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Concert Reviews:
-Mithril and Mobile Symphony - March 14, 2009
-Mithril's performance at Laidlaw 'sublime'
-Symphony presents tuneful evening with Celtic group Mithril
CD Reviews:
-The Return Home
-Winter's Day 1
-Winter's Day 2
Mithril comes 'Home'
Celtic ensemble will perform concerts showcasing its new CD, 'The Return Home'
Mobile Register
Thursday, June 14, 2007
By THOMAS B. HARRISON
Arts Editor
Last September's rainy weather at CelticFest Mississippi provided the perfect Mithril Moment.
As the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra performed Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" in the nearby baseball stadium, the rains came. Mithril was in the midst of a sound check when everyone scurried for cover.
"So they asked us to do something," says percussionist David Hughes. "We walked out by the concession stand and began playing. The entire crowd was coming out of the stadium and they all circled us. Kids were dancing. It saved the night, and was one of our most enjoyable evenings."
The Celtic ensemble has enjoyed many such moments since its debut concert in 2003 with the Mobile Symphony Chamber Music Series. Mithril regularly plays to sellout crowds at the Laidlaw Performing Arts Center Recital Hall, and the group "packs out" smaller venues such as the West Mobile branch of the Mobile Public Library.
Another defining moment for the band was "A Celtic Christmas" in 2004 with Mobile Symphony Orchestra, one of the MSO's most successful pops concerts. Audience response was electrifying.
"The hair on the back of your neck still stands up when you talk about it," says flutist Andra Bohnet, who founded Mithril with fiddler Tom Morley. Then again, Mithril rarely gets a "dud" audience, says Bohnet.
The band will celebrate the summer solstice and the release of its fourth CD, "Mithril: The Return Home" with a pair of concerts at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday in the Laidlaw at the University of South Alabama. (See information box.)
Whether the group is performing for sedate Midwesterners in Muskegon, Mich., or tossing beads and moonpies to an audience in Lubbock, Texas -- or competing with the sound of speedboats in a crowded bar on the Causeway in Mobile -- Mithril's energy and musicianship please audiences of all ages and stages of sobriety.
"There's very little music that seems to appeal cross-generationally like we've seen this do, which has been amazing to us -- and fun," Bohnet says. "You can definitely feel that it's family entertainment. Grandparents can bring the grandkids and everybody will have a good time."
A few weeks ago the band played for kids at Council Traditional School, where guitarist Ben Harper teaches Mobile Symphony's Preludes program.
"That was amazing," says Bohnet. "They were just boppin' along with the music, and ... that's good. As long as you see someone in the audience boppin' a little bit, even if some people aren't, you're like, 'OK that person's diggin' it -- it's cool."
As they began appearing regularly at venues in Mobile and Baldwin counties and beyond, the band members realized there is an audience for Celtic music.
Morley says his wife Fran, "has always been a fan of my jazz playing," and she regarded his dalliance with Celtic music "a hobby, or this little thing you want to do."
"After that first concert she came up to me and said, 'I guess there is something in this Irish music. You better go ahead and play that as often as you want,'" he says, "so we even turned her around."
More and more people are getting the message, and that's way cool for this multifaceted ensemble that has found its niche.
The 15 cuts on "The Return Home" (about 70 minutes of music) showcase the talents of a quartet whose members display an impressive range on a variety of instruments: Bohnet, a professor of music at USA, on flutes, whistle, piccolo, pipes, and Celtic harp; Morley, who plays fiddle, guitar, mandolin and tenor banjo; Harper on guitar and bass; and Hughes, percussion, harmonium and melodica.
This is Mithril's first release since 2005 and contains original tunes by members of the band in addition to traditional music from Ireland, Scotland and elsewhere. The music is a deft blend of high-energy jigs and reels and slower melodic pieces that reveal a mature quartet with a tighter sound.
Bohnet and Morley are longtime members of the Mobile Symphony Orchestra and founding members of Silverwood Quartet and Mithril; Morley also performs with a jazz ensemble.
Harper, a fixture on the local music scene, is the son of Andrew Harper, former head of the USA music department, founder of the Port City Symphony and former conductor the Gulf Coast Symphony in Biloxi. Hughes is a composer, jazz musician and former operations and marketing manager for Mobile Symphony.
Information on Mithril, the Silverwood Quartet and more can be accessed via the Flying Frog Web site: http://www.flyingfrogmusic.com.
The group's Web site (http://mithril.us) cites a Wikipedia definition of the name Mithril (pronounced myth-ril): "A fictional material from J.R.R. Tolkien's universe, Middle-earth. The name comes from two words in the fictional Elvish language -- mith, meaning "mist" and ril, meaning "glitter." Mithril is a precious silvery metal, stronger than steel but much lighter in weight, that was mined by Dwarves."
The band has devoted the past two years to a growing number of tour dates, local concerts and recording. "The Return Home" is Mithril's fourth CD since the group was created in 2001.
Cover artwork for the "Return Home" CD was created by Mobile artist and illustrator Bronwyn Coffeen of the Press-Register staff; Phillip Davis did the graphic design.
"We consider this to be the culmination of our work together as a quartet so far, and the quintessential CD for our fans," Bohnet says in a news release, "because it has given each member of the band a chance to really contribute to the overall product like we do on-stage."
