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 Societywebsite. 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.
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 visitthe Susquehanna Folk Music website.
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.
Earlier this week, fiddler, vocalist, and co-founder of Altan, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh chatted with SFMS staff writer Peter Winter via email about the musical tradition of Donegal where the band hails from, her work with the organizaion Cairdeas na bhFidléirí (Friendship of Fiddlers), and what keeps Altan exciting after 30 years!
So much of your music is a celebration of the musical tradition of your home county of Donegal. What do you associate with the music of this region?
County Donegal is situated in the North West of Ireland. On the Western part it is dominated by the Derryveagh mountains, which divides the county between the bog land and the good farming land. This varied topography gives Donegal a distinctive style in the musical dialects of the area as a whole! It seems to lean towards Scotland in its music, where a lot of the people had to emigrate to make a living and in turn brought back songs and tunes! Today the fiddle is the main instrument in the county but all of the other instruments , flies, pipes, whistles and accordions are also in abundance.
You founded Altan in the late 80s. What about this band has kept it exciting and fulfilling for you over the years?
Myself and my late husband Frankie Kennedy started the band together, never planning to take it too seriously as we were both teaching at the time. But after 30 something years of touring and life in general I’m very proud that the band has continued and evolved. I am really excited about this latest combo and our latest album The Gap of Dreams, as I feel with Martin Tourish (accordion) and myself playing melody and Ciaran (bouzouki) and Dáithí (guitar) adding great color with their accompaniment, the music has a very special dynamic and depth.
What was behind the decision to return to Donegal for newest album “The Gap of Dreams” (2018)?
We wanted to indulge in the atmosphere and source of our music. It seemed that it was time to go to the hills of Donegal and play the music of the area. It worked as when we would travel to the studio daily, we would stop and appreciate where we really were. As an artist would bring his easel and paints out to paint a picture, we would bring the images into the studio while playing and singing! The Gap (of the title) being that space between this world and the other!
You are a founding member of Cairdeas na bhFidléirí. Could you explain a bit about what this group stands for and why it is important to you?
Cairdeas na bhFidléirí meaans the “Friendship of Fiddlers,” which was set up in the early eighties (circa 1982) to promote and make sure that the fiddle music and style of Donegal was preserved and passed on to future generations. Donegal fiddling is unique and very different to other Irish fiddling styles. It also has a very unusual repertoire which isn’t found anywhere else!
What do you hope audiences take away from an Altan show?
I hope everyone will enjoy the show! I also hope that listeners will take away an understanding of the deep tradition of songs, both in my native language Gaelic and English, and of course the unique fiddle music of the area.
Who are artists in traditional music that are inspiring and interesting to you right now?
I’m enjoying so many young musicians at the moment! I can’t get over the standard and integrity of the musicianship these young musicians have obtained. I love listening to a young Dublin fiddler by the name of Liam O’Connor, Another one to look out for is Iarla O’Donnell. There’s also a 12 year old Donegal fiddler by the name of Brandon Shovelin that blows me away. There are so many amazing musicians, Rebecca McCarthy Kent, Aoife Ní Bhrídín, Molly Wall….. I could go on! Recently while discussing this with one of Donegal’s veteran fiddlers Danny Meehan, he pointed out that long ago we looked to all the older musicians for inspiration; but that now its the opposite! We are looking at the younger generation for inspiration! He was so right!
Peter Winter lives in Harrisburg where he writes, teaches music, plays in the Celtic group Seasons, DJs, runs half of the record label His & Hers Records and serves on the board of the SFMS. He is on instagram.
Acclaimed young string band Twisted Pine will bring their unique take on pop and roots music to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of York on Friday, December 6th. The evening begins at 7:30 pm. The concert is sponsored by the Susquehanna Folk Music Society. More information can be found on the Susquehanna Folk Music Society website. Tickets are $25 General Admission, $21 for SFMS Members, and $10 for students (ages 3-22). Tickets will be available at the door or online.
Earlier this week, fiddler and vocalist Kathleen Parks chatted with SFMS staff writer Peter Winter about five string fiddle, breaking down genre barriers in 2019, and the magnificence that is Blondie.
What was your journey to roots music? Both with your instrument and this music in general, how did this all begin?
