Irish Tunes in the Key of C-19

Episode 40 – Irish Tunes in the Key of C-19: 
How traditional musicians and dancers stay social in isolation
This Irish Music Stories episode aired  April 14, 2020
https://shannonheatonmusic.com/episode-40-irish-tunes-in-the-key-of-c-19/

– Transcription assistance from Ed Schilling –

Speakers, in order of appearance

>> Shannon Heaton: flute player, singer, composer, teacher, and host of Irish Music Stories 
>> Joanie Madden: Bronx-based Irish flute and whistle player and composer 
>> Karan Casey: Waterford-born folk singer, songwriter and activist 
>> Laura Cortese: San Francisco-born, Belgium-based singer, songwriter, and fiddle player
>> Eileen Ivers: New York-based Grammy-winning fiddle player, composer, and bandleader
>> Pete Strickler: Colorado-born banjo player 
>> Catilin Warbelow: NY-based violinist and entrepreneur originally from Alaska
>> Kirsten Allstaff: Scottish and Irish flute player and director of Online Academy of Irish Music
>> Marla Fibish: San Francisco-born mandolin player and teacher
>> Flynn Cohen: Vermont-based Irish and Bluegrass guitar player who spent many years in Boston
>> Jeremy Keith: England-based web developer and bouzouki player who created thesession.org
>> Alan Ng: Wisconsin-based fiddle player who created irishtune.info
>> Elizabeth Sweeney: Piano and fiddle player and librarian at Boston College’s Burns Library
>> Nigel Heaton: young announcer for Irish Music Stories 
>> Jeff Kszaiek: Wisconsin-based archivist and Irish guitar, bouzouki, and flute player 
>> Kieran Jordan: Philadelphia-born, Boston-based dancer, teacher, and choreographer 

_____

>> Shannon: Hey, everybody. It’s Shannon Heaton. It’s April 2020. And I hope that you’re doing okay. My family’s all right. We’re doing some homeschooling with our kid, trying to play some music, and stay fairly positive. But also admit that we’re a little terrified. And sad. 

This morning I did a post office run. It was the first time I’d been in a few weeks. I went to fill a few CD orders, which made me cry. Because in the middle of all this, to think that people would still order CDs… well, it’s really kind. And it’s hopeful.

So I got to the post office. And I had on a makeshift mask and gloves.  The lights were super low.  I thought it was closed.  There were these two huge sheets of plastic in the windows. And I said hello.  And a little face appeared from behind the plastic sheets.  I said I have my packages ready to go.

She said thanks so much for wearing a mask. I said thank you so much for working here.  And we both cried.

So I had a a full plate of gigs planned for March and April. I was going to launch Season Four of Irish Music Stories in May.  And of course, plans have changed. Instead of playing those shows, I’m home.  Most of us are.  All over the world, as we weather this Covid-19 crisis. 

One of my pandemic projects (and my thanks to my friend Daithi for that term) will be to share more Irish Music Stories, starting with this one. Here’s an episode about how online tools are keeping the tradition going, even while most of us can’t really go anywhere to meet up.

I started working on this story well before this crisis. It means a lot more. So…

Welcome to Season FOUR of Irish Music Stories…

…. the show about traditional music, and the bigger stories behind it…

[ Music: “Haapvesi,” (composed by Thomas Bartlett) from January EP

Artist: Assembly ]

…like how the tunes are all still there, even if the players aren’t all together.  

…like how people are finding ways to continue creative careers and group music events during this time of social isolation

… And how a good tune is a great connector, no matter when it was written:

>>  Joanie:  I remember the first time I heard “The Cat’s Meow” recorded, I nearly dropped dead.  Because I never played it.  I wrote it and I never played it, until I went to Ireland and everybody and their mother was playing it.

>> Shannon:  That’s flute and whistle player Joanie Madden at her home in Yonkers.  When she started hearing people play her composition “The Cat’s Meow,” they were all talking about it like it was an old traditional tune/

>> Joanie:  It wound up that somebody recorded me in the whistle competition. It was a girl named Siobhan O’Donnell, a great flute player from London.   She recorded me playing it; didn’t know I had written it. She went back to England and taught it to everybody. And then I heard it on a Comhaltas album, that this tune has been around for hundreds of years.

>> Shannon:  Hahah!

>> Joanie:  Like, to me, that’s the greatest compliment!

>> Shannon:  Yeah… 

When I learned “The Cat’s Meow” I knew Joanie had written it.  But I could just as easily have heard it at a session and picked it up.  And Then, if nobody mentioned the name? Maybe I’d assume it’s an old traditional jig.

Here’s Joanie playing it with her band Cherish the Ladies.

[ Music: 

Tune: “The Cat’s Meow,” (composed by Joanie Madden) from An Irish Homecoming

Artist: Cherish the Ladies ]

>> Shannon:  Cherish the Ladies was at the end of their big 35th Anniversary Tour just as the Stateside venues started to close. When larger gatherings no longer seemed advisable. Their two biggest shows in California and Arizona went up in smoke.  

