SFMS presents Tracy Grammer & Jim Henry Feb. 2, 2019 in Harrisburg, PA. An Interview with Tracy Grammer.

 Interview with Tracy Grammer by Chris Milsom

Acclaimed contemporary folk music star Tracy Grammer brings her springwater-clear alto voice, perfectly intoned violin, and percussive and delicate guitar playing to Central Pennsylvania for a Susquehanna Folk Music Society concert on Saturday, February 2, 2019, at the Fort Hunter Centennial Barn, 5300 N. Front Street, Harrisburg. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

Grammer rose to prominence as half of the “postmodern, mythic American folk” duo Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. Between 1998 and 2001, they released three internationally celebrated, chart-topping albums featuring Carter’s mytho-poetic Americana songcraft. In 2002 they toured with Joan Baez both as featured artists and as her band mates. Their rise in the music world ended in July 2002 when Carter suffered a massive heart attack and died at age 49.

Determined to honor their trajectory and keep Carter’s songs alive, Grammer stayed on the road, releasing several solo and archival recordings, including Little Blue Egg, which was the number-one most played album on folk radio in 2012 and contained that year’s number-one most played song.

She is currently touring to celebrate the release of Low Tide, her first album of original songs. Co-produced with long-time touring partner and multi-instrumentalist Jim Henry, who will appear with Grammer in the concert, the album was released January 19, 2018 on Grammer’s own label.

Concert tickets are $24 General Admission, $20 for SFMS members and $10 for students ages 3-22. Advance tickets are available at http://www.sfmsfolk.org/concerts/TracyGrammer.html or by telephone at (800) 838-3006. To learn more about Tracy Grammer visit her website at http://www.tracygrammer.com.

Recently, Tracy spent some time sharing her thoughts with Susquehanna Folk volunteer interviewer Chris Milsom.

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It occurs to me that you are about the age now that your music and life partner, Dave Carter, was when he suddenly passed away in 2002 while you were on tour together.

Yes, turning 50 was a trip.  Turning 49 was scary because I was like: this is how old he was? This is unthinkable. I feel like a spring chicken. I was only 34 when Dave died.  Then when I got to 50, it was very disconcerting, strange, and sort of tragic in its own way.  Then I thought, alright, it’s ok, I am still here, my heart is still beating.   I hadn’t realized that I had been hanging onto this fear that I was going to share the same fate for 16 years.  So, then it was like, now what? What am I going to do with the gift of my remaining years?  It seems like a small miracle that I live longer than he did.

I had this sense when I met him that he was either going to die young or live forever. It’s kind of both in a way.  He did die young but he left all this music behind and there it is, your “little tiny” contribution that will go on without you.  It’s very interesting, the whole trip.

Probably the most helpful thing anyone told me was that it took them about 5 years to start feeling like themselves again.  At first, I was like, the heck with that!  On the other hand, I relaxed into those 5 years and let it be. When I hit the 5 year mark, I checked with myself and said,” self, do you feel better now?”  I could say “yes”. I do feel like I came around.  I definitely felt like, that 5 years was a window I could work with.

I want to congratulation you on the success of your 2018 release Low Tide. It is ending up #9 for folk albums on the Folk DJ List for 2018.   I am so impressed with the powerful songs you have written and the process you took to get to those songs.   What is that you want to tell us about that?

Well, what I can say is that pain is really good for creativity.  It is such a deep well. There are so many levels to it, right?  There is the feeling level of it, you just have to sit there and feel it.  But it doesn’t have to be just pain.  If you can cultivate a curiosity about anything you are going through, there are just levels and levels of art you can make from it.  It can be any emotion or sense of wonder or boredom or grieving. This is what I am learning to do. This sort of seems to be what my life is teaching me, to just sit with whatever comes and see what it has to offer. Sort of turn it over in your hand like it is a little stone you are trying to see what it’s made of.  You hold it up to the light and get to know it, taste it and smell it and not really be in resistance because once it’s here, you can’t have it not be here.  This has been sort of my meditation.

