Carrie Newcomer: Before & After

Before & After

“We remember moments,” says Carrie Newcomer. That’s the idea she was thinking about as she chose which of her songs to put on her latest album. It’s an idea that plays out in graceful, reflective, sometimes funny, and often surprising ways over the course of the thirteen tracks on Before & After.

Do No Harm, for example, inspired by a story by Scott Russell Sanders and drawn from an event in history, finds the central characters all making choices in the space of a moment’s time that echo down through lifetimes. I Do Not Know Its Name is grounded in the present moment by images of the juice of peaches running down your chin or the joy of a spontaneous song from a stranger, and anchored in mystery by another stranger’s enigmatic advice about a poem and the flash of something moving in the waters just beyond reach.

As thinker, poet, and musician, Newcomer often walks the territory of mystery, especially those places where mystery intersects with the everyday. In the title track, Before & After, she illuminates moments of circumstance and emotion when nothing is ever quite the same after they’ve happened, from a hit and run on the highway to Jacob’s dream of an angel. Coy Dogs goes deep into the risks and costs of the choice, chance, and change, while Hush is a passionate affirmation of trust in the power of love however unknowable the circumstance. A Small Flashlight finds the singer considering trust from another point of view. I Wish I May I Wish I Might is a gentle and amusing celebration of the fun and family and home, framed in quick vignettes of county fairs of Newcomer’s native Indiana, and A Crash of Rhinoceros is just plain funny -- though you might take away a deeper idea or two from that, too, as you finish laughing.

Musically, Newcomer goes to places both direct and complex. She’s always had a good hand at writing melodies that naturally support the words, ideas, and poetry of her lyrics, and as producer (she co produced this with David Weber, with whom she’s worked on several recordings) she understands how to frame her warm and conversational alto in a way that respects both the music and the poetry of her songs. Coy Dogs, for example, begins with a bass figure that immediately suggests both the dark and light of the song, while I Meant to Do My Work Today is framed in notes which, in very subtle fashion, suggest the ticking of a clock. “I had such great musicians to work with on this album,” Newcomer says. “They’re people who if you want a lot of notes, they can give you a lot of notes. They also know that sometimes what you don’t say is as important as what you do.” Newcomer plays guitar and bouzouki on the album, and Mary Chapin Carpenter, Michael White, and Krista Detor each add backing vocals on one song. Among others who join in are Byron House on electric and upright bass, Gary Waters on keyboards, and Mary Gaines on cello.

What holds at the center of it all, though, is the power and poetry of Newcomer’s ideas, and her musicality in sharing them . There’s a lot going on in this album -- in each song, actually. As ever, Newcomer asks good questions with her music, and invites you to consider what your own answers to those questions may be.

We live our lives from then until now
by the mercies received
or the mark upon our brow
To my heart I’ll collect
what the four winds will scatter
And frame my life by before and after

from Before & After
copyright 2009 Carrie Newcomer Music

you may also want to see
Carrie Newcomer: faith and laughter
Wilderness Plots: the dvd
late summer: two for the road

look for more from Carrie Newcomer about the making of Before & After, and her recent travels, which have included concerts in India, coming up in print in the folk and world music magazine Dirty Linen, and here along the music road as well.

Music of Maine: Lissa Schneckenburger

Song

Lissa Schneckenburger grew up in Maine, where she started out as a fiddler focusing on music for contra dances, and through years she’s added singing and song writing to her work in music. Through the course of several recordings, and in her live shows as well, she explores the unique music that’s found in northern New England. That music arises from a mix of influences brought by people from Ireland, Scandinavia, France, England, Scotland, Quebec, Acadia, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Appalachian mountains, and forged by people who lived in the mountains, forests, small towns and big cities, and along the waters of the coasts of Maine and neighboring states.

Schneckenburger is known for her fiddle playing, and she a gifted singer too. Some of the music on her album Song might sound both a bit a bit familiar and a bit different. She has delved deep into research for older songs from New England, and indeed they do carry hints of those flavors from other landscapes. You might’ve met relatives of Little Musgrove in English and Scottish collections, for example, and The Old Beggar Man has cousins in the Maritimes. Schneckenburger has put her own stamp on these pieces, though, making the historical tales as vivid as though they happened just yesterday.

