Last weekend I was down at the Baltimore Irish Tenor Banjo Summit doing a little speaking thing on the Flanagan Brothers, a family of traditional music stars in 1920s New York City, and I had a great time! Organizer Richard Osban did an outstanding job putting the whole event together and given the miles of smiles I encountered on my brief visit, those who attended came away feeling good about the whole experience. This November event has really become a lovely annual musical tradition – check it out next year if you’ve not been.
Speaking of folks with a Baltimore connection, I’ve recently got word that both volumes of Brendan Mulvihill’s “Irish Scroll” tune book are now available in a single publication. The unified “Irish Scroll” collection comes with a pair of CDs that feature Mulvihill playing 52 selections from the collection. There’s also a third separately available CD that contains some of the collection’s more difficult tunes as well as some played on the viola. I’ve written about these books in the past – they have great settings and are an incredible resource for those interested in digging into Mulvihill’s virtuoso style. For details on purchasing, visit https://brendanmulvihill.bandcamp.com. In addition, a limited number of the brilliant “Martin Mulvihill’s Complete Collection of Traditional Irish Music” are still available through www.irishscroll.com/. (A great Christmas gift, perhaps, for the traditional music lover in your life?)
In the media player this week is Open the Door for Three’s new album “A Prosperous Gale.” The band, comprising Liz Knowles (fiddles), Kieran O’Hare (uilleann pipes & whistles) and Pat Broaders (vocals, bouzouki, bodhrán), is one of the finest groups in North America, and this album is not simply another example illustrating why the folks in the know think this is an album that traditional music listeners will thoroughly enjoy.
Regular readers of this column should be well familiar with this group, as I’ve written about every one of their albums in the past. Each one, from the debut “Open the Door for Three,” before the trio had officially adopted the name, to “The Joyful Hour,” is a gem, delivering at the highest of levels. It’s been a while since we’ve heard from them, but given the amount each of the group’s members does in general, that can certainly be forgiven. They’re busy folk.
There’s a lot to love about OD3’s music, but one of my favorite things is that they embrace the idea of “stretching out.” Longer tracks abound on this album and each one rewards the listener with a fully formed musical experience. In taking this approach, they invest in the stories, imagery and experience of the music, putting it all together in a way that not only sounds good, but reflects the authenticity of their own experience.
Take the instrumental track “Billy From Bruff” as an example. A simply gorgeous bunch of jigs that they’ve played through brilliantly, you’d never expect that their sources were a cool Instagram reel they saw, the Joyce collection, and a video posted to Na Píobairí Uilleann’s website. But because these are the places you find traditional music circulating in the 21st century, where else would you look? It’s an absolutely wonderful thing they’ve done with this one.
Their elevated approach to creating is also perfectly encapsulated on “Farewell Lovely Mary / The Lizzes.” Here, Broaders starts out with a great song and makes superb work of it. He’s a brilliant singer with just perfect phrasing, but with the music of Knowles and O’Hare behind him to fill his sails, we find his efforts elevated. “William Glen” is another example of where this happens. Slightly more conventional in its approach and complemented by a somewhat more straightforward arrangement, the track takes the listener on an exhilarating journey and is yet another of the album’s standouts.
One of the album’s most daring – and rewarding – tracks is “Jackson and Jane Suite.” At almost 10 minutes in length, it’s made up of a slow tune, a song and a pair of reels, which might suggest a long ride for the listener, but quite the opposite is true. The deft arranging here is reminiscent of what you might hear on a bohola album (which shouldn’t surprise too much, as that’s Broaders’s other band) and it makes the lively and inventive journey move quickly. The instrumental bits that precede the song are relaxed, inviting, and joyful in their exposition while the song, which comes from Paul Brady and is “about a gentleman of the County Monaghan, a horserace, and a talking mare,” gives Broaders a great vehicle through which to express himself. And as you listen to the song’s story, the lush connective bits that Knowles and O’Hare contribute all along really do great work in pulling the track together in anticipation of the blast of tunes the three play at the end.
With “A Prosperous Gale,” OD3 once again shows their flair for building brilliant albums. Each of its facets – from performance quality and tune and song selection to sequencing and presentation – reflects a superior creative approach that leaves listeners with a real feeling of euterpean delight. The choices they make throughout are outstanding and what they’ve given us is really second to none. Like I said above, if you’re a fan of traditional music, you’re definitely going to want to check this out – highly recommended! To learn more and to order, visit their website here.