[Music:

Tune:  “Dark Low Jig,” from Irish Music Stories Production Music

Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton]

And there were lots of other bands, including singer Karan Casey’s trio, who were still out on the road in mid-March.

For every Corona inconvenience story, there’s another one that’s way worse, and increasingly that’s way more tragic.  But just in terms of inconvenience, when Karan’s multi-week tour collapsed, she was in rural Ohio. The way it works in the United States is that things are implemented at the State and local level, so your State or Commonwealth determines protocol, like when to close schools, playgrounds, beaches, gathering spaces.  When to move restaurants to take out only, libraries to digital only.  But the Federal government is supposed to work as a facilitator, a supplier, a supporter.  It’s supposed to provide the states with resources and support and reinforce local efforts and messaging.  So, even though at this point the U.S. government hadn’t issued clear directives for best public practices, there was talk of closing national borders. And getting Karan back to Ireland—and her bandmates back to Boston—was pretty wild. Here’s my husband Matt who was out there with Karan.

>> Matt:  So, we were in the middle of Ohio, and we had been going sort of day-by-day, everyone in the car checking their phones seeing just sort of how bad is it getting, how bad is it going to get, and then gigs started getting cancelled.  There were a few that were oh, maybe they will cancel this and maybe they won’t cancel that but then it was becoming apparent that they were all going to get cancelled.  

[Music:

Tune: “Midnight Sojourn Intro,” from Kitchen Sessions

Artist: Matt & Shannon Heaton]

>> Matt:  So we were in the middle of Ohio and we realized that the best thing to do was just to get home and so we started to change airline flights and all of the airline web sites were just crashing.  You couldn’t do anything at all.  We were all on the phone with different airlines trying to get through to people.  We eventually were able to change some flights and all of a sudden realized, oh, we need to get back to Chicago tonight.  

[Music:

Tune: “ Bb Shuffle,” from Kitchen Sessions

Artist: Matt & Shannon Heaton]

So we bundled into the car and drove across Ohio and Indiana till we made it to O’Hare, got Karan on the last flight out to get her back to Cork, and then the next morning we had an early flight back to Boston.

>> Shannon:  And then pretty much everything shut down in Ireland and Massachusetts.

>> Matt:  Yeah.

>> Shannon:  I asked Karan what her scene has been back in Ireland, what she’s been up to.

>> Karan:   I think what’s working for me since I came home from the states is trying to limit my time on social media. I find it a bit addictive. No matter what, I seem to look up the stats every day. But the more time I spend on it, often the more anxious I become. So I definitely try to limit that.

And then I listen to some stuff online. I watched the “While Aways” gig last night on Facebook Live and I loved that. And I’m also reading, which I always do for comfort. I find that really the best for myself anyway. I’m resting and reading! Which is good.

[ Music:

Tune: “Little Bird Lullaby,” from Irish Music Stories Production Music

Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton]

I’m also just to be honest and grateful for everything that I have. I have a house. And my two kids and Niall are here. We’re getting to spend more time together which is great. It’s not always great, but it’s fine.  I also have a garden which is fantastic, so I’m looking at a lot of birds. Just trying to be grateful and take stock. I am NOT actually trying to devise a whole new way of performing online, or working on something all new and fantastic and shiny and bright. I’m actually just trying to take a breath. And I think that’s actually enough for now. It’s not for everyone, I know. But it’s enough for me now. 

[Music:

Tune: “Heartstrings Theme” from Irish Music Stories Production Music

Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton]

>> Shannon:  Seeking comforts. Getting rest. Taking stock. Going inward. Seems like really good advice. I LIKE it. And I’m not doing it. I’ve been busy trying to find some other income streams… and figure out this homeschool thing for our  kid… and get through the pile of projects I’d laid out for myself before all this happened. Hmmm…

Over in Belgium, fiddle player and singer Laura Cortese has tried a few things—both on and offline. She’s experimenting with different ways to share music that feel real and resonant for HER.  Laura talks about real world, socially distant music-making like the folk song that neighbors sang from their balconies in Sicily.

[Music:

Tune: “Ciuri Ciuri,” from March 14 Video on Sicilian balcony

Artist:  Italian Neighbors

Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcqtCN5hdl4]

>> Laura:  It’s interesting, I think, inspired by the videos that I’m sure we’ve all seen of the Italians hanging outside their windows singing together, a few people here in Ghent each week have picked a Dutch/Flemish pop song. People have learned it.  They go out on their balconies or out on the street and play it. But I’ve actually found THAT a little more difficult, … If I don’t already know the song.  If it’s not a song I’m inspired by.  But, inspired by a friend actually in Watertown Massachusetts, Zachariah Hickman, me and my partner Bert(?) just walked around our neighborhood playing tunes. Just like… fiddle and accordion, playing tunes on our street, tunes that we love that we WOULD jam if there was a jam. 

[Music:

Tune: “Mangatskrinna,” from All in Always

Artist/Composer: Laura Cortese]

>> Shannon:  Laura told me that people poked their heads out of the windows, opened their front doors, clapped. Then they walked to a home where elderly people are living and played in the courtyard there.