Supporting her on Song are a number of New England based musicians you’ve met before along the music road, among them Hanneke Cassel on fiddle, Keith Murphy on guitar and harmony, Matt Heaton on guitar, Corey DiMario on double bass, and Natalie Haas on cello.

Want to know more about New England fiddling? Schneckenburger gives good insights on it in the FAQ section of her web site.

Maine has produced several other fine storytellers in song, too.
Aroostook County native Ellis Paul’s latest album is The Day After Everything Changed. Catie Curtis, who grew up in Saco, shares her music most recently on the recording Hello Stranger, and Patty Griffin, whose songs have been recorded by artists as diverse as The Dixie Chicks, Kelly Clarkson, and Emmylou Harris, is from Old Town. Her latest release is Downtown Church.


This is part of The Great American Road Trip, in which I’m partnering up with A Traveler’s Library to add musical ideas to the book and film suggestions for journeys through the regions of the United States which you’ll find there. For more about this (and a look at some great road songs) see Great American Road Trip: Music begins

you may also wish to see
Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton

music of Vermont: Nightingale

for another way to hear about and think about Maine, listen to Presence in the Wild, an interview with Kate Braestrup, chaplain to the Maine Game Warden search and resecue services, from the public radio program Speaking of Faith.

Michael Black: music, family, & friends

"I'm not a romantic about it at all, but I think the music in my blood, and there's nothing I can do about it," Michael Black says, laughing. He holds a doctorate in sociology and has taught at university, but his life and his identity have always been as much or more grounded in music as in academic pursuits.

Though he lives now in San Francisco, Black was born in Dublin, the second oldest of five brothers and sisters. His father Kevin, from Rathlin Island off the Antrim coast, "played lots of instruments. I wouldn't call him a traditional musician, but he was a versatile one," Black says. His Dublin raised mother Patty loved to sing, usually theatrical and popular songs on her day, the forties, and fifties. The house was filled with music from family and friends, although"people often confuse our background with a traditional one," Black's sister Mary says, "but really it wasn't until we were teenagers, and started listening to the folk songs that were popular then, that we had much to do with traditional music."

Mary is international star Mary Black, Michael's younger sister. Sister Frances is also a top solo artist, and brothers Shay and Martin often perform together and in duos or trios with Michael. All five have recorded several albums together as The Black Family. Each maintains a connection to Irish tradition while seeking out songs from other times and places that fit in with that, and with individual musical visions. "When I go out to play gigs, I always include some Irish songs, and songs with Irish connections," Michael says, "but I don't think I have to be limited to that. I choose what suits my voice, and what I like."

With all that musical background, it has taken Michael a while to get around to releasing a solo album of his own. The self titled disc is a set of songs you can picture him sharing at a pub of coffeehouse, funny at one moment, thought provoking at the next. There's the poignant Don't Laugh at Me, perhaps a reflection on walking another's path drawn from Black's experiences as a teacher, and a gorgeous take on Billy Edd Wheeler's ballad on change and conscience in the Appalachians, The Coming of the Roads, which is a fine instance of Black's gifts as a singer and his understanding of storytelling, as well. The disc also includes a music hall song from the 1930s, a traditional song sung in Irish, a ballad about war and the costs of it from New Zealand, a sea shanty, and a song to dance the baby on your knee. What holds it all together is that voice, that understanding of story, and Black's knowledge that, as he says, "I'm rooted in roots music, music of the people."

On the disc, the family comes along to add harmonies on various tracks. "Well, we're all singers, and it'd be disrespectful not to have then along," Michael says, laughing. He chose guitarist and singer John Doyle, who has worked with Liz Carroll, Linda Thompson, Cathie Ryan, and others, to produce the project. "I'm not a man who gives away superlatives," Black says, "but I couldn't have made a better choice."

