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| Grateful Dead - Reckoning |
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| Phish - Junta |
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| Yvonne Casey - Yvonne Casey |
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| Tommy Guerrero - Lifeboats and Follies |
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| Ween - The Mollusk |
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| My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves |
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| John Prine - John Prine |
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| Grant Green - Blue Breakbeats |
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| Tony Rice - Manzanita |
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| Merle Haggard - Back to the Barrooms |
If I was going to focus on one style of music to play it would have to be Irish music. In fact, I've come to the conclusion that Irish music might be the only choice for me. I'll be moving to the Portland, Oregon area in a few months and in anticipation of that I've been trying to get back into playing Irish tenor banjo. I haven't played much Irish music since 2018 but it's starting to come back. Here are some reasons why I think Irish music is/was the right choice in the first place and will the best choice going forward.
All Melody All The Time
If you play one of the melody instruments, such as I do, then in most situations you just play the melody in unison with the other instruments doing the same thing. You don’t have to solo or play chords. You just play the tune…same as the violin, tin whistle, concertina, accordion, flute, et cetera.
No Chords or Soloing
I’ve tried and failed to learn chords many times over. I will never be a New Orleans style tenor banjo player. I completely understand how chords are formed from a theory perspective, but that doesn’t mean that I know what the chord changes should be for any song in the world. So, it’s a relief not having to think about chords at all. Also, I have no interest in soloing like people do in bluegrass or jazz, therefore it’s another relief that in traditional Irish music you don’t have to ever solo.
My Instrument is one of the Instruments
I play tenor banjo. There are two main styles of music that the tenor banjo is a part of: New Orleans jazz and Irish trad. Of those two, Irish trad is the only viable option for me. While the banjo is often made fun of, it is also generally considered an acceptable instrument for participating in an Irish session. More accepted than showing up with a saxophone would be.
A Welcoming Community
If you understand the etiquette and how to interact with others, then your local Irish trad community can be a fairly built-in social group to be a part of. It’s a pretty insular crew and once you prove yourself to not be completely ignorant you are usually made to feel welcome simply because of your common interest. It’s sometimes more about your ability to hang than it is about your ability to play.
A Common Repertoire
Once you become familiar with the repertoire, the style, and the etiquette, you can pretty much go to any open Irish session and find common ground. At least that’s been my experience. Especially sessions that are accepting of learners/beginners.
The Music is Available in Tab and Notation
Those who can pick up tunes by ear definitely have an advantage, but the music to any well known Irish tune is going to be available for free online. You can usually also find it in mandolin tab, which works for Irish tenor banjo. Plus, it’s easy to find audio examples of almost any tune several times over so that you never have to just rely on the audio alone or the notation alone.
A Variety of Time Signatures and Rhythms
It’s not just 4/4 time. There are also jigs, slip jigs, polkas, and slides. Barn dances, marches, and hornpipes have a different feel as well. You cover a decent variety that way and get to play in time signatures that some genres completely ignore.
Play Alone or in a Group Setting
In Irish music the tune is the tune. One instrument playing the tune makes it complete. So it’s a great style of music for the hobbyist who plays tunes at home by themself. Of course in a group setting you have to listen closely and keep time with the other instruments, but what you played or learned at home by yourself (should) easily translate when playing along with other people.
Non-Performance
Irish music is often played in public settings, but having participated in this environment I can tell you it doesn’t feel the same as performing for an audience on a stage as part of a band. For the part that I’m able to play along with - the instrumental tunes - the circle would be doing it the same whether there was anyone listening or not. The occasional song might break out and that may be the closest it gets to a performance, but in that case I am going to be sitting back and taking a break from playing. It’ll never be me signing the song!
The Tunes Themselves are the Practice
Once you get the basics down, the practice can be as simple as learning the tunes and building up speed playing them. There’s no need to work through a bunch of scales, etudes or exercises. In Irish music the learning and playing of the tunes usurps these other forms of preparation.
The Limitation of it Being a Specific Thing
There’s something to be said about limitations. Within the world of Irish music, there are hundreds of tunes you could learn, but for the most part a reel is a reel, a jig is a jig, and so on. It becomes less overwhelming when you view it as a specialty and hone in on the traditional repertoire. I can finally say "I play Irish tenor banjo" and leave it at that.
It’s Fairly Entry Level - You can be self taught
Some might disagree, but the fact that I can play it is proof that it is fairly entry level. It’s pretty much the only “genre” or option that I have for playing music. Anything else would be out of my depth, but Irish music I can kind of grasp. And yes, I’ve had some lessons but really for the most part you can learn it all yourself. It doesn’t require an understanding of music theory or even how to read music. In my case, I like to look at the music and I like knowing about modes such as Dorian and Mixolydian, but you don’t need any of that to play the music.
AABB - Consistent Structure
There might be hundreds of tunes, but many of them follow an AABB structure, meaning a two-part tune. Play the A-part (first part) twice and then play the B-part (second part) twice. 16 bars each. Twice through the A-part and twice through the B-part equals one time through the tune. Play through the tune a total of three times and there you have it. I think this consistency stems from the music being of service to dancers who require this format.
It’s Non-Electric
No fussing with cables, pedals, amplifiers, microphones and so on. You just play your instrument!
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The Necks - Travel
U2 - Songs of Surrender
Circles Around the Sun - Language
Arbor Labor Union - Yonder
Leftover Salmon - Grass Roots
Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, and Rakesh Chaurasia - As We Speak
John "Jojo" Hermann - It's Complicated
Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids - Afro Futuristic Dreams
Oteil Burbridge - Lovely View of Heaven
I can't say that I have a clear overall favorite out of this group. Any one of the nine at a certain point could have been the front runner.
Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly (11/13)
A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand (11/27)
Memories of the Body by Lisa Tuttle (10/10)
Bride of the Tornado by James Kennedy (10/21)
The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (10/24)
Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh (10/30)
The Richmond Folk Festivals was this past weekend. Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I didn't go down to the festival on Friday. I regret that a little bit, but I certainly made up for it on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday started off rainy and cloudy, but that didn't bother me one bit because I dressed for the weather and I also know that rain means less of a crowd. It wasn't crowded at all during the time I was there on Saturday.
On Saturday we started off at the Center for Cultural Vibrancy Virginia Folklife Stage to see Virginia Meets the Virgin Islands. This talk/demo paired the St. Croix band Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights with the female Virginia gospel quartet The Legendary Ingramettes. This was a wonderful way to start things off.
After getting some food and checking out a few minutes of the Hindustani violinist Kala Ramnath, we headed back over to the Virginia Folklife Stage for the Piedmont blues guitarist Gail Caesar. Gail was kind of shy and subdued on stage but her talent was apparent.
Then it was over to the Altria Stage for a full performance by Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights. The Altria Stage is the main stage with the biggest capacity, but it's also uncovered open-air so I think people were choosing other stages over this one during the part of day where it was raining. We got right up front for what felt like a rare opportunity to see a quelbe or scratch band from the U.S. Virgin Islands. This is a type of music that I have a particular interest in. It was excellent and we stayed for the whole set.
Once that was done, we went back once again to the Virginia Folklife stage for a performance that ended up being incredibly good. It was billed as "Danny Knicely and Chao Tian - Appalachian traditions with Chinese dulcimer". What I didn't realize was that there would also be a tabla player plus a guitarist and bassist. Chao Tian was featured on an extended solo improvisation that was mesmerizing. The Chinese dulcimer sounded great on fiddle tunes, but they did some full band Chinese tunes as well. Danny closed the set with a John McGlaughlin piece which was a showcase for the tabla. I was blown away.
It was getting to be 4pm now so we went back over to the Altria Stage for local Richmond salsa band Bio Ritmo's Folk Fest debut. Bio Ritmo has been around for 30 years so finally performing at the Richmond Folk Festival seemed like a big deal for them. It took a while to get the ten piece band set up but they started hot and never let up. The rain had stopped and I actually saw blue sky for a moment during Bio Ritmo's set. Unfortunately we called it quits for the day after this. I would have loved to have stayed longer but we needed to get home to our dogs and I wasn't sure if I was going to have a parking ticket. I didn't, thankfully.
Sunday was chilly and windy but no rain. I expected it to be packed on Sunday but it wasn't too bad. It seems like they've made improvements on logistics and getting around from stage to stage. This was the day for seeing groups we hadn't seen the day before, so I had a fairly precise itinerary planned out and still some decisions to be made. We started Sunday with State of the Ozarks String Band on the CoStar Group Stage over on Brown's Island. It's been a while since I've heard old-time fiddling, so I enjoyed this set a lot. I particularly liked the guitar and 3-finger banjo accompaniment.
After that we went over to the Altria Stage for Grupo Mono Blanco, a band from Veracruz which is a Mexican state along the Gulf of Mexico. That might explain why it had a little islandy sound to it. We had to cut that set a little short to go back to Brown's Island to catch the Native American Smoke Dancers (Haudenosaunee social dance). They had three little ones dancing with them. It felt very special.
At 2pm we had a dilemma because Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band were on one stage, while Michael Cleveland and Flamekeeper were going to be on another. We started with Baba Commandant but only stayed for a couple songs because there would be another opportunity to see them later in the day, but this was the last chance to see Michael Cleveland. It was a quick walk over to the Altria Stage to catch the last half of Michael Cleveland's set and boy did he and his band not disappoint. That was some top notch bluegrass!
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| Lutchinha, performing on the Altria Stage |
It was hard to decide what to see next, but we stayed at the Altria Stage for the 3pm performance by Lutchinha, a band that plays Cabo Verdean music. Cabo Verde is an African island in the Atlantic ocean where they speak Portuguese, and the music is a perfect blend of those cultures. I had not researched this band and wasn't sure what to expect. I couldn't really put a finger on it but I loved every minute. We had back up plans in place but ended up staying for the entire set and actually missed some other 3:00pm/3:30pm things that I maybe wanted to see. It was worth it though.
When that was done we went to the Folklife stage for the first and only time that day and saw Rodney Stith play his classic soul music. He had a superb band with him, both singers and instrumentalists. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this set.
Now it was getting to be 5pm, when each stage has its last performance of the festival. It was time to choose and we went with Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band over Cyril Neville. This was a tough call, but having gotten a taste of Baba Commandant earlier in the day I knew that I wanted to see their full set and this time it was going to be in the Dominion Energy Dance Pavilion. Even better! Usually I go to the Dominion Energy Dance Pavilion a lot, but this was the only time all weekend that we saw a set there.
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| Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band Dominion Energy Dance Pavilion with a guest sitting in on trumpet |
Baba Commandant was a great way to finish off a great weekend of music. Their guitarist is awesome. I love that African style of guitar. The bassist kicked total butt. The drummer was bad ass, and Baba Commandant himself seemed to be channeling some kind of inner spirit. We ended up right at the front of the stage and the energy was intense. Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band is like a band you'd go see in a night club on tour.
I'm writing this the next morning, feeling a little bit funky from all the over consumption of food and drink over the weekend. It's always bittersweet when the Folk Festival is over. It almost brings a tear to my eye. Over and done with in what felt like a blink. Every single band and musician we saw was good this year. No duds whatsoever. I wish there was another day but it's time to move on and get on with the week.
