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SOULSTICE
by Todd Denman & Aniar
Hear what critics and early
listeners are raving about.
"genius"
"utterly brilliant"
"sensitively and ingeniously reharmonized...trad
Irish...
with hauntingly affecting results"
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"Soulstice is an unlikely fusion of R&B,
gospel, and Irish music that sounds so natural and obvious it
makes you wonder where this music has been all this time. Denman
and Flynn have sensitively and ingeniously reharmonized a host
of trad Irish favorites, and with hauntingly affecting results.
I can't describe how strongly it feels like home to me. Even
if it doesn't affect you the same way, it's delightful and worthy
of your attention."
-KEYBOARD (March '04)
"What is without equal, is the utterly
brilliant juxtaposition of old and new in a way that is seamless
and bewitchingly natural. ...until you hear this band, you will
never know what the genius of a fortuitous alliance of talented
musicians can do."
–Eric Olson, Iris na bPiobairi
Aniar means from the west in Irish Gaelic and
has traditional emigration, death and renewal associations in
Ireland. Symbolizing the transforming power in Irish music as
it has historically emigrated westward, encountering new experiences
and new vitality, Aniar performs Irish music reborn in this
new context. Featuring performers out of Ireland and America
with Hammond B-3 keyboards by Eamonn Flynn from the Irish "The
Commitments" movie, acclaimed NEA recipient Todd Denman
on uilleann pipes, All-Ireland First Place Fiddler Tina Lech,
special guests Patrick Sky and Irish Gaelic singer and flute
player Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, and more.
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TODD DENMAN, uilleann pipes,
whistles
TINA LECH, fiddle
EAMONN FLYNN, organ, piano
FLYNN COHEN, guitar
and guests:
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, flute, vocals
Patrick Sky, bouzouki
Dan Robbins, bass
REVIEWS
"The Irish word 'aniar' translates as 'west,' which explains
the name of the new quartet assembled by veteran San Francisco uilleann
piper Todd Denman. Soulstice, by Todd Denman & Aniar, has
a rich and creative fusion sound. [Producer's Note: This is not 'fusion'
music, however. It is brilliantly played Irish traditional music with
outstanding keyboard accompaniment.] Centered around Denman's vibrant
piping and Tina Lech's nimble fiddle, this mostly instrumental disc
also introduces the Hammond B-3 organ to a role in traditional music
at the hands of Dublin native Eamonn Flynn, adding clever touches
of 1960s Motown soul sound. Guitar whiz Flynn Cohen rounds out the
group. The material is mostly pulsating, uptempo medleys of jigs and
reels, while the title track is a moody, improvisational slow air
with pipes and organ sharing resonant leads."
-Dirty Linen
"Eamonn's delightful energy, mercurial shifts of mood, and sensitivity
to his musical surroundings whisks this band into the 21st Century.
...It's just that he is so good about being his own R&B self that
he never seems out of place - even backing up jigs and reels... He's
a genius."
"There are plenty of other attempts to interpret 'traditional' music.
They are well-intentioned and well-executed but fail to touch in so
powerful a way as this offering does. It is one thing to paste contemporary
idioms upon a traditional tune, it is a far different thing to penetrate
the essence of and discover its natural path to the present."
"The other half of Aniar's foundation is the straight-ahead,
dead-on musicianship of Flynn Cohen's guitar
work. His driving rhythms and modal tuning project exactly the
needed co-conspiratorial [spirit] to Eamonn's more fluid, rhythmic
and harmonic landscape of passing tones and sweeping chord progressions."
"Todd, who has already released three CDs...
is well established as one of America's finest pipers. Todd's statement
is refreshingly lucid and makes it all seem so natural and right."
"Todd has performed with the best Irish musicians around, Tina
Lech is an All-Ireland Fiddler... These two are so charged with a natural
command of their craft that you can't imagine it being presented any
other way. Certainly not any better. Tina plays the fiddle with tremendous
charm and subtlety of expression. Her sinewy and sensual delivery of
the Lads of Laois (laid on top of Eamonn's urbane and down-and-dirty
organ riffs) holds back the tempo to allow the interplay of downbeat
and backbeat to achieve a most mystifying effect. She follows a poignant
and reflective March 6 with the Oak Tree -- one of the mightiest fiddle
tunes... Her phrasing is so playful and witty in that typically Irish
way, that you are swept away before you know it, and never want it to
end."
"What stands out in this recording is how well they blend together.
...They each approach their work with energy, conviction, humility
and above all, out of reverence for the total outcome. ...their true
message – traditional music is beautiful to the core and speaks
to us even today."
-Eric Olson, Iris na bPiobairi
TUNES:
1 Donnybrook Set
2 Lads of Laois Set
3 Bay of Biscay (Song)
4 March 6 (J. Devine)/The Oak Tree
5 Con Cassidy’s Set
6 Mál Bhán Ni Chuilleannáin (Song)
7 Elizabeth Kelly’s Set
8 A Donegal Reel/Rakish Paddy
9 Sail Round The Rocks Set
10 Bring Her To The Shelter/The Rising Head (T. Denman)
11 Soulstice Air (T. Denman)
12 Polkas & Reels
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