Ireland's Music: The Small Hours: Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

Dun Chaoin, in the Dingle peninsula in West Kerry, is a place where sea meets land and light and mountainside. It is a place where legend meets story meets present day. It is an area known for its rugged beauty, deep connection with history, a place where Irish is spoken as much, if not more, than English, and music in both languages is part of the conversation. Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh grew up there. Whether she is offering music from close to home or far way, West Kerry is a landscape you hear in her music.

Most often you hear her music in collaboration with other artists, particularly with her band mates in the top traditional band Danu, where Nic Amhlaoibh is the singer and has played flutes and whistles as well for going on a decade now. The members of Danu come from different parts of Ireland. One of the things that strengthens their sound as a band is that they take time to work in individual projects. Nic Amhlaoibh’s second solo recording, Ar Uair Bhig An Lae - The Small Hours, finds her exploring songs from nearby along with several which have caught her ear during her travels.

“Upon my return home to west Kerry at the stat of summer 2012, it was clear that I was returning to the wellspring, as songs started to come at me from all sides!” she writes in the album’s notes. One such is An Chiurach Bhleinfhionn, a song which may, it turns out, have been written about the location where she now lives. There are songs in Irish from West Kerry, from Cork, from the words of one of Ireland’s most famous female poets, songs which Nic Amhlaoibh learned from friends and neighbors along the way. There are songs in English as well. On tour in New Zealand Nic Amhlaoibh met Australian songwriter Kate Burke and has included her song Gold Hills, which fits in well in both word and idea with the songs in Irish. “I’m not really thinking about switching between languages, I’m thinking about the song when I’m working out what to sing,” she says. “But now that I’ve been at this for a while, and have had a few years to think about it, I see I’m almost a representative of the language, and in that sense I’m very proud to be able to sing in Irish, and if it gets people more interested in it, I’m very happy about that. There’s a great musicality to it, and I think people respond to that, whether they’re understanding the words or not.”

Nic Amhlaoibh herself has long been drawn to American bluegrass, so she has included a song from folk and bluegrass musician Tim O’Brien, which is called Another Day. It speaks of life and generations going on and the song living on after the singer, an idea which resonates through traditional music and fits well with the stories told in the other songs on the recording.

Nic Amhlaoibh’s own music began as a young child. She was drawn to music, but her father, a fiddler, could not get her interested in his instrument. She liked flutes and whistles, though, and followed her interest in singing, learning from tradition bearers around her in West Kerry. “You don’t really study sean nos singing,” she says of the bedrock style of Irish traditional singing. “You’re given the song, the words and the melody, and you’re expected to listen really well.”

From that beginning, too, you are expected to find your own way and your own place with a song. That is an approach which allows Nic Amhlaoibh to serve the spirit of these songs as she brings her own ideas to them. This is nowhere more clear -- or more beautifully done -- than in Cois na Abhann na Sead, which is known as River of Gems in English, and with The Bold Fenian Men, a story drawn from the history of Ireland which many have recorded, but none better than that which you’ll find on Ar Uair Bhig An Lae - The Small Hours.

The album was recorded in West Kerry with engineering by Ivan O'Shea and Donogh Hennessy. Among those backing Nic Amhlaoibh on the recording are Oisin McAuley on fiddle and Billy Mag Fhloinn on bodhran.

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my apologies to the Irish speakers here: I am writing on a computer which doesn’t allow for fadas -- and if you are wondering what those may be, they are diacritical marks, accent marks, used in Irish

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Autumn Celebrations: gift ideas

Autumn: with the turning of seasons come times for gathering with friends, family celebrations, planning for a celebrating holidays large and small, travels, time for quiet reflection -- and time for music.

Music makes a fine companion for any of these activities, whether you are looking for holiday gifts to give or music for yourself to listen to. Are you preparing for those big holidays -- Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice? It’s never too early. The small circumstances are just as worthy of celebration, as well. Gifts to give and gifts to receive: here are musical ideas for you to explore early in this holiday season:

Cathie Ryan’s recording Through Wind and Rain will make a fine gift for those who enjoy good stories thoughtfully told, as Ryan traces a journey through the dark and light of life with always thread of hope and resilience and faith weaving into the tales. She is first generation Irish American. She has spent time living in both countries, and makes music that respects and connects them, offered with voice and style which invite listeners in. Every song is a keeper, and sequenced in a journey worth the following. If you’ve just a short time to check out the music, though, standout tracks include Fare Thee Well, Mo Nion O, and In the Wishing Well.

Kathy Mattea knows a thing or two about storytelling, too. On Calling Me Home, the country Grammy winner and West Virginia native follows her calling to the heart of mountain music, songs sung in her own way which add to the tradition she respects. This, too, is an album where it is really worth following the sequence as it’s told. If you want to take a quick listen, though, try A Far Cry, The Wood Thrush’s Song, and Hello, My Name Is Coal.

