Three from Scotland: Music without words

Music has so many aspects: harmony, melody, all the instruments with their sounds, all the singers with their voices and how they convey the words.

There are times, as well, when music speaks most clearly when there are no words. It is not that words get in the way. It’s just a different conversation, or, if you will, another way of speaking about an idea.

Marie Fielding, Kevin Henderson, Neil Perlman, David Foley. and Jack Smedley have conversations in music to share that re well worth your listening.

Marie Fielding’s instruments are fiddle, five string fiddle, and hardanger fiddle. With them, she traces journeys to places which have inspired her. Mayo2Manchester honours both her Irish ancestors and her connection to flute player Michael McGoldrick as mentor and composer. The Connemara Reel Set comprises three original tunes evoking and honoring both Scotland and Ireland.

There’s the quiet of Gracie’s Lullaby, and the lively Muriel’s Oatcakes set. Most of the tunes are of Fielding’s own composition, and almost all of the tracks were recorded, as she writes in her sleeve note, “in the moment,” with just a few carefully noted touches added later on. The tunes are bookended by the title track Spectrum and Spectrum Outro, flowing tunes which are intended to highlight the circular flow of ideas in Fielding’s choices.

Immersed in traditional music from any early age, Fielding has a long understanding and a long time of thinking about the tradition to draw on in creating her own music,

A lecturer in Fiddle and Performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, Fielding has a confident and distinctive mastery of her medium. She is also a visual artist andsome of that sort of connection with the listener comes through in her music on The Spectrum Project as well.

Kevin Henderson, who comes from Shetland, and Neil Pearlman who is from New England by way of Atlantic Canada, know well how to explore landscapes through their instruments. In Henderson’s case that’s the fiddle. For Pearlman it’s keyboards and mandolin.

It’s a contrast and blending of styles and backgrounds that works. Their album is called Burden Lake. Henderson’s fiddle playing is precise, clear, and draws on his Shetland and Nordic background. Pearman’s inventive style, influenced perhaps by his Cape Breton fiddle piano duo history as well as his background studying and playing jazz, makes both subtle and generous compliment to the fiddle lines. Many of the pieces are of Henderson’s composition, and there are several from Pearlman and a traditional one. The duo handles both fast paced and quieter tunes with equal grace and interest. Listen out especially for Da Trowie Burn, the San Simon set, and Liam’s.

Also listen out for their other work. Each always has several projects on the go. among them the Nordic Fiddlers Bloc for Kevin Henderson and The Katie McNally Trio for Neil Pearlman. Both of these groups have new recordings upcoming.

David Foley and Jack Smedley have an ongoing group commitment: both are members to the award winning Scottish band RURA, founding members in fact. Foley, who plays flute, and Smedley, whose instrument is fiddle, enjoy the challenge that such collaboration presents, but they have also had the wish to play tunes in a more intimate way. They were invited to perform a duo gig at Celtic Connections in 2018.

The idea that has become their album Time to Fly was planted then, but their duo collabration has also been a long time growing. “With RURA we have been lucky enough to play big festival stage across the world and it is these experiences, alongside the travel opportunities that these performances allow, that have inspired a lot of the work on Tine to Fly,” David Foley says. “This album has been a great opportunity to get back to the fundamentals of our musicianship and explore the stripped back, acoustic sound we can created when it is just us and the instruments.”

Explore they do, with tunes both driving and lyrical. They well know how to do this, too. Jack Smedley comes from Cullen, where he grew up immersed in traditional fiddle music of the northeast of Scotland and of the Highlands. David Foley grew up in and around the Irish music scene in Glasgow. They met as students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland before stepping up to help found RURA.

These varied strands of background and present interests inform the eleven sets they have chosen for Time to Fly. The title track honours the fact that though Jack and David have been studying and then playing together for more than a dozen years now, first at RCS and then as members of RURA, this is their debut album as a duo.

Through eleven tracks Jack and David lead a journey which travels from a quiet tune coming from a story from history that took place on the shore near Cullen where Jack grew up to a lively set that begins with tune inspired during the recording of the album by a microphone, a piece of metal, and...a hacksaw.

The music Foley and Smedley offer along the way is intricate and engaging. Each track is complete on its own, while at the same time creating a progression that leaves you looking forward to what will come next. All of it is original music by one or the other of the duo, as well as one track Drift, which they wrote together. Their longtime connection with musical tradition and their enjoyment of making music together come across clearly through all of the tracks. Joining the duo on the journey are long time musical colleagues and friends John Lowrie on drums, James Lindsay on double bass, and Jenn Butterworth on guitar.

