Preview
EILEEN IVERS AND IMMIGRANT SOUL
Saturday, January 22
Eric Harvie Theatre (Banff Centre)
Sometimes, music is about taking risks.
In the case of Irish-American fiddler Eileen Ivers, it means straying from the pure traditions of Irish music, while taking listeners on a bit of a globetrotting adventure with the addition of African and Caribbean rhythms to her aural Irish stew. Still, she admits it is a bit risky to meddle with the tradition.
"You know, there’s a certain small percentage of musical purists who want the music to remain in a time machine," she says.
The question remains, if you want the music to remain traditional, how far in time do you need to go back in order to identify the genre’s true roots?
"Do you take it back to the early 1900s, when Michael Coleman recorded with a piano player that stayed on the same chord for the whole tune?" she asks. "Or do you take it to the ’50s, when a ceilidh band and snare drums came into Irish music, or the ’60s, when there were harmonies that became part of it with the Chieftains? Where do you take it back to?"
The real test, according to Ivers, is whether the music is exciting and exposes the audience to something they wouldn’t normally hear at a traditional Irish music concert.
Ivers’s sense of exploration and risk-taking clearly runs in the family. After her parents determined there was nothing for them in Ireland, they immigrated to the United States.
"I just think it was the ultimate in bravery for my folks to come here without knowing anybody," she says. "They land in big New York City and try to make their way. My mom said she cried every night for the first year she was here, and sent every bit of money home to help raise the nine siblings under her."
Growing up in the cultural diversity of the Bronx exposed Ivers to a multitude of musical styles. At the same time, she excelled at the Irish fiddle as a child, winning nine all-Ireland fiddle championships. She went on to be featured in the mega-popular Riverdance and then formed Eileen Ivers and Immigrant Soul. This self-described "United Nations of Irish music" mixes African and Latin percussion and bass with Irish instrumentalists.
While there are some fiddlers who have attempted to push the music as far as they can, including Canadians Ashley MacIsaac and Natalie MacMaster (the latter actually released an album called No Boundaries in 1996), Ivers’s musical risk-taking has its limits.
"I never sit back and say, ‘That would be clever, let’s try that,’ or, ‘It would be a good marketing ploy to go with punk and alternative,’" she says. She has also avoided the merging of Celtic music with electronica, a trend that was particularly popular in the late 1990s.
"I’m just not a fan of electronica and I think there are some hybrids that are just not as thought out and cared for. An acoustic violin with things like that – it’s just not my thing. That’s where I think the litmus test comes in. Does this tune really work? Is it implementing the groove that’s with it? I think that’s open to question."
Sometimes, risks have to be careful and calculated. For Ivers, it’s all about letting the music happen, without leaving traditions behind. "I’m not forcing anything," she says. "That’s why it works so naturally." |
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