The songs on Low Tide come from that kind of attention, to a period of time in my life when I was going through a bunch of stuff. They really have nothing to do with Dave, in spite of what some people think.  They are really more specific to a particular relationship and time.  Then there is the song about my Dad, a healing song.  (Tracy’s father died of cancer in 2013. They sometimes had a difficult relationship and he was very sick before he told her he was dying, passing away before she could see him in person)

So, just the process of sitting with things and being curious about them and letting them move you into art. That is sort of my big revelation with Low Tide, that capacity.  It is a very different relationship to my music career than singing Dave Carter songs. In that realm, I have a creative foot in it but not the same.  I make it pretty and presentable and make it alive, of course, for Dave Carter fans but it’s not quite the same as pulling from your own self as a source.  It was quite the trip, I will say that.

 I can believe that! So, you wrote these songs 4 years ago and now you are out there touring in support of this album.  I wonder as you are performing them now, how have things changed for you?  Do you feel differently about any of them now?  Do you sing them differently?  How does this move you through a place you were 4 years ago?

They do, they are starting to feel different.  Partly what happens when I am writing, I am letting stuff come through that I don’t necessarily understand.  I have a daily writing practice I have been doing forever. I write longhand for at least an hour every day.  I am really comfortable with my voice and the flow of words.  I take a playful approach to it.  When I sat down to write those songs, it was sort of like conjuring. I just let them come through.   It they sounded pretty, or made me cry a little or if they just felt right, I let them go but I didn’t necessarily understand them.  So, the process of singing them, and performing them and seeing how audiences react has really taught me what they are about.  So now, I feel like when I deliver these songs, I can go a little deeper with them.   On the surface it may seem the same as a year ago, but my feeling about them is different.   I understand myself a little better and understand my muse a little better.

I do occasionally think to myself, if you keep singing “Hole”, which is basically: I am never ever going to get married, how are you ever going find a partner?  One wonders to what extent one is casting futures one doesn’t really want by repeating the same message over and over again.  Maybe in the next batch of songs I will look at things from a different perspective.

It is very like me all my life to be just a tad tragic. I have what I call the “Blue Gene”, a depressive streak that I think I inherited from my father and grandmother.   Not so much anymore, since I turned 50 and got free of that fear of dying. The Big Exhale, ha, ha.

Well now, since you have this daily writing practice, I’m assuming you are writing more songs?  It took you 4 years to get from writing those songs to putting out Low Tide, your 11th release but the first one of your own songs.  Where are you at with your next project and how are you feeling about things?

The writing I do is not songs, it’s just flat out journaling.  It’s like a meditation.  It’s the first thing I do in the morning. After getting my latte, I sit down to write and I don’t usually remember what I write.  I am planting seeds and see it as tending my rows not knowing what may grow. I sometimes underline words as I write that I want to come back to later. I am messing around with language which I think is fun.

What I am preparing to settle into is some memoir work which has been long neglected.  I started this in 2007 after taking a memoir class, writing a chapter here and a chapter there.   I was in a writer’s group for about 4 years when I lived in Pennsylvania but stopped when I moved to Greenfield, MA.  Luckily, the success of my fall tour will allow me to take this winter off from performing so much so I can get working on this project.  I am ready to dig into my journals from 1998 up to about 2012, the 10 year mark (of Dave’s passing) and see what I’ve got.

As far as the next album is concerned, my hope is to come out with something in 2020. Low Tide is good for another national tour. I will be taking it out again in the fall. Making Low Tide was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to doing the next album.

You tour with some pretty amazing musicians and will be coming to the Susquehanna Folk Society show with Jim Henry.  What do you want us to know about him? 

I have known and played with Jim Henry since 2003. He was with me for my first big tour after Dave died.  He has been my stand by guy.  He is a fantastic multi-instrumentalist. He is also a songwriter and producer and a podcast host and just wrote a book called “50 Pro Tips for Musicians”. He can do it all, was Mary Chapin’s guitar player for a while.

Jim and I have spent so many miles and shows together, we have a really great balance. Jim is the perfect counter point to my dark side with his funny banter and good stories. Also, when he comes along, I get to play my violin more which my fans always enjoy hearing.  People can expect a lovely multi-instrument show with funny stories and a real lovely sound. Jim is a great harmony singer.  This is my preferred presentation, the duo with Jim Henry.

I was wondering about that, which format you prefer, solo, duos, or touring with a larger band?