I guess when I started playing the violin I was learning Suzuki method and classical music, but at the same time I was studying Irish step dancing. Dance has always been my second love, I kind of had to choose eventually you know? But the Irish step dancing got me into wanting to learn how to play fiddle, and actually I took to playing fiddle music a little bit more and wanted to practice a lot more once I started learning Irish fiddle! So I guess that didn’t happen till I was about nine, but that was what kind of got me started in a traditional type of roots music.
Eventually I wanted to journey outside of that a little bit and learn how to improvise, and always being a little bit of a daredevil on the traditional side of Irish music and wanting to improvise on the melodies a little bit, I learned how to play jazz from my father. He was a trumpet player and so he me started on improvising and learning how to swing a bit on notes and rhythms.
When I decided to go to Berklee, I was able to get into the roots program there and really start working on bluegrass and swing music and all different types of roots music. Really, they bring it all there! Country, blues, old-time, everything! It’s a really cool place in the string department and how they have that roots program, they bring in so many terrific artists from all around the world, you just never know who’s going to be there!
Soyou play the five string fiddle!
Yes!
How did that come about? That’s certainly less common than the four string!
Yeah! the person who got me, well actually just handed me a five string, the five string I actually play now, own, was my teacher at the time Darol Anger.
The Master!
Yeah I got to study with him! It was my second semester studying with him, and he had just gotten this fiddle in to have students try, and he said, “Have you ever played a five string?” because that’s like his main instrument, and I was like, “No actually I haven’t even given it a thought!” I didn’t know where to get one to even try it out! He was like, “Why don’t you take this for the next month?” The next month turned into the next seven years! I’m actually still playing that fiddle that he gave me to try out!
What about the five string connected with you?
That extra string! That low C, it gives such a rich sound to the fiddle! I always went for a deeper sound. I like a darker sounding fiddle to begin with, so having the viola/violin aspect helps you continue that flavor; that chocolatey sound! It just makes playing behind other instruments so much fun, ‘cause you have more of that darker and deeper sound like a guitar might have.
How did Twisted Pine begin?
Well, all of us had studied music in school (different schools) and we all came to Boston for different reasons of studying. I think all of us…kind of got to know each other through different friend groups, we would go to parties, and eventually we all wound up meeting and starting to play together and eventually getting a residency at the Cantab Lounge. It’s this bar and every Tuesday night they have Bluegrass night, and it’s been going since I believe the 90s! Every Tuesday this guy Geoff Bartley (he kind of got it started) he bring in bands that are traveling through Boston. It’s really funny cause it’s this dive bar, but it’s such a great place! The music there is so rich. It’s kind of like one those classic places, like that little hole in the wall in like New Orleans or New York City. It’s like that for Boston and roots music.
You released your self-titled debut album in 2017. The record gets a lot of good press, and then just the very next year, you release the “Dreams” EP. It’s interesting to me in two regards: first, because it was striking to me so soon after that first album you were releasing new music, and secondly the decision to release not only covers but covers that would probably surprise some people. I wonder if you could go into what went into that EP?
Yeah! I guess we started learning those songs because they were just songs that we heard and liked a long time! For “Lucy In The Sky,” me and Dan were just jamming in Philly one night in the green room before our set and he just started putting this slightly different beat to it, just this slower jam beat. We would just start singing a lot of covers. Some of them came out super spontaneous, just because you were warming up before a show or whatnot, and other covers were songs that we thought (for instance the Blondie cover) that one we just thought was such an interesting song and the sounds on the original track…they’re just so different! It’s the kind of song that just keeps like propelling forward, even though maybe the textures don’t always change too, too much. Like the same instruments are playing. The kind of disco drum kit sound and all the synths and Debbie’s just doing her thing singing. We just thought it was such a good track that we wanted to just give it a try and just learn it for learning. Like, “Yeah we could probably just learn a lot from all of these songs.” It almost started as just a practice thing for us. “We should practice learning these songs and maybe it will help our songwriting.” And it’s funny because like, because of that EP, it has changed how we all play music, and how we write. What we eventually will come out with will be more like that EP because it just propelled our own original sound. It’s just a classic case of “who influenced who?” and how this thing came to be. You know how you hear with different genres. And then we were like, “We should just make it an album! We love playing these songs, let’s just go in the studio and record them! Break out some new music and something different for people to listen to and maybe they’ll enjoy it! Maybe they won’t, but that’s ok!”
