Karan has just started a tour of Scotland and England. Here are the remaining dates:

APR 21ST
GLASGOW
CITY HALLS, RECITAL ROOMS
0141 353 8000

APR 23RD
STIRLING
TOLBOOTH THEATRE
01786 274 000

APR 24TH
ABERDEEN
LEMON TREE
01224 641 122

APR 25TH
SKYE
GAELIC COLLEGE
01471 844 207

APR 29TH
BURY
THE MET
0161 761 2216

MAY 5TH
LONDON
GREEN NOTE
020 7485 9899

MAY 6TH
NORWICH
ARTS CENTRE
01603 660 352

MAY 8TH
PEEBLES
EASTGATE ARTS CENTRE
01721 725 785

MAY 22ND - 24TH
ORKNEY
ORKNEY FOLK FESTIVAL
www.orkneyfolkfestival.com

 

So we have just driven 260 miles last night after the gig in Tulsa OK and we are all pretty tired. We are driving from Kansas City to Cedar Rapids, which is another 350 miles for a gig tonight. I do not want to talk to anyone who says you have the life of Reilly!
Well we did have a great few days up in Portland ME. We were there for 3 days and we were treated so well by the people running the gig. We played in a club called the Empire Dine and Grill and on our night off we went to see a bluegrass band, with a great mandolin player called Jo Walsh who is a lovely singer. We then met John Cooper who is a violin maker or - new word for Karan - a Luthier - good one huh!
And he is a tremendously kind man and not only did he show us around but he also let us use his studio to practice and his friend Ed Pearlman lent us a keyboard for the gig and the practice. To be honest I was thinking that the studio would be a little shack but it is a really lovely building with loads of rooms for rehearsals. They also make guitars so there is a whole cottage industry going on up there. We went to a great Mexican restaurant as well and then the lads went out again. They are very hardy altogether.
Danger Kate who is our wonderful cello player aka Kate Ellis is the hardiest of them all. She floats around this world as a beautiful-cello-goddess-type but really she has a hardened criminal mind and seems to be really able to stick the pace.
The gig was great in Portland and the crowd were up for a good night. This youngfellow called Conor Quinn told me he could sing, well his Dad did really and so I asked him up to sing and he was great, which was a relief! It was the first time he had ever sung in front of a mic.
Anyway I did get sick in Portland and was a bit whacked out because I didn’t read the instructions on the cover. So I took 2 tablets every 3 or 4 hours and then realised you are only supposed to take 2 every 8 hours so I was a tad mental in Tulsa and slept nearly all day on the planes.
The people in Tulsa were really good crack and the people organizing the gig especially Shirley were particularly nice considering how mental my head was.  My Obama song  didn’t go down so well. Guess it’s not a blue state. Two people up the front left when I said the president was fantastic. Honestly people get a life!
Anyway what else… well Ross our brilliant guitar player is on a bit of a mission to see the real America. I know what he means in that when you drive just on the highway all the time you don’t get to chat to people so we’ve been stopping in out of the way places and meeting out of the way people. One waitress up in Vermont told us all about these red cranberry shoes that she really wanted to buy - they were 250 dollars and her husband told her they were too dear, which I said wasn’t very fair, even though I did think it was a lot! Anyway in the heel of the hunt the story involved your woman dancing around the restaurant, with a song and in the end she got the shoes on sale for 90 dollars. I like the Hollywood ending.
Today’s restaurant was in St Charles a few miles from where John Wayne was born and it was their opening day. Also just so as ye know, John Wayne’s mother was from Lewis in Scotland (Ross's information). The woman running the show was a character and made us eat hillbilly pie. When we asked what that was she said anyone south of the 92! And she roared laughing. Does this make sense to ye?  They were having a few teething problems as the taco meat hadn't thawed out yet.
It reminded me of another time I was in Wisconsin and we stopped for something to eat and your man the waiter asked us what we’d like and we said well what do you have. Then he said well we have "Friendship soup" and we asked what was that like and he said "Well it ain’t pretty but folks around here sure like it!"
We are nearly in Cedar Rapids so newly made IT warrior woman is signing off.
 

