.
It's certainly going to be a wild ride this month! Fasten your seat-belts and come orbit the musical globe at The Rogue - and the Celticfest - in the green month of March in this green and pleasant land on the left coast of Canada!
Big thanks to NASA Cols. Hadfield and Coleman for casting planet earth in such a fascinating new light, and for underlining the incredible power and universality of music. In these often troubled times music has the power to heal and unite and inspire us. I'm listening now to the audience singing along with Martyn Joseph: "there's still a lot of love around here." There sure is!
Slainte
|
|
|
That Was The Week That Was!
Wow! What a week we had last week! It started in Kansas City at the Folk Alliance wrap-up party on Sunday night, and Monday was a travel day. Tuesday was a rare night off. Wednesday we had the very wonderful Karen Savoca & Pete Heitzman in a double bill with Shari Ulrich at St. James Hall. Only 100 people in attendance, unfortunately. The first time we’ve gone below 200 in 2015! Then Lunasa played the Blueshore Stage at Capilano University on Thursday with their new fiddle player, Mancunian Colin Farrell. What a performance! We followed that with two nights with Fred Eaglesmithand his band, featuring Tiff Ginn, Mattie Simpson, Justine Fischer andKory Hepner. Both shows sold out. Friday was slightly marred by a heckler, but Fred was handling him well until an audience member decided he’d had enough and tried to evict the noisy guy. Yikes! Luckily, Shauneen Clarke, one of our trusty volunteers and a former rugby player, stepped in to make the peace. Nice work, Shauneen! Saturday was calmer and Fred was in stellar form both nights - both musically and comedically! On Saturday morning I hosted The Edge On Folk on CiTR fm 101.9. It was the annual Fundrive edition, so pretty intense with heaps of spruiking (look it up!) Thanks to everyone who pledged - and received great premiums - to help us move into new studios in the brand new Student Union Building at UBC next month! On Sunday we ventured out to Maillardville for Festival du Bois, and witnessed fine performances by Lennie Gallant and his trio, and a few excellent bands from Quebec, most notably Les Chercheurs d’Or, whose blend of bluegrass, country and acoustic rock and roll - in French - was most appealing!
|
|
|
This Is The Week That Is Now!
Tonight we head back to the Blueshore Stage at Cap for an evening with Welsh troubadour Martyn Joseph, an annual visitor to these shores. His latest CD, Tires Rushing By In The Rain, is a collection of Bruce Springsteen songs delivered in his distinctively emotive style. Tickets are still available at 604-990-7810 and at the door.
|
|
|
|
|
|