>> Laura:  Some people out in their wheelchairs were on their balconies and waving. It really felt personal. And it could mean something to someone. So I guess I’m finding these things I can do that are actually OFF the internet slightly more rewarding.

I have found participating in a live broadcast, a live stream pretty fun if it happens pretty rarely. …..

>> Shannon:  So, you’ve got this new album coming out. It’s not a super great time to fill in live tour dates. Do you have a Plan B?

>> Laura:  I don’t yet have a Plan B, but I’ve been thinking about just the uncertainty of all this, and whether we know it’s going to be done by the Fall … A lot of people are rescheduling for the Fall.  I’ve just been thinking it could be interesting to find a truly creative way to release an album that isn’t contingent on being able to do live tour dates. Maybe through a lot of videos. Or, maybe through these live concerts. Or  through some other method that you can really have people hear the music and share the stories around the album. I don’t want to wait to release the music that I meant to have people hear in this time. And I wrote it for relief and release in a stressful time. And this is one of those times. And I would love to have the music do its work as we all struggle though this moment.

————

>> Shannon: So… taking some time to figure out how to share a new album and how to pay the bills. There’s a lot of opportunity there! And uncertainty.

And then what about a Plan B for Irish music sessions. Whether Irish music is your job or your passion outside of the workplace, sessions are usually important musical and social touchstones. 

>> Eileen: Any trad player—and you know well—you need that! It’s like oxygen, you know? If you’re away for too long, it’s … um, you just need it.

>> Shannon: That’s New York-based fiddle player Eileen Ivers

>> Eileen: It’s part of who you are. It’s inside you. I mean, it’s fine to play tunes in your hotel room. But as we know the socialness of our music and our tradition, and how we are now in life is just something that you need! Chatting about the tunes, chatting about life, you know. 

Irish music is much bigger than just the music, the tunes, there’s a lot more to it.

[ Music: Tune: “Noisy Curlew,” from Dear Old Erin’s Isle: Irish Traditional Music from America
Artists: Eileen Ivers, Seamus Egan

>> Shannon: Okay. So we’re all socially isolated. And we have this technology. Is there a Plan B for Irish music sessions? I asked Pete Strickler, a banjo player out in Colorado about the online options that he’s encountered.

>> Pete: Being a tech guy, I’ve long been skeptical of our ability to have much of a fulfilling musical experience using technology. But in desperate times you look for what you can find. 

Zoom seems to be a pretty popular platform these days. The problem with platforms like Zoom and Google Hangouts or Skype is that they run through central servers, which might be in a completely different state. And they’re not optimized to limit latency, because that doesn’t really matter that much in a speaking or video conference. So what most people are doing with these platforms is having sessions where each set has a leader and that leader’s mic is the only one that is broadcasting. In  that case, all the other players feel like they are playing with the leader. But nobody is having to deal with the latency.

Now, JamKazam is one of the several online platforms that promise low latency experiences with playing music. To make it work well, though, you need to have a few things, including a desktop computer and either MacOS or Windows. And you have to have a wired ethernet connection, because WiFi adds too much latency. You need headphones and a mic. And you have to have some good sound hardware. Unfortunately, we found that in almost every case, the stock sound hardware in computers is not going to be fast enough. In fact, one of my sessions has pooled our tip money for the last 6 or 7 years, and we just used some of that money to buy sound hardware for all of our regular session anchors so that we can keep ourselves sane.

And finally, you need good internet. People tend to think you need fast internet which really means lots of bandwidth. But JamKazam isn’t using that much bandwidth. In a session with six people, you might be using 5 megabits per second in either direction, which is pretty well within most broadband limits these days. But you need stable internet. And we found that hardwired cable or fiber seems to work better than DSL. 

>> Shannon: Because satellite internet or cell networks add way too much latency.. or LAG time. But when people are trying to play music together and really lock in rhythmically, any lag time is a big drag. So because JamKazam is a peer to peer platform that doesn’t go through a central server, there will be less of that big drag.

>> Pete: Once you get it up and running, we found that having total latency between players with less than maybe 20 milliseconds is pretty doable. You know, 20 milliseconds of latency is about the same as sitting 20 feet apart in a room. But it still feels mostly like playing in person.

>> Shannon: Here’s Pete on banjo, playing with Dirk Mewes on pipes and Kevin Rumery on the bouzouki

[ Music: Tune: “Humours of Ballyconnell,” from JamKazam recording
Artists: Pete Strickler, Dirk Mewes, Kevin Rumery ]

>> Pete: I’ve had a few online sessions with people a thousand miles away, where our total latency is in the 40 millisecond range. And you definitely start to feel the lag like a big messy session might be. But it’s still kinda doable. But half the fun of a session is the social aspects. And that can be filled pretty well with JamKazam’s video chat.

Another thing people are doing is recording audio and video, and then passing it around. And then each players adds their own audio and video to it, and then passes it on. So it feels like they got a bunch of people playing together. 

>> Shannon: So there you go. You don’t need super strong internet to download and send a video. You can record something offline. And then send it to a friend. Your friend can download it, and record over it, and send it to another friend. That’s how the Swedish band Folk All In played this. The video is awesome.