With or without words, music speaks clearly. Give a listen to these three recordings -- give more than one listening -- and you will find many engaging paths to follow.

You may also wish to see
Katie McNally Trio: The Boston States
Music from Ireland & Scotland: Sitting in on the Session
Homecoming: A Scottish Fanatasy from Nicola Benedetti
Hope as a companion: music for the journey at Wandering Educators -- a performance video from Time to Fly is part of this story
Sarah Jane Summers: Solo more music without words to explore

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Celtic Intersections: Harald Haugaard and Low Lily

Fiddle player and composer Harald Haugaard grew up in Denmark; Liz Simmons, Flynn Cohen, and Lissa Schneckenburger, the musicians who make up Low Lily, are based in New England. There are Celtic connections in the stories they tell with their music, and they each bring aspects of their own landscapes and backgrounds to the mix.

Harald Haugaard had thought that he was working on an album that would be a rather dark collection of music. He’d positioned it as work about endings, the final part of a trilogy of recordings which began with Burning Fields and continued with Den Femte Soster. As he worked through what he wanted to convey, though, he found himself appreciating “ the beauty and light to be found in endings, in solitude, in autumn,” as he writes in the notes for the music which became Lys Og Forfald, which translates as Light and Decay in English.

It is music of journeys, to be sure, and music of reflection. There are new compositions as well as several pieces from earlier times reimagined. At varied points along the way he brings in members of his touring band as well as players from a former band of his, Serras, the German string ensemble Fraunhofer Saitenmusik, and musical friends including Hans Mydtskov, Brian Finnegan, and Helene Blum. It is Haugaard’s fiddle which anchors and guides the music, however.

He begins the journey in a clear and thoughtful reflection paring his fiddle with Roger Tollroth’s guitar, in, as Haugaard says, “The clear light of September.” As the music unfolds. in the pieces Prelude and Skye-Havnen there are modern day journeys of exploration, challenge, and discovery -- in a bit of a nod Denmark’s well known spinner of tales, Hans Christian Andersen. Consideration of community and connection that form part of ttravels that goes with being a musician come inot play in the tune Sostre og Brodre/Sisiters and Brothers. Port Orford, named after a small community in Oregon, finds Blume lending her voice to create sound rather than to convey lyrics in a piece considering solitude and wilder places.

As creating the music evolved, Haugaard chose on the one hand to comment a bit on past compositions and join up with musicians he’d worked with on other projects. Abne Ojne/Opne Eyes as a commentary one of Blum’s recordings and the tour they did with that music, Nacht des Unbekannten/Night of the Unknown a return collaboration with Fraunhofer Saitenmusik are among these. It is however the title track Lys og Forfald which became the center of the story, as Haugaard came to see change and ending much as the beauty of falling autumn leaves may let the light in to a woods. In what might be heard as a commentary on that, he ends the recording with his fiddle alone playing Morgen/Morning. All of the music on Lys Og Forfald is a journey well worth the taking and reveals new aspects with each hearing.

In just six tracks on their self titled recording Low Lily the musicians of Low Lily offer dynamic and intriguing expression of the music they make, a collection well worth repeated hearing as well. They kick things off with traditional song House Carpenter, with Liz Simmons taking lead voice in a version which manages to be both lively and moody as the enigmatic tale of promises and deception unfolds. Schneckenburger’s original song This Girl’s Not Mine tells a story you might find in the north woods in days past -- and in the present too. There is a fiddle solo in the midst of the song which adds to the storytelling atmosphere, and trombone lines which enliven the contemporary side of the song.

Mandolin from Cohen and fiddle from Schnekenburger lead the conversation in Cohen’s driving original Northern Spy -- you have to think of the crisp flavor of the apple as you listen. Simmons on rhythm guitar and Corey DiMario of double bass anchor the rhythm on this and other tracks on the recording.

Simmons and Cohen follow with an original piece each, each story having to do with travel and journeys and how those may be experienced. Simmons steps up to lead voice again on her song Adventurer, while Cohen’s is the lead voice on All Roads Lead to You. Contemporary songs both, but ones rooted in tradition in both idea and arrangement.

Liz Simmons, Flynn Cohen and Lissa Schneckenburger have individual careers which include solo projects, teaching, playing with musicians across the spectrum of roots music. They are each top notch at what they do. When they join up as Low Lily there’s even more to enjoy in the conversations they share in voice and instrument. They finish off the EP Low Lily with the instrumental set Cherokee Shuffle/Lucky which joins tradition and newly written tunes, and sets the stgae for more to come from this gifted trio.

Celtic connections and intersections inform the music of Harald Haugaard and the songs and tunes of Low Lily, as they bring together ideas from past and present, center and edge, to create music all their own.

