Guitar and Song - Gerry O'Beirne - News

on the road/off the road

Thu, 13 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

It's been a typical spring with much road, some of which is displayed above thanks to the magic of griangrafadoireacht. There was an appearance at Celtic Connections in Glasgow with Andy M Stewart and on the same blll was Shona Donaldson, a lovely Scots singer. I did some filming for a piece on the bog bodies for Irish TV. Valerie Waters put it together for Nationwide and was pleased with the result. Well, look what you had to work with I said, and she said, yes, a couple of old guys who didn't give me any guff. Some recording followed with Rosie Shipley for our album together (out in August, I think) in Handsome Trevor Hutchinson's studio in Dublin. There will be some new songs on it from me and some rather good fiddle from Rosie and even vocalizing from herself. I recorded too with Trevor's band Lunasa for their new album, and then I set sail for America. A week followed in a recording studio in New Orleans with my good friend and ace engineer Misha Kachkachishvilli for Danny O'Flaherty (thank you Dr Ruary and Michelle) and then the serious traveling started - Washington DC, out to West Virginia and then down to Texas. We had a great time with the Gillette brothers on their ranch in Crockett TX and playing at their club the Camp Street Cafe, where Lightnin' Hopkins used to perform. I picked up an album/book combined of old time music/new songs based on local East Texas history called Settlers of the Western Woods and it's a good find. Fascinating stories about pioneers, native americans, paddleboat disasters and escaped slaves with historical pictures and wonderful music. It's the work of Steve Hartz and you'll find it at www.mysteryridge.com. Then over to Shreveport Louisiana and Monroe Louisiana where we had a great time with Doyle Jeter of Enoch's Pub and Tom McCandlish (a great story from Doyle about Truman Capote and a cream puff - Doyle was hungover one morning in New York City. He was stumbling across the street to get coffee when he bumped into a man eating a cream puff. The cream puff went right into the man's face. In the middle of apologizing, Doyle realized that the man was Truman Capote. Delighted and surprised, Doyle cried: "Truman Capote!" Covered in cream-puff, Truman replied, "Fuck you!") and also in Monroe discovered the worst Mexican restaurant in the world, seriously. It's good to know these things. Older and wiser we drove down Highway 61 to New Orleans, magical as ever at the head of the shimmering mighty Mississippi. We were at a loss for what to do on St Patrick's Day - my default is to hide out for the day - but in the event we played for our friend and great chef Susan Spicer at her restaurant Bayona and found another restaurant, our new favourite place, Adolfo's on Frenchmens Street. We heard some fine brass street music in the city this time but had to leave all too soon for the Northeast again up to New Hampshire, and one of the loveliest towns in America, Rosendale New York, and a gem of a place, the Rosendale Cafe. By now Rosie was well into her new role as backing singer. Still can't get her to sing a song though. We pressed on to play in Phoenix Arizona(thank you Terry and Michelle for coming), back east for a show near Asheville North Carolina and a reunion and a few tunes with our dear old friend E.J. Jones, then to Bett Padgett's famed concert series in Raleigh NC, and on to Savannah Georgia just before the summer heat came. I scooted up to Massachusetts to teach at a school called Tabor Academy and then managed to fly home through the unpronounceable ash cloud by way of London and Shannon and a bus to Dublin. Phew. That was a a good time. I think. Now to finish writing some music that will be on the new album, a weekend soon in Scotland with Andy M Stewart and a visit to Brittany and then maybe all will be quiet and peaceful for the rest of the summer in old Dingle town. Maybe not though. I just got an email from Andy Irvine. I played with Andy for a couple of years many years ago and many and various were our adventures. We may have a glass or three some time soon.

with Béal Tuinne in Paris

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I was delighted to be asked to play with Béal Tuinne in Paris the other day. Here’s a pic of the audience gathering at the Irish Cultural Centre. Béal Tuinne have one of the loveliest choral sounds you’ll hear in a band, and what singers: Seamus Begley, Eilís Ní Chinnéide, Laurence Courtney and Rita Connolly. After the show we retired to a Paris sidewalk café where Seamus performed the greatest percussion solo ever heard by man nor beast using only Paris sidewalk café cutlery and a keen sense of survival. The songs of Béal Tuinne are all taken from the poetry of Eilís’s father, Caoimhín Ó’Cinnéide from West Kerry. More at http://www.bealtuinne.com/

Voices from the Merry Cemetery of Sapanta

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

This was a series of poems from a medieval cemetery in Romania set to music by Shaun Davey and performed last weekend in Sibiu in Transylvania, Romania as part of the Sibiu Theatre Festival with a small orchestra, two choirs, majestic singer Rita Connolly, the no less majestic Liam O'Floinn on pipes, Noel Eccles on percussion and myself on guitar with redoubtable conductor David Brophy. Even by his high standards this was great music from Shaun. We had a good time in any case of course, but the music was a rapturous experience, not least because of the singers from Sibiu. These people don't hold back when they sing. Here's a picture of the Evangelical Church where the performance was held. I'll put up some other pics from Sibiu on my flickr page.

