CEILIZEMER
Shalom Ireland
Self-released (2003)
www.freilachmakers.com
www.drivingwithfergus.com

Wow! You don't find many Irish-Klezmer fusion albums these days! Actually, Shalom Ireland is acoustic "traditional" soundtrack music from a documentary about the Jewish Community in Ireland. Musically, it's more of a side-by-side than a fusion, with either Klezmer or Irish music featured on various tracks and maybe a little tinkering, especially on the klez tracks. The four-member-with-guests band is, in its other life, chunks of two Northern California bands, The Freilachmakers String Band and Driving With Fergus.

What do Irish and Klezmer have in common? Quite a bit, though the Celts obviously don't have the Eastern European twang. Not surprisingly, like most European music, each style includes both songs and metered dance tunes. But more importantly, in both genres, there is often a poignant sadness beneath the fun. The styles seem to blend easily on this CD, and the CeiliZemer band is surprisingly good.

The track I picked first for radio was "Dem Trisker Rebns Khosid." It's slowish and led by uillean pipes played by Vince Wolfe! You could mistake the uillean pipes for an eastern gajde, but Wolfe's mournful playing sounds really Irish. Even trickier, the tune begins with banjo, but surprise! come to find out that Andy Rubin plays clawhammer all the time in Klezmer tunes. You can also hear the banjo on the exotic "Khosn Kale Mazltov." Aside from the obvious switcharoos, however, I get confused! Irish Fergusite Lewis Santer plays mandolin family frets on the terkish,"Naftule Shpilt far dem Rebn"...but doesn't the mando sound like a balalaika? Is that truly bodhran (and banjo!) in the Ukrainian "Sadegurer Khosid" or is it a frame drum? ;-)

The Irish tunes sound solidly and sweetly Irish, but that singing gaelic fiddle (accompanying droning pipes) that you hear on "Poirt na bPucai" is from the hands of Freilach's David Kedron...and Andy is back with his banjo for "Crooked Road To Dublin." As I listened to these tunes, I wondered whether the Jewish people in Ireland historically listened to the same music as Jews in North America and Eastern Europe. Have they been there for centuries, or did they migrate recently from Eastern Europe? I'll have to look that up, but I wish that the small liner notes had commented on the history! In any event, the only really fused tune is an original waltz from Lewis called "Planxty Ginsberg."

Perhaps the greatest union on Shalom Ireland is placing these two sets of genres on the same album, played by the same people, and using the same internal band signature. And even though CeiliZemer is made up of semi-professional players, they're still expert musicians; they do play well, individually and together.

gennett at gorge dot net

The Columbia Gypsy