Was out to see Lúnasa last week at a packed Sony Hall in Times Square and it was a tremendous evening. One of the greatest traditional groups of all time put on a fabulous show, enhanced by the presence of singer Daoirí Farrell and the legendary banjo and fiddle player Cathal Hayden, both of whom complement the group wonderfully. (Farrell’s performance of “The Foggy Dew” really stirred the crowd and was particularly memorable.) If they ever out in your neck of the woods, make an effort to see them.
As I’ve written recently, Sony Hall is really killing it this season in terms of who they’re booking. This coming week they’ve got Solas (featuring Seamus Egan, Winifred Horan, John Williams, Moira Smiley, and Alan Murray; https://solastheband.com) on Saturday, March 7 and Dervish on Wednesday, March 11 (https://www.dervish.ie). Both shows promise to be grand affairs. By the way, Dervish’s PBS special “The Great Irish Song Book,” which features guests David Gray, Imelda May, Moya Brennan, the Indigo Girls, Kate Rusby, Brian Kennedy, Kevin Burke, and Cara Dillon, has finally released!! Check your local listings for dates and times – definitely something to watch!
In the media yoke this week is “Banjovial,” the recent release from banjoists Damien O’Kane and Ron Block. Blending traditional Irish music with bluegrass through inventive new compositions, it’s a banjo album with a distinctly individual vibe. This, their third collaboration, following “Banjophonics” (2022) and “Banjophony” (2018), finds the duo refining a sound they’ve developed over the years. The result is music that feels both familiar and fresh, sure to delight listeners who revel in transatlantic fusion.
O’Kane (https://damienokane.co.uk/), a superb tenor banjo, and Block (https://ronblock.com/), a master of the five string banjo, are the stars of the show here. O’Kane comes from Coleraine, Co. Derry and grew up in a musical family. (The “O’Kane Family Band” was known around as “the Von Trapps of Coleraine.”) A graduate of the Traditional Music Degree course in Newcastle, where he honed his understanding of Irish music, he’s worked over the years with some amazing artists, including all-Ireland accordion champion Shona Kipling, the bands Cross Current and Flook, and Kate Rusby, to whom he’s been married since 2010.
A renowned multi-instrumentalist, Block is one of the big names in the bluegrass-country world. A solo artist in his own right, he’s been a member of the band Alison Krauss and Union Station since 1991 was a featured musician on the “O Brother, Where Art Thou” soundtrack, and has performed on the Letterman, Leno and O’Brien shows, in addition to many, many other things. He’s won numerous awards for these efforts, including 14 Grammys and six International Bluegrass Awards.
Joining them throughout the album are Duncan Lyall (keyboards and bass; https://www.duncanlyall.com/) and Steven Byrnes (guitar), both of whom play in the Kate Rusby band. They add exceptional depth to the banjo-focused creativity happening here.
Lots to write about here. “Anton’s Slide / I Asked for a Hamster” is a cool, breezy opening track that sets the tone for what’s to come. The banjo playing here is excellent and very musical, echoing the traditions that O’Kane and Block represent in an effort that is ultimately very fresh sounding. This is what I like about tracks like “The Battle of Beruna” and “The Utter East / Onion Redemption” as well. Although I hear Irish and bluegrass stylistic influence in both, the trad elements in the former unfold as if they’re part of a story’s telling. This notion stands to some reason, as the title suggests the music here is an imagining of a battle from “Chronicles of Narnia” lore. In the former, there’s a clear distinction between the two halves of the track, the first favoring the tenor banjo’s vibe, the second the five strings. The bluegrass flavor is particularly strong, but again, it seems to be part of the storytelling at play.
Other tracks expand the album’s progressive vision, and there’s one that moves in a different direction. “Shabby and Cookie / St. Patrick’s Day” features Sharon Shannon. Her box playing adding a very lovely wrinkle to the banjo-centered sound and brings it a much more conspicuously “traditonal Irish” element, albeit one that is very much in line with O’Kane and Block’s musical vision. The pendulum swings in the opposite direction with “Mario Kart Rides Again,” which includes the contributions of bluegrass musicians Aubrey Haynie (fiddle) and Tim Crouch (mandolin). The arrangement here is brilliant and communicates a sense of unfolding action that definitely brings to mind the experience of playing the Mario Kart video game. Then, there’s “Pepe and Speedy.” One of the album’s coolest tracks, it’s in the style of hot club jazz and feels like something else entirely when compared to the rest of the album.
O’Kane and Block each contribute a vocal track as well, with the former singing “The Loudest Word” and the latter “Love is Like That.” Both tracks take a much more conventional, mainstream approach and both singers in fine voice.
“Banjovial” is a delightful album. O’Kane and Block are both tremendous musicians, each with a powerful vision for the possibilities of their respective traditions. The music here works because they’ve found the right common ground. This one will have great appeal for fans of crossover groups like We Banjo Three and albums like The Brock McGuire Band’s “Green Grass Blue Grass.” But there’s something about it that sets it apart from these comparisons as it also probably aligns with the sort of progressive approach you hear with bands like olllam, Notify, and NxNW, in that the tools of tradition are being used in the search of a new sound. It’s exciting stuff to hear! To learn more and purchase, visit https://damienokane.bandcamp.com.
