Think globally, enjoy Celtic music locally.
Performers from a variety of countries will converge for the Dublin Irish Festival Aug. 2-4, aptly themed “World of Music” this year.
“Celtic music comes from everywhere,” says City Events Administrator Mary Jo DiSalvo. “The fact is that it is so universal and appeals to so many people.”
No one could agree more than Galician piper Carlos Nuñez, a newcomer to this year’s Festival who will be performing Saturday and Sunday. Galicia, in northern Spain, is named for the Gallaeci, Celtic people who lived in the region thousands of years ago. Nuñez plays the gaita – the bagpipe native to that area.
“(Gaita) are like the mother of the Scottish and the Irish pipes,” Nuñez says. “They received the bagpipes from Galicia in the Middle Ages.”
He began playing the recorder when he was 8 years old and moved on to the gaita shortly thereafter, always dreaming of playing the pipes professionally.
“I knew that was my passion in life,” Nuñez says. “The only problem that I always had was I was too young and people didn’t listen to my dreams and my ideas.”
Fortunately, Nuñez connected with traditional Irish band The Chieftains’ Paddy Moloney, who gave him the opportunity to play gaita on stage.
“When I told Paddy there is Celtic music in Mexico or Argentina, he listened to me and said, ‘OK, Carlos. Let’s go to Cuba. Let’s organize a recording session in Latin America,’” Nuñez says.
Nuñez has always aimed to bring Spain back to its Celtic roots – and to share Latin-influenced Celtic music with the rest of the world.
“My music is sort of a connection of Celtic music with the Latin world,” Nuñez says. “You can hear, sometimes, echoes from Ireland and Scotland and you can feel the passion of flamenco. You can feel the rhythms of Latin music and Cuban music.”
While Nuñez’s energy as he plays the gaita has been compared to the way Jimi Hendrix played his guitar, The Red Hot Chilli Pipers have actually covered Hendrix.
The “bagrock” group from Scotland has achieved worldwide fame since winning the BBC talent show When Will I Be Famous? in 2007. They even performed at the London Olympics last summer.
Tours have taken the group from Asia to New Zealand to Europe and on extensive travels through the U.S. DiSalvo recommended the Pipers for the Dublin Irish Festival after seeing them perform at the Milwaukee Irish Fest.
“I never saw a crowd respond to a band like that,” DiSalvo says.
Kevin MacDonald, one of the band’s original members, says the group created the term “bagrock” to describe its style.
“Basically we take classic rock songs and play them on the bagpipe, and we also take classic bagpipe tunes and put a heavy rock element into them, and add a lighting show and a choreography show to go along with it,” MacDonald says.
The group looks forward to debuting its new album, Breathe, at the Festival. It will be the first live performance of the record after its official release Aug. 1 and the start of a five-week U.S. tour.
Like the Pipers’ other albums, Breathe is a mix of rock covers and traditional tunes. Covers on the new album include Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon, but MacDonald’s favorite track is a traditional song: “Silver Spear.”
“It’s a traditional Irish tune that we’ve added the ‘Chillification’ to,” he jokes.
On the other end of the musical spectrum, Canadian Natalie MacMaster, a returning Festival favorite who will play all three days, brings passion to the arena of traditional fiddle music.
MacMaster hails from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and shows off the island’s Celtic roots through intense performances that have taken her as far as Antarctica.
“(I’ve been to) New Zealand, Japan and all sorts of little European countries. I think we did 11 countries in 14 days in Europe once,” says MacMaster, who also played with The Chieftains.
“I’m a Cape Breton Girl. I grew up with it. It’s in me. I love that music.”
Cape Breton music is very rhythmic, and that characteristic comes through in MacMaster’s work.
“Our show is very up-tempo and lively,” she says. “(Rhythm is) its greatest strength, but it’s intelligent, too. It’s not all just lighthearted, fluffy beer-drinking music. We spend a lot of time on the instrument arrangements and chords to make … the melodies and rhythms pop out.”
In a similar musical vein, The High Kings delight audiences with acoustic versions of traditional Irish ballads.
“We’re basically bringing back all of the old folk and ballad songs of yesteryear and kind of giving them a modern twist,” says Brian Dunphy, one of the group’s four members. Dunphy sings and plays guitar, and is an all-around percussionist.
Visitors can expect a mix of ballads and brand-new original songs the group is working on. In a departure from The High Kings’ previous records,
their album due out in September will feature new songs. Dunphy is looking forward to getting feedback on the pieces as the band performs all three days at the Festival.
“An American audience really respects what you do and … I think will honestly give us their opinion, which is something we value very much,” he says.
The U.S., with its mish-mash of cultures, is an ideal place for the band to play because of the different elements The High Kings bring to their music.
“There are more Irish people in America than there are in Ireland. The Irish have claimed every corner of the world,” Dunphy says. “The music could be reggae inflection or Celtic-driven or African-driven. We do have a mix in there and I think everybody gets us.”
Banjo-driven group We Banjo 3 shares that affection for the U.S.’s ties to Ireland.
“We have a love of the musical journey of the banjo,” says group founder Enda Scahill, describing how the modern incarnation of the banjo originated in the U.S. and made its way to Ireland, then back to the U.S. by way of Irish immigrants. “It has a rich legacy and a very interesting story.”
Their newest album, Roots of the Banjo Tree, which was named Traditional Album of the Year by the Irish Times, emphasizes that connection.
“There are a lot of tunes that are common in both Irish music and in old-time music and in bluegrass,” Scahill says. “They have different names, but they’re essentially the same melodies.”
In spite of the group’s name, the band consists of two sets of brothers (four men, in total), and they play more instruments than just the banjo; Fergall Scahill is a champion fiddler and bodhran player and David Howley plays guitar and mandolin.
Like The Red Hot Chilli Pipers, the group’s performance at the Dublin Irish Festival is kicking off a U.S. tour. After its three-day stint at the Festival, We Banjo 3 plans to play several southern states during their seven-week tour, which they’re calling “Bringing the Banjo Back Home.”
“We have four Irish guys bringing the Irish version of America’s folk instrument back to America,” Scahill says. “And we’re not going to leave (that influence in the U.S.); we’re going to bring it back with us to Ireland.”
For more information on the entertainers performing at the Festival, visit www.dublinirishfestival.org.
Lisa Aurand is editor of Dublin Life Magazine. Feedback welcome at laurand@cityscenemediagroup.com.
