Kristen

Matt and Shannon Heaton joined by Kieran Jordan

Friday, July 11 at The White Crow Conservatory Of Music in Saginaw

Saturday, July 12 at The Saline Celtic Festival

 

I was first introduced to Matt and Shannon Heaton’s music back in March of 2007.  They were scheduled to play the Ten Pound Fiddle concert series in East Lansing, and the Fiddle did an excellent job of promoting the show, describing their music, and making me think I’d really enjoy it even though I wasn’t already familiar with the music or the musicians.  So, I attended this concert with the information provided by the Fiddle as my only insight into what I would hear.  Matt and Shannon were fantastic, and I became an immediate fan.  I enjoyed their music and their performance so much, in fact, that I traveled to see them play the Grand River Folk Arts Society concert series in the Grand Rapids suburbs (Wyoming, to be precise) the next evening.  It would be 16 months before I would see them perform live again, and the opportunity came with another weekend of back to back shows, this time at The White Crow Conservatory Of Music (in Saginaw) on Friday, 7/11 and the Saline Celtic Festival on Saturday, 7/12.

 

I began making plans to attend these shows as soon as I learned of them.  This was my first time attending a concert at The White Crow, and I was immediately taken with it as a music venue.  Formerly a church, it has great acoustics.  It also has a great sound system and a delightfully musical atmosphere in a beautiful space.  If any readers are in or near the Saginaw area or you find yourself passing through on a concert night, I highly recommend checking out a performance or two here.  In addition to the space being very conducive to live music, the folks who help with concert night duties are friendly and welcoming, adding to the enjoyment of the concert experience.

 

My parents were able to meet me for this concert, and I am so glad I was able to share this music I enjoy so much with them.  Matt and Shannon are based in the Boston area, and they play both traditional and original Irish tunes and songs, often creatively mixing the traditional with the original to create a sound and style that is uniquely theirs.  During live performances, Shannon plays Irish flute and whistles, Matt plays bouzouki and guitar, and both provide vocals and alternate between who sings lead and who sings harmony.  The result is a tremendously upbeat and fun concert experience, enhanced by their genuine rapport with one another on stage and their ease performing in front of and interacting with a crowd.  Even their slower tempo songs and their songs with less-than-uplifting lyrics somehow make you smile and/or want to move with the music.

 

Joining Matt and Shannon for this concert was Irish dancer Kieran Jordan, and she brought the entire concert to a higher level with her incredible rhythm, sense of and connection to the music, and choreography.  Performing sean-nós Irish dancing (which I learned means the feet are kept near to the floor and near to one another throughout) and step dancing with some modern dance elements mixed in, she added a strong percussive beat to the music. She also added a striking and expressive visual interpretation of the music to the concert experience.  The three of them performed seamlessly together, and I marveled at how well they could communicate with one another on stage without using words.  That connection added to the quality of the performance.

 

The crowd was on the small side, but those in attendance seemed to really get into the whole show and enjoy it.  I think many were regular attendees of White Crow concerts, and others had heard or seen the show mentioned and come because of their interest in Irish music and dance.  When Shannon asked the crowd if there were any traditional Irish music players in the audience, a few folks spoke up.  When Kieran asked if there were any dancers in the crowd, the 91-year-old woman sitting behind me with members of her family identified herself and even said she still dances occasionally.  That just made my night.  If I live to see age 91, that’s what I want to be when I get there – sharp of mind and personality and still enjoying the things I love most. 

 

The most unique member of the audience, though, had to be Rico, the large black and white cat who makes The White Crow his home.  My parents and I met him soon after our arrival, and by the time the concert began, I assumed he had gone into hiding away from all the people and the sound.  I should have known a cat that makes his home in a music venue would be totally comfortable out in the house during a show.  When Shannon was introducing a song midway through the first set, Rico suddenly emerged and began walking up the center aisle toward the stage, taking both her attention and ours.  Shortly after the intermission, during which time he gave the items left on the stage in the absence of people a thorough sniffing inspection, he found a little toy ball of his under one side of the low stage and began batting it around and playing with it in front of that side of the stage, again taking the attention of both the musicians and audience members who could see him.  Toward the end of the evening, he even joined the musicians on the stage almost eerily on cue shortly after one of them wondered aloud where he was.  Every concert seems to have something that makes it memorable in addition to the music, and clearly, this concert was no exception. 

