Interview with Oisín Mac Diarmada of Téada: “When it comes together for performers and audience, it is a very special connection and occasion!”

The celebrated band from Ireland, Téada, will be bringing a host of energetic traditional Irish tunes and songs to The Studio, Appell Center for the Performing Arts in York on Sunday, March 6th in an event sponsored by the Susquehanna Folk Music Society. More information and official SFMS Covid Safety Policies can be found on the Susquehanna Folk Music Society website. Tickets for the concert are $24 General Admission, $20 for SFMS Members, and $10 for students (ages 3-22).  Tickets will be available at the door or online.

Téada is a renowned band from Ireland that has been playing and recording albums for 21 years. Téada was founded in 2001 by Sligo fiddler Oisín Mac Diarmada along with button accordion player Paul Finn. They’re joined by Seán Gavin on flute and uilleann pipes and Patrick Doocey on guitar. This acclaimed band has toured the world and has played at prominent festivals including Milwaukee Irish Fest, Edmonton Folk Festival, Temple Bar TradFest, Shetland Folk Festival, the Rainforest World Music Festival, and many others. In 2014, the band performed to 40,000 people during an extensive 7-week tour of Japan and Taiwan. This spring, Téada will be releasing their sixth album. SFMS Staff Writer Mary-Grace Autumn Lee had the chance to chat with Téada’s fiddle player, Oisín Mac Diarmada about touring, recording, and stories the band has gathered along the way.

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How did Téada first come about?

Téada is 21 years on the road this year and time sure flies when you are having fun! The band grew out of an album project I was asked to do back in 2000 which included some of my great musical friends. There was no grand plan to start a band and tour the world, but momentum grew from the recording and subsequent gigs and the project had evolved into Téada by 2001. Initially the band had a string focus in terms of instrumentation – hence the band name which translates from Irish (Gaelic) as ‘strings’. America has always been a huge part of the heartbeat of Téada, providing us with great support and encouragement since our debut tour in June 2001, and we are always thrilled to return, albeit with a few more grey hairs then we had back at the beginning!  

Téada has performed around the world at many acclaimed festivals. What are some things you have experienced from traveling to different countries and performing for people of different cultures?

Sharing your culture with people around the world is a really great privilege, which I become even more aware of as time passes. There is such a welcome in so many parts of the world for Irish culture and we are blessed that people without a direct connection to Ireland can feel such affection for our music, song and dance. It is definitely one of the most fulfilling aspects of what we do as a profession, to be able to connect with people from such a variety of places and get a glimpse into their cultures and life experiences. One of the highlights for me was a 7-week Téada tour of Japan & Taiwan 2014, which was eye-opening in terms of getting to experience such a different culture to our own.

Téada is releasing their sixth album this coming spring. Would you mind sharing a little bit of the process of creating the album?  How does the band collect and arrange tunes?

Our new album – Coiscéim Coiligh (As The Days Brighten) – will be released very shortly on Gael Linn Records. The title is an old Irish (Gaelic) phrase which translates literally as The Rooster’s Footsteps, but is suggestive of the onset of brighter days. Like a lot of projects, this recording process was interrupted by the Pandemic, which delayed the release timeframe from 2020 to 2022. It seems like now is a nice time to be releasing the album, as we get back on our feet again as a society with an optimism that brighter times are ahead. Going back to the actual process of creating our albums, they tend to take shape when we reach the stage of yearning for some exciting new material to add to our live set! Then the gathering of material begins in earnest and over time and of course a number of rehearsals in various parts of Ireland (since we are scattered around the country in terms of our locations!), things start to digest and new selections emerge. When it comes to choosing material to record, we tend to favour unusual repertoire, which may be unearthed from older archival recordings or indeed recently composed within the tradition.

Téada is known for taking rare tunes from the tradition and re-energising them to keep them relevant today. How does the band approach these tunes to keep them alive?

There’s something really special about coming across a rarely-heard older tune. It’s like a glimpse into another time, and more often than not, these tunes have unusual motifs or melodic ideas which you don’t typically hear played nowadays. It’s exciting to keep renewing the well of repertoire within traditional Irish music, whether through new compositions or bringing back forgotten tunes from the past!

Susquehanna Folk has many members who are Irish music appreciators and/or musicians learning Irish music. What are some of the most important tips you share to musicians learning how to play Irish music? 

If you haven’t yet started on the road of learning to play Irish music, it’s never too late to start! There are so many resources out there nowadays for players of all levels, which can stimulate you to improve your skills. Learning this music, like any craft, is a journey so it’s important to try to get enjoyment from the journey! Enjoy the small steps of development rather than overly focussing on gaining proficiency quickly. Listening is as important as the active playing part.

Téada is getting ready to hit the road to go on a spring tour. What are a few things you are looking forward to? 

Touring is a great privilege for those of us who enjoy it! There’s always a sense of expectancy heading out on tour and no two tours are the same. I’m looking forward to playing music with musicians I admire, soaking up all the visual stimulation that travel brings and hopefully bringing some enjoyment to other peoples’ lives. When it comes together for performers and audience, it is a very special connection and occasion!

Téada will be performing live on March 6th, 2022 at The Studio, Appell Center for the Performing Arts in York . For more information about tickets and concert safety policies, please visit the Susquehanna Folk Music website.

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Mary-Grace Autumn Lee is a Harrisburg area musician. You can find her on instagram @thatdulcimergirl, her youtube channel, and her official site. Mary-Grace also plays with the Celtic/Americana band Seasons.

Interview with Jeremy Carter-Gordon of Windborne: “Music can change hearts, even when minds are made up.”

