RE: [Harp-L] Winslow harmonica-fiddle gig tomorrow in SF








From: Winslow Yerxa

Tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 21) I'll be playing in a duo with
fiddler/singer Jonathan Goodwin at a Burns celebration at the Edinburgh
Castle in San Francisco.

Burns nights are held in January in celebration of the life, spirit,
and work of the 18th century Scottish
songwriter/poet/bohemian/egalitarian sloganeer Robert Burns.

Our ensemble will be just fiddle and harmonica - we have to be
resourceful and really drive, swing, harmonize, and lock in
rhythmically, but while it's hard work there's a lot of freedom in this
format.

In addition to his dark, snapping Cape Breton-style fiddling, Jonathan
has a powerful bass-baritone voice that can send small children fleeing
in terror (I've witnessed this - it was not intentional) and can bring
down the house with his snarling rendition of "A Parcel of Rogues in a
Nation".

I've been concentrating on Scottish and Canadian trad music - largely
fiddle music - mostly on XB-40 but also on tremolo, octave, regular
10-hole and chromatic, bringing the drive, heat, expression, rhythmic
buoyancy, and chordal fullness of the harmonica to this music.

We'll be at the Edinburgh Castle in San Francisco, starting about 8:00
PM.

Once a year the Edinburgh Castle lives up to its name and replaces the
usual punk and rock acts with its annual Burns Night.

The centerpiece is of course readings from Burns' works in impenetrable
but charming Scots accents, including his fabled address to the haggis
(a sort of gigantic organ-meat sausage). There is also a free buffet
for those afraid to eat the haggis, as well as a fine selection of
Scots ales and whiskeys.

This is augmented by music from a bagpiper and a trad group, the latter
being me and Jonathan. We'll be playing driving reels, strathspeys, and
jigs, mostly Scottish but with a little Cape Breton and even
Scandinavian thrown in the mix. Naturally, there will be some Burns
songs and tunes in the mix.

I too will be out there playing on Burns Night, and also fixed it up too late for the giglist, but the venue (the Tree Inn, my usual) is fully-booked anyway. We will be harmonica, fiddle and mando/guitar (as the fancy takes him). We'll try to extract as many Scottish tunes from our repertoire as possible but will have to sneak in a few Irish tunes as well as that's mainly what we play, and hope that not too many people notice (they didn't last year!). The landlord sources the best haggis available in the area and the band get it free. It's eaten with mashed swede, or turnip, and mashed potato and is delicious. The landlord is a superb exponent of the Highland bagpipes and he will "pipe in" the haggis, as is traditional. There'll be some Burns poetry too, and a song or two no doubt. Roll on Wednesday!


Steve


http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/trad_irish_harmonica HEAR my CD clips: http://www.gjk2.com/steveshaw/cd.htm READ review of my CD: http://www.irishmusicreview.com/sshaw.htm






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