You may also wish to see
Long Time Courting: Alternate Routes
Music of Maine: Lissa Schneckenburger
Denmark’s Harbor of Music: Harald Haugaard at Perceptive Travel
Winter and Music in Denmark: Helene Blum at Perceptive Travel

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Best music 2013, part 2

Music at its best is a conversation, a connection between musicians and listeners and in some cases a wider world. Take a listen to conversations these musician offer.

This is part two of a three part series on best music of 2013 here at Music Road. Here is part one. Music Road: best music 2013, part 1

note: clicking on the text links and album cover images will take you to longer reviews of the recordings/and or places where you may hear bits of the music.

Ruth Moody, Canadian songwriter whose name you may know from her work with the award winning group The Wailin’ Jennys, is also a fine solo artist. She has the gift for weaving the spiritual into love songs and other experiences of day to day life in her lyrics, and the musicianship to invite you in. You may find all this, along with musical guests including Mike McGoldrick, Mark Knopfler , and Jerry Douglas on her album These Wilder Things.

Ron Block often puts questions of life illuminated by questions of faith front and center in his solo work too. In his case the ideas and the music are infused with bluegrass, which makes sense when you know that Block is a long time member of Alison Krauss + Union Station. Both as aspects of his interest come into his album Walking Song which includes a number of collaborations with new found songwriting partner Rebecca Reynolds.

You might know Heidi Talbot from her work with other musicians, as well: she was lead singer with Cherish the Ladies, and has been know to sing backup to Eddi Reader. Talbot is a fine solo artist as well. Her earlier albums have leant toward music draw for the deep reservoir of Celtic tradition (Talbot is Irish and lives in Scotland). On Angels Without Wings she walks farther into adding her own songwriting voice to the mix, and it proves as powerful and as gracious a one as is her singing voice. Notable cuts include When the Roses Come Again, I’m Not Sorry, and My Sister the Moon.

Childsplay is a gathering of musicians who come together in the Boston area, centered around musicians who play violins made by Bob Childs. The music they make on As the Crow Flies is by turns Celtic, Americana, and contemporary, some original compositions, some from those traditions. It’s not just violin and fiddle, either -- they bring along musical friends including flute player Shannon Heaton and guitarist Keith Murphy as well as Lissa Schneckenburger -- she is one of the fiddle players to be sure, and also lends her fine voice to tracks including Dear Companion and As the Crow Flies. Fiddle players you’ve met here along the music road include Hanneke Cassel and Katie McNally, and Nic Gareiss brings the percussion of his dancing feet as well.

The Paul McKenna Band are rising stars of Scotland’s music. Their album Elements, recently released in the United States, makes clear why this is so: creative tunes, thoughtful songs, a good blend of fast paced and slower tempo, and through it all the taste of Scotland lingers. Standout tracks include the instrumental set Flying Through Flanders , the fast paced song Mickey Dam, and the quiet reflection of the song Indiana.

Dervish know well how to balance music between high flying tunes and time for that quiet side side of things too. They are from the west of Ireland, and a number of the songs they have on The Thrush in the Storm are ones they draw from time as band in residence in Leitrim. The stories they tell in the liner notes are almost as interesting as the ones they tell in the songs and tunes. Listen out for The Rolling Wave set and Shanagolden, which has particularly fine singing from Cathy Jordan.

Therese Honey does not sing a line on her album Summer's End: her instrument is the harp. It’s a fine collection of original and traditional tunes in Celtic tradition, some lively, many inviting reflection. It is a recording you’d do well to let play through as the musician has sequenced the tunes for you.

John Reischman’s instrument is the mandolin, and while on Walk Along John he shows just about every color of it in folk, bluegrass, and Americana music, it’s the power of story, and of the journey he creates for the listener, that shines even more brightly than his skill on his instrument. It’s mainly original music with a few well chosen traditional tunes mixed in. From the Itzbin Reel to A Prairie Jewel though to Anisa’s Lullabye, Reischman will keep you engaged in his musical journey.

Joy Dunlop has a journey to bring you along on, as well -- in her case it is through her native Argyll in the west of Scotland. Whether Scottish Gaelic is your language or not, you’ll follow along with the humor, sorrow, joy, celebration, and other emotions Dunlop shares on Faileasan/Reflections, No worries if your Gaelic is not fluent -- or if you have any at all -- Dunlop tells the stories of the songs and a bit about how they came to her in the liner notes, in English. You’ll recognize the names of several of her musical friends -- all with connections to Argyll -- among them Donald Shaw, Karen Matheson, and Mary Ann Kennedy.

photographs are by Kerry Dexter, and are copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.

you may also wish to see
Ireland's music: two voices
Winter's grace

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Remembering Amy Farris

Amy Farris was a jack of all instruments, teacher of many, fine arranger and committed Texan, though she lived the last years of her life in California. Word comes that she has died. Recently she had been touring with Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women, and several years ago put out an interesting and eclectic solo album called Anyway.

