Iona Fyfe with Countercurrent in Saturday 10, 2022 Matinee at Coffee Gallery Backstage

A while back I started to learn some Welsh and along the way, my linguistic leanings led me across the paths of Aran Jones and then Dr. Michael Dempster.

Later, to expand beyond the mountain music of my Appalachian youth, I started searching for traditional Celtic influenced music, I quickly ran into the name Iona Fyfe via some of Dempster’s network. I added her to various music lists and gave a quick Twitter follow. I absorbed some of her music  over several months until I noticed that she had a new single dropping on September 3rd. That’s when I saw through her Twitter account that she was doing a tour through part of the U.S. 

I figured, surely she’ll play L.A. at some point and it would definitely be worth the trip over to the city.  I started searching only to discover that she’d be playing five minutes from my house! Double-Win!! I called immediately and made reservations for the whole family.

For those new to her and her music, Iona is an Aberdeenshire folksinger/songwriter rooted in the musical traditions of the North East of Scotland. In 2021, she became the first singer to win the Musician of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards. She’s incredibly knowledgeable about the folk tradition in both Scotland as well as in the United States. Her music crosses folk, traditional Scottish music, country and bluegrass, with some pop and rock thrown in (most of it translated into Scots, of course.)

Set list

Doors opened at 1:30 PM. Show started at 2:00 PM and finished at about 4:15 PM.

1. Scotland Yet (single, 2021)
2. Take Me Out Drinking (from Away from My Window)
3. The Wild Geese
4. Lady Finella
– written on 2021-01-06; released on 2022-09-03
5. Love Story (Scots translation of Taylor Swift song)
6. Kenmure
– Inspired by Woody Guthrie and Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)
7. Banks of Inverurie (from Away from My Window)
– Craig Duncan Collection; about a girl walking by the river, a man makes a pass at her and it takes 6 verses to get to “no”
8. **Poor Ditching Boy**
– Richard Thompson (Fairport Convention) Sunset Song was the original, but this version has been translated (more appropriately) in Scots
9. Bonnie Lass of Fyvie
– Cecil Sharp / Doric Text; Versions by Dylan (changed city name), Gratful Dead, Joan Baez, and Simon and Garfunkle

(intermission)

10. Guise of Tough (from Away from My Window)
– Doric
11. The Northern Lights (of Old Aberdeen) by Mary Webb
– Webb apparently never visited Aberdeen
12. The Waters Meet
– written by Iona Fyfe
13. The Ship Song (Scots version)
– cover via Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
14. Dark Turn of Mind (from Dark Turn of Mind)
– via Gillian Welch; Fyfe’s first song in English and it got big play only in English and not in Scots, so she decide only to do Scots thereafter;
my comment: Eat it Patsy Kline!
15. Swing and Turn (from Dark Turn of Mind)
– via Jean Ritchie
– Kentucky based country song
16. **Hametoun
– cover of Sarah Jarosz’ Hometown
17. **Freedom Come All Ye**
cover via Hamish Henderson

(encore)

18. **Tak’ a Dram Afore Ye Go** (Scots)

Review

I don’t think Queen Elizabeth II had been dead for a full day, so I was quite taken that Fyfe chose to open her performance with Scotland Yet. The only way it may have been better was if we’d had a few drams to toast with while listening.

Sadly while Fyfe had intended to play as a trio on the tour with Alex Sturbaum and Brian Lindsay, the two members of Countercurrent, Bryan had come down with COVID-19 and thus had to miss this particular show. Alex did a spectacular job on acoustic guitar and bouzouki, but I definitely missed what I suspect would have been some excellent fiddle that would have helped round out the trio.

Despite this perceived handicap, the show was truly spectacular. I’ve heard most of Fyfe’s recordings and I have to say that as great as they are, she’s even more transcendent in person. She reminds me of a young Loreena McKennitt or Tori Amos.

I realized I don’t even own a CD player anymore, but to support Iona’s music and her tour, I purchased three of her albums on CD. Hopefully it will help in offsetting the abysmally low returns on streaming music platforms.

