Lunasa on stage: Kevin Crawford, Cillian Vallely, Sean Smyth, Paul Meehan, Trevor Hutchinson
Friday night in the big tent: Irish supergroup Lunasa (-> FW#5, FW#12, FW#21, FW#27, FW#28) plays some old favourites and some new sets from their recent album "Sé" (Gaelic for six, see CD review in this FW issue). Kevin Crawford on flutes, Cillian Vallely on uilleann pipes (-> FW#24), Sean Smyth on fiddle and Trevor Hutchinson on double bass perform dance tunes and airs with absolutely thrilling finesse. Kevin also grabs the bodhran, and introduces us to a tune called "The Last Pint," celebrating his ten year anniversary off the booze. (If that is true, Kevin must be a rare example of an Irish musician...) We critics are interested what happenend to the position of the guitar player, since former accompanist Donogh Hennessy left Lunasa for good to join his fiancée Pauline Scanlon (-> FW#30). New guitar player Paul Meehan (brother to flute player Martin Meehan, see CD review in this issue) is a more than qualified substitute. So the band is as gorgeous as ever.
Lunasa is followed on stage by
Le Vent du Nord
from Quebec (-> FW#29,
FW#31).
The four boys make an animated live band.
We get the typical French-Canadian characteristics: resonse singing,
accordion, fiddle, hurdy gurdy, piano, guitar, plus step dance and foot tapping.
Done in a most powerful and lively way.
So the Saw Doctors
(-> FW#29)
afterwards have to make an effort to keep pace.
The band from Tuam in the west of Ireland plays
their own peculiar brand of Irish music.
"N17" is the Irish folk song of the last century, they say.
Well, this is rock'n'roll, and they don't actually pretend doing something else.
Besides from the balconies there are no seats, and yes, that was a good idea.
The atmosphere is simply great. It could attract some younger people,
since generally the Tønder audience have become quite grey-haired.
As I leave, the party in tent 2 with
Croft No. 5
(-> FW#20,
FW#30) and the
Peatbog Faeries
(-> FW#8,
FW#27)
is still going. This brings me to the idea that, in the case of non-seated concerts,
one should have only one ticket to freely attend both tents. (That is already the case
with the ceilidh on Sunday.)
What did the Saw Docs sing? What a day, oh what a day!
Saturday morning starts with heavy rain. Then the sun comes out, and a picturesque rainbow shimmers over the fields. The Danish Folk Council announces the launch of the music export initiative Danish Roots. In recent years, Danish artists had experienced a growing success both at home and abroad. To ensure this developments, the aim is to support eight Danish acts to establish themselves internationally. In the first term, the spearhead is supported for three years: Faroese singer Eivør, duo Haugaard & Høirup (-> FW#27) and Instinkt (-> FW#24). The following groups will be backed up for one year: Afenginn, Tumult (-> FW#31), Zar (-> FW#28), Henrik Jansberg (-> FW#30), and Kristine Heebøll's "Trio Mio" (-> FW#30). I guess we will see and hear more of it in the near future.
In the town there are buskers everywhere,
at every other corner an Indian fake group with pan pipes and colourful dress Karl May would be proud of.
The German band Malbrook
(-> FW#28)
plays at the stage in the town centre.
The band has been formed three years ago by mandola player Wolfgang Meyering.
The music is a mix of Northern German music and song from East Frisia
and Scandinavian traditions. Performed in a most
experimental and exciting way.
I once said that German folk musicians tend to play
music the same way as the German football team plays football:
no adventures and always on the safe side.
Malbrook succeeded with a different approach.
So eventually our football team changed its attitude as well.
Thanks, Wolfgang!
To calm things down, I pay a visit to the Singer-Songwriter Circle. Emcee Bruce Guthro (these days the singer of Runrig -> FW#24) presents Anglo-American singer-songwriters such as Caroline Herring (-> FW#23), Darrell Scott (-> FW#28), Tim O'Brien (-> FW#11) and Arlo Guthrie (see CD review in the German section of this FW issue). Folk music songwriting still seems to be a address for political and social issues. Northern Englishman Jez Lowe (-> FW#26, FW#30) remarks that centuries ago the Danes crossed the sea, left a big impression, knew how to enjoy themselves. If those Vikings would come back today and see the world, they'd probably say: Excellent! Furthermore, Jez reminds us in a song of the Miami Showband that had been killed by a terrorist attack in the 1970s in Ireland. Scotsman-turned-Aussie Eric Bogle (-> FW#15, FW#19, FW#31) plays his anti-war classic "All the Fine Young Men":
They told all the fine young men of when this war is over For many of those fine young men all the wars are over There will be peace and the peace will last forever They have found peace, it's the peace that lasts forever In Flanders Field, at Lone Pine and Bersheeba When the call comes again they will not answer For king and country, for honour and duty They're just forgotten bones lying far from their homes The young men fought and cursed and wept and died As forgotten as the cause for which they died Ah young men, can you see now why they lied
Saturday night: Four Men and a Dog
exploded in the early 1990’s onto the Irish traditional music scene.
