Arts and Entertainment Gemma Hayes Whistles Up A Storm At The Café Du Nord by Andy Wilkinson It looks and feels like a music pub in Dublin or London, does the Café du Nord. Not having set foot in it in twelve years in San Francisco (due to an aversion to the sort of jazz-cabaret bobbins that usually goes on there), this came as a bit of a surprise. But there it was, an underground dancehall with an impressively long back bar and a separate room with a stage and dancefloor - nice. Now all it needs is loud music and a decent crowd. A hint of the latter is the three-deep scrum at the bar. As individual accents detach from the din, it becomes clear who's here and where they're from. Now it sounds like home as well. I get time to figure this all out, as we are having a bit of trouble getting served-well, you get out of practice. Anyway, it looks like half are pissed-up thirty-somethings, who probably have the album, and possibly had a few at a barbecue that Sunday afternoon. The rest are J-1ers, newly arrived in the wild west for a summer-long adventure-not worried about the mortgage or the boss or the baby or anything really. Lucky bastards. And everyone is making a mighty racket. It would be nice to say a hush came over the room when the turn walks on stage, but there is no let up. She is going to have to win this room like it's her first, which is how it should be. At this point we should mention something that seems to have been politely avoided in all the hype up to now. Gemma Hayes is very, very good looking. And she's got a great voice, writes brilliant songs and bends her back to give her guitar a right leathering from time to time. While looking like that. Just so you know. What? Of course it's relevant. Sex and pop music go together like drinking and poetry. For some people it's Elvis, or Shakira, or Madonna Louise or another sweat-drenched chanteuse. But for some people, it will always be a girl with a guitar. It's 1969, you've got the Zapata 'tache, the mutton-chop sidies, and the velvet flares. You might even be a member of Crosby Stills & Nash, but you've definitely got a big house up in the canyon, a reliable dealer and LA is full of girls who look like Kate Hudson and they all want to sleep with you. You're all set. But who are you all fighting over? Some buck-toothed Canadian called Joni Mitchell. Maybe at a party one night she handed you eight lines written in loopy longhand that said more about your life than you'd managed in four albums. Then she picked up her guitar, brushed a strand of hair from her face and BAM! It's all over. Your heart is squishing out from between the long fingers of a slender-wristed fist. Be careful, that's all I'm saying. But you want to know about Gemma Hayes, and you really should. The album is good-loud, quiet and, um, interesting. But the show-the show is something else. The folk tunes (including a terrific cover of John Martin's Head and Heart) are fresher and the pop songs (Back Of My Hand, Let A Good Thing Go) are punchier. The last encore is the gentle strum of Evening Sun and then, right at the end, as the music dies to reveal the still-lively hubbub at the bar, she whistles the fade-out. A girl with a guitar, who whistles. If it wasn't all over the moment she walked on stage, it is now. Tim O'Brien Finds His Roots In Roots by Dave Soyars As a member of Hot Rize, one of the most successful bluegrass bands of the 1970s and 80s, Tim O'Brien impressed fans and critics alike with his musicianship, singing and songwriting. Since then he's balanced a solo career, a recurring duo with sister Mollie O'Brien, periodic Hot Rize reunions, and a songwriting career that includes songs on hit albums by country stars Kathy Mattea and Garth Brooks. But the Wheeling, West Virginia native has roots in County Cavan, and his 1999 record The Crossing, explored personal and musical connections between Ireland and America. It's certainly a musical road that's been traveled before, but probably never as well. From his home in Nashville, Tennessee, O'Brien spoke to The Irish Herald about the album's genesis. "It had probably been percolating my whole life," he said, "I'd always wondered what being Irish was really about beyond the stereotypes. Plus being a bluegrass musician, it's inevitable you find yourself playing Irish tunes even if it's in an American way. A friend of mine had a world music label, and I was looking for a format where I could make a record for his company." That record includes, along with traditional songs and instrumentals from both America and Ireland, an impressive batch of originals including a hilarious talking blues, "Talking Cavan," about his arrival in the town where his great-grandfather grew up, and the resulting nonchalance on the part of his distant relatives living there. The title track, a self-composed instrumental, unselfconsciously captures the spirit of both bluegrass and Irish dance music. The Crossing also has a remarkable supporting cast, emblematic of the high esteem in which fellow musicians hold him. "Folk music can be sort of segmented so you do have to look outside of the area you tend to be put in, but I've known a lot of the people on those records for a long time," O'Brien said. Musicians on The Crossing include various members of Altan, Solas and De Dannan, as well as Paul Brady, who sings an impressive duet with O'Brien on the American murder ballad "Down in the Willow Garden." His ability on a variety of instruments impressed Irish guitarist John Doyle (who occasionally plays with O'Brien's band), who raves about the time he saw O'Brien sing one harmony and play another on fiddle, while in a noisy room surrounded by a huge band, not all of whom were in tune. O'Brien has always had a variety of musical interests. "When I was twelve I got a guitar with paper route money and starting trying to learn Beatles songs. I learned a bit of piano as well, but I found I preferred trying to learn things I already knew rather than learning notes on paper. My older brother was into folk music, and I eventually picked up the fiddle and got into more acoustic music." In addition to guitar and fiddle, he also plays bouzouki, mandolin and mandola with equal skill and taste. His most recent release, Two Journeys, (2001) includes more traditional jigs and reels, as well as a new batch of original songs (including another