Actually, I really like solo shows and I like touring with Jim Henry.  When you are solo, you have a slightly more intimate, more direct contact with the audience.  It’s more of a conversation. When I am with Jim Henry, it is more of a show.  We are involving the audience, also, but we have a thing that we are doing.  It’s my impression, and I could be completely wrong that the shows with Jim Henry might have a broader appeal.  Some folks like Jim’s stories, guitar players nerd out on his gear, there’s just a little more for everybody.  We have been doing it for so long that it is seamless for us and super fun.

You mentioned that with the Jim Henry shows, you get to play your violin more.  Is that your preferred instrument?

You know, I spent so many years touring, just me and my guitar that I am more up to speed on the guitar at this point, but I played violin all my life and I do love violin and of course, I played violin and mandolin with Dave.  That’s how I got my start in folk music. That’s who I was.

It will be interesting as you continue on this journey of “who am I and what am I really doing?” which instrument you will gravitate toward.  Maybe that violin will be popping up more in your future?

Well, I did buy myself a looper recently because I was starting to feel self-conscious about not playing violin on the solo tours. This way, even on the one-woman tours, I can start with guitar or the violin and play the other instrument over it, without getting all excessive about it.  I know that many people groan when they hear the word, looper, but I think there is a tasteful way to do it. I think it is a super creative tool.  I won’t be doing it on this tour, though, because I haven’t practiced with it enough yet to feel comfortable using it in a show.

I don’t like playing the violin unaccompanied and I thought this would be would be a way for me to play it more because my fans actually bought me this violin.  Yes, in 2004; I think it was the first crowd funding exercise ever.  Somebody from Michigan heard that my old violin was having problems with tone and started a Pay Pal donation site and in something like 3-6 week’s time they had raised $10,000!  So, I thought, Ok I guess I am getting a new violin. This was before Facebook. This was email.  This was really hand to hand grassroots stuff.  Now, I show up for my solo tours and my fans will ask “where is that violin we bought you?” so that is another motivation to learn the looper. It seems appropriate.

Wow! That is amazing! What a testament to you and your fans.

The last thing I wanted to ask you was about your cat, Miss Kitty, who you described in your interview with Artie Martello as a “lifesaver” for you.  Does she travel with you on your tours? 

She does! Miss Kitty went on the fall tour which lasted 6 or 7 weeks.  She is an old girl now, at almost 17. She is very content to sit in the back on her pillow. She is great in the hotels and rides on the luggage cart. She doesn’t come to the shows.  That’s a little bit too much stimulation for her.  She is a great companion and it really is quite grounding to have a little someone to take care of on the road.  You can really get lost in your head out on the road traveling by yourself.

Thanks so much for your time, Tracy.  We all look forward to seeing and hearing you in a few weeks.

 

Chris Milsom lives in Wrightsville, PA.  A bass player, dubbed Mrs. Bobby, she and her beloved singer-songwriter husband, Joe, aka Robert Bobby, performed as a duo until his death in March 2018.

 

Interview with Irish Fiddle Hero Eileen Ivers: “You Have to Keep Moving Forward.”

Eileen Ivers, a pre-eminent exponent of the Irish fiddle will perform on Friday, January 18th at 7:30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York (925 S. George St., York, PA 17403) in a concert sponsored by the Susquehanna Folk Music Society.  More information can be found on the Susquehanna Folk Music Society website HERE. Tickets are $30 General Admission, $26 for SFMS Members, and $10 for students (ages 3-22).  Tickets will be available at the door or online HERE.

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Earlier this week, Eileen chatted with SFMS staff writer Peter Winter about her roots, upcoming projects, and following your compass.

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Your parents were from Ireland and you grew up with this heritage, but it was at age eight when you finally started playing music and learning this instrument. Was it your parents’ idea or your idea to start actually learning this music and this instrument?

It was actually my decision! It was funny Peter, cause my cousin was playing the piano accordion, and there was a little something of that going on so my mom thought, “Oh maybe the piano,” which I kind of rebelled against.  And then she thought, “Maybe it’s some Irish dancing,” so I did try Irish dance for all of about two weeks, and I just didn’t like it! But I just kept asking for the violin! There was something that definitely drew me to the instrument at a very young age. There was even an aunt in the family who recalled that when I was 3 years old, she said it was funny I’d go around the little Bronx apartment playing, I guess, “air violin” with a pink plastic guitar and a wooden spoon.

That’s awesome!

So maybe there’s something there!