Tim O’Brien is one of the guests on Mattea’s album, and he’s also teamed up with old friend Darrell Scott for a rockin; ramblin’ hot pickin’ set of of country blues, bluegrass, Americana songs. recorded live at the Grey Eagle in Asheville, North Carolina. In a nod to the duo’s wry humor, it’s called We're Usually A Lot Better Than This.Standout tracks include Mick Ryan’s Lament, Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning, and White Freightliner Blues.

Singer Mary Jane Lamond and fiddle player Wendy MacIsaac make a fine duo as well, joining forces to bring a collection of music from Cape Breton in Atlantic Canada on Seinn an album that shares the tang of salt spray and the mystery of Maritime forests, and honors the dance based fiddle music of the place along with its long heritage of Scottish Gaelic culture. Two standout cuts are Keeping Up with Calum and Seudan a’ Chuain/Jewels of the Ocean.

As the autumn and winter season unfolds, treat yourself to listening to these, and stay tuned here along the music road for holiday gift suggestions to come -- and check out our archives too!

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holiday gift list: Irish music

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Songwriters gather in Minnesota

It has been ten years since top Nashville based songwriter Jon Vezner first came across the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, Minnesota. A Minnesota native himself, Vezner found that the school's setting in historic buildings on the shore of Lake Superior and its mission resonated with his life and the way he approaches writing his songs. That mission is to enrich lives and build community by teaching traditional northern crafts, and to use heritage crafts as a way connect past, present, and future. So the idea for benefit concerts was born.

Ten years on, there’s a celebration called Northern Harvest coming up on 15, 16,17, and 18 September, with performances by many artists you’ve met here along the music road. In addition to Vezner, those include his fellow Minnesota native Sally Barris, also a top songwriter whose work has been recorded by many artists in country music, and well known folk and Americana musician John Gorka. Top notch guitarist and composer Bill Cooley will be there, along with Grammy winning singers and songwriters Tim O’Brien and Kathy Mattea. Cathie Ryan, whose thoughtful and thought provoking original songs which draw on her Irish American heritage are one of the reasons she has been honored as Irish Voice of the Decade, will join in as well.

Grand Marais is about half way between Duluth, Minnesota, to the south, and Thunder Bay, Ontario, to the north, and it’s a trip well worth the making. If you’ll not be making it out to the shows, however, there’s an especially nice touch: while they are all gathered in Grand Marais, Vezner, Mattea, O’Brien, Barris, Cooley, and Ryan will join up to share their music at a taping for the public radio show Mountain Stage. The show will be broadcast nationally in the US at a later date with excerpts available online by pod cast at that time as well. For more details on when the show will be available, keep an eye on the Mountain Stage web site.

Meanwhile, go explore the North House Folk School web site too. Just looking at the photographs will take you there, and there’s plenty to learn and explore.
Classes are are offered on timber framing, basket making, quilting, northern ecology, and many more subjects, with, as the school’s mission says, an intention to inspire hand, heart, and mind.


photographs of Kathy Mattea, Bill Cooley, and Cathie Ryan were taken with kind permission of the artists (in Nashville, Glasgow, and Portland respectively) are and copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.

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Music Road: Kathy Mattea: Coal
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and

Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday.

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Bagpipes & bluegrass: Outlands from Fred Morrison

Train Journey North is the set which opens Fred Morrison album Outlands. You may be tempted to think the bagpipes on this sound rather like a train’s whistle, which may or may not be intentional, and may or may not endear the set to you. In any case, hang on and stay along for the ride:

Morrison is one of Scotland’s most creative pipers, and he’s brought along four men who are equally well known for their readiness to take music in directions it has not gone before. From Scotland guitarist and fiddler Matheu Watson sits in, as does the ever creative bodhran player Martin O’Neill, whose work you met most recently along the music road with Julie Fowlis. From the United States come banjo ace Ron Block whom you might know from his work with Alison Krauss and Union Station, and Grammy winning songwriter and string wizard Tim O'Brien.

It’s not about their credentials, of course, it is about the music they make together here. Morrison’s idea was to take on connections between bluegrass and highland pipes and whistles. It is no academic exploration, either. It is rather a collection of sets which join original and traditional tunes which connect with rhythms which might find themselves at home in either style. The title track, Outlands, starts off with what might be a bluegrass hoedown and travels over to a ceilidh in the highlands before it is done. Leaving Uist finds Morrison taking up the low whistle and joining with O’Neill and Watson for a spare set which paints the distinct landscape of the western isle. O’Neill’s bodhran again helps set the scene as he opens the appropriately named Drumcross set, and Morrison’s low whistle leads in to the haunting tune Nameless, and he takes up the reel pipes for the quiet Seonaiidh’s Tune set

There are ten sets in all, each equally varied and interesting. If you’re expecting highland pipes and whistles, it’s not quite that. if you;re expecting bluegrass, it’s not that either. It is fine listening that honors and extended both traditions.

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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.

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Saturday Sessions: Tim O'Brien on songwriting

Grammy winner Tim O'Brien has always been interested in history. His music has include bluegrass, blues, folk, country, and swing, and he has investigated his family's Irish background in song too.