Black expects to be booking more tour dates on his own now that the record is out, balancing that with his other job which "is a dad. I have three kids, three girls. My wife works a professional career, and when they came along we made the decision that I'd be the child minder. I've been a teacher, been around kids all my life, so it was a natural decision." With his children growing up, Black decided it was time to take another step in his music, to make his own recording. "There wasn't a record company involved at the time, I just was thinking of something to sell at gigs," he says. Compass Records became interested in releasing it, though, and "and in a way, that's just icing on the cake," Michael Black says. "This music has kept my family close, and has brought me to places I'd never have seen. So I thought, this is what I do, why not give the music a chance?"

you may also want to see

Reflections with Mary Black
creative practice: laughter
Liz Carroll & John Doyle: Double Play

sorting it out

you may notice that the path along Music Road looks a bit odd at the moment...some format problems cropped up unexpectedly, and we're working to fix them.

if you've come here to judge for the Irish Blog Awards, welcome, and sorry for difficulties this may be causing for you.

to help with that while we're sorting this out, here is a post with links to a number of articles which may be of interest
Music Road: Saint Bridgid's day: music & legend
and here are several more
Music Road: Lovers' Well: Matt & Shannon Heaton
Music Road: ceol chairlinn: sharing music in winter
Music Road: a bouquet of Celtic love songs & tunes

links to recent posts and the archive links seem to be working well at present. links will take you to stories, but on occasion a bit of odd formatting at side bar and bottom of page. on some browsers, you'll still need to scroll ot the bottom of the page to find sidebar links.

thanks for your patience and understanding, back now to working on sorting it out...
update: progress made. think you'll be able to find all that interests you now. please let me know if you'd like assistance locating something.

further update -- fixed for some browsers, for others, sidebar links still showing up at bottom of page. instead of to side. still sorting this out.


and meanwhile, congratulations to our friends at Irish Fireside, Ireland's National Rural Network, and Wandering Educators, also up for Irish Blog Awards -- which will be given out in Galway this year, on 27 March.

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creative practice: work of music

what is the work of music? to mourn with those who mourn, to celebrate with those who are joyful, to anchor us in the present moment while opening horizons beyond, to honor the past, sometimes, to share laughter, sometimes, to suggest new directions at times and at others warmly remember familiar ones, to teach, to connect...



what do you think?

photos from Scotland (feet), Massachusetts (flute), and Ireland (session and fire)

you may also wish to see

sean nos, days of awe, and tradition

patrick season: far from home

Carrie Newcomer: The Geography of Light

other photography posts at Delicious Baby’s Photo Friday

music of Vermont: Nightingale

A land of green hills and white mountains, rural home places and welcoming cities, lakes, rivers and winding roads, Vermont is a crossroads of music. There are communities of musicians who draw on backgrounds in Irish music, the music of Scotland, French Canadian music, the sounds of Cape Breton, bluegrass music, old time styles, the music of the Maritimes, and contra dance tunes. One band which brings all these aspects in to play, and creates new music honoring these threads of connection as well, is Nightingale.

Nightingale is Becky Tracy on fiddle, Keith Murphy on guitar, mandolin, and singing, and Jeremiah McLane on accordion and piano. Each was already an accomplished player when they met in the early nineties and formed a group playing primarily Celtic based traditional music for regional contra dances. Over the years, they’ve continued to do that, and have gradually focused more on original material, as well as writing and playing music that fits the club and festival stage as well. They like the balance of the two. “It’s great to be able to play music at a concert, where you can really go anywhere you want with it, and are not restricted by timing, as you are when you play for dancing,” says Murphy. “But there’s nothing like the energy of being literally in the middle of two hundred people stamping and swinging and dancing!”

The trio have four albums out -- they have just released the fourth one, called Jolie. Each of the projects, while differing one from the other, offers a lively mix that shows the band’s interest in and mastery of the confluence of musics that make up Vermont.

More about their work, their CDs, and solo projects by the musicians, may be found at the
band’s web site

side note while we're in Vermont: Music Road offers good wishes and congratulations to Hannah Kearney from Norwich for her accomplishments at the winter Olympics in Vancouver

photos above courtesy of Nightingale



This is part of The Great American Road Trip, in which I’m partnering up with A Traveler’s Library to add musical ideas to the Library's thoughts about books and films which inspire and reflect journeys through the regions of the United States (and if you're interested in what the Library's Vermont book has to say about Vermont and Scotland, you'll especially enjoy the music of Nightingale. Their music includes many Celtic influences, and Keith Murphy comes from a family of Scottish musicians).

