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August
26 - Sept. 1, 2003
Michael G. Rose is a pianist from Boston and
is now based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He performs with violinist Ditte Fromseier
Mortensen in the duo Fromseier Rose. Their debut CD, Contradiction, which features
Niamh Parsons as guest singer for three songs, has been receiving excellent reviews.
Michael was very happy to attend the Tønder Festival as a journalist for
Celtic Cafe, He will continue to provide reports to the Cafe on Celtic-related
happenings wherever he finds them, though he will admit to being more inclined
to practice his scales than to proofread his own text.
•
• • Tønder is a small quiet town in
the southwest
corner of Denmark, lying near the North Sea and the German border. The last
weekend of every August the town opens its arms to folk musicians and music lovers
from everywhere and for five days becomes the center of the Celtic music world.
The Tønder Festival is one of Europe's
largest folk festivals with venues including two large music tents in a field
just minutes away from the center of the town along with several stages in the
town itself. And it seems as if most everyone in the town is a volunteer, helping
with anything from running the food tents to cleaning up after the party. The
musicians share the spirit, making Tønder one of the most sought after
gigs on the circuit. Many of the musicians arrive on Thursday and stay through
until Tuesday morning, performing several times at the festival and then staying
on to help throw a big party for the volunteers on Monday night. This year's
festival lineup looked especially
exciting to Celtic music and dance lovers. But there were a few difficulties at
the start. Eddi Reader had to cancel
to give her voice a much needed rest. And Liam
O'Flynn had a tragedy in his family which forced his band to cancel. However
the musicians and organizers pulled together to fill in the slots. Carlos
Nunez flew in on short notice to take Liam's place, and the Oysterband
unplugged their heavy gear to do lighter acoustic sets in Eddi's slots. The
party started on Thursday with a night of folk rock in the big tent. This year
the first act was the Canadian band, The
PaperBoys. They blended a strong singer/songerwriter frontman, Tom
Landa, with several more Celtic- oriented musicians, including the fine flute
player, Dave Gossage. The second act of the evening was Wolfstone,
which can be considered one of the festival's house bands. I hadn't seen the band
for a few years, but after listening to Duncan
Chisholm's new solo CD, I can hear how much Wolfstone is Duncan, and not
the other way around. The final act on Thursday night was also an old Tønder
favorite, The Oysterband, in their rock-n-roll
incarnation. Friday and Saturday were devoted to running from the tents
to the art museum to the gymnasium and back to the tents to catch as many of the
39 acts as possible. I had been looking forward to seeing my current favorite
group, Flook, since the first and
only other time I had seen them was in 1997. They said they had been trying to
get into the Tønder Festival for years. Our paths finally crossed at the
Art Museum. It was a slightly restrained venue where the audience drank red wine
rather than beer at the intermission, but it was a good place to hear Flook, who
gave a performance filled with energy and humor. Fresh from Flook, I had
to run down the street to catch the Scottish band Blazin
Fiddles. They are an all-star collection of 5 fiddlers, piano and guitar.
The fiddlers include Bruce
MacGregor and Catriona
MacDonald and the five of them cover the very different regional styles
of Scotland. They are held together by 'Easter Ross's answer to Dr. John', Andy
Thorburn on piano and Marc Clement on guitar. It was a showy performance
which gave each of the fiddlers a chance to display their virtuosity and to highlight
their native style, from the western isles up to Shetland. They are a festival
band, and it is worth tracking down each of the musicians to hear them on their
own individual projects. When they were done I had a 10 minute trot down
to the main tent to catch Eileen Ivers and
Immigrant Soul. Eileen's act was, reasonably enough, very American in its
mastery of explicit showmanship. She and her band have a very tight show which
excels at controlling the energy level of the audience and communicating the blend
of influences in Irish-American music. Eileen's natural exuberance and joy in
the music was constantly shining through the shows choreography. This is a band
to experience live. There were also a couple of excellent performers that
were new to me. Canadian April Verch
impressed everyone with a well rounded set that featured her swinging fiddle style
and she even added a couple of songs and a bit of step dancing. Corquiéu,
from the province of Asturia, Spain, gave a great exhibition of the southern face
of Celtic music. They played Asturian melodies and songs with the power of Wolfstone
and the passion of the Latins. I've had their CD on every day since I've been
back. As you might have guessed, there was plenty of music happening late
at night after the main shows were done. There were more informal concerts in
an old mill by the river. Saturday night featured Blazin Fiddles inviting up Altan
and Sláinte Mhath for
a session that ran from 1 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. And the after-concert sessions ran
until 6 a.m. The festival is one of the few places where you can get a severe
case of jetlag without changing time zones. I wish had seen more of Shooglenifty's
acid croft and Sláinte Mhath, but I did manage to catch them Sunday afternoon
at one of the two 'ceilidhs', where the bands play mix-n-match on the main stages.
The music was funky and fun and it occasionally looked as if the musicians might
have even practiced together, though I did hear rumors of flying bows and basses
falling into pianos on stage. The tent I was at featured a rotating mix of Shooglenifty,
Sláinte Mhath, Flook, Blazin Fidddles, the Karan
Casey band and several others in a relaxed afternoon of music making.
Sunday night was the final official concert. The Karan Casey band was the
opening act and she and her band did a lovely job in a short set that left me
wanting more. Karan was followed by Altan, who gave as professional and high quality
a performannce as I can remember seeing. An added treat was the special guest
for a few sets of tunes, soon-to-be mom Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh's dad,
Francie. He played with the pure drive of the old Donegal style and added a real
bite to the sound of the group. The
Cottars gave a short song and then Riverdance
- The Flying Squad took the stage. They gave a glittery show of virtuosity
and precision that was an excellent finale to the official program. A unique
aspect of the Tønder Festival is that most of the work and most all of
the manual labor is done by over 1500 volunteers. Since they are working during
the festival they don't get to see much of the music. In return for their efforts
they are guests at the Monday night party, a long-standing Tønder tradition.
A crew has learned how to make a curry for 1500 and each of the bands from the
festival performs two songs, in a marathon of music that lasts from around 8 p.m.
to 3 a.m. There were even some musical surprises to be had here. John
Spiers and Jon Boden somehow seemed to condense the energy of a 10-piece
45-minute set into a two-man ten-minute set, a brilliant performance. And
that brings us to Tuesday morning and a departing brunch for those left standing.
It was bit sad to leave but, quite frankly, there is simply a limit to how much
fun can be had in five days. And we were all way past our limits. Festival Coverage:
Michael G. Rose
Feature: Bernadette
Price
Original Web Design: Alexander
Servas
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