So I am out on the road again in America for what will be my thirteenth March tour, I think! So far it has been pretty easy going. We did 2 gigs with Lunasa, which is always a trip for me. Kevin Crawford their flute player is hilarious and kept us all entertained with stories most of which are lies.
We all went out after the gig in Erie Pennsylvania and arrived into this bar much to the bar woman’s shock. When she asked how long were we in town for, Ross Martin (great Scottish guitar player with me - not some Texan guitar fellow who I don’t know and people keep asking me about) said six years - and this was our first night! Whoopee! The woman did have a good sense of humour,  which helped. Anyhow we had a good night and both of the Vallelys got speeding tickets the next day.
What else…Well I am thrilled with Barack Obama and I have been singing him a Nina Simone song (well Billy Taylor wrote it but I got it from Nina) every night for the past year. It’s called “I wish I knew how it would feel to be free” It’s a great song altogether.
I got the Rolling Stone Magazine with all of his speeches as well and so I have been reading those on the airplanes, so if you see an Irish woman sitting on a plane crying while reading the Rolling Stone. That’s me. It is just so amazing to witness the new sense of hope in America and to see everyone really trying to come to terms with the recession.
We are going through a similar financial situation at home in Ireland (about 1000 people are signing on everyday) only we don’t have politicians or a leader who can really think. Maybe we could borrow Barack for a while.
What I have always loved about America is the way people are so positive. I know not everyone! But there is a real sense that people can fulfill their potential and at the moment at least try to be good to one another. Obviously there is a lot to undo and to do.

Anyway this blog thing is all new to me. I am like a door to door sales woman with my little song books trying to earn a few bob at the dawn of the internet age! I can’t promise that I will keep this up everyday at all. But maybe every few weeks?? I don’t know really.
I hope ye are all well and come out to the gigs.

Following the recent release of "Ships in the Forest" there, Karan starts an extensive German tour tomorrow - October 9th.
OCT 9TH     HILDESHEIM     BISCHOFSMUHLE     www.bischofsmuehle.de

OCT 10TH     KELLINGHUSEN      ULMENHOF SCHULE     www.pep-kulturverein.de 04822/309286

OCT 11TH     BAD PYRMONT     PALMENGARTEN     www.staatsbad-pyrmont.de 05281/151543 u. CTS

OCT 16TH      KIEL     KULTURFORUM     www.streiber-kiel.de 0431/91416

OCT 17TH      STUHR     RATHAUS SAAL      www.stuhr.de 0421/5695244

OCT 18TH     SALZWEDEL     MONCHESKIRCHE     www.kultur-saw.de

OCT 19TH      VENNE     LINNENSCHMIDT     www.folkfruehling.de

OCT 21ST     CH - BAAR     RATHAUS SCHUUR      www.baar.ch

OCT 22ND     OBERJACKING     KLEINKUNST BEIM KNOTT     www.konzertbuerorauch.de 0851/956480

OCT 23RD     LANDSHUT     SALZSTADEL     0871/26450 oder 0871/22186

OCT 24TH     WALDKRAIBURG     KULTURHAUS     www.waldkraiburg.de

OCT 25TH     SAALFELD     FRANZISKANER KLOSTER     www.meininger-hof.de 03671/359590

OCT 26TH      POLAND - POLKOWICE     AULA

OCT 30TH      RASTATT     REITHALLE      www.rastatt.de

OCT 31ST     TAUNUSSTEIN-HAHN     BURGERHAUS TAUNUS

NOV 1ST     SONDERSHAUSEN     ERLEBNISBERGWERK     www.erlebnisbergwerk.com 03632/655280

NOV 2ND     HELMBRECHTS     TEXTILMUSEUM MULTIVISION     09252/92430

NOV 3RD     HATZENBUHL     PIZZERIA DA ANGELO     0800/61290 00

NOV 4TH     WALDSHUT-TIENGEN     KATHOLISCHES GEMEINDEHAUS     www.waldshut-tiengen.de

NOV 6TH     BRUHL (BEI LEVERKUSEN)     GALERIE AM SCHLOSS     www.bruehl.de 02232/79345

NOV 7TH      KELKHEIM     VEREINSHAUS HORNAU     www.jazzclub-kelkheim.de  06195/902774

NOV 8TH     ESSLINGEN     DIESELSTRASSE     www.dieselstrasse.de

NOV 9TH     NURNBERG     LONI-UBLER-HAUS



 