For more about the road trip idea (and a look at some great road songs) see Great American Road Trip: Music begins.

Speaking of Scotland, you may enter to win a trip to Scotland and other places, other prizes as well, by voting for my trip at Create Your Own Adventure here.

you may also wish to see

Hanneke Cassel

Leahy: Live in Gatineau

The Greencards

Grada: Natural Angle

Natural Angle


A song from bluesman Mississippi John Hurt, an original piece which references tigers, cormorants, and Panama, traditional Irish reels and original ones as well, a song by bluegrass award winner Tim O’Brien and Texas tune smith Guy Clark about an Irish immigrant to the United States who fought in the Mexican War --Natural Angle is just the right name for Grada’s latest recording. Well known as a top Irish traditional band, they are also known as world travelers, and as a band whose members have lived in many parts of Ireland as well as New Zealand and Canada. So they offer straight up Irish musical ideas, but Irish music which has shaken hands with other traditions and other landscapes.

That’s not an entirely new approach for Grada, but with this latest recording they are maturing into it, taking more chances and building on what was already a fine ability for balanced song selection and terrrific ensemble work. They came to Nashville to record this album, with Tim O’Brien producing, Erick Jaskowiak engineering, and Alison Brown and O’Brien sitting in on several tracks. So has Grada gone bluegrass? No, but the music here will make you think once or twice about the vibrant connections between the high lonesome approach to melody making and how much of that came over from Ireland. It’s a study in how musicians with a clear view of what they want to say and how they want to say that are able to take adventures with the material they choose. It’s all good stuff, and best listened to straight through, but if you’ve time only for a couple of tracks to get started, Nicola Joyce’s singing on No Linen No Lace and John Riley and the instrumental sets Abe’s Axe and Dotsy’s are great places to begin.

you may also want to see

Grada : Cloudy Day Navigation

Aoife Clancy: Silvery Moon

malinky: flower & iron

a bouquet of Celtic love songs & tunes

A meditative guitar piece from Donal Clancy, a tune for a friend's wedding and a lively jig from Hanneke Cassel, and a set of reels meant for dancing from Matt and Shannon Heaton are the instrumentals in this set. Then there’s a song about transitions in loving in Western Highway from Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, a happy song that holds several meanings in Carrick a Rede from Cathie Ryan, and a swirl of emotion and music with words in Irish and English, in What’s Closest to the Heart also from Ryan, and an affirmation of love and hope in a song which blends Irish and African American tradition in Fisherman’s Lullaby from Matt and Shannon Heaton. For your Valentine themed listening, and beyond.






you may also wish to see
Voices: Donal Clancy

Lovers' Well: Matt & Shannon Heaton

Hanneke Cassel and Christopher Lewis: Calm the Raging Sea

Cathie Ryan: Songwriter

Road Trip Music visits Connecticut

The varied landscapes of Connecticut are the location this week for The Great American Road Trip, in which Music Road is partnering with A Traveler's Library for a trip around the United States through books. film, and music. Here's a look at a fine recording from the Connecticut based band Rani Arbo and daisy mayhem.




Big Old Life

From the lively burst of hope that opens the collection to the clear eyed and still hopeful look at resilience which closes it, Rani Arbo and the men of daisy mayhem offer a refreshing, invigorating, and thoughtful journey. The hope and joy they speak of is not necessarily hard won. Sometimes it's just spontaneous, like laughing at a wildflower or admiring an extravagance of stars -- that's the being ready for joy to return in the opener, as well as the learned hope they speak of at the close. But it's all life, and as Arbo's original title track would suggest, the hard knocks and that field of stars are each as much a part of it. Fitting right in with this is Bob Dylan's fractured image journey of Farewell Angelina and Anand Nayak's existential (maybe) slice of philosophy on What's That.

