The Wide Wide World of Celtic Music
By Kevin J. Hosey
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Jackdaw: David A. Moore, Joe Davies, Tommy Jordan,
Mike Jordan, Tim Byrne, and George. |
As Buffalo’s Celtic music community continues to grow, to paraphrase a commercial tag line, it’s not just for “Danny Boy” anymore.
Bands inspired by music heard and often learned in Ireland, Scotland, Great Britain, Wales, Brittany, and elsewhere are using a variety of instruments—acoustic and electric guitars, basses, drums, fiddles, tin whistles, bohdran, bagpipes, uilleann pipes, flute and voices of all kinds—to create rock and roll, folk, jazz, and classical melodies. The lyrics range from rebellion, drinking, myths, and romance to tougher political conditions.
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Jackdaw in performance.
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But the term Celtic music may not be 100 percent appropriate.
“The term ‘Celtic music‚’ is a misnomer; it is the traditional music of an indigenous people of Ireland, Scotland...and really a catch phrase,” says Randy Andropolis, guitarist/multi-instrumentalist and singer for Heirloom.
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With other Celtic musicians though, ethnicity does follow. So does neighborhood. Singer/acoustic guitarist Mike Reardon of Reardon and Garvey (he and guitarist/singer/stepson Ben Garvey), as well as five out of six members of Jackdaw, were born and bred in South Buffalo, and most still live there.
“...Celtic music is familiar to a lot of people in South Buffalo and Lockport; they are asking for tunes and you just can’t know them all,” Reardon says.
George Tutuska, drummer for Jackdaw, has seen a lot during his years in music. Previously the original drummer for the Goo Goo Dolls, he is more enthusiastic about the hard-edged Jackdaw than any previous band. He sees South Buffalo as being a very important component of the band.
“Obviously, there are a lot of Irish Americans in South Buffalo and the Buffalo Irish Center, and it sees itself more as a very working class community and very proud of itself. Regardless of your heritage, you’ll be accepted,” he said. “... For a long time, South Buffalo has not gotten the attention that Kenmore and North Buffalo has gotten for quality musicians. I would like to see Jackdaw bring some attention to the musicians here. Our sets are 99 percent originals; when there are words sung, they’re ours; there’s truth to it.”
Following these words, Jackdaw played a strong, packed show at Root Five in Blasdell in front of its backdrop of an upside down crown on a black background—a pretty clear Republican sentiment later backed by the band’s sole cover that night, a scorching version of “Black and Tans.” For the rest of the night, Jackdaw performed songs off its two CDs as well as music from a new CD, opening with the tough but melodic “Pieces.”
“When we play closer to home, we have a raucous following; they love to be part of it,” Tutuska says. “...We’re really not Celtic rock or traditional Celtic music, we’re a rock band where everyone has Irish influences.”
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“I’m an old folk music fan; my first genuine Irish pub experience, outside Detroit, turned me on to live Irish music, pints, darts, the whole pub scene,” he explains. “The music pubs in Buffalo are fuel stops for those of us with pride in our heritage; you have to stop in every week or so to get a fix, and it’s the other customers, the staff, the ambiance that’s more important than the music. The Irish music is the honey that draws the green, white, and gold-striped bees together to talk, laugh, sing, show off their kids, learn to step dance, etc. It’s perhaps the main reason that Buffalo’s Irish community is so strong today.”
A person fitting in several places is WBFO’s Bill Raffel; with Scottish blood in him, he hosts “Celtic Kaleidoscope” at 7 p.m. Saturdays, as part of “Thistle and Shamrock,” the award-winning NPR Celtic music program. Raffel’s program not only lists Celtic music performances and other cultural events, but also includes interviews with musicians coming to Buffalo to perform and plays some of their music. One of his most recent interviews featured Christi Andropolis, daughter of Randy, a fiddle player who has performed with Heirloom but now studies in the traditional music degree program at the University of Newcastle upon Thames, the first in Great Britain. Raffel, after starting on clarinet in high school, took up tin whistle, Irish flute and harp.
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Townsell shares some of these sentiments: “Celtic music has gotten big, especially among the young. I think Riverdance can take some of the credit for that, very upbeat; [as well as] groups like the Pogues, Sawdoctors, etc. At the same time, though, traditional Irish music has enjoyed a resurgence. We ran several Celtic concerts at the Shannon during our last two years, and they were all pretty successful. The Comhaltas Ceoltiori, with a chapter in Buffalo, has been part of that resurgence.”
Of course, success can have interesting results, as Reardon noted: “When I first started doing this with the Wild Geese, there may have been five bands doing this; now, it is tougher and tougher to get gigs. Also, not as many places had live Celtic music; now, there are so many more. Fortunately, I’m not doing this for a living (Reardon is the production manager for Bee Publications and a freelance graphic artist); it is a fun hobby that pays for itself. ”
As Jackdaw played its first set at Root Five, the crowd, already large and loud, grew larger and cheered and sang louder with each song. There was laughter when bagpipe player and vocalist David A. Moore, who was rather sick, smiled and said between songs, “I feel like crap; I just coughed up something the color of New Jersey this morning,” before the band launched into another hot song, led by some great violin work by Joe Davies, which caused one woman audience member to break into impressive step dancing. The audience went absolutely wild at this, and Jackdaw pumped up the energy even more. For at least a moment—regardless what one called the music—everything was intense, everything was good.
Kevin Hosey has written about music for a number of Western New York publications.
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