What's so amusing?

[Cathy Wilde]

Ummm, maybe it's different where y'all live, but ... here in Kentucky it's not the Irish part so much, it's the flute: -- i.e., guys who play any kind of flute are a little bit suspect.

I think I recall John Skelton wondering if putting one's flutes in one's truck gun rack would help, but ... nah. Probably not.

[jemtheflute]

I don't even entirely know who Jethro Tull is.

it wouldn't hurt to learn a bit of history

Bloody right, Denny. Funny thing is, I never would have known who Jethro Tull was if it wasn't for Ian Anderson.

Well, I kinda knew who Jethro Tull was before I started playing flute and later was rather puzzled when people who saw me playing, especially busking, would mention "him" - I've never followed pop music and had to have it explained to me about the pop band of that name and I.A. - then listened to some and hated it..... ugh. Almost as bad as having people come up to you and say (especially in his highest profile hey-day in the 1980s) "like James Galway" and asking you to play fecking Annie's Song.

It's funny how things swing around, though - back then classical fluters were very derisive about Ian Anderson. Now he's seemingly quite respected in at least some classical circles......

[peeplj]

For the most part, our friends fall into two broad categories (with a lot of them falling into both): technical folks and musical folks.

A surprising number of technical people are also into music. Also--at least, in my experience, technical people are very likely to have very specific hobbies that the "wide world" tends to look at as being "odd," and tend to be rather enthusiastic about them: retrocomputing, for instance, or collecting programmable calculators, or 18th-century cooking, or even keeping venomous insects as pets--these are only a few (real) examples of the hobbies of friends and coworkers that might make other folks shake their heads in puzzlement.

To these folks, playing Irish traditional music on nineteenth-century flutes sounds like a perfectly normal hobby.

Most of my musical friends are either into playing trad music themselves, or are early music enthusiasts. I don't find that playing Irish flute is considered particularly odd by either.

Your mileage may vary--a lot of how your friends react is going to be based (of course) on who and what your friends are.


--James

[Denny]

It's funny how things swing around, though - back then classical fluters were very derisive about Ian Anderson. Now he's seemingly quite respected in at least some classical circles......

I thought that was mostly due to him learning ta play the sucker over the years.

[mutepointe]

Ummm, maybe it's different where y'all live, but ... here in Kentucky it's not the Irish part so much, it's the flute: -- i.e., guys who play any kind of flute are a little bit suspect.

I think I recall John Skelton wondering if putting one's flutes in one's truck gun rack would help, but ... nah. Probably not.

That's a valid point you have there Cathy. I'm not sure which would matter more, being "suspect" or being "irish" among non-irish traditional folks. When meeting a person in that part of the world, a conversation starter is to ask where you're family is from. Folks want to know where they're from in the "Old County". I've known people who moved there who didn't know their ethnic background and they became "suspect". We told them to just make up one.

My grandparents immigrated and they were Slovak. I married a woman of Irish descent (Oy vey!) but...her family had always been members of the Slovak Benevolence Organization (the Jednota Club) so I received not only a free pass but a pat on the back for pulling off that. New blood that was still an insider. My Mom is always buying us curtains, tablecloths, and bedspreads. My brother warned me once that Mom was on a roll again. He asked if he could give Mom any suggestions. I said yes, nothing with cabbage roses (her favorite) maybe something in a plaid. He wrote back. She said "No, too Irish."

[Kirk B]

My grandparents immigrated and they were Slovak. I married a woman of Irish descent (Oy vey!) but...her family had always been members of the Slovak Benevolence Organization (the Jednota Club) so I received not only a free pass but a pat on the back for pulling off that. New blood that was still an insider. My Mom is always buying us curtains, tablecloths, and bedspreads. My brother warned me once that Mom was on a roll again. He asked if he could give Mom any suggestions. I said yes, nothing with cabbage roses (her favorite) maybe something in a plaid. He wrote back. She said "No, too Irish."

Opposite situation here. My wife's family is 100% Slovak and I'm Scots, Irish and German. I just use whatever works best at the time.

Cheers,

Kirk

[Mick Down Under]

Jethro Tull...Beverly Hillbillies right?


Mick

[Denny]

there ya go!

and Grannie's grits

[Kirk B]

there ya go!

and Grannie's grits

Grannie's "Rumatiz" medicine is what always helps my playing.

[Denny]

how DO you tell?

[s1m0n]

...it's the flute: -- i.e., guys who play any kind of flute are a little bit suspect.

It's all Ted Boehm's fault. Before Boehm, flutes were male if they were gendered at all. This is still the case for the Chinese dizi, for instance, and for other 'ethnic' simple system flutes*. It's my guess that this might be because hand size matters in fluting. Bigger hands mean bigger flutes, which means lower and mellower notes can be produced.

Since Boehm, hand size hasn't mattered in flute playing, so the next-most salient characteristic of flutes became their modest size and weight. This gradually made fluting female, a flute being easier for physically weaker people to carry. Rare is the high-school band in which all the flute players aren't female.

*For an ITM example, look at the pre-revival pattern in Clare; where (very) broadly speaking, women played concertina and men played the flute.

[an seanduine]

S1m0n wrote:

Rare is the high-school band in which all the flute players aren't female.

Yes, I was the 'odd-man' in the public school system in the 'States public school music system over fifty years ago.
Gramps started out in the Fife Corps in Maine in the 1870's and so in my family it seemed natural to learn the flute. . .

Bob

[Kirk B]

Ummm, maybe it's different where y'all live, but ... here in Kentucky it's not the Irish part so much, it's the flute: -- i.e., guys who play any kind of flute are a little bit suspect.

I think I recall John Skelton wondering if putting one's flutes in one's truck gun rack would help, but ... nah. Probably not.

I thought I'd dredge this up again considering some recent events. I've always had very eclectic interests in life which have provided me acquaintances that are divided by a large cultural and political gap. I have very liberal friends as well as conservative friends. I have very rich friends and poor friends. I have interests in things mechanical and greasy as well as elegant and artistic. The other day I decided to sell my motorcycle. It's the seventh one I've had and family activities just don't mesh well with riding any more. I'm also losing the passion for it. I posted the sale notice on the motorcycle board I read and just happened to mention something about wanting to buy an expensive piece of African Blackwood with holes in it. They grilled me about it and when the truth came out I was instructed to "turn in my Man Card at the nearest counter".

So, Cathy... you were spot on in your analysis! Maybe I can mount a small gas engine on one of my Delrin flutes just to get some street-cred back.

Cheers,

Kirk

[s1m0n]

... and the shamrock sheep?

Let's leave Riverdance fans out of this.

[Aanvil]

When anyone ever questioned my flute playing as a way to question my manhood I would grab them up by the front of their shirts and threaten to beat the living hell out of them until they literally crapped.

I'm a pretty big guy so it usually never gets that far... besides I have some pretty savvy and cool friends.