OT (sort of): Why IRTrad?

[mcfeeley]

Yeah, I'm in heaven. I've had a couple of glasses of mead (my own), there's a batch of habanero chili pepper hot sauce on the stove and I've got Chieftains I thru IV on the CD player.

The first time I heard a Chieftains album during college I got hooked. Then it was Fiona Ritchie's "Thistle and Shamrock" on NPR and I was done for. Funny thing, I *know* that if I'd heard this music as a kid I would have been pulled in, hook line and sinker. I used "IRTrad" in the subject header but what I really meant was the traditional music of the British Isles and elsewhere, music indigenous to those peoples having Celtic roots.

Ok, the carrots, onions and garlic are simmering nicely. The recipe calls for 12 or 15 habanero chili peppers, chopped. The dogs are pestering me for attention. For folk who aren't familiar with chili peppers -- habaneros are about 100 times hotter than jalapenos. This is going to be an excellent hot sauce.

Not everyone reacts in the same way. Lots of people have remarked "It all sounds the same to me." Once, on a long distance trip, I was happily playing Ossian tapes on the cassette player until my wife finally said "It's giving me a headache." *sigh*

I know this is a very open ended question, but what is it about this music that grabs people the way it does? What is it that inspires passion? I'd be curious to hear what others would have to say.

The sauce is finished and bottled. Nice citrus flavor from the habaneros, also some citrus from the lime juice. Good heat level. Funny thing -- one of our dogs can handle Dave's Insanity Sauce, loves Guinness. The other dog turns her nose up at beer of any kind, and I wouldn't dare try her on hot sauce. Can't explain that one.

[DCrom]

Sounds like a great hot sauce. Though to me, habaneros have more of an "apricot" rather than a "citrus" taste. Wonderful things, though.

As far as Irish trad - dunno why it grabs me, but it does. In my younger days I listened to a lot of Steeleye Span (which isn't exactly Irish OR Trad, but overlaps) - that may have helped shape my taste. But I love it - everything from the barely-trad things like Steeleye through the Chieftains all the way to solo performances on the pipes, flute, or whistle.

My kids can take it or leave it, but sometimes borrow my CDs. My wife tolerates it -actually likes flute, I think, (my Wooden Flute Obsession CDs seem to her taste) but doesn't care for too much solo whistle or pipes.

If I had to make a guess, it's the swing that grabs me - when I'm playing, I often find my toe's tapping along with the beat. A good Irish tune is like good poetry - endless, sometimes subtle, variations constrained by a strict meter. (When I'm in the mood, I sometimes write poetry. Though I fear my sonnets leave much to be desired, I've come up with a few decent limericks. )

[chas]

Damn, another person who makes fermented beverages and hot sauce. Plus likes tradiational music and whistles. Not too many of us around.

I'm also a general folk person, mostly British Isles, but not mostly Irish. I've been hooked since about age 14 or so. Lots of things attract me to it, but I think the first thing was the stories, and the presentation of the music as a part of the story. My college friends all thought I was nuts, then I had a bunch of people sit down and listen to Steeleye Span's "Montrose." They were cheering for Montrose by the third part and I think about four people went out and bought the album soon thereafter. Then some of them started getting into the girls losing their maidenheads, the parents killing the guys stealing the maidenheads, the gosts coming back for revenge, and all the other sorts of things that happen in these songs.

I try to play airs, planxties, etc., from the point of view of the story or mood the music is meant to convey. I like some jigs and reels, and I'm learning to play them more to become a more complete musician rather than because I really want to play lots of them. One reason I don't like listening to or playing reel after reel is because they're for the most part a vehicle for dancing, and the spirit they convey for the most part is the spirit of dancing a reel. They really don't tell a story, or they all tell the same story.

[JessieK]

I was attracted to the instruments before the music. The whistle got me in the door and then I learned all about the culture, and I think what I love most is the way the music figures into life for musicians who play Irish music. All of them start for fun, as opposed to for scholarly education, and while in Ireland it is in people as language is in people, even here in America and in other countries, the love of it draws people to practice and to play for enjoyment and sharing, and session or ceili culture is supportive and rich. I love connecting with other people through music. For me, over time, the sound of the music became correlated with the feeling of the community, so even though I am in an area in space and life when I am not playing around other people, the sound of the music takes me to that remembrance of it, and it's a warm feeling.

I also still love the instruments. And the ballads are great, too. I did sing in a concert last weekend with my husband. I didn't have much lung capacity left, but thankfully, that's only temporary.

[Jefferson]

The attraction of Irish Tradional Music may have something to do with the thinness of what passes for popular music nowadays. The essence of popular music seems to me to now be captured in two words: "teenage hormones". That's not the only ingredient in the sauce, but it's by far the dominant flavor.

The traditional music, by contrast, is as wide as the sky & as wild as the sea. From hopeless love to selfless heroism, from a dirge for a funeral to a ribald drinking song for a feast, from simplicity to subtlety, from fairy tales to songs of everyday chores, there's LIFE in the music.

Kinda hard to feed your soul on a diet of nothing but, say, disco...

[Paul]

For me Irish / Scottish / English traditional music is the habanero. 100 times stronger than anything else.
To me.
I found it in a pub one night in 1990. The County Cork.
I had listened to the music passively in the pub many times but that night the musician, Harry O'Donohugh, sung Pride of Pimlico a capella playing only a bódhran for accompaniment. It just kind of grabbed hold of me and never let go.