[ Music: Tune: “Griffenfelt,” from March 31, 2010 Virtual Quarantine video
Artist: Folk All-In Band ]

>> Shannon: Now there is fun and connection in doing this together. Seeing everybody in their own little homes, still playing together. It’s really joyful!

[ Music swells ]

..But, it’s not a session. It’s a well-rehearsed band. And while all these musicians just filmed this on their phones and used whatever mic they had for the audio, it’s still a bunch of seasoned performers. So most of them have decent mics. And they know how to use them. Members of the band have also done other live-streaming events. And these are not available to folks living in rural areas.  Like flute player and dancer Matthew Olwell living in Virginia is cut off from this streaming revolution, because he can’t get broadband or cellular data where he lives. Ain’t no live streaming with satellite internet 

And as Matthew reminded me, this same limitation is making it more difficult for kids in rural areas to use online homeschooling resources. And that reveals a facet of economic class and privilege… that extends well beyond this current crisis.

[ Music: Tune: “Hometown Lullaby,” from Irish Music Stories Production Music
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton

If you think latency and technology limitations are rough for musicians, try dancing together online. There’s even more tech to consider. Dancer and choreographer, Boston-based Kieran Jordan is defiantly experimenting. And getting dancers together anyway. It helps that her dance forms are old style and sean nos dancing, which are both mostly solo forms. And they’re usually done in small spaces, so people can do steps in their kitchens and in their homes. Still I wondered how she was able to keep her teaching going. There are lots of people who count on her classes to develop their dance technique and learn new steps. But also to be in the company of other dancers. And to connect with each other… and with the tradition… and with Kieran

>> Kieran: It’s pretty challenging to get the technology to cooperate for this. You do need to have the camera focused on the feet. And in my situation I like to talk to the students. So I also need the camera to focus on my face. So I end up doing a lot of standing up and sitting down on the floor and adjusting the position of the camera. It’s not like I can leave the camera in one spot. Or at least I haven’t found a way to do that yet. 

Then you also have the sound of the feet. Some of the platforms like to filter this out as if it were background noise. So I’ve had to learn how to use Zoom to get deep into the settings and disable the feature that wants to actually filter out the sound of the feet. (Because the sound of the feet are like the sound of the instrument that we’re trying to put across.) So I’ve been teaching lessons one on one, lessons on video chat, like FaceTime, Messenger, Skype. Those kinds of one-on-one lessons. Those lessons are okay. It feels like there’s a give and take. A conversation back and forth between me and the student. And when it comes time for dancing, it’s basically like taking turns. I demonstrate something, and then the student demonstrates it back.

Um, the group classes are a lot more challenging. You know, you’re dealing with some people with slow internet connections. Everyone’s kind of learning the technology at their own pace. Some are better at it than others. 

The greatest challenge for me has probably been having music as a third source of audio. So I’m speaking, I’m dancing, and then I need to use music from a different device. There is a lag time, so the student and I aren’t able to dance together simultaneously. So now I request that my students also have a music device on their side. So you’re expecting a lot of people. You’re asking people to have two devices that they know how to use. It’s kind a lot time spent getting the technology and the apps and all that in place before you actually get to the dancing.

>> Shannon: For those of us who have some internet, but who don’t want to juggle a bunch of different apps and devices, there are more and more videos of sessions where you can sing, or dance, or play along with.

I started a slower virtual version of our local session, I kind of did it on the DL. I scheduled a YouTube livestream during the time of our normal Saturday afternoon slot. And I told my local gang about it. But folks ended up tuning in from all over. I guess it’s a good early evening time in Europe. It’s just me with Matt on guitar, playing tunes that people request in the real-time chat. All you hear is us. But the social connection part is there in the chat. And the contact is actually pretty rewarding. Even if you’re just watching the video after the live stream, you can still see the chat history, and it can be strangely moving for us. It connects us with our students, our friends, with other players.

New York-based fiddle player Caitlin Warbelow and piano player Chris Ranney have upped the tech part of this with their Mary O’s Virtual sessions. I asked Caitlin how it’s been going for her and Chris so far

>> Caitlin: So the fun things that have been happening with the Mary O’s session—I guess the main thing is that it’s been really great to try to weave communities together online. We already have a really, really strong session community at the physical Mary O’s. But to make it even bigger, and bring in some session communities from around the country (and also now we’re starting to get people from around the world ). But to see people coming together on one platform just in the space of a couple of weeks was surprising to me and just very cool. It makes me have some hope for keeping communities together when we’re all so separated right now.

>> Shannon: They’re maintaining and building a community from their living room. And there are two of them. It helps when you live with another musician. Like me and Matt. And like the Copley Street house in Boston. The four in-house trad musicians there have started broadcasting their Saturday Behan pub sessions at home, too. Here’s what it sounds like at Caitlin and Chris’s place, when they host their virtual sessions.

>> Caitlin: Hi, there! My name is Caitlin Warbelow.

>> Chris: This is Chris Ranney.

>> Caitlin: We were just sitting down to fill some tunes by order, actually. And we thought maybe we’d make a little video for you guys to watch.

