Let’s wander down to the Green Man mailroom. Spike’s feeling a little queasy. As you might be aware, Spike’s helping me clean up the Green Man music library on this very, very rainy afternoon as it’s rather quiet this afternoon in the Pub. And if you know that, you also are aware that we’ve been deciding what to so with hundreds of unwanted singer-songwriter CDs. (Spike calls ’em shit on a shingle. I kid you not.) Unfortunately, he decided that we should at least listen to a few of them before tossing them. Bad mistake. So now he’s demanding some truly good music to help him forget how bad they were. (I knew how bad they were — shudder!) So let’s see what we can find… Ahhh, there’s one to take that taste of bad music out of Spike’s mouth!
I’ve seen the Irish group Lunasa three, maybe four, times over the past few years, as they’ve toured extensively on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Right now, Cat’s waiting for a CD-R from Paul Brandon of a concert from their Australian tour. (Paul’s forthcoming novel on Tor is called The Wild Reel, and it’s set in his native Brisbane.) A number of us here at the office are looking forward to hearing it when it arrives!
Green Man has reviewed all of the previous Lunasa CDs, which should not surprise you as this is a group that deserves all the attention it gets. Yes, they are that good. In their own way, their grasp of Irish music matches that of the legendary Moving Hearts, especially in their ability to use traditional music without getting too stuffy. And the compositions penned by the group members are just as cool as the trad material they use! Redwood, according to the liner notes, ‘was conceived during a band break at Matt Greenhill’s ranch near Occidental, California in October 2001. We wanted to capture the live impact of Lunasa, without losing the sonic quality that we always endeavor to achieve on our albums. We checked out a few studios in the area and happened upon the renowned Prairie Sun Studios in Cotati. We booked ourselves in for ten days in the middle of our February 2002 U.S. tour. It was a wonderful and unique experience and we hope you enjoy the result.’
No doubt ‘tall that all of us will as this is superb.
Now understand that I’ve never been able to tell that there’s even a scintilla of difference between a specific set of tunes played live by this group and the same set on one of their CDs. There are sets that they have not yet recorded, i.e. according to Cat, the CD-R that Paul Brandon’s sending of their very first gig in Australia (with Crawford) includes a set called ‘The Jamaican Reels’, which has not appeared on any of their CDs to date. What’s also missing from the CDs is the amazingly funny patter that Kevin Crawford does between numbers. Usually I detest this sort of chatter, but he does it so well that he could charm the garter off a maiden in no time ‘tall. And a few of the lasses at the concerts where I’ve seen him would most willingly allow that to happen!
A page now gone as Green Linnett for Redwood laid out their impressive credentials rather well: ‘Bassist Trevor Hutchinson was a key member of The Waterboys, and later he with guitarist Donogh Hennessy would form the dynamic rhythm section of The Sharon Shannon Band. Fiddler Seán Smyth is an All-Ireland champion who has played with Alan Kelly and Dónal Lunny’s Coolfin; Kevin Crawford, considered one of the finest flutists in Ireland, was a founding member of Moving Cloud; and uilleann piper Cillian Vallely has toured with Paddy O’Brien’s Chul Rua, Clare fiddler Seamus Connolly and Riverdance.’ Ahhh, so the fiddler was in Coolfin, eh? That, in part, explains the more than passing feel the group has to Moving Hearts! (Points to you punters who know the connection between Coolin and Moving Hearts. Correct guesses without looking it up or calling down to the session at you favourite pub to get the answer, get a pint of Autumn Ale on me. Wrong guesses get to explain how Simon Jeffe’s ‘Music for a Found Harmonium’ became part of Irish music.)
Ok, so you want to know how good this album is. Perfect, simply perfect. An essential part of an Irish music collection. Hell, the group’s last release, The Merry Sisters of Fate, was winner of the INDIE AWARD for Best Celtic Album of the Year from the Association for Independent Music! What more do you need to know?!?
Tick… Tock… Still here? Damn, I thought that Spike and me could at last drink in peace as you’d be off to purchase it. Oh, do note that you can purchase directly from Green Linnet.
There are twelve lovely cuts here — ‘Cregg’s Pipes’, ‘Welcome Home’, ‘Harp and Shamrock’, ‘Fest Noz,’, ‘Spoil the Dance’, ‘A Stor Mo Croi’, ‘Dublin to Dingle’, ‘Lady Ellen’, ‘Cotati Nights’, ‘Two-Fifty to Vigo’, and ‘Temple Hill’. Now these are shorthand for sets of tunes, so ‘Cregg’s Pipes’ is actually the set ‘Cregg’s Pipes’ / ‘Uist Reel’ / ‘John Doherty’s’. These are all trad, but much of what’s on a Lunasa album ’tisn’t ‘tall trad. Oh, stop wrinkling your bloody noses. Kevin and company write in the idiom better than most anyone else composing Irish neo-traditional music these days. (Stephen Brust in his not terribly good novel, Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grill did say something terribly insightful ’bout trad music: ‘ The more astute among you may notice that many of the above songs are labeled ‘Traditional,’ which is supposed to mean that they grew out of the ground, as it were, and appeared without the intervention of human beings in their creation. Others have the names of authors, which is supposed to mean that no one else has ever modified a melody note or a word, and that these songs must be performed precisely as transcribed, otherwise they aren’t authentic.’) It may not be traditional as defined by te tighter-arsed member of your local session, but to me ear they are just fine.
The rest of us are going to listen to the rest of Redwood while we drink a few more pints of Autumn Ale here in the Kitchen of Kinrowan Hall next to this cozy fire. Why the Kitchen, you ask? Simple — only live music from the players in the Neverending Session is allowed in the Pub.
(Green Linnet, 2003)