I’m glad you brought up genre, cause I wanted to ask you about that! What Nickel Creek did circa two decades ago, covering artists like Pavement and what bands like you guys have done with the Dreams EP, and what Chris Thile is doing on Live from Here, it seems that artists these days feel less restricted by genre then artists have in the past. Especially in traditional music there was once this idea that, “Oh we’re a bluegrass band we can’t cover Blondie or Vulfpeck.” But I feel like our generation is really breaking that down a little bit more and we don’t feel those restrictions. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on that? How do you approach genre and what you feel you can and can’t do?
That’s interesting! It’s funny cause as a band, Twisted Pine, we’re constantly trying to figure out what our genre actually is! It’s funny because not that we would ever want to narrow ourselves or like pigeon hole ourselves, but we want people to feel like they can relate to our sound. But at the same time, there is so much access to all different kinds of music now that artists in the past didn’t have, so I guess because of that roots musicians really can come up with an entirely new thing altogether, because we’re all listening to different stuff!
Why do you like playing in Twisted Pine?
That’s a good one! Why do I like playing in Twisted Pine? We get along like really well. It’s so much fun playing with Dan, Chris, and now Ahn Phung who has been sitting in with us. Chris and Dan, they’re so incredible; they’re just incredible people and incredible musicians, and they work really hard at what they do. And because of that, it’s really fun to create with them, because they’re always coming up with some really cool new thing. I think especially the three of us as the core of the band for the past, I don’t know, four or five years, I think we just continue to feed off each other. And our personalities along with the music, keep helping to propel us. It’s very easy for a band to be brought down, because of the struggles of being on the road at times, so I think we’ve learned over the years how to work things out together, how to communicate really well. We’ve figured that out to a point that we’re just all really good friends and we’ve all got each other’s back, and we’re just here to make music together. I think that’s what I love. And the energy on stage just keeps you going. Any bad day? If we hang out and I get to play music with them, it turns into a good day.
Peter Winter lives in Harrisburg where he writes, teaches music, plays in the Celtic group Seasons, DJs, runs half of the record label His & Hers Records and serves on the board of the SFMS. He is on instagram
Celebrated multi-instrumentalist Hubby Jenkins, formerly of the Carolina Chocolate Drops will bring his mix of country blues, ragtime, and traditional jazz to the Fort Hunter Barn in Harrisburg on Sunday, November 17th. The evening begins at 7:30 pm. The concert is sponsored by the Susquehanna Folk Music Society. More information can be found on the Susquehanna Folk Music Society website. formation can be found on the Susquehanna Folk Music Society website. Tickets are $20 General Admission, $18 for SFMS Members, and $10 for students (ages 3-22). Tickets will be available at the door or online.
Earlier this week, Hubby chatted with SFMS staff writer Peter Winter via email about his roots as a street musician, the relevance of old-time music today, and the African American origins of American roots music.
Growing up in Brooklyn what was your gateway into traditional old-time American music?
I grew up playing saxophone, switching to cello and bass in high school before finally finding the guitar. I got into blues music first from listening to Hendrix and Dylan, which led to Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, etc. The first blues song I heard that really blew me away was “Devil Got My Woman,” by Skip James. It was the most powerful music I heard or felt coming from just one person with a guitar. I also had a group of close friends who were getting into prewar American music and we got our inspiration from the musicians of the New York folk scene. We spent a lot of time in the west village like they did; busking in Washington Sq. Park and hanging around MacDougal Street.
What were the lessons you learned as a musician from starting out busking?
I guess I learned a lot about performing. Shyness and quietness are not effective tools when busking. I used to have terrible stage fright and I had to get over it quick if I wanted to make any money. I also looked at busking as kind of getting paid to practice so I think my early chops came from playing the 10 songs I knew over and over again.
Why is this music still relevant today?
This music is still relevant today because within it is the narrative of our country. So many overlooked stories fill these songs. Now a days there is a conflict over what the character of our country is and use to be, but it’s all there in old time music. That being said, it’s also just real good music for any mood and occasion.