"Sing Out" review of Ships in the Forest

Three quarters of the way through her latest solo album Karan Casey slips into a glorious cover of Joni Mitchell's "The Fiddle and the Drum," her voice accenting poignant lyrics atop the steady drone of Cillian Vallely's bagpipes. It's an altogether appropriate moment; the song came from Mitchell's 1969 album Clouds, which won a Grammy and stunned critics with its poetry and maturity. Maturity would also be an apt descriptor for Ships in the Forest, which finds Casey confident and in command, an artist bent on coloring each selection in ways that draw attention to the song rather than the singer. Having made her mark as a mighty mite, Casey now feels comfortable dialing back her performance; her take on "Black is the Colour" is deliberate, dark, and somber, a minimalist piano arrangement that would be at home on a June Tabor release. In like spirit, Casey offers a mournful version of "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" that opens with voice and a pipe drone before it's lightly textured with piano (Caoimhin Vallely), guitar (Robbie Overson), and concertina (Niall Vallely). Casey still has plenty of energy, as she demonstrates on "Town of Athlone," but she's now become a complete singer, one equally at home with hoppy Celtic material, an a capella Gaelic song such as "Maidin Luan Chincise," or a moody, semitragic rendition of a classic like "I Once Loved a Lass." One of the great voices in contemporary music has just gotten even better.--RWeir

Niall and Cillian Vallely's critically acclaimed album "Callan Bridge" is being re-released by Crow Valley Music this week. For more details on the album visit www.vallelymusic.com. To buy this album and others by Karan Casey, Buille and Caoimhín Vallely visit www.crowvalleymusic.com

Review of "Ships in the Forest" on BBC.co.uk by Mel Ledgard.

     For one reason or another, the profile of this great Irish singer lurks slightly under the British folk radar. It's probably down to her busy US/European touring schedule plus a collaboration habit to rival the Chieftains: lately she's worked with artists including Lúnasa, Solas, Buille, Mícheál Ó’Súilleabháin, Peggy Seeger and Liam Clancy.
     Karan Casey's fifth solo album might change all that, though how the first listen grabs you may depend on the mood you're in. Her stated intent to ''tackle the big songs within the traditional repertoire'' inevitably involves big themes of emigration, conflict, love and loss, and demands a certain amount of gravitas. Where 2005's Chasing The Sun included six originals and was light in tone, here stripped-down arrangements and a sense of melancholy prevail.
     Much of the mood of understated spaciousness is generated by Caoimhín Vallely's luscious piano work, with help from the sonorous cello of Kate Ellis. Casey's intimate voice expressively unfolds each song, whether it's a delicate version of Robert Burns' Ae Fond Kiss or a heart-rending tale of Ireland's political history (Dunlavin Green, Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye). An abstract, protracted Black Is The Colour is the killer track, its phrasing owing more to Billie Holliday than Cara Dillon, while Joni Mitchell's 1969 anti-war song, The Fiddle And The Drum (one of the CD’s two contemporary numbers), floats on the haunting, eerie wail of Cillian Vallely's pipes.
     Not all is dark and sombre though: Kris Drever's upbeat, melodic guitar drives along Martin Furey's Town of Athlone, and other top musos judiciously fill out the sound here and there: more guitar from Robbie Overson, bodhran from Martin O'Neill, things with keys from album producer Donald Shaw and – you can't swing a cat without hitting a scion of the ferociously talented Vallely family – the left-field (though here restrained) concertina playing of Karan's spouse Niall.
     The first of Casey's albums since the passing in 2005 of her mentor, singer/collector Frank Harte, Ships In The Forest shines with unsentimental emotion and moments of rare beauty. He'd be proud.

Read feature article on Karan in today's Irish Times:
http://www.irishtimes.com

As well as Karan Casey's new album "Ships in the Forest", the following albums are now available from the Crow Valley Music Store

Armagh Pipers Club - 40th Anniversary Album
Live Recordings from the William Kennedy Piping Festival
Niall Vallely - Beyond Words
Caoimhín Vallely - Strayaway
Anglo International - Anglo concertina playing from around the World
Live from the Katherine Cornell Theater
Niall Vallely CD-Rom Concertina Tutorial
Karan Casey - Chasing the Sun
Karan Casey - Distant Shore
Karan Casey - The Winds Begin to Sing
Karan Casey - Songlines