Sonia warns Fyfe to watch out for the “Torries” in Modesto which probably isn’t as progressive as a more “granola” Altadena crowd.

Iona Fyfe September 2022 US Tour Dates

If you haven’t seen Iona Fyfe in person yet, it’s definitely a fantastic experience. She’s got a long list of tour dates, primarily on the US West Coast through September.

Tour poster featuring Iona Fyfe in a black top and checked black and white pants sitting on a stool. A large list of dates and venues appears next to her which can be found at https://ionafyfe.com/tour/

RSVPed Attending 09/10/22 2:00 PM Iona Fyfe Live at Coffee Gallery Backstage

MATINEE! Iona Fyfe is one of the most accomplished young Scottish singers today in the folk tradition and beyond. She won the title of Scots Singer of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Traditional Music Awards in 2018, Scots Language Awards Speaker of the Year in 2021 and was described as “one of the best Scotland has to offer.” (Global-Music.de). In 2021, she became the first singer to win the coveted title of Musician of the Year at the MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards.

Her knowledge and advocacy of the Scots Doric language has recently been extended to issues of equality in the music and other workplaces, winning an award for Equality in the Workplace from the Scottish Musicians Trade Union. Iona not only sings beautiful traditional songs of life, love, and loss in old Scots, but also songs in English written by contemporaries, as well as herself. She has recorded an album of Appalachian songs that go back to her native Aberdeenshire, as well as covers of folks such as Gillian Welch’s “Dark Turn of Mind.” One among many, Mike Harding, of the Mike Harding Folk Show, calls her voice “Absolutely stunning.”

Iona will be accompanied in her show by two of the Pacific Northwest’s finest up and coming young musicians, Alex Sturbaum on guitar and accordion, and Brian Lindsay on fiddle and mandolin. They are the duo Countercurrent, known throughout the contra dance scene nationally for their infectiously rhythmical and joyful performances.

Saturday September 10, 2022 | MATINEE 2:00 PM | $20.00
Reservations: (626) 798-6236


Reservations are strongly suggested. Seating is limited.
Call 626.798.6236 for Reservations Between 10 A - 10 P
Pay by Cash or Check. Sorry … No Credit Cards
No payment necessary when you make telephone reservations. Pay by cash or check at the door at the time of the show.

I’ve been following Iona and her music for a while now and never expected to see her live, much less 5 minutes from my house!! She’s got a few dates in the Los Angeles area this week and upcoming in her US tour, so make your reservations now.

Dw i’n hapus ac yn barod am gerddoriaeth celtaidd wythnos yma.

Hall & Oates Concert October 2021 featuring Squeeze at the Hollywood Bowl

Background and the Pandemic

I originally bought tickets for this show at the Hollywood Bowl on January 25, 2020, but the pandemic obviously delayed the original show date of May 29th. In a fit of optimism on July 16, 2020, the show was rescheduled for October 1, 2021. I really didn’t expect the show to stick. It was my second major crowd outing since the start of the pandemic.

I drove to the Pasadena park and ride location which had just closed because the last bus had just left. They indicated the Zoo location was still open and would have buses until 7pm. So we drove to the LA Zoo bus stop and parked and rode from there. Doing this, even with crowds well masked, was certainly a lot less taxing than sitting in crazy traffic or worrying about parking. The two way fee was a much lower $6 whereas I expected it to be $12 per person.

We got to our seats a bit after the opening act started because of the COVID-19 check-in lines. The lines were miserably managed and social convention went out the window for people cutting in line and generally shifting around.

While vaccination cards or negative tests were required for entrance, they weren’t well organized about it. It would have been all-too-easy to sneak around the COVID check and get directly into the ticket/bag check area which was much more closely guarded and well executed.

