Celtic Traditions

This picture is from the Dayton Celtic Festival.  I play accordion for the band Sons O'Blarney.

You can find out more about the band here.  www.sonsoblarney.com

We've been playing together about 7 months.  When we started I didn't know any celtic music.  I like it well enough, but had never aspired to play it.  Now I like it.  Why?  It may come as no surprise that it's very conducive to getting audience response and interaction.  Since we do traditional Irish tunes, many people know all the words and sing along with us.  Some of the songs have long established traditions for when you are supposed to clap and shout responses to the band.

With the last name of Makofka, I grew up with polkas; ethnic music with Eastern European associations.  But I have to confess that Celtic music is every bit as much fun to play.  It can be fast.  ie crazy bluegrass fast.  As you can see in the picture, we don't have a fiddle player, so I get to play the fiddle parts.   It has been wonderful for my technique and dexterity.

Two of the songs we sing, "Finnigan's Wake" and "The Night that Patty Murphy Died" are about death and Irish wakes.  There is something healthy about including these subjects in music.  The Irish tradition for approaching death is rich and instructive.  I'm not Catholic or Irish, but if someone wants to have throw a wake for me when I'm gone it's okay with me.

GoodTime Accordion Band at Bethany Village

Whenever we play for a senior center, we bring a lyric sheet so that the audience can sing along.  The tunes include Tennessee Waltz, Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue, Love Me Tender, You are My Sunshine, and other old favorites.  I usually lead the singing.  Today something unusual happened.  I usually sing the songs and expect that the audience will sing along.  But this group responded differently.  When I sang, they sat back and listened; passive observers of a reasonably entertaining show.  The songs they participated in the most were the songs that I didn't sing.  When it was just them singing they sang more loudly and enthusiastically.

The picture below shows the audience at the beginning.  They were waiting for lunch to be served and for us to start playing.  By the end of the show almost everyone was talking, smiling, and laughing.

We don't really feel like we've done our job until somebody gets up and dances.  This time it took us the entire show to make it happen.    We ended the show and were doing an encore performance of Beer Barrel Polka as they were walking out, when one couple finally started to dance.  It might have taken so long because it was a Ladies Luncheon and all the men were in the kitchen cooking and serving.  But Garrison Keillor would probably say it's because they were Lutheran.

Community Singing in America

Where do Americans sing?  Footballs fans ( a few) will sing the National Anthem.  Baseball fans sing at the seventh inning stretch.  Soccer fans (other than American) sing all the time.  Fans at concerts sing a popular song or two, but only when invited to do so. Kids sing in school, usually in music class or choir.  I have lost touch with what kids sing in school these days.  Do families still sing on car trips, or are all the family members engaged with their own ear buds?

And who would be considered the greatest American song-leader of my lifetime?  My first thought was Mitch Miller.  His TV show "Sing Along with Mitch" made him a household name from 1961-1964.  My second thought was Cliff Barrows. As song leader for the Billy Graham Crusades he lead millions in song for over 60 years.  Of course, I couldn't betray my Winona Lake roots by not mentioning Homer Rodeheaver, even though he was from an earlier time (1910-1930).

In 1977 I won my church denomination's national song leading award.  That's right, I was a nationally recognized church song leader by the time I was in 10th grade.  I remember that there were rules to follow.  You had to announce the song as hymn number, not page number, because hymnals frequently had more than one hymn per page.  You had to introduce the song with some meaningful remarks that were clear, but not to long.  Handling the transitions between hymns was a big deal.  And if you had the congregation stand to sing, you had to remember to ask them to be seated at the end.  You could hold the hymnal with one hand and conduct with the other, or put the hymnal on the pulpit and conduct with both hands, which was recommended for larger groups.

At some point churches went from having song leaders to having worship leaders.  The emphasis moved from the song to the response to the song.  And it is now preferred that you not "wave your hands in the air" but use them to play an instrument, preferably guitar.

Yesterday I did a performance at a retirement home with the Dayton Accordion Band.  In that group, we still do sing alongs.  I've only recently taken over the role of song leader with the group.  Now I lead singing while wearing a rather large accordion.  This isn't easy.  But it was instinctive to give the group cues for coming in and cut offs at the end of songs.  The group sang, by memory, some of the same songs they used to sing with Mitch Miller.  And they love singing patriotic numbers like America, the Beautiful.  But this generation sang those songs together in school.  They had a shared communal musical experience.

I wonder if there will be any kind of sing alongs in 20 years.  Will people feel comfortable singing in public? Will they have any shared songs?  I was surprised last year at my daughter's wedding.  At the end of the reception she and her friends all joined together and belted out a rousing rendition of ...wait for it... Piano Man.  That song was released  about ten years before they were born.  I don't think they knew all the verses, but they enjoyed singing the chorus.  And, yes, there was alcohol involved.

Punk Accordion Player with Nuns

Any video with the title "Punk Accordion Player with Nuns" just has to be worth watching.