Did you begin learning in a more traditional violin style, or were your lessons fiddle lessons?

 Yeah, they were very much traditional Irish Fiddle lessons. Our teacher back then was Martin Mulvihill, and he taught a lot of kids around the tri city area, and around New York. He taught the button accordion, the piano accordion, flutes, whistles, it was amazing. He was from Kerry, and he just had a wonderful way about him. So it was very much in the oral tradition, and really kind of just learning by ear, and learning from him.

That’s awesome.  You’re really known for bringing together a lot of musical styles, united under this banner of Irish music. Whether it’s band members from different musical styles or utilizing African beats. You grew up in this Bronx neighborhood, in this cultural diversity, do you think growing up in the Bronx led you to want to embrace this musical diversity and bring different styles and cultures together?

 I think it may have played a part for sure Peter.  I don’t think it was the sole reason.  But I think just through the years being so immersed in traditional Irish music (and I think it’s so important to sort of ground yourself; in whatever tradition that is) and I competed through the years till the All Ireland Over 18 Senior Championship and, thankfully, I won it when I just turned 18 that summer.  To me then, it was kind of like, “that was a nice part of my life,” but there was something about just the violin as an instrument that kept drawing me to learn more, cause obviously there’s so much music that can be played on the violin.

And just being in any kind of urban city, being so fortunate to hear (which I did) the great Stephane Grappelli, or these amazing musicians who would kind of come through town and to just absorb all styles.  I was just a fan of music in general.  It was an extension that kind of came out of that.

And just a little tie into my dad, God rest him, he used to listen a lot to bluegrass music in our house growing up, and I think that was always in the back of my head so later on in life I really loved just the parallels.  Of course Irish music is hundreds and hundreds of years old, but nearly the last four centuries people have been coming to this country from Ireland, and the music certainly has had such an amazing journey, and is a big part of Americana Music, so that really drew me Peter; just to get a little bit more of a wider range out of the recorded music that I was doing and also performing…It’s a fascinating journey! It certainly keeps changing musically in the show a little bit, but it’s still all connected, so I find it very interesting.

For the past 20 years, you have been such a torchbearer for traditional Irish music, and being so connected to Irish fiddle playing, but you are also such an innovator. I don’t know how many other people are out there sending their fiddles through wah pedals, and you were certainly one of the first people to do that.  How do you balance these two idea of innovation and tradition, and how do those two concepts relate to each other for you?

Ah that’s a great question!  And thank you! It’s funny, it’s something that I’ve grown to learn that’s just part of me.  I think, like any artist, you have to be true to yourself if it’s in you to create music in that way, and even I had a moment for sure even in my 20s, where I was saying, “gosh this doesn’t feel right, you know, don’t go there, don’t go there.”  But how can you stifle creativity?  Or just the want to keep learning and keep exploring and innovate and really, truly, hopefully push the limits? The violin is an incredible instrument and can do so much and can make so many incredible sounds, from rhythm to lead, to everything; especially in emotions as well. So it just was something I said “Look, this is in my heart, I just have to do this!”

But at the same time, it wasn’t a very haphazard thing at all. It was really (and still is) a journey of discovering what can be done, but also again the connections; because I think especially being very, very, privileged to be performing this music (and to be asked to perform in many different places) it’s a huge responsibility that I feel (and I bring to the band and they certainly feel the same way) to present the music in a very thoughtful way.  Not just throwing stuff here or there, but to really lay it before an audience or in records, the thesis of it all.  This is the tradition; and if you want just purely traditional music, there’s amazing places you can go to find just maybe that, and we love to certainly ground the night in that (and I feel my music is very much grounded in that) but again to show how it’s all connected.   How it comes from this very beautiful, pure place, but, whether it be to extend it into some Cajun voicings, or some back beats of bluegrass within an arrangement, or certainly (like you said Peter) maybe loop or bring in an improvised violin solo, we get there in ways that are certainly connected.

I like to ground my playing, my thoughts, and an evening in a concert where the audience comes along for the ride.  They’re understanding, “Ok this is cool.” We’re going in these directions and hopefully at the end of it they feel a sense of maybe even learning historically about some stuff, and just kind of going into a really fun musical journey.

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So your last record, “Beyond the Bog Road,” in 2016 goes along with what we’ve been talking about.  This record explores the connection between Irish music and how it connected and led into other forms of North American Music.  I was wondering if you could speak a little about this record, and also what lead you to record it. 