Once past the checkpoint not many people were wearing masks. There was approximately 60% masking in public areas outside the Bowl itself, but once seated with a nearly capacity crowd at a sold out show, there was only about 20% masking. I kept a mask on the entire night. Knowing that this would be the case we didn’t take the traditional Hollywood Bowl picnic basket or food.

The weather for the evening was about as lovely as one could have hoped. Not to hot and not too cold which is notable when October evenings can be uncomfortably warm with temperatures in the high 80s to mid 90s.

Opening act: Squeeze

Purple lights illuminate the bandshell with the band name Squeeze projected behind the band

I think I enjoyed the opening act most this evening. They played a few of their hit songs certainly, but I enjoyed the more experimental late 70’s material they played that fell into the vein of Pink Floyd and The Alan Parsons Project as part of the New Wave movement. It was very much the sound of the late 70’s and they recreated it wonderfully in a way that took me back to that space and time. While there were some nice flourishes and musical improvisation sprinkled in, it was closer to their studio/album work in sound and flavor, particularly in comparison to Hall & Oates. Their material generally matched the mood of Hall & Oates’ She’s Gone.

I almost feel like this performance wasn’t as flashy as it may have been in the day. It would be quite something to see them in a more intimate setting like the Troubadour.

The day was one of the band member’s birthdays, so the entire crowd sang happy birthday to close out the performance.

There were a number of women in their 50s standing up and singing and dancing to every number which was interesting to see.

Setlist

I could only recall Mussels, Cool for Cats, Tempted, Annie, Black Coffee, and Happy Birthday from the top of my head as I didn’t keep a written setlist like I did for Hall and Oates. The list below is courtesy of setlist.fm, but all the big pieces appeared in the order that I remember.

  1. Take Me I’m Yours
  2. Up the Junction
  3. Hourglass
  4. Is That Love
  5. Departure Lounge
  6. Slap and Tickle
  7. Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)
  8. Please Be Upstanding
  9. Cool for Cats
  10. Tempted
  11. Annie Get Your Gun
  12. If I Didn’t Love You
  13. Black Coffee in Bed
  14. Happy Birthday to You (Mildred J. Hill & Patty Hill song)
    (Sung to bassist Owen Biddle; each band member took a solo spot)

Main Act: Hall and Oates

Starting at 8:50 PM and finishing out at about 10:30 PM

Setlist

  1. Maneater
  2. Out of Touch
  3. Method of Modern Love
  4. Say it Isn’t So
  5. You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling
  6. She’s Gone (High on Consolation)
  7. Sarah Smile
  8. Is it a Star (according to setlist.fm, I didn’t catch the title at the time)
  9. Back Together Again 
  10. I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)
    —- Encore —
  11. Rich Girl
  12. Your Kiss is on My List (with a slick transition to)
  13. Private Eyes (10:10 PM)
    —- Band introductions —- 
  14. You Make my Dreams Come True (10:20 PM start)

Band

  • Shane Theriot (Guitar)
  • Eliot Lewis (keyboards)
  • Klyde Jones (Bass)
  • Brian Dunne (drums)
  • Porter Carroll Jr. (Percussion)
  • Charles “Charlie” DeChant (Saxophone)

Brief review

The concert was generally solidly produced. The opening was electric and the crowd gave them a lot of early energy in a nearly packed Bowl. Unfortunately the energy waned within a song and a half. Daryl Hall took about three songs to really warm up his voice. Prior to that I was worried about what I was in for. For someone in his mid-70’s it was a solid performance, but he’s definitely not got the energy of the early 80’s. Late in the program he moved to keyboards and did alright for his age, but there were some obvious rough spots in his solo play.

Given their spot in the Yacht Rock pantheon of highly produced music, I expected to hear more of the polish of their 80’s work, but there was a lot more Jazz and R&B influence on their performance. This was probably great for the Hollywood Bowl regulars where there’s often quite a bit of Jazz programmed, but it just wasn’t the 70s experimental material or the Rock/Pop I was either hoping for or expecting.