If you were going to play someone one blues song to introduce them to the genre, what would it be?
It’s hard to pick just one, but I think I would have to choose Skip James “Devil Got My Woman” or “Hard Time Killing Floor.” His haunting style of singing and minor tempered playing are so beautiful. The first time I heard him, it stopped me in my tracks.
Do you feel like the African American roots of so much of what is considered traditional American music is being recognized more today?
Absolutely. When I first joined Carolina Chocolate Drops almost 10 years ago, it seemed that most people didn’t know the African and Black roots of the banjo, but nowadays that seems like more of a common fact. I also think that a lot of people just don’t think about it. I mean to say that they do not wonder where the music they enjoy comes from and not in a malicious way. I order a burger I don’t know where it was raised, what it ate, etc. I do see younger black artist finding that they do have a place and a history in old time music whether it be blues, fiddle banjo, hot jazz, folk, and that is a very important recognition.
What do you want your audience to take walk away with from a Hubby Jenkins show?
I want my audience to walk away having learned at least one thing, that spurs them to learn more and to listen to old time music with a different filter. They should also walk away thinking, “That guy sure knows how to play!”
Peter Winter lives in Harrisburg where he writes, teaches music, plays in the Celtic group Seasons, DJs, runs half of the record label His & Hers Records and serves on the board of the SFMS. He is on instagram
Acclaimed Scottish Fiddle and Cello duo Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas will perform on Saturday October 27th 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 $24 General Admission, $21 for SFMS Members, and $10 for students (ages 3-22). Tickets will be available at the door or online HERE.
Earlier this month, Natalie Haas chatted with SFMS staff writer Peter Winter about the latest Fraser/Haas record entitled “Ports of Call,” the beginnings of her musical collaboration with Alasdair Fraser and development of her iconic accompaniment style on the cello, as well as growing up going to fiddle camps with her equally noteworthy sister, Bluegrass/Old Time fiddler Brittany Haas.
Peter: I feel like in 2018 I can’t pick up a folk album or a folk publication without hearing either about you or your sister Brittany. Both of you are at the forefront of playing right now, so I wanted to know a little bit about what was in the water when you two were growing up? What was the role of folk music when you guys were kids? It’s absolutely crazy how you two are doing.
Natalie: [Laughs] Yeah! We were really lucky to have (when we were growing up) the world of fiddle camps, and that was kind of our entry point for both me and Brittany. And so thanks to Alasdair for having created that scene near where we both grew up! That was where I discovered Scottish music for the first time, and that became my kind of life calling, and the same thing for Brittany with Old Time music. [We] discovered this whole community as well as the music itself, and really fell in love with that and [it] had a huge life changing effect on both of us. So maybe there was something in the water, I don’t know! Right around Santa Cruz, California is where the camp is, and that’s about an hour from where Brittany and I grew up and just kind of happened into it by accident really; both of us coming from the classical Suzuki method and then Brittany’s violin teacher introduced us to Alasdair’s Scottish fiddle school and we both went there when we were very young our first time (I was 11 and she was 8) and then we’ve been every year since, and it’s had a huge impact on both of us!
Peter: That’s amazing. Were your parents into fiddle music at all? They introduced you to classical music but were they a part of introducing you to this music?
Natalie: Only in taking us to fiddle camp! Yeah it was classical music we started with, only because our parents didn’t know there was anything else out there until we heard about this camp. So we both did Suzuki for a few years and Brittany started Bluegrass fiddle lessons actually cause she was kind of getting bored, and my mom (she’s just a real go getter) she asked at the local guitar store in Palo Alto, and that’s where Brittany met her first fiddle teacher.
Peter: That’s awesome! How did you and Alasdair first start playing together as a duo? How did that come together?
Natalie: It was through the camp. I went for a couple years just as a student, and it’s a big camp, so I didn’t meet him right away. I was young and a few years after I had been going for a little while I had gotten a little bit better at my instrument, and I was sitting in a Baroque workshop (we had a special guest there who’s a great Baroque violinist from England) and Alasdair was sitting next to me in class and heard me play and pulled me aside after the classes and asked me if I wanted to try some stuff together. He had been looking for a cellist to kind of help him realize this dream of kind of getting the cello back into Scottish music, because it’s one of the few kind of folk traditions that has a really well documented history of cello being a big part of it. So we kind of went off together under a redwood tree and started reading some of these old bass lines out of these 18th century Scottish fiddle collections together, and that was kind of the jumping off point for seeing where the cello had been and then taking it from there and deciding what we could then do with it.