[ Music:

Tune: “Father Kelly’s Reel”
Artists: Caitlin Warbelow & Chris Ranney ]

>> Shannon: I asked Caitlin if there’s anything about this online paradigm that she likes more than being in person. 

>> Caitlin: It’s such an integral part of Irish music to be in the same place, often really physically close together in little nooks in the back of pubs or in a kitchen. So to be physically separated at all, and especially, you know, as far apart as some of the participants are is really weird and odd to me. That being said, we are still having quite a bit of fun. And the things that I like are that we’re having a big reach around the globe. Really to me the value in that is not something that we’re going to see right now. It’s the relationships that are made that will continue into the future.

[ Music: Tune: “Travel Theme,” from Irish Music Stories Production Music
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton ]

>> Shannon: Caitlin and Chris are traditional Irish musicians —and also Broadway musicians. They assembled TuneSupply, this website where people can custom order recordings of trad tunes, original compositions, or download lessons from an impressive roster of musicians and dancers. And they put the whole thing together in a jiffy.

>> Caitlin: You know, we rolled out the website in less than a day. We started in the morning and I think we released it at 2am that night. It was the day after Broadway shut down. And we were sitting here thinking what are we gonna do to help out musicians. And, um, we put it out really quickly, figuring out how to do the website, and the marketing, and the advertising, and the accounting and all that sort of stuff. All of it is a learning experience. And I get frustrated with new technologies and I’m not a very patient person. So it’s been good to be forced to learn how to do some of this stuff, or to ask for help with it. So for me I do like kind of being forced to try out new things. It’s kind of like a puzzle and a balancing act to try to make this a creative endeavor that people like to participate in. And also make it, you know, a professional product. So..

As always, the innovating and the experimenting that goes into this sort of thing is something that I’m really into. I like doing those things.

[ Music: Tune: “Oran Na Maighdean Mhara,” from Four / 4
Artists: Kirsten Allstaff ]

>> Shannon: Flute player Kirstsn Allstaff has offered VR sessions for years with her Online Academy of Irish Music. Pre-recorded, 360 degree videos of musicians playing common tunes. I suppose it’s not social. But it’s a cool simulation of what it feels like to sit in the company of other musicians, while you hold up your part of the musical conversation. And of course, you can start and stop the video and work tunes. You can work on your own playing, and find new levels of comfort and ease with the music.Which makes it even more fun,

Kirsten launched OAIM back in 2010, to help learners find more fluency and fun with Irish tunes. In addition to the VR sessions, she’s got instructors on 14 different instruments offering instructional videos, play-along tracks, and private video chat lessons.

>> Kirsten: My vision for OAIM was a place where people could learn Irish music from all around the world, um, without having to travel to Ireland. And for an affordable price. My vision also was to create an online community

>> Shannon: Can you talk a bit about your own musical development? Did technology play a role? Were you like a cassette tape recorder person or mp3 girl?

>> Kirsten: I didn’t really play Irish music as a child And I was self-taught as a teenager, whilst my family was living in Canada. At the time, my learning tools were a pocket sized Irish tin whistle tutorial book, a book of tunes from the Armagh pipers club, and a video cassette of Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain. And I remember tediously trying to learn the Teetotaler Reel as a 15 year old from this video of Aly Bain playing so fast. I sometimes wonder what my learning experience would have been like if I’d had the Online Academy of Irish Music, or TunePal, or the Slowdowner app.

>> Shannon: The Amazing Slowdowner, as you might already know, allows you to control the speed of playback without adjusting the pitch. It was created by Swedish guitarist Rolf Nilsson.

It’s fierce popular among Irish musicians. And it seems like a great tool. But for what it’s worth, I’ve always just learned tunes at the normal speed, which isn’t always easy. But then I never have to “speed them back up” in my mind. You know? Anyway, Kirsten doesn’t use it either.

>> Kirsten: It must be great to use the Slowdowner to pick up ornamentation, and variations. I’ve never actually used the Slowdowner myself. But it’s an interesting concept. 

The joy of Irish music for me over the past 20 years, a lot of the joys come from the actual learning process. It’s from learning the tunes. It’s all about the fun and the joy. 

Like Kirsten in Ireland, California-based Marla Fibish is all about the fun and joy. I’ve seen her teach great mandolin classes in-person. And she’s also got online offerings through Peghead Nation, which offers courses for string instruments. And like Kirsten, Marla has been enjoying the accessibility of these online platforms for sometime.

[ Music: Tune: “Paddy Canny’s Toast,” from A Sweetish Tune
Artist: Noctambule ]

>> Marla: Hi! I’m Marla Fibish. And I teach Irish music on the mandolin. One of the easiest and most cost effective ways to get started with that is through my course that I teach on PegheadNation.com. Peghead as in the peghead of a mandolin, and other stringed instruments. In the course we learn tunes, we talk about Irish music sensibilities, we talk about mandolin technique, we talk about musicality and phrasing, and ornamentation, and all the things that make Irish music sound like Irish music and how to do that.

>> Shannon: Guitar player Flynn Cohen in Brattleboro, Vermont also likes the online option of Peghead Nation.