Thanks Peter.  Yeah, it was a labor of love for many years honestly, because with my background it was an obvious one at the time.  I just really got into the history of the music.  I was documenting a lot of our family history.  We have a little house in Ireland that we built on my father’s land a good many years ago now. It’s something, we used to go over to Ireland every summer as a family (my dad used to work for the airlines) so that was like a huge part of the extension of our life. So [I was] kind of documenting a lot of the history, videoing an awful lot, filming, as well as then researching this.  It was a good many years of really getting into it in a really deep way.

The famine really impacted where my family is from in Ireland, and I learned so much about like incredible famine walks that were going on, [and] the relationship Ireland had with America even way before that, so it was a good kind of time to really delve into that.  I learned so much, and that really fueled the live show as well.  I’ve seen audience members really respond to that because so many know that, “Celtic music sounds familiar,” but then when they realize why, it starts to make a lot of sense. It’s cool, we do a lot of tunes still from that particular record in the program, as well as some stuff from a new record that we are just about finishing up now. It’s great, it’s exciting!

Oh Nice! Anything you can tell us about that new record?

Oh I’m so excited Peter! Yeah, it’s going to be called “Scatter The Light.” Again, I always find I kind of have to just follow the heart, it goes back to that again!  After “Beyond the Bog Road” was so heavy intellectually and ethnomusicologically with what I was doing, I started just writing some lyrics. I was getting into a lot of just composing, and realizing that they [the pieces] were connected with very powerful themes of positivity and faith.  I don’t know, I was just getting into a place where I started to see that it was certainly connected.  Even the tunes were a very happy kind of angle on things!

I still just love the art of making a CD. I love that it has to have a message (for me anyway). I like it to be unified. I think at the end of the process you start to whittle down the tracks and really say “Ok does this make a complete thought?” A complete gift, at the end of it.  We have artwork, we’re just basically halfway through mixing, so it’s really exciting.  It’s coming out very soon. It’s nice and we’ll be playing some tunes from that as well, ‘cause you can’t not do it. You have to keep moving forward!

In addition to more traditional concerts, you and your band do educational programs at schools, and other venues.  Why is that something that you make time for, and why do you think that’s important to add an educational aspect to what you do? 

Great question, and thanks for asking! I’m very passionate about that and I feel it is even somewhat of a responsibility as a traditional musician.  It’s a pure gift to be taught this tradition, and to be a part of the continuum of this wonderful living tradition.  I think that’s a great term too; the living tradition.  You’re a part of it, it comes and goes and changes, our ancestors have been playing this music and the stories that come through the music.  To try and impart that to students of music, whatever age they are, I think is a wonderful thing.  Certainly when I teach, I love to do that in [the] very pure way that I was taught the music. And then of course the wonderful deep history behind it.  When the band and I go in sometimes to even teach some master classes or just outreach programs, it’s just great to fuel these school age kids with thoughts that learning an instrument is great.  It’s a great thing to have in life, it’s just a great thing for your mind as your mind develops, and roots music especially and acoustic instruments can be very cool and very accessible. That’s a big point I try to get across in a very underpinning kind of way. Just to get that out there, that it is something.

I went through school, I was a math major in college, and I certainly knew math and music; it’s a beautiful part of the brain (I’m actually helping my son, he’s nine and a half and he’s learning the violin in school so I get to see it firsthand!). Music is a powerful thing, and you’re fans and you know, and the folk society certainly knows, it’s a big deal.  Thank you for mentioning that because I think it’s so important and it is kind of a part of what we do and I just relish the chance to do it every time I can, I just wish there was more time in the day to do more!

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You have done so many projects. Not just your own albums, but collaborations with other artists and movie soundtracks.  As you look back on your career, are there any collaborations or projects that really stand out to you as special?

 Oh Wow! A flood comes in mind as you ask that question, which is a great question.  Just a flood of thoughts.  It’s so funny.  I’m thinking about [how] somebody asked me to present a speech to some graduates, and I’m kind of contemplating a lot of that, and what can you bring to that event.  You know, I think improvising is such a powerful tool that we have as musicians, and God knows in life in general [laughs]. I think as you’re asking that question, I went to something that was an interesting one.  Bill Whelan, who was the composer of River Dance (he wrote pretty much that show) he wrote the music for this incredible film called “Some Mother’s Son.” It was about the hunger strike around 1980 in Ireland. It was a very powerful time of political turmoil of course, Bobby Sands, and all those amazing men whose story was told through this film.