Peter: You guys have been playing together for so long, and it’s so cool to see any band regardless of genre be able to hold it together and continue to make increasingly wonderful music for as long as you guys have. You obviously have such great musical chemistry that’s so evident from your recordings and seeing you guys live, did you recognize when you first started that there was something really, really good with the two of you playing together?
Natalie: I don’t think I did, because I was only 15 at the time! I didn’t really have a sense of that. I was kind of in a perpetual sense of bewilderment and awe at that stage. It was something that developed, you know? I was still a student when we started playing together, and I had a lot to learn still. It was a really cool kind of journey together of developing this thing that hadn’t been done yet. I mean it had been done hundreds of years ago but hadn’t been done in today. So no, I don’t think I was aware, but I was always very grateful to be asked to do that, and really learned so much in the process, and it’s still kind of a learning journey! There’re limitations with only two instruments, but it’s also very freeing in a way because I have all this open space available, and how to fill it is always an open question. So it’s really exciting to get to have that freedom together.
Peter: Yeah! How does it feel that you two are still playing together 18 years and 5 albums later? Does it feel crazy that it’s been that long?
Natalie: Yes and no. It feels totally natural. I think when you’re choosing a band a lot of it is musical, but a lot of it is personal as well. We’ve always just gotten on really well. So yeah often times when you’re choosing bandmates, you’re choosing people over musicians. I think that’s really helped; that we’re such great pals at this stage. Of course, it’s not 100% of the time perfect, but he’s one of my oldest friends, and I really appreciate that we have that bond. And yeah, it’s still a joy to make music together after all this time.
Peter: Going back to the two of you working together and Alasdair having this dream of bringing back the cello to traditional Scottish music. At least to my research (you can correct me if I’m wrong on this) when we’re going back to the early days of cello with fiddle tunes, we’re looking at these very simple bass lines, almost a drone essentially, and taking that to where you’ve brought it which is just absolutely amazing, I feel like you’ve created such an iconic sound! I hear other cellists copying it, and I’ll even hear guitarists trying to emulate some of the great rhythms you’ve brought to contemporary Celtic music. What were some of the influencesor ideas that you were bringing in to try and return the cello to Celtic music?
Natalie: Yeah, well for me there were very few cellists at that time who were inspiring to me, it was pretty much Rushad Eggleston, and he hadn’t really done it in a Celtic music context so much at that stage. He was kind of in the process of developing this set of rhythmic tools for the cello, so I was very influenced by him, although we sound completely different in what we do. Also Darol Anger, he kind of happened into the camp. Using these bowed string instruments more as rhythmic tools and part of the rhythm section, that idea is something that came from Darol, but hadn’t really been applied to Celtic music before me I guess.
So those two, and then also just being around fiddle players in the camp setting, because there are so many fiddles, often times you would have a melody player, but I would hear the one who wasn’t playing the melody (the teachers or the older, more advanced players that I looked up to) and decide to try and copy what they were doing. Same thing with sitting in a session and hearing piano and guitar. Funny that you say that there are guitar players copying me, cause I was originally just copying them! People like John Doyle, and trying to figure out how to treat the cello like that: as a rhythmic, kind of driving force behind the melody. Yeah so listening to other instruments and figuring out how to make that work on the cello as well.
Peter: I just find this so fascinating you were in these uncharted waters…How long do you think it took for what you were doing, your style, to kind of come together?
Natalie: Definitely a few years! That’s why I think we didn’t record our first album until 5 years-6 years into the playing together. And I think our sound has changed a lot since then too. I was still kind of figuring stuff out for a long time before we recorded “Fire & Grace” and you know that album has a lot of raw energy on it, but then I think our arrangement sensibilities got a lot more sophisticated from that point on, and that’s something that’s still evolving. And writing our own tunes and all that didn’t start right away, I mean for me anyway. So yeah, it’s kind of an ever-ongoing process!