Hall’s patter was a bit stilted for me. The quote of the night came between Sarah Smile and the lead into Is it a Star with a drug culture reference:

“I think all the 70’s were experimental.”
—Daryl Hall

Panorama of the Hollywood Bowl at night

Bookmarked Visual and auditory brain areas share a representational structure that supports emotion perception by Beau Sievers, Carolyn Parkinson, Peter J. Kohler, James M. Hughes, Sergey V. Fogelson, Thalia Wheatley (Current Biology)
Emotionally expressive music and dance occur together across the world. This may be because features shared across the senses are represented the same way even in different sensory brain areas, putting music and movement in directly comparable terms. These shared representations may arise from a general need to identify environmentally relevant combinations of sensory features, particularly those that communicate emotion. To test the hypothesis that visual and auditory brain areas share a representational structure, we created music and animation stimuli with crossmodally matched features expressing a range of emotions. Participants confirmed that each emotion corresponded to a set of features shared across music and movement. A subset of participants viewed both music and animation during brain scanning, revealing that representations in auditory and visual brain areas were similar to one another. This shared representation captured not only simple stimulus features but also combinations of features associated with emotion judgments. The posterior superior temporal cortex represented both music and movement using this same structure, suggesting supramodal abstraction of sensory content. Further exploratory analysis revealed that early visual cortex used this shared representational structure even when stimuli were presented auditorily. We propose that crossmodally shared representations support mutually reinforcing dynamics across auditory and visual brain areas, facilitating crossmodal comparison. These shared representations may help explain why emotions are so readily perceived and why some dynamic emotional expressions can generalize across cultural contexts.
This portends some interesting results with relation to mnemonics and particularly songlines and indigenous peoples’ practices which integrate song, movement, and emotion.

Preprint: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/254961v4

Beau Sievers in “New work published today in Current Biology Visual and auditory brain areas share a representational structure that supports emotion perception With @ThaliaWheatley @k_v_n_l @parkinsoncm @sergeyfogelson (thread after coffee!) https://t.co/AURqH9kNLb https://t.co/ro4o4oEwk5” / Twitter ()

Bookmarked Citizen DJ (citizen-dj.labs.loc.gov)
Make music using the free-to-use audio and video materials from the Library of Congress This is a project by Brian Foo as part of the 2020 Innovator in Residence Program at the Library of Congress.
Some interesting resources for music, audio, and video from the Library of Congress mentioned early this morning at IAnno21.
Read Child Ballads (Wikipedia)
The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. The tunes of most of the ballads were collected and published by Bertrand Harris Bronson in and around the 1960s.

Burl Ives’s 1949 album, The Return of the Wayfaring Stranger, for example, includes two: “Lord Randall” and “The Divil and the Farmer”. 

Annotated on August 04, 2020 at 08:59AM

In 1956 four albums (consisting of eight LPs) of 72 Child Ballads sung by Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd were released: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Vols. 1–4. 

Annotated on August 04, 2020 at 09:05AM

Illustration by Arthur Rackham of Child Ballad 26, “The Twa Corbies” 

Annotated on August 04, 2020 at 09:06AM

Joan Baez sang ten Child ballads distributed among her first five albums, the liner notes of which identified them as such. 

Annotated on August 04, 2020 at 09:07AM

Watched The Celtic World, Lecture 23: Celtic Music and Dance by Jennifer Paxton from The Great Courses
Celtic instruments come to life in this lecture. Take a music lesson and learn about the carnyx, a war trumpet; the bodhrán, a hand drum; and the crwth, a lyre played with a bow. Treat your ears to samples of these and beautiful Irish singing, then watch clips of delightful Celtic dances based on classic traditions.
96% done with the series.
Watched The Orchestra in My Mouth by Tom Thumb from TEDxSydney

In a highly entertaining performance, beatboxer Tom Thum slings beats, comedy and a mouthful of instrumental impersonations into 11 minutes of creativity and fun that will make you smile.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxSydney, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Pretty cool to see a internal view of a beatboxer with a laryngoscope through the nose.