>> Flynn: My course is called Irish Backup Guitar. I designed it for people who have a basic guitar background, who can play open chords on the guitar and want to learn how to play in a session. 

>> Shannon: Whether online or in real life, teachers like Flynn and Marla aim to give people a strong rhythmic foundation, so they can be their own best teachers. So they can play well by themselves, which is really handy right now.

>> Marla: Most of the people that I’m working with have not grown up listening to Irish music, have not heard it for years and years. So I’m gonna want to get them going in a certain pattern, to give them the best opportunity, the best odds of getting the physicality, the pulse of the music through their physicality on the instrument. 

* * **  *

>> Shannon: Back in New York, when flute and whistle player Joanie Madden started playing tunes, there was no internet. So she did most of her learning and her playing with her dad, who played the accordion and her flute teacher Jack Coen.

>> Joanie: Most the kids belonged to big music schools—you had Martin Mulvahill, or you had Maureen Glynn, and you had Pete Kelly. I was one of the few who had only Jack Coen,. And Jack was only teaching a handful of kids. So, um, I didn’t know too many of the kids, because I wasn’t in a school. But we fixed that down the line. I got to know everybody. Haha!

>> Shannon: Yeah!

>> Joanie: My dad was a great musician. Had a band for many years in New York. It was kind of a natural progression when I did start playing. I knew two tunes and I was in my father’s band, and we were playing for all the dances. There was lots of events. Every weekend we were playing.

[ Music: Tune: “The Hunt Set Dance,” from An Irish Homecoming
Artist: Joanie Madden & Michael Holland ]

>> Shannon: Since the dance hall days with her dad, Irish music has been a way of life for Joanie. It’s how she knows people. It’s how she meets people. It’s how she connects people.

England-based web developer and bouzouki player Jeremy Keith has also connected a lot of people through his website, TheSession.org . He started this online community dedicated to Irish traditional music almost 20 years ago. And now it’s a go-to outlet for tunes. People can ask questions, share knowledge, and members of the community contribute transcriptions of reels, hornpipes, and jigs. Joanie’s jig, The Cat’s Meow is on there.

>> Jeremy: My name is Jeremy, and I run the session.org, a community website dedicated to Irish Traditional music. And on thesession.org you can find tunes, you can find sessions, you can discuss the music, you can find other musicians near you, and more… I started the site about 20 years ago, and I think of myself as the caretaker. Because it’s the contributions of other people that makes the site a valuable resource. Membership of the site is free, so if you’re not already a member, sign up at theSession.org. I’d love to see you there

[ Music: Tune: “Johnny Going to Ceilidh,” from demo
Artists: Flynn Cohen & Matt Heaton ]

>> Shannon: People also go to the TheSession.org for advice. That’s where I heard about some of the remote collaborative apps. In one of the threads, Jeremy had posted about people playing together in real time on JamKazam, and that’s why I asked Pete Strickler to talk us through the app earlier in this episode.

There were other current posts on Thesession.org about simply spending more time playing with recordings during this time of social isolation. Many welcomed the opportunity for more practice. One person even extolled the virtues of this self-contained melodic tradition—that in fact, you don’t need companions to play Irish music, however nice it may be to share it. 

Before Covid-19, and more widespread broadband, fiddle player Alan Ng in Madison, Wisconsin was also moved to create a site to connect musicians with music. For his online Irish Traditional Music Tune Index, tunes are cross-referenced with sound files. There are short excerpts from commercial recordings, so you can hear different versions and decide which one you like best, and which one YOU want to learn from.

>> Alan: I started this project in the 1990s, first to fill a gap I personally experienced as a new member of the Irish music community. I was hearing from all the respected authorities in the tradition that the only way you can possibly learn this music successfully is if you learn it by ear. But when there’s a tune I want to learn, how do you and how do I find a trustworthy source to learn it from? I needed a way to navigate and search through my own personal library of CDs, even though the tune titles on albums, as I quickly learned, are a pretty unreliable. So that’s where it all started.

>> Shannon: Amazing. So is the site relevant today, with YouTube and Spotify and so many sites with new and archival source material?

>> Alan: Well these days, there’s still no way to reliably find a good source among all that to learn a specific tune from. In fact, it’s even harder, because there’s so much material out there. There’s even more to sort through before you find what you’re looking for. So irishtune.info is still filling that same gap, 20 years later. 

>> Shannon: Yeah, your mission statement remains the same, right? To promote “authentic, high..

>> Alan: To promote “authentic, high-quality learning of Irish traditional music around the world. And in order to do that, I have to be mercilessly and amazingly accurate at cataloging the Irish tune repertoire.

>> Shannon: To do this, Alan listens to all these recordings, to make sure he’s offering accurate and reliable information. It’s a staggering amount of work, and an incredible resource. It’s like having a fact checker for trad tunes, lest you fall prey to an untrustworthy version of a tune somebody posted online. Like TheSession.org, irishtune.info has expanded free offerings and services for the global Irish music community. 

