the hum / By Bob Doran

The Soul in the Melody

Fiddler Martin Hayes on tradition, plus Moo-Got-2 v. Deep Groove and Splinter Cell

(Sept. 17, 2009)  By the time you read this, Irish fiddler extraordinaire Martin Hayes will likely be at home in Connecticut preparing for next week’s West Cost tour with his guitarist music partner Dennis Cahill. But last weekend Hayes was back where he came from, in County Clare, Ireland playing at something called the Tulla Traditional Music Festival. He and Cahill did a couple of shows there, but Hayes also played a gig with the Tulla Céíli Band, a trad Celtic group once led by his father. “I play with the band often and it’s a touchstone experience,” said Hayes in an e-mail from Tulla. “It brings me back to my start point in music so it’s a reality check.”

What does “traditional” mean in the context of a festival in County Clare? “It means celebrating the music of the locality in an effort to ensure its continuity,” said Hayes, but, he added, that doesn’t mean he plays differently for American audiences. “I want the music to speak universally and it does. I want to play what I feel and believe and I want that to happen whether it’s in Tulla or San Francisco [or Arcata]. So I don’t change my music. However, peoples’ ideas of ‘traditional’ vary greatly within Ireland and obviously vary in the rest of the world. But I don’t believe that people’s ideas of what the tradition is should have any bearing on how they experience the music. In my way of looking at this, it’s first and foremost music, and secondarily it’s part of a tradition.”

Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill. Photo by Derek Speirs

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What does it mean to be a traditional musician in the ever-changing musical landscape of 2009? “For me, personally, I continue searching musically for opportunities to get deeper into the music, and that means deeper into my own playing, into my ability to find the soul and expression in the melody, and I just continue to try and break down whatever barriers exist for me,” he concluded.

Those who want to see where Hayes and Cahill have taken the music of County Clare will want to get advance tickets to their Humboldt Folklife show at the Arcata Playhouse next Wednesday, Sept. 23. Martin will also be in town Tuesday evening for a master fiddle class at the Playhouse. Interested? Call 822-5394 or send an e-mail to maia@humboldtfolklife.org.

Tradition was also on the mind of Soviet-era choreographer Pavlo Virsky back in 1937 when he founded the State Folk Dance Ensemble of the Ukrainian SSR — in particular, those trad dances involving guys in puffy pants leaping wildly amid swirling flocks of women in long colorful dresses. His troupe was renamed the Virsky Ukrainian National Dance Company after Pavlo’s death in 1975. They’ll be at the Arkley Center Friday night.

Back in May I noted that Grammy-winning country diva LeAnn Rimes would be playing the Arkley Center, and that her show was guaranteed to sell out far in advance. It did. (It’s next Tuesday.)

Speaking of Grammy-winning divas, The Mariachi Divas are coming to the Sapphire Palace Saturday night. While your typical mariachi is a guy in tight silver-studded pants, a bolero jacket and a sombrero, this group, founded by trumpeter Cindy Shea 10 years ago, is different: It’s all women. The Divas’ latest disc, Canciones de Amor, took home a Grammy for Best Regional Mexican Album earlier this year, but the band’s repertoire is not all trad — e.g. their smooth cover of the old Malo hit, “Suavecito.”

It’s official: hard-working blues-rock band Saint John and the Sinners was voted “Best Band in Humboldt” in our reader poll. Catch them Friday at Central Station or on Saturday at Nocturnum where a “Rap ’n’ Rock Rhythm Rumble” pairs them with local hip hoppers Hiway and L.C.A. They also invite you to, “bring your rhymes to the freestyle rap open mic.”

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