That's just talking about ideas, too -- no small part of any daisy mayhem project, to be sure. But the four have been together more than eight years now as a band playing some fairly off the mainstream music, and the connection and compassion among them is clear musically as well as lyrically. Each of them sings, with Arbo most often taking lead. She's also the fiddler in the group, while Scott Kessel handles percussion from the home made Drumship Enterprise to the drum kit, Andrew Kinsey plays bass, and Nayak is the guitarist in the group. Listen to it for the words, listen to it for the voices, listen to it for the stories, listen to it for the melodies but most of all, just listen.

The band has just released a children's album too.


for a taste of the band live, take a look at the video in this post
rani arbo & daisy mayhem: house be blessed

To see what's is on tap at at A Traveler's Library (a stormy film, I hear) go here.

you may also wish to see

Aoife Clancy: Silvery Moon

Voices: Carrie Newcomer: faith and laughter

Lovers' Well: Matt & Shannon Heaton

Lovers' Well



Lovers’ Well is a romantic album, but perhaps not in the way you might at first expect. Matt and Shannon Heaton offer a mix of song and tune, drawn from or based in Irish tradition. The tunes, which include reels, jigs, hornpipes, and a waltz, are all made for dancing, because, as Shannon points out, “dancing together is as sweet as singing together. All the tune sets on the album have love themed titles,” she adds, “and to ensure proper tempos, we worked with dancer and choreographer Kieran Jordan on the material.” Shannon plays flutes and whistles on the tunes, and Matt plays guitar, bouzouki, and bodhran.

The songs all concern love, and as that emotion embraces all shades of dark at light at times, so do the songs. There’s Lily of the West, with Shannon taking the lead on a song where jealousy and murder play a part, while Matt sings lead on Lady Fair, a version of the broken token song in which two lovers reunite after a long separation and the woman does not at first recognize her man. Where Moorcocks Crow is an enigmatic song of love at first sight, and in Botany Bay a husband bids farewell to his wife and children. Golden Glove finds the bride to be falling for the best man, and Lao Dueng Duen, a Thai song honoring Shannon’s time in Thailand and with a bit of an Irish arrangement is a piece from the tenth century in which a lover serenades his young woman -- and the way the Heatons do it, it both respects the song's origins and fits right in with the rest of the music on the album. Through all the songs, the Heatons’stellar harmonies add depth and beauty to the songs, as well.

“We dug deep to find material which explored both the highs of being in love and some of the darker aspects,” Shannon says. For the song Golden Glove -- that’s the one where the bride falls for the best man-- Shannon added a chorus which brings a touch of realism to the otherwise giddy story of courtship in the song--and which also, she points out, “sums up the different parts of the album: 'Deep is the lover's well, Higher than Heaven and Darker than Hell.'"

That might lead you to think things get rather grim in the music, but that’s not the case at all. Straightforward, rather, and endlessly intriguing. Much love went into the creation of the recording, too, as Shannon explains. “This project had a clearly defined mission statement from the beginning: to represent different aspects of love.

“Because Matt and I really worked together on the initial concept, and then brought in a team of people to help us bring it to life... people we love and trust, musically and personally --it was very much a labor of love for us, from the rehearsal and recording process to the material itself. We worked with our friend and producer/engineer Eric Merrill, dancer and choreographer Kieran Jordan, Keith Murphy on mandolin, guitar, and piano, and Dan Gurney on accordion.

“A friend offered us a cottage in Wellfleet on Cape Cod for the recording. Before heading down to record, we spent weeks with Eric to prepare material. From initial rehearsals through the week of recording, Eric’s holistic musicianship, beautiful engineering, humor and love guided us through the project.

“The result of our rich traditional material -- much adapted, but hopefully still intact in its musical and emotional intent -- our loving creative team of Eric and Kieran, and the forest home in which we recorded was a thoughtful, natural, and sweet working process. Because some of the tracking was done at night and even outside on the porch, the tracks have an organic nature about them — cricket chirps, bird calls, rain on the roof all made their way into the microphones.” That care and connection, and the deep well of musical experience and respect for both tradition and innovation which the Heatons and their musical friends bring to the work, create an experience which both honors Irish tradition and extends it in a natural and graceful way.