Then there’s TunePal. Dublin-based coder and flute player Bryan Duggan created this app in 2010. It’s like a Shazam for traditional music—you sing or play the first bit of a tune into your phone. And TunePal can usually identify it, by referencing published collections and community sources like thesession.org.

So… maybe you’ve known the melody of a tune for years but you never had a name for it. Like this one

>> Shannon: OK, I’m opening TunePal on my phone. It says tap to record. I’m grabbing a tin whistle near my desk, and I’m going to record this very, very clearly. So not aiming for super musical performance here. Just so that TunePal can recognize it most clearly. Tap to record… recording in 3, 2, 1.. 

[plays first part of Cat’s Meow ]

It’s submitting. And it comes back. Is says Tune Pal thinks it’s called The Cat’s Meow with 81% confidence. Okay, so let’s see. I tap on okay. I tap on the Cat’s Meow. It take me to a transcription. Yep, that’s it. That whole process took less than a minute. Thank you, Tune Pal.  Thank you web and app developers.

And thank you everybody for coming together and taking this seriously. Because the more we all follow best practices to stop the spread of Covid-19, the more thoroughly and quickly we get through this.

Thank you everybody. Thank you, front line people. And THANK you to all who continue to do the extra stuff. And who continue to support the music and dance and art people… the storytellers. Thank you, everybody. Thanks for tuning in and supporting culture. I hope it can bring just a little light and calm and real nourishment.

And here’s a special thank you to this month’s sponsors, named by my heroic son Nigel, who helps me keep my feet on the ground.

[ Music: Tune: “Little Bird Lullaby,” from Irish Music Stories Production Music
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton ]

>> Nigel: Thank you to Chris Murphy, John Kerr, John Pradarelli, Sharon Murphy, Dana Griepentrog, John Ploch, David Vaughan, Brian Benscoter, Susan Walsh, Rick Rubin, Charlie Durfee, Finn Agenbroad, Mark Johnson, Will Coleman, Gary Usher, and Randy Krajniak.

>> Shannon: Okay, whether you’re coming to Irish tunes in the age of apps and websites, or you started your journey with a cheap ticket to Ireland, a backpack, and a tape recorde, or Irish music is your new Pandemic Project, the currency of this tradition is the repertoire: the tunes, the songs, the dance steps. Learn those, and you can connect with other people in Irish music sessions and dances all over the world. Or in chat rooms and with remote apps for now.

All you need is an instrument (and you can get a tin whistle for $12—or you can sing for free). But once you scratch the surface and really get in the game, you end up doing a lot of digging for the tunes. And as accessible as everything is now, you still gotta know where to look. Online curators like Alan Ng at IrishTune.info and librarians can help.

I first met Boston College music librarian Elizabeth Sweeney in her capacity as offline book and recordings specialist. It might have been 2003 or 4? She spent hours tracking down old LPs and broadside ballads for me. 

Since my first visit to the Burns Library, Elizabeth has continued to demystify the collections at Boston College. She’s made music and information available to me. And to all sorts of people:

>> Elizabeth: I’m Elizabeth Sweeney, music librarian at Boston College’s Burns Library. Thirty years ago a visiting faculty member, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, envisioned an Irish music archives here, beginning with live recordings of the Boston College Irish fiddle festival. 

>> Shannon:  Ó Súilleabháin encouraged Boston to create its own Traditional Music Archive, like the one in Dublin. That was established in1987, with Breandán Breathnach and fellow committee members. It, too, focused on sound recordings first.

[ Music: Tune: “Lord McDonald’s” from Boston College Irish Fiddle Festival
Artists: assembled fiddle players ]

>> Elizabeth: As both a librarian and a musician, I believe Irish studies collections are incomplete without traditional music. We welcome you to visit Burns Library. Or send questions if a trip isn’t possible right now. 

>> Shannon: Well, that was a few months ago. Before we knew that a trip was out of the question, at least for now. But Boston College has published fiddle player Seamus Connolly’s collection online of over 300 tunes and songs. That should keep you busy for a while.

[ Music: Tune: “Foggy Dew,” from MBM Performs Irish Classics
Artist: Music Box Mania ]

Like Elizabeth Sweeney, archivist Jeff Ksiazek has made it his mission to share recordings and historic materials as well. He works for the Ward Irish Music Collection in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And if you’re lucky enough to visit the archives in person, you get hear albums, and school kids playing next door, and music boxes.

>> Shannon: All these beautiful music boxes.

>> Jeff: Yeah, little music boxes from Irish America. Our focus is… you know, we’re not trying to duplicate what the Irish Traditional Music Archive is doing in Ireland. We’re kind of focusing on Irish America and Irish music in America. So it kind of takes all shapes, and forms, and genres. 

>> Shannon:  Well what room is this?

>> Jeff: So this we consider a recreation of a turn of the 20th century Irish American music parlor.  So what we try to do is have a machine that still functions and plays from every era of recorded history. And we also use it to show the kinds of the evolution of sheet music. Basically the evolution of the music industry from the mid 1800s up through about 1920 or 1930.

>> Shannon: So what era is this?