The Dogs recorded several CDs and played numerous live shows
with different line-ups until they gradually ran out of steam.
Three years ago they had a tremendous coming back.
Fiddler Cathal Hayden
(-> FW#14),
accordionist Donal Murphy and banjo player
Gerry O'Connor
(-> FW#30)
deliver some fiery traditional dance tunes. Adrenaline is running high.
Guitar player Kevin Doherty is singing some traditional-turned-rock'n'roll songs,
baby loves to boogie,
and Gino Lupari gives his party piece "Tipping It Up to Nancy".
The presence of this comic god of the bodhran alone is worth to check the band out.
New York fiddler Eileen Ivers
(-> FW#26)
has collected a line-up of Irish, Latin and American musicians. The daughter of Irish ancestry presents us how
several US immigrant traditions formed the multi-cultural Bronx.
Dance all day, dance all night, the club number goes and the motto is.
On Sunday afternoon, the ceilidh is
led by Ron Kavana (-> FW#13),
and
Brian McNeill
(-> FW#10). The proceedings start
with Irish and Scottish music. We get all the musicians performing at the festival,
one after another, one by one. Unfortunatly, not as many collaborations as in former years.
But among them Heel to Toe from the west of Ireland,
a show of traditional Irish music and dance,
featuring a dozen set and step dancers. They are
followed on their heels by an Irish film crew who shoot a
documentary about the musicians on their trip to the festival.
Ron, Brian and Gino sing together in memory
of old friends that once played Tønder,
but are no longer with us.
Then the Americans enter the stage. The
Foghorn Stringband
(see CD review in this FW issue) gathers around one microphone.
Just as in the good ol' days.
The day before, Bruce Guthro announced his remedy to a writer's block:
take your pants off, listen to Steve Earle records and dance.
Eventually, he arrived for the grand finale:
Steve Earle
(-> FW#30).
The country grunge rocker,
who calls his art heavy metal bluegrass anyway,
leads a second life as a bluegrass musician.
And this is what we get tonight - the pure stuff.
Steve recorded a traditional album with the
Del McCoury Band once,
this time he is joined by Tim O'Brien on mandolin und Darrell Scott on banjo.
He has the rather curious habit of playing everything in 'G' in an open guitar tuning,
and using the capodaster if it doesn't suit his vocal range.
But that doesn't mean he is a mean guitar player. Far off.
And the rain came down, Steve Earle once sang. Yes, it did.
But that wouldn't spoil the great atmosphere of the Tønder festival.
Here we are again. The circle's unbroken. Tønder's
alive and kicking. In all its glory.
Festival Homepage: www.tf.dk
Tønder Festivals at FolkWorld:
2005,
2004a,
2004b,
2003a,
2003b,
2003c,
2002a,
2002b,
2002c,
2001a,
2001b,
2000,
1999a,
1999b,
1998
Photo Credit:
(1) - (3) Lunasa;
(4) Le Vent du Nord;
(5) - (6) Four Men and a Dog;
(7) Ceilidh (by Walkin' Tom).
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Four Men and a Dog: Gino Lupari in full flight and warming up backstage.
Eileen is dancing to an urban beat.
She makes the fiddle sound like an electric guitar or a chain saw.
Sometimes like a fiddle too. It starts with the Riverdance sound,
taking it to the extreme,
and ends up with a Blues Brothers extravaganza.
Or is it a parody? A series of cheap tricks?
Some folks get quite irritated and leave the building. The rest loves it.
As I leave the festival area,
Hayseed Dixie
plays "Highway to Hell, Bill Monroe Version".
I pay a short visit to another new achievement of the Tønder festival:
in the club tent is a programme running from midnight to 3am in the morning with another three bands. Then I'm off.
To the German FolkWorld
© The Mollis - Editors
of FolkWorld; Published 12/2006
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