The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #9742   Message #537595
Posted By: GUEST,Celtic Soul
29-Aug-01 - 02:06 PM
Thread Name: How many of us play in a traditional band.
Subject: RE: How many of us play in a tradional band.
Again, depending on your idea of what is traditional, my group may or may not fit the criteria.

Most of what we do starts out trad, but we take huge liberties with some of the material. Some of what we do is not trad, but fits the feel of traditional music. And there are a few that we just plain like, and the hell with their not being even remotely traditional.

The idea with my group is to have fun, make sure the audience is having fun, and to make each piece uniquely ours. We do mostly British Isles folk, (my main focus being celtic) but our influences vary as widely as rhythm and blues, jazz, reggae, bluegrass and plain old rock and roll (in addition to the main influence of the traditional, which is where we usually begin).

We play locally (within 4-5 hours of our homebase of the Washington DC area), but have been known to pick up and take off to locations several thousand miles away (when we are paid well enough). We sing mostly in english, but depart to Gaelic on a few songs. We have entertained the thought of a few other European language songs as well, but nothing has come of it yet. Our repetoire consists of material that spans quite a few ages. From one piece in what sounds very nearly as if parts of it were not English (though it all is), to pieces verifiably Renaissance, to pieces written a hundred years ago on up to pieces written only a few years ago.

So long as it fits the motif, we put our earmark on it, and we all (audience included) has fun with it, it's fair game.