Long story short, Helen Mirren was one of the incredible actors in the film, and I was asked to play on the soundtrack, but when I recorded the outro part of the film, it was in Dublin, and I saw the film on the monitor, it was solo violin over this score, it was just a very ambiguous chord structure, I think the key of C from what I recall (I think) and Bill Whelan just said into my headphones “Eileen just kind of travel and see.” and that’s sort of all the advice he gave me. And I remember the movie, I won’t give anything away, but it was incredible, and Hellen Mirren played a mother (if you ever have time Peter definitely check it out it’s incredible) and her acting was amazing and I kind of knew the story, and I was basically reacting to her acting, completely as it was happening, and not knowing what the outcome was going to be.  I was literally following her and the story as I was playing, and it was such a powerful moment for me that I did nothing but emote and play through my instrument.  I wasn’t thinking about technically anything, sometimes the nastier the sound on the violin I could create to try and feel angst; that was where I went to.  It was a really wonderfully freeing experience of trying to emote through an incredible actress and an incredible story. And that was probably one of the moments that I, if you want to say collaboratory, I just felt humbled to be a player in this amazing scenario.  And I just was exhausted after.  Oh my God, I was very emotional, and I think the guys in the booth were too [laughs]! I just heard them in the cans “Thanks Eileen.”  It was a cool moment.

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That’s great.  Thank you so much for your time! I have one more question.  This is kind of a broad one. I think it’s been a really interesting time from when traditional Irish music was in the 90s, to where we are in 2019.  Does anything jump out at you as to how Traditional Irish music has changed over the past 20 or so years or to how the perception of trad Irish music has changed?

 Yeah, great question again! Loaded question.  Probably we could talk for an hour about it!  To try and kind of whittle it down, let’s see. And even you say 20 years, and I think you’re being very kind Peter, because I’ve been playing this for so, so long and performing out of my college days in the late 80s, and really kind of digging in, and being on…the precipice of so many new ideas, and thankfully some records that were kind of groundbreaking in the tradition, and I say [that] humbly because at the time it just felt like the right thing to do.

Just following that compass.

Right, exactly.  To be told by the next generation of players who are really out there right now doing it as well, that certain records and certain things have shaped them as players and even performers, I mean that again is incredibly humbling.  So I think what the body of work that we’ve been doing (“we” meaning me and the people who have come up with me) and of course [we] always build on those before us.  I always have to say that right? It is so important that that timeline is maintained.  There’s just so much there, and it has changed.

I think just a couple quick ways in my mind would be the elevation of the technical prowess in the players is just incredible.  And yet there’s emotion, thank God.  There’s still emotion in their playing.  And a lot of them are very thoughtful, they do know that this is a continuum and it’s not about being self centered but it’s truly an art and we’re part of a much bigger picture you know?  I think that’s really wonderful.  And just the arrangements and the chord structures are getting much more full of dimension and thought and I love that! You know the Michael Coleman days of the 1920s when he’s playing the tune and there’s certain chord changes that were obvious but the piano player would just be hanging on a G chord [laughs]!

He would have no idea what was happening!

Those days are really gone and a hundred years from that even, there’s a lot more to it. Also I love to say the performance of it.  Because I think when you’re asked to perform, it is a performance; you don’t put your head down, you’re not in a circle.  Part of Irish music is being social, being in a corner of a house or a pub and just enjoying each other and the music. You’re not performing in that situation.  I think that when you’re asked to perform, you have to perform! You have to put thought into it, you have to put arrangements, you want to chat with the audience, and I think bring them along for the ride of what it is! Instrumental music, it’s good to have some background on some things as well! I think that’s really important, and I think a lot of the musicians and bands are really, really taking note of that.  I think that’s really important and fantastic, to bring it up to that higher bar.

Well Eileen this has been an absolute blast! Thanks for taking time out of your schedule to talk with me!

Absolutely my friend! It was a joy! Thanks for great questions! It was fun!

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Peter Winter lives in Harrisburg where he writes, teaches music, plays in the Celtic group Seasons, and DJs. He is on instagram