About songwriting, he says, "I have various ways I go at it. The main way for me though is to work on, to study on, topics. I read a lot, or I watch movies, or whatever it is, or observe a lot of times over a lot of years. Then all of a sudden I get a way into something, a way to put something I've been interested in all those years into a song. It's usually some sort of phrase that sings right, what my English teacher called prosody."

This is part of an ongoing series here at Music Road. Join us on Saturdays for ideas from your favorite musicians about teaching, learning, and creating music.

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Music Road: words and music, continued

A quick way to support Music Road: you could

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Four ideas: songwriting

* Have a conversation. “I wouldn’t want to co-write with somebody I couldn’t have a good conversation with,” says Grammy award winner Tim O'Brien. Tim O’Brien, The nashville based bluegrass, country, and old time jack of all instruments adds, “Listening to conversations is a good way to get song ideas.”

*Go fishing. Boston based bluesman Chris Smither says, “I don’t always write everyday, but I spend some time in my writing mind, my writing head, every day. It’s like fishing: you have to keep your line out there in the water...”

*Take a nap. “That sounds so bogus,” says Gretchen Peters,
whose songs have ben recorded by Faith Hill, Patty Loveless, George Strait, and others. “But when a song a isn’t working, taking a nap is the best thing. I wake up, and a lot of times the solution in right there.”

*Make space. Irish American singer and songwriter Cathie Ryan says “Songs come in all different ways, of course. I had the song In My Tribe come all at once, while I was out hiking in Monument Valley. .I think the reason it came that way is that I was away from all the cell phones and schedules and business you often have to deal with as a musician.”

What are your best tips on the creative process? and do you enjoy this sort of article? please comment below, and thanks.

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now playing: Tim O'Brien: Chameleon

Chameleon

The most compelling song on Tim O’Brien’s new CD may just be one that comes from really ancient roots -- the cry of the peddler selling wares that’s echoed across time and space and musical form for centuries. O’Brien gets at all that in a song called Menga’s, inspired by his memory of the call of a man who sold vegetables in his neighborhood while he was growing up. But there's something much more ancient going on the there, from the cry of the griot in Africa to the chant of O’Brien’s ancestors in Donegal to the current day melting pot called American folk music.

There’s lots of other good stuff on the record, too. Some of it includes O’Brien’s dry humor, Get Out There and Dance, for example, and some his understanding of traditional music, as To the Garden and Hoss Race, in very different ways. The man can do narrative that holds through changes and images, too: take a listen to Father Forgive Me.

Although he often performs live that way,this is the first time O’Brien’s recorded an album that’s just the man and his instruments. fiddle, mandolin, guitar, bouzouki, and voice. Worth listening to just for that aspect, too, although the stories in the songs will grab you and keep you thinking as well.

Now playing: NewGrange: Christmas Heritage

The music on A Christmas Heritage from Newgrange plays out like an evening among friends during a quiet winter snowfall -- rising and falling, dark and light, laughter and silences, ideas reflecting the spirit of Christmas, the changes of solstice, the promise of spring, and the connections of conversation.

The players who made this are in fact friends, though they don’t often get the chance to play together. There’s Philip Aaberg on piano, Mike Marshall on mandolin, Darol Anger on fiddle, Todd Phillips on bass, Alison Brown on banjo, and Tim O’Brien on vocal and mandolin. Doesn’t matter if you know these musicians’ work, really. They are all A list players, creators and innovators in acoustic music, and here, while doing that, they are also friends together sharing holiday music. Tracks include Greensleeves, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Gypsy Winter, On a Quiet Night, and Go Tell It on the Mountain.

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now playing: Tim O'Brien: The Crossing

Tim O’Brien is a fine singer, songwriter, and player of all sorts of stringed instruments in the country and bluegrass style. He’s from West Virginia, based now in Nashville, after some years some years in Colorado. His family came to America from Cavan and from Donegal, in Ireland, The Crossing is the first of several albums in which O’Brien considers that ancestral experience in real time, as events which happened to real people and stories of their lives, the risks they took and joys they celebrated. It’s a very fine album on its own and a real necessity for anyone interested in Irish and Irish American history to explore.
The Crossing

Now playing: Tm O'Brien takes on Dylan

Red on Blonde

Tim O’Brien takes Dylan to bluegrass and bluegrass to Dylan, all the while bringing new light to the music. Some often covered and widely known songs including Farewell Angelina, Forever Young, and Masters of War, quite a bit of lesser known material too. O’Brien opens with Senor, a Tex bluegrass searcher on the road rendition that fits nicely with his yet to come (at the time he recorded this) projects such as Traveler and The Crossing. And imagine Subterranean Homesick Blues with a bluegrass band vibe if you will...This is one of those albums which works powerfully as trip from one track to another, and yet allows each cut to stand strongly on its own as well.This is also a man who makes sense of poetry -- someone else’s poetry -- and knows whereof he sings.

O’Brien considers his Irish ancestry onThe Crossing

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