The "elephant" guitar smashed on southwest flight and Southwest refuse to pay!

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I've always liked the airline so I'm very surprised, but they flat out refuse to pay for the repair on the basis that i didn't discover the damage there and then, plus they call me "Ms Obeirne" which i suppose shows how much attention they're paying. Very disappointed in them. The repair involves a whole new top among other things and will take months. Luckily the people who built it, Ithaca Guitar Works, have more of the original cedar block they used for the original. a picture of the damage

UPDATE: So far we've raised about two thirds of the cost of the repair so big big thanks to the Friends of the Elephant!:

Kate Christmas and friends, Fred Knight, Clifton English, Valeri Keogh, Deborah Rogers, Claire, Michael, Sinead, Gerard Dunn, Bett & Bill Padgett, Aaron Karmelk, Anne & Keith Willoughby, Phoebe O'Brien, Teresa Mecca, Burke Walker, Jennifer Karlsson, Jamie O'Brien, Robbie White, Nora Jeannier, Terry Murphy, Abbie Bernstein, Kate Akers, Dawn McBride and Tonya Baumhardt.

Road Records

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Dublin: Road Records on Fade Street is in a struggle to survive. A terrible shame if they go as it’s a great independent record store with good taste in music. It’s where I first bought a Sigur Ros album, and where I saw Carly Sings sing one lunchtime. (If you haven’t heard her album, you might enjoy it.)
Who cares if the big stores die along with the record labels, but I thought there would always be room for a class act like Road Records.
After hearing my album on Pearl’s wonderful show on Phantom FM a blogger sniffily opined that he was far too worldly and knowing to spend $17 (on CD Baby) on any album. And this when it was worth about 12 euro.
If everybody is working for free now, count me in. If not, I’m going to charge for my albums, thanks very much. It’s still costly to make a good sounding acoustic music album.
Some are now “leasing” music by paying for streaming on sites like Rhapsody. I understand that you can run out of room for albums in your house and probably there’s plenty to be said for it but from an artist’s point of view it takes hundreds of plays before you can buy a cup of coffee. And as someone who uses their own artwork/photography I love having the physical album. Incidentally I’m having the Half Moon Bay CD reformatted, all slim and with no plastic.

They're trying to wash us away

Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Just back from New Orleans and another glorious Jazzfest. Randy Newman singing Louisiana brought tears to the eyes. One of the things i Love about the city is the relative absence of the corporate appearance that you encounter in almost every other American city and small town. You're not looking at the same half dozen corporate logos everywhere, and peoples' conversations on the street seem not so defined by speech patterns and drivel learned from tv. The streetcars are the same heavy iron ones, still going to Desire and the cemeteries. A really interesting place. And if you love food.... Bayona for garlic soup! N'Awlins Flava for po boys! Casamento's for oysters! Please come and support this magical place. The tent city under Interstate 10 still tells a powerful story.

A rose by any other name...

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Bog Bodies And Other Stories: Music For Guitar". I thought that about covered it. "Congratulations on the birth of the Bog Bodies", a friend emailed helpfully. Then I had people at gigs saying " I'd like a copy of the Bog Babies please" and "two Bog People and a Half Moon Bay". It's been fun launching the new album and mostly it's been enthusiastically received. But Echoes, the American radio show which kindly gave it album of the month, while liking the music very well, expressed surprise that I should choose such a "macabre image". Poor Oldcroghan Man! Poor Clonycavan Man! I never thought of them as being macabre! I imagine you won't either if you go to see them in the National Museum in Dublin. To encounter them is to see two incredibly interesting people who have come to us from so very far away but who seem oddly familiar - the bog and time seem to have burnished and defined them into an essence of their persons and personalities, almost as if they have become works of art. It's fascinating, and I just wanted to tell their stories. Macabre indeed! Save the Bog Bodies!

Guitar tunings

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Cloned back from my old web site by popular demand (well a few people have asked me about it) I hope this is helpful. Warning: If you don't play guitar you may find what follows excruciating. Even if you do...