>> Jeff: Yeah so this is an Edison phonograph from about 1910. So this was really Edison’s first audio invention. I believe if I remember correctly it was invented in 1875. So let me fire up this one

>> Shannon: OK so you’re flipping… Okay, you’re just turning a lever.

>> Jeff: It’s not electric at all, it’s the acoustic era. So you just turn it, crank it, and let it go. 

[ Archival Music plays, an earnest march ]

>> Jeff: Not too bad, really!

>> Shannon: They don’t write em like that any more. 

>> Jeff: Not anymore!

>> Shannon: Visiting the collection in Milwaukee was a real treat. But for those who can’t go there in person (no one can at the moment), Jeff is continuing his work as sound archivist at home. Every day, he’s featuring a digitized 78 RPM disc from the collection on a soundcloud playlist.

[ Music: Tune: “Rockabye by Firelight,” from Production Music Made for Irish Music Stories
Artist/Composer: Matt Heaton

There are so many resources that demystify and promote Irish traditional music and culture. And that connect people through tunes, and through the love and mutual enjoyment of playing them together. And there are so many teachers and practitioners all around the world. As we try to stay in touch with the music and with each other, we are heavily reliant on technology right now. It’s not gonna feel and sound the same, when we’re not piled closely together in the corner of a pub or in a kitchen. And learning new platforms can be discouraging. The technical challenges can feel insurmountable at times. Here’s dancer Kieran Jordan again:

>> Kieran: I will say that, um, a lot of this has made me feel like abandoning ship and not doing online teaching. Most dancers who are taking class on a regular basis already have notebooks with stuff written down and phones that have video full of steps. So in some ways I’m encouraging my students to just go inward, and dig into the archives that they already have. It’s a great time to do that kind of personal, quieter study and review. And, you know, in the dance and music world, we call that woodshedding. It’s time to go into the woodshed alone and pick apart all the things you’ve gathered, all the things you’ve learned. And really make it your own. And I think that would be a really valuable way to use this time. 

[ Music: Tune: “The Blackbird,” from Cover the Buckle
Artists: Seán Clohessy, Sean McComiskey, and Kieran Jordan ]

I will say, though, that seeing my students’ faces and talking to them has great value. I think it brings a sense of continuity and comfort to them, as well as to me. And so maybe the real benefit of persisting with these online teaching platforms is just the social connection. Maintaining the friendships and the sense of continuity in our lives, that we dance together, we chat, we see each other once a week. The good of that might outweigh the difficulty of how the technology fails us.

>> Shannon: I produce this podcast mostly in isolation. Mulling over ideas and distilling them into these episodes. But I don’t really feel alone. Because I’m compiling these multi-person stories; and then I get to hear from lots of you about the show. About how the different ideas and characters affect you. When I write this stuff and when I record and assemble the stories, I imagine and I see many of you. I listen to the music. And I try my best to bring the bigger dimensions that I feel from the music to you

So even without internet, just imagining all of you, nd thinking of us all hunkering down at home—that helps ease my isolation and uncertainty. Because it’s a really weird time. Everybody’s at home. Which can be nice. And limiting. And scary. And depending on your situation, maybe it’s really awful.

But we’ll get through it.  And at times we will thrive despite the isolation. Or maybe even because of it.

I think the internet does help. 

And so does stepping away from it and just listening. And playing. Or dancing. Without anybody else. Just listening, and feeling, and checking in.

With ourselves.

And then yeah, maybe reconnecting. Going back online for enrichment and comfort and connection, where you can visit museum collections, or read the great works, or binge watch Tiger King, or tune into a great Irish music livestream concert. Or learn more tunes.

[ Music: Tune: “Ratholdran Castle,” from Trian II
Composer: Billy McComiskey
Artist: Trian ]

These little tunes do big things when they’re shared, and played, and taught, and written. Even with crappy internet, you can still share and learn tunes from people in County Clare, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, Frankfurt,  Boston. All because of people like the folks you met in this episode and the way they use technology.

It’s because of all of us.

When we get through the Covid-19 Pandemic, the music will still be there. And some of us will be more connected than ever. And even more grateful for each other. I will be. I am. 

Hang in there. I’ll keep working on stories to share. Next month, I’ll explore the accident of history that uprooted old Scottish fiddle tunes to Northeast Canada–and a 47-foot white spruce from Cape Breton to the Boston Common.

My thanks this month to Jacob Howley for the nudge to speak about this pandemic through an Irish Music Stories lens. I love the way he talked about how our social music culture has been suddenly atomized. And I might not have tackled this if it hadn’t been for you.

Thank you to all my generous, innovative guests. And thanks again to this month’s underwriters. Your support could not have come at a better time. Thank you for listening, everybody. And remember: you don’t have to know anything about Celtic music or traditions to listen to the Irish Music Stories Podcast.

And you don’t have to be Irish to play “The Cat’s Meow.” 

>> Joanie: Hi, folks. This is Joanie Madden. And I’m coming to you from my home here in Yonkers, New York. And I hope you are staying safe wherever you are. Hope you enjoy this little jig I wrote called the Cat’s Meow.

[ Music: Tune: “Cat’s Meow,” from Joanie’s Living Room
Artist/Composer: Joanie Madden ]