hilarious song written about his travels in Ireland, Me and Dirk's Trip) and a version of Norwegian Wood that pays tribute to his roots in Celtic music and 60s pop. The trilogy will be completed somewhere down the road, too, according to O'Brien: "I'm looking to do a third one eventually. I don't know when, but it's on the back burner." His new album, Traveler, due out in August on Sugarhill Records, will not be part of that trilogy, although O'Brien says that Celtic music will always influence whatever he does. "All my recordings have always had at least a song or two that has had a bit of a Celtic sound to it." His back catalog also includes Red on Blonde, a set of impressive Dylan covers, virtuoso bluegrass with Hot Rize, and their comedic alter-egos, Red Knuckles and the Trail Blazers. What they all have in common, besides fabulous singing and playing, is deep roots, whether from West Virginia or County Cavan. Dave Soyars reviews Waiting for a Call by Tommy Peoples Tommy Peoples must be considered as one of the top Irish fiddlers ever. His Donegal style has been incredibly influential, through both his solo performances and his status as the first recorded fiddler for The legendary Bothy Band. Unfortunately, he has not generally been very well-served in the recorded medium, with only a few solo recordings to his credit, most of which are low-budget, quickly recorded affairs that do little to justify his considerable reputation. This collection of mostly jigs and reels, including many self-written, is a prime example. Most of it was recorded in the mid 80s with De Danann's Alec Finn accompanying on bouzouki, with tapes languishing on the shelves for years. The rest was recently recorded with Irish rhythm guitarist extraordinaire John Doyle. Both are impressive, but the lack of a coherent band makes the end result more like a compilation than a contemporary recording. Not to say there aren't some fine moments, like the reel set that starts with A Bunch of Green Rushes which has a timeless sound, on the level of the earliest Irish recordings in America in the 1920s (actually one of the 80s ones.) A set of slip jigs features an impressive rhythm counterpoint with Doyle. A few solo sets are also impressive, the best evidence of his playing style, which as always, varies between smooth melodic passages and effortless lightning runs, with a playful sense of rhythmic and melodic improvisation. The backing (and varying recording quality) is so inconsistent that the overall effect is a bit of a mess. The fiddling is still impressive, but in a perfect world, Peoples would have the commercial success (and thereby recording budget) that many a lesser fiddler enjoys. Paul Carr reviews Round The Bend by Glen Road From the opening notes of the first jig, this softly dazzling CD takes you in its embrace, and never lets you down. It's the best example I have ever seen of how to mix lovely tunes rooted in the Irish world with brilliantly written and arranged songs about people and their quietly remarkable lives. Of course there is a reason why this CD is so brilliant and well-balanced in its tunes, its singing, and its song-writing. Flute, whistle, and banjo player Turlach Boylan is from Derry, Ireland, and began learning the flute at a young age. He later made several fine solo CDs, including the wonderful The Tidy Cottage. Talented singer, song-writer, and guitarist Mike Dugger was a founding member of Scartaglen, a great band which later included Connie Dover. Multi-instrumentalist Greg Brown, born near St John's, Newfoundland, began learning Irish-influenced fiddle music at an early age. Proof here is in every tune and song. Turlach's flute and Greg's fiddle on tunes like Sweeney's Buttermilk and Jean Denney's, to name just a couple, really shine. Mike's song-writing and singing skills are never better than on Slipping into God's Embrace. Mike wrote the song about the resilience of people in the American Midwest, but the song is universal in the way it touches on virtues, sorrows, and dreams found in people all over the world. For example: On the prairie, none despair know that God is everywhere, God is in your child's face, slipping into God's embrace This song is backed by a bright French-Canadian reel, and the overall effect of the tune with the words is magical. The arrangements of the tunes are always just right. No one seems to have forgotten that fancy fingerwork in the production studio only takes away from what was already perfect. By example, the CD ends with Winter White, a tune on mandola as simple as it is beautiful, with clear, clean backing on concertina. Beautifully done, like the whole CD. Paul Carr reviews Searc Mo Chléibh - Love of My Heart by Finola Ó Siochrú For those that don't know her, Finola Ó Siochrú is a marvelous singer of songs in Irish. Born in Dublin, and with music from both sides of her family, Finola spent many summers as a child in Ceann Trá in County Kerry, far out on the Irish-speaking Dingle peninsula. Searc Mo Chléibh (shark muh hlay-v) is a collection of mostly unaccompanied songs in Irish. Finola's voice is so expressive and clear that she easily carries the a cappella songs. The songs that do have instruments with them shine as well, as the instruments-and the occasional backing vocal-are always subdued and appropriate. A good example is Nach Cloite an Galar an Grá. A lovely, wistful song, it tells of a man who asks the faeries if they know of a cure for love. All the songs are in Irish, but you need only have an open heart to hear the passion, the sorrow, and the love just behind the thin veil of the Irish words. All the Irish lyrics are in the CD jacket, but each song carries text in English the describes the general events in the song. One of the more touching songs is Tá smúit ar mo chroí. The song tells the story of a father who has lost his beloved daughter to emigration. He sings his fears of what will happen to him in his old age now that his darling Cáit is gone. Finola truly shines here, as her voice brings out the father's loss and loneliness to sad perfection. This CD is available at Celtic Grooves. http://celticgrooves.homestead.com/CGhome.html These are a few sample stories. For more, pick up your free copy of The Irish Herald. Click here to find the Irish Herald vendor nearest you. 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