Guitar tunings from my Half Moon Bay album and elsewhere:

I'm not a full-time guitar nerd--I don't buy the guitar magazines for example--but I’ve always had fun with tunings. I started out with some for slide guitar : DGDGBD and DADF#AD which I still use, but curiousity led me further afield. Perhaps too far - I remember tuning the 12 string to 12 different notes and writing a piece for it which luckily I’ve managed to forget”¦
I always imagine i know enough tunings to keep me busy but every now and then a new one emerges and gives me new colours, new architecture”¦.

Anyway on the Half Moon Bay album, The Holy Ground is in a dropped D tuning — DADGBE. Dropped D tuning has the advantage of familiarity but has a grandeur about it and the additional bass notes are nice especially the droning low D. 1874, another old song of mine, is in this tuning.

Then Off The Rocks At Clahane is on the National Steel in DADF#AD which is also the tuning for Darkness Now and Silver Line Sarah and Caperucita. There’s something about this tuning that encourages melody writing on the top strings as well as bright poppy harmony. And fingerpicking is good and propulsive with it. I think John Fahey used to use this tuning a fair bit so it must have been popular too with the old country blues guitarists.

Then Long Beating Wing and Western Highway and Half Moon Bay are all in C tuning — CGCGCE.
C tuning has been fertile ground for me, particularly on the 12 string. It seems to bring out a lot of momentum and melodies that turn and hinge on the dominant chord. It makes you want to tell a story, to write a song.

Angel Angel is in EEEEBE, believe it or not, a very rocky sound which sometimes tends towards Middle Eastern music.
I once had about twenty guitarists jam on this tuning at a festival workshop in New Zealand, a splendid sound and just a tad anarchic. Like a pipe band without the, um, pipes.
Another variation on that is EEBEBE
If you can’t have fun with this one, well, maybe fun is not your thing.

Shades Of Gloria is in normal or, as you might say, missionary tuning. So is When you're Gone I Say Your Name. and The Days Of Joe O’Dowd , another old song I’ve been doing recently.

The ukulele for The Glass Boat is in normal uke tuning where the first string is a B - ADF#B. I tune the Tiplé to this as well for a piece called Fergus River Roundelay which will be on the new album.

A new one for me is BABEAE and I wrote a song with it about Ned Kelly the outlaw which is called The Burning Ground of Glenrowan and also a song called Sekou Camara about an immigrant to Ireland from Guinea . And I’m working out some instrumental passages with this tuning for the next album.

Winter Sun, a long 12 string instrumental piece is in a modified C tuning, CGCECE. So is a new piece, Cloneycavan Man, which is inspired by one of the two new bog bodies on display in the National Museum in Dublin. The other new bog body piece, Old Croghan Man, is in regular C tuning.

Some guitar music I wrote for the film “Shannon — River of Dreams” is in DF#DEAD.

When I’m accompanying Irish traditional music, I most often use a CGDGBD tuning which if you capo on the 2nd fret, gives you an open A chord with a D bass note. From there you can reach all the usual keys without all that annoying moving around of the capo. Even if you use a Drop D tuning and are always moving the capo I think it’s a shame that you’re not getting all the voicings that a guitar can give you. The same with DADGAD.

Well there’s always more tunings but that’s plenty to be going on with. It’s all about pursuing your own journey in music. If you get lost, just keep going. And be sure to write.

Dublin

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0800

The annual Dublin winter gig looms. It's next friday in the Cobblestone. Expensive silks and fine Donegal tweed emerging from mothballs, intensive rehearsal already under way in Raheny Castle, a punishing fitness regime on the sand dunes of Bull Island, an all out media blitz being contemplated for friday afternoon some time - all the usual trappings. No detail too small etc. Now all we need is yourselves.

The City of New Orleans

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0800

New Orleans. For any music lover it's a pilgrimage.
A city forsaken and its people insulted and still in deep trouble but it's wonderful to be there.
I went to Vaughan's in the Bywater last thursday night to see Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers for more fun than is decent and Tuesday night in the Maple Leaf with the blaring Rebirth Brass Band. Going to a dance or a gig there(I'm not talking about Bourbon Street) is to see just how good music can be, absolutely everyone having the best time they could possibly have and no bullshit of any kind. Then of course there's the food and most of all the people. You seem to remember every conversation you ever had in New Orleans with friends, taxi drivers, strangers. When you're leaving town have beignets and coffee in the Louis Armstrong airport terminal and listen to the only decent piped music you're ever likely to hear. Thus fortified, you can more easily dance through the security cafuffle, laptop out, shoes off and away from what is still sheer magic. Having said all that, will most of the people of New Orleans ever be able to return? It doesn't seem likely, and that is an incredible tragedy. There are worrying signs too, of police crackdowns on second line and Mardi Gras Indian marches. Insanity.