Peter: For Sure. So, speaking of recording, and how things have changed, on the new record “Ports of Call” from last year, you guys talk about going outside of Scotland. You have some original tunes on the album, as well as tunes from Scandinavia, Spain, and France. Did the concept come first, or did you find yourselves gravitating to tunes outside your normal stomping grounds?
Natalie: Yeah. That’s a good question. No, I think the name came later (as they often do in this) but we started to see a picture forming of the tunes that we had chosen. It’s about half and half, original tunes vs tunes from other countries, and I think that is the natural result of the kind of traveling that we are doing and having all these fiddle camps in different parts of the world, getting exposed to other kinds of music where the fiddle is also very prominent and having these wonderful tune exchanges with people at our camps, because Alasdair’s camp model has always been to kind of have this three pronged approach, of three different fiddle cultures coming together, and seeing what happens over the course of the week.
Peter: Oh, that’s really neat.
Natalie: So yeah, it’s always sort of this cultural melting pot! There’s a lot of tune sharing that goes on back and forth, and so we really just kind of picked tunes that we love from these other cultures. We’re not trying to say that we’re authentic exponents of these traditions, but we’re trying to give them our full respect and best treatment in our own voice, which might be tainted by Scottish music a little bit! [Laughs].
Peter: Obviously in addition for both you and Alasdair it’s not just about performance. The fiddle camps are such a huge part of what you do, and you have the associate professorship at Berklee, why is education something that is so important to you?
Natalie: Well I think that’s part of the way that folk music works. It’s meant to be shared and not necessarily by really advanced players. A lot of our audiences are amateur musicians actually, and we love to share what we do. We do workshops too, all over the place, and part of the tradition is bringing people into it and getting people excited about it. And we love exposing people who haven’t heard this music before. A lot of people coming from the classical world (like I was when I was younger) just haven’t been exposed to other styles of music, and seeing the joy on their faces is just really gratifying. And having grown up in the fiddle camp world, I guess I want to share that with other people; the total life changing experience that it is.
Peter: Yeah. My brother is a classical cellist and did one of your camps this summer, he just came back raving about it!
Natalie: Oh Amazing!
Peter: What do you think are some good rules to follow for backing up a tune? Some good ground rules for accompanists out there?
Natalie: Yeah well, I guess number one is the melody is always king, so whatever you’re doing, it’s always in support of the melody, so you are not the main focus. That being said, I couldn’t content myself with playing these old bass lines because I would get bored! So whatever you have to do to keep yourself interested, varying what you do constantly so you’re never getting stuck in learning a pattern and just playing that over and over. Creating different textures I think is really important. Especially because these tunes end up getting played lots of times, so trying to figure out different ways of making sound on your instrument that is going to be always serving the tune and serving the arrangement too, so you can be playing a tune multiple times and really guide where it is going.
Peter: So finally one more question to bring this full circle. I recently saw a youtube video (I think you guys uploaded it this year) of you and Brittany doing a duo thing together.
Natalie: Yeah!
Peter: It was so good! I’m such a fan of both of you!
Natalie: Thank You!
Peter: It is so cool to me that you guys are both so talented in different but complimentary genres and styles! Do you guys think there is one day a Haas Sister full album in the works?
Natalie: Yeah I really hope so! We just did this special sister tour this May of Ireland, so that video was during our rehearsal time for that, and of course we love playing together, it’s so easy! We have this twenty years of shared repertoire (through the fiddle camps again!) even though we both kind of went our separate ways in different styles of music. I really hope so, Brittany is going through a little transition right now, she went back to school, although she’s still playing. She has to be kind of more judicious about when she’s on the road, so if there is something that happens in the future she’s gotta be the one who gives the green light.
Peter: For sure.
Natalie: But yeah, we’ve both said that we want to do it more.
Peter: As one obsessive music fan I feel you two owe folk music. We need that Haas Sisters album at some point!
Natalie: (Laughs) Well I certainly hope it won’t be too far in the future!
Peter: Well Natalie, thank you so much for your time and putting this together! We will catch you at the concert! Once again thank you so much for coming back and playing for Susquehanna Folk!
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