Acclaimed New England based vocal group Windborne will bring their eclectic mix of traditional folk music and gorgeous harmonies to the Fort Hunter Barn in Harrisburg on Saturday, January 29th in an event sponsored by the Susquehanna Folk Music Society. The group will host a Community Sing Workshop at 4:30, followed by a full concert at 7:30. More information and official SFMS Covid Safety Policies can be found on the Susquehanna Folk Music Society website. Tickets for the Community Sing Workshop are $15 General Admission, $13 for SFMS Members, and $10 for students. Tickets for the Concert are $24 General Admission, $20 for SFMS Members, and $10 for students (ages 3-22).  Tickets will be available at the door or online.

Earlier this week, Susquehanna Folk Music Society Staff Writer Mary-Grace Autumn Lee got to chat with Windborne member Jeremy Carter-Gordon ahead of their January 29th Concert.

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   Windborne is a New England based group that uses their voices to share traditional folk music from around the world. Although their music is primarily rooted in American Folk, the members of the band have done extensive research and traveling to include folk music from the Republic of Georgia, Corsica, Bulgaria, the Basque region, and Quebec into their repertoire. The band also incorporates storytelling into their performances as a way to enrich audience members on the history and tradition of the music they sing. The band is a quartet and is made up of the members Lauren Breunig, Jeremy Carter-Gordon, Lynn Rowan, and Will Thomas Rowan. Although all members of Windborne are passionate about educating and performing, their main goal with their music is to change hearts. 

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I had the honor of getting to interview band member Jeremy Carter-Gordon about Windborne’s music as well as learn what audience members can expect from their upcoming performance for Susquehanna Folk. 

Not only have the members of Windborne done extensive research on folk music from around the world, but the band has also traveled performing and picking up songs from different countries. What are a few similarities and differences you have noticed in folk music from different cultures? 

Windborne is specifically interested in the songs from countries and cultures that have traditions of harmony singing. While this is common in many western traditions, there are plenty of places around the world that don’t use harmony in their music. Learning about the different ways of creating sound, what intervals or timbres are considered as “sweet” or “harsh” sounding, and playing with time signatures is always interesting. As we have done more of our own arranging in the past 5 years, Windborne is able to draw on some of these wider ideas of what music can be to crowd arrangements that are interesting, unexpected, and compelling. 

 Windborne pulls from folk music from around the world. How do you pay respect to cultures other than your own while learning and presenting their songs? 

There are so many different ways of using a human voice, and when we learn songs from a tradition we do our best to seek out singing masters from that culture to help us with the vocal production, pronunciation, and insider perspective on the way the music is conceived of.  For example, Corsican music is improvised within a structure, and the different singing roles all have a different and specific relation to each other. Certainly a skill musician could listen to a recording of Corsican music, notate it, and then send those notes. It may even sound like Corsican music, but they would be missing the very core of what makes that singing special. We also make sure to share this knowledge, cultural context and attribution with our audiences, so that they could look into these traditions further. 

 All of you are classically trained singers and have been singing and teaching for years. How has this experience helped you with learning folk music which is traditionally passed down informally, and is taught through small gatherings or aurally? 

Actually, Windborne’s background in music training is pretty widely varied, from no formal training to quite a lot. While some of us have a more classical background (Will has a masters in choral conducting!) our first training really was informal singing parties in the folk community around New England where we grew up. This helped us be comfortable with improvising harmonies, experimenting, and most importantly: listening. The ability to listen deeply is incredibly important for harmony singing, and transforms a group from just people singing different notes near each other to creating something far greater than the sum of its parts. 

 Not only are your performances filled with folk songs, but you also do a lot of storytelling. Why do you think it’s important to include storytelling into your performances? 

This really comes back to our commitment to sharing context and history of the songs that we sing. Because so much of our music comes from a time and a place different than our own, We find it important to help our audience think about the songs closer to the way we, or the people who wrote them, hear and appreciate them. As we start to sing more songs with a message of social justice, it’s important to ask that we don’t just sing beautiful music, but that the messages the songs carry are made clear. Sometimes music can change hearts, even when minds are made up.

 Windborne is known for taking old songs and connecting them to the social issues of today. What are things you look for in an old song that you think would resonate with people today? 

Usually when we are looking at this songs, we are stunned by how relevant and modern they feel. We sometimes avoid songs that are speaking super specifically about a particular event that is not going to be understood or familiar to our audiences. But there is so much out there that makes it clear that modern day struggles are not new or unique, but tied to a long history of people fighting for a better world. Using old songs can be powerful because it’s often easier to see injustice with the distance of the past, and we can then tie it back to the events we see going on today. We often add new verses to songs when we find it will help draw those connections. 

 Before your show for Susquahanna Folk, you will be hosting a Community Sing. What can people expect from this event, and why is it important to host a community sing? 

Singing in community is something I’ve been part of the human experience for probably as long as anything! It’s becoming rarer and rarer in today’s world, but it’s an important part of how we became singers, and we love gathering people to sing! As for what to expect, we will be teaching songs by ear, no experience or sight reading requires! All voices are welcome and appreciated so just bring yourself, a mask, and enthusiasm to try new things!

Windborne will be performing live on January 29th, 2022 at the Fort Hunter Barn. For more information about tickets and concert safety policies, please visit the Susquehanna Folk website.

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Mary-Grace Autumn Lee is a Harrisburg area musician. You can find her on instagram @thatdulcimergirl, her youtube channel, and her official site. Mary-Grace also plays with the Celtic/Americana band Seasons.