TUESDAY April 29th 6:30–8:30pm
cost: $30 ($25 for Passim members)

Club Passim School of Music
Harvard Square
Cambridge, MA
USA

Irish Guitar Accompaniment Workshop

This workshop is designed for guitar players who can already play chords in standard tuning and want to learn how to accompany Irish traditional music. We will start by re-tuning the low-E string down to D (dropped-D tuning) and then learn a few moveable chord shapes. We will also focus on basic strumming and crosspicking patterns for Jigs and Reels. Please bring a steel-string acoustic guitar, capo, and thin picks.

BCMFest to feature salute to classic Andy Irvine-Paul Brady album
by Sean Smith

In its first four years, the Boston Celtic Music Fest has saluted notable musicians,
composers, songs and tunes in the Celtic tradition. For its upcoming fifth edition,
BCMFest offers another kind of kudos, paying homage to one of the most popular and
influential recordings in the contemporary Irish music revival.
On Saturday, January 12, BCMFest will present Flynn Cohen and Matt Heaton
playing "A Tribute to Andy Irvine and Paul Brady," their take on the eponymous 1977
album that included such classic songs as "Arthur McBride," "The Jolly Soldier" and
"Mary and the Soldier" — all of which have become staples in the modern Irish folk song repertoire, and can be heard in pubs and parlors from Ballyvaughn to Boston, and
beyond.

"The Paul and Andy Show" (the concert's unofficial name) will take place at 11:30
a.m. at Club Passim, one of the four BCMFest venues.

The collaboration is a natural fit for Cohen and Heaton, who are two of the foremost
"Celtic-style" guitarists in the Greater Boston/New England area. Cohen, who has
worked with the likes of John Whelan, Aoife Clancy, The Sevens and Halali, as well as
the alt-trad band Annalivia (their debut CD came out this fall), is a scholar of Paul
Brady's guitar style and has transcribed many of Brady's arrangements for songs and
tunes. He also can wield a mean mandolin.
Heaton, while best-known for his musical partnership with his wife Shannon (the two
recently released an album of Celtic-influenced Christmas music), is continually in
demand as an accompanist and has played with a number of performers, including
Robbie O'Connell, the Boys of the Lough and Lissa Schneckenburger. In recent years,
Heaton has expanded his considerable talents to bouzouki, a development which figured
significantly into the Paul-Andy tribute concept.
"I was trying to learn some of Andy's material as a way of working on my bouzouki
playing, and I knew Flynn was rather obsessed with Paul Brady's approach to traditional
music," explains Heaton. "I got the idea for the collaboration on the last day before
performer applications were due for BCMFest; Flynn and I had one e-mail exchange and
decided to do it.
"Why BCMFest? Where else could we get away with it?"
Few albums in the past three to four decades of the Irish/Celtic folk revival have had
the impact of Brady-Irvine, according to Cohen and Heaton, which is why the recording
can be appreciated on its own merits as well as for its place in Irish music.
"Stylistic trends -- like the syncopated tunes and fiddle chop of today, or the square
rhythm guitar playing of the early folk revival -- don't normally stand the test of time,"
says Cohen. "However, Brady and Irvine avoided many of the indulgences that end up
leaving a record sounding dated after 10 or 20 years. These guys put so much work into their arrangements, which was a reflection of the music scene in the 1970s, especially progressive rock. But it's a very authentic sound, one that is highly appropriate for the music."

Cohen points to Brady's guitar playing on the album as one of its most important
features. "Brady did so much to incorporate the guitar into Irish music, not only for
singing but for backing and picking tunes. Every person who plays Irish guitar, whether
they know it or not, draws on his influence – and this album really spotlights what he
brought to the music."

Adds Heaton, "They picked great songs, and did amazingly creative things with them.
Nowadays, there are many albums where people pick great songs, and do rather dull
things with them. Its significance to the traditional music revival is setting the bar really
high."

Heaton recalls listening to the album's adventurous opening track, "The Plains of
Kildare" – with its shifting time signatures, including a Balkanesque 7/8 romp in the
middle – while driving, which nearly proved to be a dangerous combination. "At the
point when the last verse starts and they bring in the backing vocal, I almost got into an accident because I was so blown away."
Regardless of whether the BCMFest Brady-Irvine tribute may similarly affect area
traffic safety, Cohen and Heaton say they're working hard at what Heaton calls a
"faithful recreation" of the album: "We won't obsess about having every overdub present, but try to figure out how best to do the music live." There are also likely to be some special guests on hand to add to the fun, but the duo is mum as to whether they will faithfully recreate the 70s-era Brady-Irvine hairstyles and clothing fashions.
Heaton jokes that their idea has apparently been swiped: The Celtic Connections
Festival taking place in Glasgow later in January also will feature a Brady-Irvine tribute.
"It's being performed by a couple of guys named Brady and Irvine."

Flynn Cohen – http://www.myspace.com/flynncohen
Matt Heaton – http://www.eatsrecords.com/
Boston Celtic Music Fest – http://bcmfest.com/

SPRING 2008 SEASON

JAN 26 - Sarah Blair (Irish)
workshop tune: The Crooked Road to Dublin

FEB 23 - Rodney Miller (New England)
workshop tune: TBA

MARCH 22 - Emerald Rae (Scottish)
workshop tune: TBA

APRIL 26 - Matt Brown (Old-Time/Appalachian)
workshop tune: Grub Springs

MAY 24 - Kimberley Fraser (Cape Breton)
workshop tune: TBA

held at
The Peterborough Town Library (downstairs)
2 Concord Street
Peterborough, NH 03458
(603) 924-8040

Peterborough Fiddles is a monthly gathering that showcases the various traditional fiddles styles that make up the musical landscape of New England: Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton, Contradance, and Old-Time. We get together on the fourth Saturday of each month in Peterborough, NH for an evening that combines education and entertainment, each time featuring a different world-class fiddler. Here is the format:

6.30-7.30pm WORKSHOP
The guest fiddler chooses a tune for students to learn in advance, then spends the hour-long workshop teaching authentic traditional bowing and ornamentation. This process highlights the specific stylistic differences between the various fiddle music traditions and lends a greater depth to the students' musical appreciation and technique. Transcriptions of the chosen tunes will appear on this website, along with links to sounds files. FEE: $15

8-9pm CONCERT
The guest fiddler will perform one long set of of their given style and each will have CDs available. FEE: $10

9-10.30pm OPEN SESSION
There will be an open session for all fiddle music following each concert (all traditional instruments welcome).

Hosted by acoustic guitar accompanist Flynn Cohen. Called "a versatile string virtuoso" by Dirty Linen Magazine, Flynn has recorded CDs and performed all over the globe with many acclaimed artists in traditional and contemporary acoustic music, including: John Whelan, Cathie Ryan, Halali, Annalivia, Adrienne Young, Aoife Clancy, Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, Matt Glaser, John McGann, Rodney Miller, The Sevens, Sheila Falls, Skip Healy and many others.

I have transcribed two sets of reels as recorded by the great Paul Brady back in the 1970s. They, as well as other info, can be found at:

www.freewebs.com/paulbradyappreciationsociety