Here she is playing with Kelly Willis

I remember Amy best from her days in Austin, playing fiddle with Tish Hinojosa as dancers swirled across the floor at The Broken Spoke, being what Bruce Robison jokingly called the musical quarter back for Bruce and his wife Kelly Willis at the Cactus so many nights, backing up Kelly on a hot summer evening outdoors at Stubbs’ with the scent of Texas barbecue in the air, playing a Christmas season concert with Bruce and Kelly at Hyde Park Methodist Church with holiday decorations and evergreens for backdrop.

Playing fiddle in the heavenly choir now, Amy. Not forgotten you.


you may also want to see
Tish Hinojosa: Our Little Planet

listening to Christmas

Sarah Jarosz: Song Up in Her Head

Song Up in Her Head

Texan Sarah Jarosz’s debut album is filled with a baker’s dozen of cuts which take their start in bluegrass and use that as a jumping off point to head toward folk, country, blues, and a few other things thrown in, a bending and blending of style and genres which you might almost expect from an artist raised in the Texas hill country. Jarosz sings in a warm, flexible voice that’s all her own, but reminding a bit of fellow Texans Rosie Flores and Terri Hendrix. She wrote eleven of the tracks, and a writer and a player, and in some her phrasing as a singer, she calls to mind Tim O’Brien -- they both favor musical adventure at every turn, adventure rooted in heritage music and speaking to the twenty first century.

O’Brien guests on the album, and Jarosz, who plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, and piano on various tracks, is also supported by an A list roster of other musicians, including Ben Sollee, Darrell Scott, Abigail Washburn, Stuart Duncan, and Aoife O’Donovan. Gary Paczosa, who has worked with Kelly Willis, the Greencards, and Alison Krauss among others, produced the project, leaving plenty of space both for Jarosz’s voice and the interaction among instruments.

I first saw Sarah Jarosz play in Austin about five years ago, and it’s been interesting to see her grown into her talents as a singer, player, and songwriter.
From all that’s said above, what you might not expect is that Sarah Jarosz is seventeen, a recent high school graduate, heading of to music school in Boston this fall. She offers an album that's both beyond her years and completely right for them, and for where she is as an artist.

Outstanding tracks on this release include Edge of a Dream, Fischer Store Road, Long Journey, and a cover ot the Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan song Come On Up to the House. Not so outstanding, not from her version of it, but from the song itself, a cover of The Decembrists' Shankill Butchers. If Jarosz wanted show that she can handle song with a dark edge, she should have chosen another way than this song about a murderous gang in Belfast during the troubles. That jarring note aside, it's a fine debut album.

you may also want to see

Music Road: now playing: Crooked Still: Still Crooked
Music Road: now playing: Claire Lynch: Crowd Favorites
Music Road: Alison Krauss: Live from the Tracking Room: A Hundred Miles or More

-->Your support for Music Road is welcome and needed. If you are able to chip in, here is a way to do that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

now playing: Rhonda Vincent: Good Thing Going

Good Thing Going

Hope, resilience, humor, a bit of swing, a dash of country, and all kinds of bluegrass -- that’s all to be found on Rhonda Vincent’s latest album Good Thing Going. Not to mention, of course, that Vincent is one of the best singers around, in bluegrass or any genre. There’s a classic country tearjerker with The Scorn of a Lover, and a gospel tinged hope filled story filled story on I Will See You Again. Lover’s Hit parade is straight up bluegrass, both fun and substance. I’m Leavin’ is a bit of the resilience, a driving Vincent original that’d be at home on a country or bluegrass playlist. A different and slightly wry take on that situation, maybe, is the story in World's Biggest Fool, which is set to a fine country swing melody. Just One of a Kind and I Gotta Start Somewhere are, in their different ways, heartfelt songs of the possibilities of love and the possibilities of change.

That's just part of the fine stuff on this collection -- and then there’s Keith Urban.

The country superstar joins Vincent for quiet, understated, and quite lovely take on the folk song The Water Is Wide. Mention must made too, of the excellent group of backing musicians who support Vincent on the project, including Hunter Berry, Ron Stewart, and Rhonda’s brother, Darrin Vincent, who also co produced the project with her.


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now playing: Rhonda Vincent: Beautiful Star