And if Irish tradition isn’t your thing, you really don’t have to know anything about it to enjoy and appreciate this music. If you and your valentine have a taste for fine singing, excellent flute and guitar playing, creative approaches to acoustic music, and thoughtful choice of material, Lovers’ Well could be the perfect soundtrack to your Valentine’s Day celebration.

you may also want to see

Another Fine Winter's Night: Matt & Shannon Heaton

Matt & Shannon Heaton: Blue Skies Above

Shannon Heaton: Oil for the Chain

traveling fiddles: Niamh Ni Charra & Jamie McClennan

Niamh Ni Charra hails from Kerry, in the southwest of Ireland, and has traveled the world as a fiddler with the show Riverdance. Jamie McClennan grew up in New Zealand, is based now in Scotland, and has seen a fair bit of the world through his music as a fiddler and guitar player, as well. Each handles travels and international influences in combination with respect for and enjoyment of tradition in current solo albums.

Ni Charra’s recording is called On On Da Thaobh/from Both Sides. The thirteen sets find her playing fiddle and also her well loved concertina. There are jigs, hornpipes, reels, and slip jigs. There’s also a set of Hungarian csardas paired with a reel, and a classical piece written for and played on the concertina. There’s a classical piece from another genre, too: bluegrass master Bill Monroe’s Crossing the Cumberlands, which Ni Charra has integrated into her own style. That’s a style filled with musical imagination and melodic sense, clear and vibrant tone and touch, and an eagerness to explore and bring home the fruits of those explorations to her own sound. There’s a fine helping of tradition, from The Jug o’ Punch to Trip to Athlone, as well as a generous helping of quality original compositions, usually played in sets with tunes from the tradition. To bring things right home, Ni Charra, who grew up surrounded by Sliabh Luachra musicians, ends the album with a set of slides, an original named for the area where she went to school, Lios Ui Bhigin, and the traditional Johnny O’Leary’s, An Choisir, and The Hare in the Corn.

Jamie McClennan’s album is called In Transit. The music begins with Emily’s Wee Tune, a jig with a nod to Scottish tradition in style and substance. which leads into the fast paced, edgy title cut. Together they open the door to moods of journey, travel, changes, and passing landscapes, which McClennan carries out skillfully through twelve sets of original music. Most of the time he’s the fiddler, but The Sun Trap set finds him on whistle in an intriguing two whistle intro with former New Zealand band mate and current member of the Irish band Grada Alan Doherty. McClennan’s ideas as a composer are are rooted in Scotland, and he reaches into jazz, American folk, a bit of blues, and more than a bit of bluegrass, as well. There are faced paced numbers, such as the Emergency Flapjack set and the Rainbow Sheep set, played with energetic spice on whistle, guitars, double bass and all sorts of percussion by Doherty, Gerry Paul, Duncan Lyall, and Fraser Stone respectively. Emily Smith joins in on piano on one track and Adelaide Carlow adds cello to another. There are several fine slower tunes as well, notably Road to Bennan, which is McClennan alone, interweaving his own playing on guitar, mandolin, and fiddle. Side note: McLennan both engineered the album and designed the packaging, both very well done.

Strong solo albums both, showing that while Ni Charra and McClennan both have the skills to do excellent work supporting musicians, they each have more than enough musical ideas and creativity to hold centre stage as well.


you may also want to see
Emily Smith, Jamie McClennan, and Robert Burns

Three Fiddle CDs for Fall

Green Fields of America

Great American Music Trip: Massachusetts

The Great American Road Trip over at A Traveler's Library is in Massachusetts, particularly an area near the sea coast town of Gloucester. The music of the sea, and the lives of those who live by it, inspire music of all sorts. Two modern day musicians take a look at the seafaring past of Gloucester, both serious and funny, in the album Souls of the Sea.

From Gloucester to the Apalachee Bay, from North Uist in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland to the China Sea to the Straits of Magellan to Galway Bay and back again, and all seashores and waters in between, there’s great music and inspiration for music in and on the water.

for more music of the waters in America, Ireland, and Scotland, you may also want to see
Music Road: Oceans & Journeys: Road Trip in Maryland

Cathie Ryan: The Farthest Wave

Dual: Julie Fowlis & Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

and to learn about the Great American Road Trip and the musical ideas I'll be adding to the journey, you might want to see this: Great American Road Trip: Music begins