More Tales from the Cleveland Irish Sessions

The older musicians from the Cleveland Irish Musician’s club made fun of the renaissance flute Larsen borrowed from Oberlin; the closest thing he had to an Irish flute. Tom Byrne (1920-2001), who had left his life as a coalminer in County Sligo, eventually gave Larsen his first Irish flute. “That was a huge gift,” says Larsen. “A real blessing from him to me. I got it fixed up and made a case for it. I played it for several years and then I gave it back to Tom’s youngest of eleven kids. That felt great.”

Since Byrne had been a collier, his version of The Colliers’ Reel always had special meaning for Larsen. Tom died of emphysema in 2001, a disease that probably had its origin in the coalmines where he labored.

Larsen also hit it off with Tom McCaffrey (born 1916)—whose father was a fine fiddler that had been in high demand in County Leitrim. There they had lived near a police barracks where officers from different parts of the country would travel. Many were musicians and, as a result, he was exposed to music from all regions of Ireland. Byrne and McCaffrey became good friends of Larsen’s and a great source of music. The two men can be heard on three releases on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, produced by Richard Carlin between 1977 and 1979.

And What About the Cincinnati Sessions?

At age 18, before his weekly treks to Cleveland, Larsen had become friends with Irish-born melodeon-player Michael Kennedy (1900-1978) in Cincinnati, Larsen’s hometown and Kennedy’s adopted home. They spent many hours playing together then and during Larsen’s summer breaks from Oberlin. Until the age of 23, Kennedy had never left a 10-mile radius of his family farm in County Galway. At age 11 and inspired by two melodeon-playing village girls, he purchased a melodeon for the equivalent of $1.50. All his life he played a one-row, ten-button melodeon in the key of G. He often would say, “There was never anybody as crazy for a melodeon as I was.”

After tiring of the brutal farm labor, Kennedy immigrated to Cincinnati, working for 42 years for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, and once again never strayed far from home. When Grey Larsen and music partner Malcolm Dalglish—who together released the groundbreaking Banish Misfortune record—brought Kennedy to perform with them in Knoxville, that was further than Kennedy had traveled since he came to America. “Michael kept asking, ‘Are we still in Kentucky?” chuckles Larsen. “He couldn’t believe how big Kentucky was. And this was the short way across the state!”

Larsen’s 2001 CD The Green House (also with Paddy League) features three tracks of Kennedy: one of Kennedy describing the endearing and odd habits of his beloved cuckoo, demonstrating its call, and performing a snatch of lyrics that go with the tune; another of Kennedy playing the hornpipe “The Cuckoo’s Nest” on his melodeon; and a third of Kennedy talking about memory, music, and playing for dances in North-East County Galway during endless parties after the harvest.

On Celtic Music in America

Interestingly, many significant developments in Irish music have taken place in America. The recording industry developed first in America, and Irish immigrant musicians were being featured on many early records. In Ireland, musicians were circulating American-made 78-rpms. The recordings themselves shifted the way that traditional Irish musicians learned music and eventually shifted the repertoire itself. The recordings were primarily made as commercial releases for Irish-American audiences.

“They wanted things they perceived would sell,” explains Larsen. “They thought a 78 of just a fiddle player sounded empty, even though the core of Irish music had been unaccompanied melody. They would bring in a piano player who knew nothing about the music and often chose really poorly… Chords that had nothing to do with what was being played! Back in Ireland, when they heard those recordings, many musicians thought is was cool. It didn’t even register that the chords were largely wrong. And gradually more and more musicians began playing with accompaniment.” Around the same time, Irish music was also set into the context of American minstrelsy and vaudeville. And even earlier there were outside influences on Irish music—with its polkas and mazurkas—probably as a result of Irish people being drafted into fighting for the English and mingling with Europeans. So what many outside listeners perceive as an unbendable tradition has in fact been open to influences for hundreds of years. It is then perhaps not as ironic as it appears that Grey Larsen, an American-born musician, has completed such an in-depth book as The Essential Guide to Irish Flute and Tin Whistle.

Interestingly, an earlier tune written by Larsen called “Thunderhead” made it over to highland pipers in the city of Brest in Brittany. The players adapted it to the limited range of their instruments, creating a new version of the tune, and it is thought by many to be a traditional tune, a far journey for an Indiana-composed melody. It acquired some other titles: “St. Michael’s Jig” and “Jig Brest St. Michael”. Highland pipers worldwide now have it in their basic repertoire and pipe bands have played it in competitions, sometimes winning with it.  “I wrote the tune while flying in a jet liner on tour, at night, above a violent thunderstorm with a starry sky above,” Larsen explains. “It’s in 6/8 time as a jig, and, in my recording, shifts into 7/8 time, as I had just then been learning some Bulgarian music. The highland pipers play it commonly in 6/8 and in 7/8, even in competitions. That surprises me, since I perceive the highland piping world as musically conservative, especially in competitions.” Numerous bands and musicians have recorded it or performed it in Ireland, Scotland, Canada, and the US including Lunasa, The Tannahill Weavers, Kevin Burke, Andy Irvine, and more. “It is incredibly flattering that a tune of mine would be so deeply accepted as to be thought a traditional tune,” says Larsen.

Why the Flute?

Larsen plays masterfully on a half dozen instruments from concertina to old time fiddle, but why is it the Irish flute that he is most passionate about? “Since the whole production of the sound is with your breath, it’s like speaking or singing,” Larsen explains. “It’s such a direct root into the middle of you. The fact that your fingers are in contact with the wood and the air column without anything in between, the fact that you can gradually move your finger off the hole gives you the ability to inflect the sound like a singer does. You have very fine sensitive control of each note. It is not just a matter of covering and uncovering the holes. This incredible subtlety is the most emotional and evocative part of the playing. Whereas more mechanical instruments—like the flute used in the Western classical tradition, with metal keys—the note is either on or off. On the simple-system flute, you can make the pitch slide around. It’s like the difference between analog and digital… and everything in between.”

Why is the new CD titled Dark of the Moon?

Additional Info
Crooked Melodies, Cuckoo’s Nests, and Intergenerational Tractor ...
Praise for Grey Larsen's Recordings and Books
Insights and Stories
The Making of Dark of the Moon
What will appear on the back of "The Essential Guide to Irish Flute ...

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