​Like many musicians with regular day jobs, I’m forced to limit my number of performances during my busy times at work. I’ve been in the teaching profession for over a decade now, so summer is my off-season for work, but my peak season for performing. Not only can I manage more gigs in the summer months, but the types of venue also increase, allowing for some of my favourite gigs: festivals, fairs and outdoor music series.
            I really love when music and art can happen in the common places of a city. As a culture we tend to think of live music as belonging to certain places or times only, but I love to see music brought out from the dark corners of the pub and showcased on the street or in the public park. Some highlights for me have been the highland games that I’ve played in Maxville, Ontario, and in New Brunswick. I’ve also enjoyed playing in the live music series at Lamoureux Park in Cornwall, ON.
            So far this summer I’ll be playing at the Williamstown Fair on August 5, and at the Cornwall Music Fest on August 20. These types of outdoor events are the highlight of my music year, offering a chance for the whole community to come out for good food, drink and tunes. If you’re in the Cornwall area, I hope to see you at one of these events!

Most contemporary music doesn’t deal with death. Except for the occasional country song lamenting a dead parent and some violent rap songs, most music on the radio today sticks to romantic love exclusively. Love songs are great, but there certainly are other aspects to life that are as universal, if not more so. Not everyone will experience romantic love, but everyone experiences death.
            The common defense of this exclusion of death from pop music is that it’s depressing. Maybe so. But, there’s an alternate perspective that stresses that art should help us learn about and explore our emotions, not only our positive ones. Maybe songs about death can take some of the shock out of it. They may also help us in the grieving process. It’s obvious that such songs can have different meaning for different people, and for the same individual in different moods.
            A subset of folk music about death is the murder ballad. Some sources identify this as a particular subgenre that came to prominence in the 19th century broadsheet tradition. That’s one way to look at it, but there certainly were earlier murder ballads. Common features are a description of the killer and victim, who were often lovers, followed by a description of the murder (often gruesomely specific), followed by repentance of the killer and/or a visit from the victim’s ghost.
            As a folk singer, I find these songs interesting, though I haven’t gone out of my way to learn them any more than other folk songs. I suspect the fact that they are so different from contemporary music draws me to them. So far I have posted two to my YouTube channel: “The River Saile” and “Tom Dooley,” and am in the process of learning “Banks of the Ohio.” It’s been interesting to see the comments of my viewers on these videos, as many seem to object to the murderous content.
            Some listeners assume that to sing a song means the singer endorses the actions or sentiments expressed in it, which for me isn’t the case. I often sing songs that have very little to do with the circumstances of my life, and sometimes from the perspective of women or from the perspective of villains. Many of the songs I sing are also very conservative in morality/perspective, since they are so old. They sometimes contain sexist and/or racist notions, but that doesn’t mean that I endorse those views.
Instead, I think of these songs as a living record of European culture, including the good, the bad and the ugly. Murder and violence have always been part of human culture, and likely always will be. I think to ignore the folk songs that cover those subjects is unwise. I can see how some people would disagree, but the folk tradition is vast enough for different perspectives. As for myself, I will continue to sing the songs that appeal to me as pieces of art and history, without artificially selecting them for their correspondence to my own moral views. 

May 8, 2015

 Found-Object Drum Set

            I’ve always been a fan of anything that gets art into more places, especially places that we don’t often think of that way. That’s why I’m such a fan of buskering (playing music for tips in public). I also am a fan of anything that “unlocks” the music within people or objects. Finally, I’m a fan of recycling and reusing, especially when it’s easy to do.

            As it happens, my latest musical experiment incorporates all of these elements: I’m working on a junk drum set. I considered the elements in a traditional drum set (snare, bass drum, toms and cymbals), and I asked myself whether I could replicate them with objects I found either at home, or in my neighbours’ recycling bins.  Originally, I toyed with making a DIY bass pedal for a larger bass drum, but ultimately, I wanted a junk drum set that was smaller and more portable, without need for a stand to hold the various elements off the ground.

            I also watched several YouTube videos on found percussion and improvised drums. I found some great ones, like the ones of the Italian drummer Dario Rossi (click here to see his). Some of the drummers quite naturally arranged the found objects on the floor in a semi-circle around themselves, usually sitting cross-legged on the floor. The arrangement looks like the top tier of a typical drum set.

            My objects are currently as follows:
Sticks: two sticks cut from a tree in the woods. I left the bark on the handle portion for a rustic look.
Bass drum: medium-sized cardboard box, from a laptop.
Snare drums: metal toolbox and a frying pan with a metal jar lid and bottle caps inside.
Cymbals: metal lamp, camp cooking pot and drinking cup.
Miscellaneous: tambourine and wooden frog (these two are cheating, technically, as they’re purpose-made instruments).

            I’m neither a trained stick drummer, nor even an experienced one. I’ve only used hand drums (djembe, bongos, bodhran, etc.) so far, and rather simply at that. I have rhythm, but haven’t pursued technical drumming, or drumming with sticks in particular. I’ve always been interested to learn but didn’t pursue it because drum kits are so loud, large and expensive. Also, as a vocalist, drumming wouldn’t be something I could likely do on stage. So, my junk set seems like a good way to work toward better percussion skills in a cheap and easy setup.

            Here are some pros and cons of this type of improvised set:

Pros:
1. Free
2. Reuse and recycle old junk
3. Easy to transport (the whole set fits in a large suitcase)
4. Visually interesting, compared to the same old drum set everyone has seen
5. Not as loud: better for apartments and live acoustic jams
6. Easy to experiment/adapt. New pieces are all around and free

Cons:
1. Not loud enough for live shows (though would be with microphones)
2. Some might laugh at its unconventional look
3. The items move on the floor, so precision takes adaptive playing
4. Would be hard to see in a concert setting (on the floor)
5. Durability for some items is an issue (e.g. the cardboard box), but replacements are free
6. Doesn’t have that ‘rock star’ look

            In the end, I don’t plan to become a professional junk drummer (and, yes, such a thing does exist, as in the group STOMP), but I do plan to improve my percussion skills in general, which I believe has already happened in the few weeks of practice. In particular, my left (non-dominant) hand is coming into its own. This kind of experimental drumming is addictive—grab two pencils or a set of chopsticks, start banging on the desk and you’ll see what I mean!