What kind of music does a math geek listen to?
- Capercaille: Who will raise their voice?. Traditional celtic folk music. Very beautiful song.
- Seamus Egan: Weep Not for the Memories. Mostly traditional Irish music, by a bizzarely talented multi-instrumentalist. Seamus Egan is one of the best Irish flutists in the world; but he also manages to play great tenor banjo, tenor guitar, six-string guitar, electric guitar, bohran, and keyboards.
- Gentle Giant: Experience. Gentle Giant is 70s progressive stuff, with heavy influence from early madrigal singing. Wierd, but incredibly cool.
- Tony Trischka Band: Steam/Foam of the Ancient Lake. Tony is my former banjo teacher. He’s also the guy who taught Bela Fleck to play Jazz. I have a very hard time deciding who I like better: Tony or Bela. They both do things with the banjo that knock my socks off. I think Bela gets a bit too much credit: not that he’s not spectacularly talented and creating; but he often gets credit for single-handedly redefining the banjo as an instrument, when Tony deserves a big share of the credit. This is a track off of the first album by Tony’s latest band. It’s great – I highly recommend the TTB to anyone.
- Trouth Fishing in America: Lullaby. TFiA is an incredibly great two-man folk band. They do both adult music, and music oriented towards children. Both are brilliant. Lullaby is, quite simple, one of the most beautifully perfect lullabies that I’ve ever heard. One of the two guys in TFiA, Ezra Idlet, is also somewhat famous for building a treehouse – not a kids treehouse, literally a treehouse: running water, electricity, central heating, etc. His house is a treehouse.
- Kind Crimson: B’Boom. A Bruford track off of one of Crimson’s recent albums. What more needs to be said?
- Dirty Three: Amy. The Dirty Three are something that they call a “post-rock ensemble”. All I can say is, it’s brilliant, amazing, fantastic music that I don’t know how to describe.
- Broadside Electric: Pastures of Plenty. Broadside is a Philadelpha based band that plays electrified folk. This is their take on an old folk track.
- Marillion: Ocean Cloud. Marillion is one of my favorite bands. They’re a neo-progressive group that started out as a Genesis cover band. Ocean Cloud is a long track off of their most recent album. It’s an amazing piece of work.
- Martin Hayes: Lucy Farr’s. Martin is a very traditional Irish fiddler. One of the really great things about him is that he’s really traditional. He doesn’t push the music to be ultrafast or showy; he takes it at speed that it was traditionally played, that you could dance to. It’s wonderful to hear the traditional tunes played right, without being over-adorned, over-accellerated, or otherwise mangled in the name of commericalism and ego.
Interesting mix today, all great stuff.
You play banjo as well? What style(s)? I’ve never been able to get finger-picking down, but I’m passable at clawhammer and do pretty well with the Irish-style on tenor banjo.
Artk:
I used to play bluegrass banjo. Unfortunately, I developed ulnar RSI, and it got to the point where I really can’t feel the strings under the ring finger and pinky on my left hand. It’s pretty much impossible to play banjo if you can’t feel the strings, so I had to give it up.
Since then, I got back to woodwinds; I’ve played clarinet since elementary school. Lately, I’ve added a few things for playing Irish music; in particular, I’ve been playing a lot of Irish tinwhistle and wooden flute.
I used to catch Tony T.’s band out in Jackson, WY and Telluride/Rico CO when he would make the ski town tours.
Good stuff.
Congrats on the new Diggs
Mark… Sorry ’bout the RSI, that sucks. I have to switch my mouse from right-hand to left-hand to keep the stress down.
If you find yourself in SoCal, send me a note. There are a couple of seisun in the area on a regular basis.
You took lessons from Tony Trischka? I am impressed!
wheatdogg:
Don’t be impressed 🙂
Tony’s an amazing guy, but you don’t need to be amazing to take lessons from him. He’s a great teacher, and he obviously really enjoys teaching; he’ll take on just about anyone as a student.
When I was playing banjo, I just happened to be living about 15 minutes away from Tony. When I went looking for a teacher, someone sent me Tony’s number. And that was that.
Cool. I love it when I find someone else who likes Bela Fleck, and I’m going to have to check out Tony T. now. (The last time I ran into someone enthusiastic about Bela Fleck was 2 weeks ago today, so it’s been a nice run lately.)