OTHERLANDS COLLABORATION #6
Location: Galway, Ireland • Date: November 14, 2019
My collaboration with Irish accordionist Alan Kelly marks the first "on location" session of my travels. (I'm excluding the first video with Ricardo Bustamante since since it was a spontaneous recording at the end of my flamenco lesson). Up to this point, all sessions have been at the places my family has stayed. Under those circumstances, I have time to set up the area and test the camera angles, lights, and microphones. I always imagined this project having the flexibility to be more mobile and go into "less controlled" situations (even fully battery operated), so when Alan graciously invited me into his home, it seemed a great opportunity to give it a go.
*To know more about Alan and his projects, you can check his Website, his Facebook, or his Twitter.
Alan and I met through a mutual Galway friend - fiddler Sean Smyth (look for a collaboration with Sean in the future). A couple days after arriving in Galway, Sean invited me to a cozy session in Kinvara at Connolly's Pub. Sitting in the pub's window seat, Sean (fiddle), Alan (accordion), Mike (bouzouki & owner of Connolly's), and myself exchanged tunes for nearly three hours. I immediately enjoyed the playful way that Alan punctuated chords and bass notes within his melodies.
Knowing that I was in Galway to experience Irish traditional music offerings, Alan invited me to an "Eb" jam at Tig Coili's a few days later. I was unfamiliar with this sort of a jam, but apparently everyone's instrument is up a 1/2 step - capos on all the fretted ones, fiddles wound tighter, and in the case of flute or accordion, a separate instrument. Since I lacked a stockpile of Irish trad tunes at this point and was up for a challenge, I chose to keep my fiddle in standard and slog through it with different fingers and shifts (which apparently means something different in Ireland). It was at this jam that Alan and I talked more about my travels and I introduced the idea of the Otherlands project. We decided to meet in a week for our third session, this time with mics and cameras.
On the day of our meeting, my daughter Emmette and visiting nephew Ezra helped me carry in the gear to Alan's home. Curious about the accordion they spied sitting out—an instrument they'd not encountered in person before—Alan gave them a private demonstration.
It took me about an hour to set up, and we commenced to play. Alan had picked out two tunes from contemporary Scottish composers (both talented accordionists) for us to start with — "Calum's Road" by Donald Shaw and "The Hut on Staffin Island" by Phil Cunningham. Born in County Roscommon and residing in Galway, Alan is of course Irish, but he regularly collaborates with musicians in Scotland.
*As a side note, I'm no expert when it comes to the intricacies of differences between Irish and Scottish music. Generally, I hear the melodies and chords of both alright, but my repertoire is limited. I hope this understanding will become more clear on my travels. I've been asking for some explanations of the details (here and there) and I learned that (typically) there are many shared tunes, and musicians from both countries often team up...so I guess some fuzziness isn't unreasonable given my limited understanding.
Back to our day...Calum's Road is a Scottish strathspey. Once I didn't need to focus on the notes anymore, I could recognize and mildly incorporate the characteristic quick 16th note phrasing...most of the time. When Alan played the second tune (The Hut on Staffin Island), the pickup notes and key immediately reminded me of an American tune I learned from fiddler Art Stamper called Duck River. I played it for Alan and he was eager to learn it.
Having worked out 3 melodies, we stopped for lunch and shared stories of the musician's life and the differences/challenges between leading your own group and being a collaborator for others.
With renewed energy we worked on our set. Since "The Hut..." and "Duck River" started so similarly, it was often hard to switch from one to the other. Solution: we agreed that Alan would start the one he brought, and I, mine.
This proved good for our recording, but when we met for one final jam back at Connolly's a week later, I couldn't remember how "Duck River" started for the life of me...the jam screeched to a halt, we all laughed, and Alan bailed me out. I've always found this a challenging part about playing Irish music — thinking of the next tune for a seamless transition while simultaneously playing a different one.
Our afternoon ended with me asking to hear him play something different...a slow Irish air in a new key. He chose one from his home county of Roscommon called "Easter Snow," which is heard during the opening of our video.
Sharing music, stories, and food/drink?...check, check, and check. That's what it's all about.
CREDITS
Songs: Calum's Road / The Hut on Staffin Island / Duck River (Donald Shaw / Phil Cunningham / Traditional)
Music Arranged by: Casey Driessen & Alan Kelly
Accordion: Alan Kelly
Fiddle & Audio/Video: Casey Driessen
Additional Music Excerpts: Easter Snow (Intro, traditional), Lucy Campbell's (Outro, traditional)
Special Thanks: Emmette Driessen & Ezra Ray Adams Penland