 

Make no mistake, however, the music was most definitely the highlight of the evening!  I loved all of the songs and tunes performed, but highlights for me included Sailing For Botany Bay (a song done as a sing-along), a pair of jigs that included Sailing Down Fulton Street, the reels Thady Casey’s & The Reel Of Rio, and the songs The Blackbird and Giant Of The Road.  All but the first appear on Matt and Shannon’s 2006 CD Blue Skies Above, which I’ve been listening to regularly since picking it up at that first concert 16 months ago, and it was great fun to hear what have become such familiar songs and tunes performed live, especially with the added element of Kieran’s dancing.  Shannon is an amazing flute and whistle player, with some of the fastest and most precise fingers I’ve ever seen, not to mention a warm voice that will draw you in with its sincerity, and Matt creates tremendous rhythm and mood with his wonderful instrumentation that accompanies Shannon brilliantly.  I could have easily listened to and watched this trio long after the evening ended, and I was already looking forward to the next day’s performances as soon as this night was done.

 

The Saline Celtic Festival the next day was a completely different experience from the concert at The White Crow.  It was my first time attending this festival, and I was swept up into the festival atmosphere immediately upon arrival in the early afternoon.  In addition to two tents of live music performances throughout the day, there were children’s activities, live history (re)enactments, various demonstrations, pipe and drum band concerts and competitions, a dance tent with dancing workshops and demonstrations, and many different merchandise vendors.   Matt, Shannon, and Kieran were scheduled to perform in the smaller of the two tents just under an hour after I arrived, so I headed there first, found a seat, and was able to enjoy several songs performed by Traveler’s Dream (from Indiana) before The Heaton Trio began.

 

The performance area was under cover, but it was still outdoors, and there were a couple of issues to be dealt with because of this.  A heavy downpour of rain had fallen earlier that morning, so an extra speaker near the edge of the tent was covered in plastic for protection, and the plastic was blowing in the wind and creating white noise.  Also, the stage wasn’t a completely flat surface all the way across because the grass beneath it was uneven, so it took an effort to get Kieran’s dancing board set up properly.  These things didn’t dampen the trio’s performance, though, and it was just as dynamic and enjoyable as it had been the night before.  A few of the songs and tunes performed were the same, but many were different, and the atmosphere was very different, so it didn’t feel at all like a repeat of the previous night to me.  This performance drew a good crowd, too, and it seemed like more and more people came into the tent to listen as they heard the music from outside throughout their set, which I loved to see.  All three perform with such energy and enthusiasm.  It makes you forget about everything else and just focus on the music.

 

Later in the afternoon, Kieran conducted an Irish dancing workshop in the dance tent, with Matt and Shannon (joined by locally-based fiddler Marty Somberg) providing the music for the dancers.  Lots of folks of varying ages and dancing abilities participated, and I really enjoyed watching folks express the music through their dancing and trying my hand at my own form of learning and expression.  Kieran was a terrific teacher, and the participants responded well and seemed to have a great time.

 

The trio’s final performance of the festival was in the larger of the two music tents about the time the sun was setting.  I ran into someone I knew there, and in joining him, wound up sitting front and center for it.  There were a few sound problems here, but everyone worked through them, and the stage itself was higher and larger than the one in the smaller tent and had an excellent dancing board for Kieran with no effort needed to make it flat.  There was also room for a much larger crowd, and it was an absolutely fantastic one!  They sang along on Sailing For Botany Bay and cheered and clapped loudly for each song or set of tunes.  If it was possible to raise the energy level even higher for this set than it had been the previous night or earlier in the day, it happened.  And again, a couple of songs and tunes were the same, but there were differences, too, and this performance didn’t feel at all like the others I’d seen throughout the weekend.  I enjoyed every minute of them all.

 

The festival left two lasting impressions on me in addition to the fabulous music and being grateful the rain held off for the rest of the day after an early morning storm.  One is the uniqueness of a festival crowd, with so many players, singers, dancers, etc. in the audience watching performances unfold along with the fans.  I just loved being a part of that.  The other, and perhaps deeper of the two, is how we all express music in different ways, not just through playing an instrument or singing.  It hit me as I was watching Kieran during the trio’s last set of the festival that her dancing expressed the way listening to Matt and Shannon’s music makes me feel. It was more than just dancing TO the music; it was dancing WITH the music and being as one with it.  There was something truly special in that, and it made me think about the ways I express the music I love so much.  Lately, the biggest way has been the writing of these blogs, and I hope others are enjoying reading as much as I’m enjoying writing.  I also hope I’ve inspired some of you to check out the music of Matt & Shannon Heaton and the Irish dancing of Kieran Jordan.  All three are among the very best at what they do, and I feel very fortunate to have had my life enriched by the work and kindness of these amazing performers!

 

http://www.mattandshannonheaton.com

http://www.kieranjordan.com

 

Thanks, all!  Hope everyone is enjoying the summer…