J. P. Cormier and Darren McMullen at the Regent Theatre in Arlington

[Victor Maurice Faubert]

[A typographically richer and therefore more readable version of this
posting is available at
      <http://homepage.mac.com/vicmf/ne/2008/4_dec/4_dec.html>
along with photos taken at the concert.]



Last Thursday, Hanneke Cassell, Kimberley Fraser, and Doug Lamey opened 
the third Pan-Celtic Winter Sojourn concert at the Regent Theatre in 
Arlington (Massachusetts) playing "Deck the Halls" on unaccompanied 
triple fiddles, the only piece of Christmas music heard all night long, 
even though the concert was in support of J. P. Cormier's new CD "Noël"; 
they continued the first set by switching into two Cape Breton tunes. 
Then, with Hanneke on keyboards, Kimberley next gave us another fine 
blast of tunes, including Liz Carroll's "Wissahickon Drive" [1] and 
ending with "The Mason's Apron". Then Doug, with Hanneke still on 
keyboards, gave us a third group of tunes, starting with the clog "The 
Fairy Bridge" and including the jigs "Road to Skye" and "Walking the 
Floor" and a reel which J. P. had written, most of which Doug said he 
had learned from J. P.'s playing. Both Kimberley and Doug were 
favourites of this audience (and mine) and justifiably so. However, this 
was the first time I had heard Hanneke as a keyboard accompanist and I 
was quite taken with her fine distinctive playing.

After this fine opening, J. P. and Darren McMullen took over the stage. 
This was also the first time I had heard Darren, like J. P. a 
multi-instrumentalist extraördinaire, whose right arm was encased in a 
cast, although he played throughout the night with verve and fire, 
seemingly oblivious to any pain (I heard him say after the show that his 
arm hurt). Their initial number was J. P.'s song "The Messenger", with 
Darren accompanying J. P. 's guitar on electric bass. Their second was a 
"pickin' session", showing off J. P.'s incredible speed and accuracy 
with fine accompaniment from Darren on bass and banjo. Two more songs 
followed, "Light the Fire Again", which I had not heard before, and 
Gordon Lightfoot's "That's What You Get for Loving Me". Another pickfest 
followed with J. P. on guitar and Darren on bouzouki. The first half 
concluded with J. P.'s song "Another Morning".

The second half opened with J. P. on solo guitar; during this virtuoso 
performance, Darren returned to stage and began playing along with J. P. 
on his guitar, i.e., four hands on one guitar; this incredible 
performance was, of course, at top speed. I have seen Kimberley and 
Brenda Stubbert playing each other's fiddle, which is a pretty amazing 
feat, but never before a guitar four-hands! Three more of J. P.'s songs 
followed, "Leaving Charlottetown", "Great Harbour Deep" (with Darren 
starting with a superb introduction on whistles), and "Progress Avenue". 
Then came a fine set of fiddle tunes with J. P. on fiddle and Darren on 
bouzouki; I really enjoy J. P.'s fiddle playing and regret that his 
shows usually contain no more than one fiddle number--for some 
inexplicable reason, he chooses to downplay his talents on that 
instrument, as he did again this evening. This was followed by J. P.'s 
heartfelt new song, "Afghanistan" (if you haven't heard it yet, the 
video is here [2]), written after his trip to entertain the NATO troops 
in Afghanistan this past spring, which obviously impacted him deeply. 
This was followed by a guitar tune in honour of the late Jerry Reed 
(Hubbard). Then came a burst of tunes on solo guitar. The show closed 
with another song I had not heard before and whose title I did not get. 
After prolonged applause, J. P. on guitar and Darren on bouzouki 
returned to the stage with Kimberley and Doug on dual fiddles to give us 
one final great blast of Cape Breton tunes.

It was a great show, with an excellent helping of Cape Breton fiddle 
music, thanks mostly to Kimberley and Doug. The instrumental numbers 
that J. P. and Darren gave us were superb and I enjoyed them thoroughly. 
I am usually not much interested in sung music, but J. P.'s songs are 
always worth hearing and Darren's accompaniments made it seem like I was 
hearing the songs for the first time; there were some new songs I had 
not heard before: "Afghanistan" is an especially fine one and I will 
enjoy hearing it again. Unfortunately, the audience for this great music 
was small, but enthusiastic and really into the music; the performers 
did not skimp either, especially considering the state of Darren's 
arm--the show ran for more than two and a half hours.

I was so impressed with Darren's musicianship, even with a broken arm, 
that I picked up his newly released CD, entitled "Decade", on which he 
plays all of the instruments on all but five tracks, where he is joined 
by J. P. on three and Zach Smith, a percussionist, on three (one track 
has them both). Darren plays a lot of instruments on this CD: tenor 
banjo, guitar, bouzouki, low whistle, mandolin, and fretless bass (and 
that's all on the first track!), cello, whistles, upright bass, and 
5-string bass. Multi-instrumentalist indeed! The music ranges widely 
from Celtic to bluegrass to classical: two of the tracks are "Prelude 
from Bach's Cello Suite #1" and Mozart's "Sonata #1 in C"! He also 
composed five of the tunes that appear in the instrumental sets. Other 
than that he is married to a lady from Ontario, has been playing for ten 
years, and started as a youngster on the piano, there is little 
biographical information in the CD liner notes. Moreover, except that he 
is 32; issued a CD, "Fingerboard Grooves", with Martin St. Maurice in 
2001; taught guitar and mandolin at the Valley of the Moon Scottish 
Fiddling School (San Francisco area) in 2005; and now plays in the 
nine-man Halifax band, Pogey; I have been unable to find out much 
information about Darren on the internet (there's an Australian of the 
same name who really swamps Google's results, while Darren's web site, 
http://www.darrenmcmullen.com according to the liner notes, is not 
responding as of this writing). The liner notes indicate his grandfather 
was from Cape Breton (the last track is a moving tribute to him), but 
there is nothing about where Darren grew up or now makes his home--I 
assume somewhere in the Maritimes. The CD is not yet available from 
J. P.'s web store [3], though, since it lists "Fingerboard Grooves", I 
assume it will also soon list "Decade". In any case, if you can get your 
hands on it, you are in for some memorable instrumental playing. Highly 
recommended!

Out of curiosity (I'm not really a fan of vocal Christmas music), I also 
picked up J. P.'s newly released "Noël"; it is short (only ten 
selections running for 34 minutes), but filled with fresh arrangements 
of Christmas music, sung by J. P. (thanks to the magic of modern 
recording techniques, J. P. both sings the lead and the backing vocals), 
who plays all the instruments as well. There are classics (e.g., "I Saw 
Three Ships", "Carol of the Bells", "The Little Drummer Boy", and "Oh, 
Holy Night", but there are others (e.g., "Green Pastures", "Joseph & 
Mary", "Saints & Sinners" (by David Francey), and "In the Bleak 
Midwinter") which were not familiar to me and which are certainly not 
among those encountered ad nauseam on Christmas shopping trips. Even the 
classics are in interesting and unusual arrangements that make one perk 
up one's ears and listen anew. That the musicianship is impeccable goes 
without saying: I can recommend it without reservation. This CD *is* 
available from J. P.'s web store [3].



[1]  I am indebted to Marcia Palmater for this and a couple of other
      tune identifications.
[2]  <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDZR0ql8O9M>
[3]  <http://www.jp-cormier.com/webstore/index.html>


-- 
                                                      Vic