D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
July 2009
BAYOU SECO'S ROLLING POSTCARD
Continent by Kangoo
A whirlwind musical tour of Ireland, England and France, bringing a bit of New Mexico to Europe.
By Jeanie McLerie and Ken Keppeler
Editor's note: We're delighted to once again share a "rolling postcard" from the popular Silver City "chilegumbo" musical duo, Bayou Seco, on tour in Europe.
It has become a wonderful repeating theme in our lives over the last 17 years — traveling around the British Isles, Ireland, France and Germany — powered by the fabulous music we have learned over the years from other musicians in New Mexico, Louisiana and throughout the Southwest. Music is the passport — the symmetry of the trips is the recurring theme of concerts in all sorts of situations, combined with the continued contact with special friends we have met along the way.
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Jeanie and Ken with a statue of Seamus Ennis, famed Irish musician. |
We fled the pollen-laden, blustery New Mexico winds in early April, and landed in a greener — but not warmer or less windy — world. The first week took us from our landing in Paris, picking up the usual leased Renault Kangoo (a black one this time), and heading east into the Champagne area to pick up the accordeons, guitar and banjo at our friend's house. Then over the English Channel (on a ferry — we don't like the idea of the Chunnel), across southern England to play at the American Museum in Bath, and onward through Wales to catch the Irish Ferry in Pembroke to Rosslare.
We accomplished all this in five days' time, and arrived in Ireland completely over jet lag (there was no time for messing about with it this year), ready to play the five gigs we had set up. The first was in a pub called Mick Murphy's in Ballymore Eustace near the Wicklow mountains. A small gathering of about 50 folks in an old pub listened and sang along in Spanish and even Navajo with us. There was a couple from Guadalajara who have a Mexican catering business in nearby Dublin, and even have access to chile poblanos for rellenos. Of course they loved our Chile Verde song.
The next day we headed over to County Clare to see one of the greatest fiddlers of that area, Vincent Griffin. We were invited to stay in his guest cottage, which used to be the cow shed and milking parlor, and heard him play several times in the space of the 24-hour visit. He also liked hearing us play some our fiddle tunes.
Then we were off to County Kerry to visit more friends and see our buddy, the fiddler Paddy Jones. We had a concert in the lovely old St. John's church, which is now an Art Center, in Listowel, an historic market town. We invited Paddy on stage during each of our sets, and managed to play a set of his slides and jigs that he had taught us in Silver City on one of his recent visits. I suppose it was daft of us, but I think the audience liked seeing these two Americans play some Kerry tunes. The next night was a fine "seisiun" at Kate Browne's Pub in Ardfert. I counted 14 musicians all playing together. A very special kind of evening.
The next morning we hit the road early to make the four-and-a-half-hour drive up to the north of Dublin, where we played an afternoon concert at the Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre. This was a wonderful place that has hosted many a fine concert over the last 10 years. In the evening we were lucky to go to a Sliabh Luachra (Kerry) tunes workshop at the Centre, given by a melodeon player named Paudie O'Connor.
What I have noticed as we drive about is the colorful palette of this country. At this time of year there are many kinds of pink flowering trees. After a rain there is often a blanket of petals covering the ground under the trees and it is a very pretty sight. Rain is an everyday affair and we enjoy getting re-moisturized by it. It skitters, it pelts, it dances and it lashes. The houses in the towns are often painted a wide array of colors in the bright blue/green/red spectrum, and then sometimes in muted tans/pinks/brick reds and terra-cotta hues. It is strikingly lovely and cheerful, with the constant green undulating backdrop of fields, and always the big patches of dark-yellow gorse on the hills. The other thing we see is a huge amount of very large unfinished houses everywhere. These were being built on spec, and have been stopped by the poor economy. Eventually they will be finished as money allows, and perhaps divided into apartments or duplexes. People will always need places to live. But how will they heat these monsters? They don't have fireplaces or any solar features.
Next we had four days off, and Ken wanted to see the country where his great-grandparents came from in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. You have to put away your euros and get out your pounds here. There are very few hotels and B&Bs because it is not a tourist area, and the few that exist are very expensive. The violent struggles that have plagued this area are still very recent in people's minds. We were looking for family gravestones or a genealogy center but couldn't seem to find either, and didn't feel very comfortable in this area, so we continued onward to Donegal (back to the euro) and found a very friendly town there with lots of sights to see nearby.
In the Gleanncholmcille area northwest of Donegal, there are more than 60 "standing stones" and Dolmen tombs from 2400 BC and earlier. We enjoyed seeing them, and also the Celtic Village Museum nearby. Then we traveled on down to Sligo to see old friend and harmonica-playing genius Rick Epping, a southern Californian like Ken. We were lucky to hear him play a gig with his trio, The Unwanted; Cathy Jordan of the group Dervish is in the trio. They play songs and tunes from the Atlantic Fringe. As musicians, we treasure the chances to hear others play. When you are on a long tour, you hear a lot of yourselves, and we need the inspiration and input of others to keep a balance.
The next gig of ours was in Galway at the Crane Bar. It was the start of Bank Holiday weekend, alas, and there were many festivals going on in the area. So most of the local musicians were elsewhere, but we still had a nice listening audience and we enjoyed the visit to that town. We found a great Italian restaurant on the popular Quay street where we enjoyed our meal of the day. The next day we would have loved to go to the Cookoo Fleadh festival in nearby Kinvarra, or the Joe Heaney festival up the coast, but we really needed the day to cross back over to Wexford town for the last gig of the two weeks and have a bit of quiet downtime. So we drove slowly over the beautiful Sliabh Bloom mountains and spent a quiet evening in Carlow.
We have eaten Guinness stews, beautiful smoked salmon, very sharp cheddars, the ubiquitous brown soda bread, gorgeous new potatoes and young fresh salads all along the way. The Irish have a high standard when it comes to food.
The Arts Center in Wexlow is a vibrant, hopping place with all sorts of things going on. We did a kids show in the afternoon and a concert in the evening. The next day we crossed back on the mighty Irish Ferry Innismore, a nice four-hour journey across the Irish Sea.
Back in England, we had a few days to get ready for our month-long tour. Three totally acoustic concerts in village halls in West Sussex and Kent kicked it off. The Beechwood Village Hall in Cooksbridge near Lewes was brand new, and completely off the grid. There was a wind generator for electricity, a heat pump to heat the building and solar panels on the roof for the hot water. The building had a display panel to show the renewable energy it has so far generated — 9,767 kilowatts of energy and 4,199 kilograms of CO2 saved. The acoustics were excellent and we enjoyed playing for the diverse community in this beautiful "green" building.