I wish I would have gotten into it earlier in my life but I am really glad that I found it at all.

-Paul

[Chuck_Clark]

I know this is a very open ended question, but what is it about this music that grabs people the way it does? What is it that inspires passion? I'd be curious to hear what others would have to say.

Simple answer - it's in the blood. I know barbarians who hate IRTrad. I know others who hape bagpipes, which I also love despite having been raised with neither. I really think there's some sort of hereditary predisposition involved.

[OnTheMoor]

Probably be upbringing/chance for me. I'm one of those fool umpteenth generation North Americans who runs around claiming he's Irish. My Grandmother's fault. Ol' Grandma Brennan made damn sure that her family knew they were Irish (with an emphasis on Catholic) despite the fact she never made it clear how long ago we were actually Irish... On the otherside of the family, the "McC" at the beginning of my name was always curious to me, wondering whether my dad just wrote his name funny, when he told me it was a prefix from Ireland/Scotland I sorta clinged to it, with my Grandma yelling in my other ear that I'm an Irish boy. So I always had an interest in the whole genealogy of it.

I got into trad music pretty much when I turned 19 and could leave the dance clubs in Quebec for the local pub scene. So I got a taste of trad music and I decided "Hey this ain't half bad!" Then I met my girlfriend, she's a Cape Bretoner and her mom made a tape for me of all her old trad records from the Cape and Newfoundland. So I got hooked on IRTrad and Canadian folk, and here I am.

[Chuck_Clark]

Ol' Grandma Brennan made damn sure that her family knew they were Irish (with an emphasis on Catholic) despite the fact she never made it clear how long ago we were actually Irish... On the otherside of the family, the "McC" at the beginning of my name was always curious to me, wondering whether my dad just wrote his name funny, when he told me it was a prefix from Ireland/Scotland I sorta clinged to it, with my Grandma yelling in my other ear that I'm an Irish boy. So I always had an interest in the whole genealogy of it.

Puts me in mind of the story of Ed O'Bradovic, who once played football for the Bears. I'm sure plenty of people wondered where in Ireland THAT name came from - finally a reporter worked up the nerve to ask.

Actually, the upshot was that his father was EASTERN European and the name was "Obradovic". But when the old man got to Chicago and noticed that fortune in that fair city often showed a distinct preference for the sons of Eire... well, the rest is obvious.

[jim stone]

I like all music, I think, and, while the spine
of the simple system flute repertoire is Celtic,
I'm more interested in the flute than Celtic.
A lot of ITM is very lovely, you would have to
be made of cement not to like it, but
a fair amount of it is more celebratory
than melodic, and so I, anyhow,
learn it more from an interest
in mastering the instrument than because
I like the tunes. I prefer music that moves
me, whatever the genre.

There are, I think, fewer options for
whistle than for flute. Best

[BrassBlower]

As far as Irish trad - dunno why it grabs me, but it does. In my younger days I listened to a lot of Steeleye Span (which isn't exactly Irish OR Trad, but overlaps) - that may have helped shape my taste.

IMHO, if it weren't for Span, we would have a lot fewer Celtic artists like Silly Wizard, Capercaillie, the Fureys, Gaelic Storm, Arcady, Karan Casey, the Bothy Band, Solas, etc. etc. etc. today.

[Pat Cannady]

Kinda hard to feed your soul on a diet of nothing but, say, disco...

Yeah, there's something to that...

[chas]

IMHO, if it weren't for Span, we would have a lot fewer Celtic artists like Silly Wizard, Capercaillie, the Fureys, Gaelic Storm, Arcady, Karan Casey, the Bothy Band, Solas, etc. etc. etc. today.

So roughly 1/3 of the respondents to this thread were hooked by Steeleye, which I find amazing, though no more amazing than the group itself. They're kind of like a microcosm of what makes traditional music great. They've gone through so many incarnations with so many different sounds, and almost every one of their albums was great, even the few without Maddy. It's definitely a credit to the musicians, but it also says volumes about the music.

PS -- anybody heard the album by Maddy and Rick's daughter whose name I can't remember? I've got several albums by Eliza Carthy, Martin and Norma's daughter, and she's a truly remarkable singer (not a half bad fiddler and box player, too). If Ms. Kemp is anywhere near as good, we're all in for a treat.

[Norma]

While I claim no Irish blood in my veins (I married an Irishman...does that count?), I have always been drawn to the toe-tapping rhythm in the faster dances and the sweetness and simple melodies of the airs.
I do fear, however, that my lack of exposure to this traditional music will always be a handicap....I at first purchased Mel Bay's Complete Irish Tin Whistle Book and love pretty much every song on it. Then I got LE McCullough's the Complete Irish Tin Whistle Tutor and I hate it. The phrasing is not marked as in my first book... notes just go round and round and round , Doesn't make any musical sense to me and the ornamentation is pretty tough. I get halfway thru a piece and quit. Sigh. I do love to play though so I'll keep pluggin!

[Hiro Ringo]

People like Robert Clarke made metal keyless flageolets out to be a tradition of ITM. On Whistle realm,wood is not superior to metal anymore(whatever you think).That's something Japanese conservative traditional music realm could never make.

Thus,my personal respect and thanks to those who made it possible.