Guitarist and singer Stash Wyslouch is this week's featured guest. He talks with Neil about his eclectic musical journey, from the Colombian music his mother played for him growing up, to his love of heavy metal, to diving deep into old-school bluegrass and old-time recordings and finally ending up with an amalgamation of all of it in his own band. Along the way, Stash and Neil find common ground in their drive to create music that comes from their various disparate influences and Stash explains how he could only make the music he wanted to after he learned not to care so much.
One of New England's finest guitarists, Owen Marshall joins Neil to talk about teaching himself Irish guitar while being homeschooled in Vermont, and all the places music has taken him, from local community contradances to jamming with Tuvan throat singers at a festival in Belgium.
Greg Boardman is the founder of Maine Fiddle Camp and a captivating performer and teacher whose influence on traditional music in Maine cannot be overstated. For the twentieth episode of TradCafe, Neil and Greg met in the Trinity Church of Lewiston, Maine to talk about the search for personal identity through music, how musicians are uniquely suited to build community and Greg's cross-cultural explorations with the Somali immigrant community in town.
Quebecois guitarist and singer Yann Falquet (of the band Genticorum) joins Neil for this week's episode. In this wide ranging conversation they talk about Yann's discovery of the guitar through Rush, the similarities between Irish and Quebecois traditions, the best dumpling houses in Montreal and more!
[Note: We apologize for background noise, technical difficulties from a still young podcast!]
A major force in the New England music scene, Jeremiah McLane has had a significant influence on sound of contemporary folk music in the Northeast, from contradance bands to performing artists. In this episode, Neil and Jeremiah find a lot of common ground in their experiences as pianists who come to folk music with a Jazz informed perspective. Jeremiah reflects what drew him to focus on the accordion and how his creative goals have continued to shift with each new project.
(Music credits: Sound of Sleat [Scottish pipe tune, played before conversation] and La Violette de Méne [Breton dance tune, played after conversation])
In this episode Neil is meets up with harp visionary Maeve Gilchrist to look back at what has already been an incredibly varied musical career. Maeve takes us behind the scenes in her artistic development as she moved from Scotland to the United States and continues to explore new territory for an instrument that should not be underestimated: the Celtic harp, or Clàrsach.
Pete Rushefsky is a leading revivalist of the tsimbl--a Yiddish instrument in the same family as the hammered dulcimer. Neil visited Pete at his apartment in Brooklyn to learn about a part of the Klezmer music tradition that was nearly lost to the world. Pete shares the his approach to European Klezmer traditions--simultaneously historic/academic and freshly creative--and reflects on a musical journey that began with a blues band at a Bar Mitzvah in Rochester, NY and has led most recently to performances with Itzhak Perlman and the most iconic musicians of the Klezmer revival.
Neil and Lissa sit down in Brattleboro, VT for a conversation about Lissa's upbringing in the rich tapestry of New England fiddle music in Maine. Along the way they talk about her evolution from a student of any fiddle music she could find to an established tradition bearer with her own recognizable sound and Lissa discusses the challenges of balancing music business with creativity and family life.
In this episode Neil chats with Boston based Uilleann piper Joey Abarta about his musical journey from California to Boston, going back to the old sources in order to find his own sound and organizing meetings of bagpipers in Tokyo Karaoke clubs.
Moira Smiley is the lead singer of Solas, mastermind behind VOCO and a member of many other stand out groups including The Lomax Project and tUnE-yArDs. In this, the first episode of Season 2, Neil and Moira chat about her varied musical experiences and background from growing up on a farm in Vermont to studying piano in Indiana to living in California singing everything from traditional Balkan music to Irish songs to her own fiercely original material.
Banjo wizard and inventor of the 4-finger style Greg Liszt joins Neil this week to talk about his work with iconic bands Crooked Still and the Deadly Gentlemen, his experiences starting a music career while in grad school for biology and how he brings a scientist's outlook to creativity and the banjo.
Master Nova Scotia fiddler and pianist Troy MacGillivray tells Neil about breaking the keyboard during is first gig when he was less than 10 years old, the similarities between Cape Breton Island and the island of Fanø in Denmark, and how he finds his own personal expression in the old traditional tunes.
Keith Murphy shares with Neil how he came from Newfoundland to Vermont while crafting a unique sound that has been a huge influence on New England traditional music. They chat about Keith's work with the iconic band Nightingale, his latest work as a solo artist and how he first got involved in a larger traditional music community while studying in Toronto.
Genre-defying fiddle legend Darol Anger opens up about his experiences creating a new genre of music in David Grisman's quintet and how that has affected his creative output since. He and Neil also get the musical conversation going with some duo improvisations around modern Bluegrass and Irish tunes.
Shannon Heaton, one of Boston's top Irish flute players and singers, chats with Neil about first learning Irish music from a Belgian in Nigeria, crafting a solo show and exploring new ways to present traditional music through mediums like classical composition and podcasting.
One of the top Klezmer clarinetists in the world, Christian Dawid talks with Neil about discovering Yiddish music in postwar Germany, the vibrant Jewish music scene in Berlin and his experiences as a non-Jewish German in the Klezmer world.
Jens Linell, percussionist with Swedish/Norwegian band Sver, sat down with Neil at the Sierra Fiddle Camp this summer. Starting with his discovery of the complexities of Swedish traditional music as a music student, Jens talks about developing his unique style of tambourine playing, performing solo concerts and how differently his creativity works depending on what instrument he's playing.
Trailblazing cellist Natalie Haas talks about her creative process with fiddler Alasdair Fraser, how she finds musical inspiration in collaboration across the globe, and how her sister's classical violin teacher mistakenly thought that sending the girls to Valley of the Moon Fiddle Camp would keep them on the straight and narrow! All this, plus tunes from Scotland and Galicia on this week's episode of TradCafe.
Neil sits down with legendary Cape Breton fiddler Wendy MacIsaac to play a few tunes and chat about growing up on Cape Breton, working with Mary Jane Lamond and Cape Breton supergroup Beolach, and passing the traditions on to the next generation.
Singer, fiddler, guitarist and songwriter Isa Burke talks with Neil about her trio Lula Wiles, growing up in a musical family in Maine and finding inspiration for each new song in the most unexpected places. This episode also features a song of Isa's off the new Lula Wiles album and an exclusive look behind the scenes at the writing, re-writing and recording process of that track.
The second episode of TradCafe features visionary percussive dancer Nic Gareiss. Nic talks with Neil about finding new ways to express himself in the ways different cultures approach dance and shares the unlikely origin story of his experimental trad band This is How We Fly.
Cellist Mike Block joins Neil for the first episode of Trad Cafe. Known for his pioneering String Camp in Vero Beach, FL and his work with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble, Mike talks about how taking on new and diverse challenges—like answering Craigslist ads for rock bands in NYC and performing with Mark O'Connor—has transformed him into the multifaceted musician he is today.