"Banish Misfortune," the group's debut recording, featured Bohnet and Morley and pre-dates the addition of Harper and Hughes. The second album, "Winter's Day," was a "concept" album created for the winter holidays. The third project, "Live in Concert," conveyed Mithril's on-stage energy.
"The Return Home" was recorded at Hughes' Doonaday Studio in Mobile, which gave the musicians control over all aspects of the production. Jonathan Clark, violist for Silverwood Quartet, handled the mixing at Wolfehollow Studio in Pensacola.
"The Return Home" includes original material inspired by the band's experiences. "Sparky at the Wheel" was written after a white-knuckle drive home from Michigan in a blinding thunderstorm.
Harper, the "Sparky" of the title, says in liner notes that the tune "was inspired in part by another sonic portrait about cars, 'Helms' Place,' by my friend and fellow guitarist Billy McLaughlin."
Harper is asked why he is called "Sparky." The question is greeted by raucous laughter and an explanation -- sort of.
As Harper tells it, his wife gave him the nickname during a flurry of text-messages. He says it was "an offhand comment" for which he has received "terrible grief."
"It's, ah, a term of endearment from my wife," he says, "and the band has taken it and run with it -- and immortalized it in song."
Mithril's identity was established with its first public concert in January 2003, the season opening of the Mobile Symphony Chamber Music Series at the Laidlaw.
"Tom and I had just done that first album and we said, 'Oh no! We can't play this stuff live!'," Bohnet says. "We'd gone through six guitarists and we said, 'OK, we've got a show to do.'
"The crowds were fantastic," she recalls. "(From the) first songs we played, it was electric. Now we look back and we're a whole lot better, and we've all learned a lot."
Bohnet and Morley have performed together for years, first with Mobile Symphony and eventually with Silverwood Quartet. They knew each other's moves, knew the chops, and adding new members to the ensemble required a period of adjustment.
"A learning curve," Harper says.
Harper, formerly an on-air announcer at WHIL-FM, majored in flute at USA where he studied under Bohnet. He became part of the Mithril family after Morley and Bohnet played a live concert during the station's fundraising campaign.
Hughes joined Mithril after he performed with the Shane Philen Trio, a jazz ensemble, at Mobile Arts Council's "Showcase of the Arts." Born and raised in Mobile, Hughes says he had limited experience with Celtic tunes, but he does have a serious interest in what is now called "world music," including African, Indian and South American rhythms.
For the past couple of years, Hughes has enjoyed a collaboration with Alabama Contemporary Dance, for which he wrote "Colors." On Sunday, Silverwood Quartet performed his piece, "Tread Lightly" for the "Enviro Sounds" presentation at Space 301 in downtown Mobile.
For "Return Home," Hughes wrote "The Little Lady" to celebrate the birth of his daughter, Stephanie Lauren, whose nickname is "Sweet Pea." He and Harper have worked hard to establish a strong rhythmic base for Mithril.
"Adding guys to the mix and getting just as psychic with them as we are with each other is cool," says Bohnet. "It's so much fun to watch Ben and David on stage, the little pranks they pull with each other, their familiarity with each other."
The band's comfort level and mutual respect is evident on "The Return Home," which includes a range of tunes, old and new. Bohnet got "The Otter's Holt/The Star of Munster" from flutist extraordinaire Noel Rice, whom she met at the 2005 Boxwood Flute Festival.
One of the most compelling cuts on the CD is "The Trip to Skye/Brenda Stubbert's/The Hunter's Purse/Tommy Peoples," a synthesis of Morley's fiddle, Bohnet's silky harp and Hughes' melodica.
"Skye" was composed by box player John Whelan; "Brenda Stubbert's" is the signature tune by Canadian fiddler Jerry Holland.
As for the provenance of the tunes, Bohnet says Celtic music is "a very small world, and you don't pick these songs out of a book." The music grew out of a long and storied oral tradition, so it is customary for musicians to attribute the source of their tunes whenever possible. Bohnet explains:
"We first heard X play this tune, or got it during a workshop with Y," she says, "so there's kind of a connection that way."
Bohnet and her colleagues have met and performed with some of the top names in the business, such as flutist Skip Healy, and those folks remain one e-mail or phone call away.
"You can connect with them," she says. "They are the nicest people in the world and they'll do anything for you."
Maintaining those connections and collegiality is essential, especially as the Mithril quartet are not native-born Irishmen. Think of it as a custom, or enlightened self-interest. Newcomers to a tradition owe a certain respect to those with long-established credentials.
One does not "cop a few tunes" and cash the check. Mithril pays homage to many splendid composers and musicians who provided these tunes. Morley says the group made friends "just by calling people and making sure we had permission to use these songs."
"The Return Home" also provides a moment of serendipity as with "The Cliffs of Moher," which is paired with the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood." Morley learned "Cliffs" from the great fiddler Kevin Burke, but when Morley slowed the tempo it reminded him of a Beatles song; Bohnet was delighted when he showed her how "Cliffs" fit nicely with one of her Fab Four faves, "Norwegian Wood."
Another highlight is a medley from John Sayles' brilliant 1994 film, "The Secret of Roan Inish," which has a soundtrack by Mason Daring. Mithril included several of those tunes on its live CD, and this second medley is equally pleasing.
Earlier this year the band signed with two national booking agencies. Artra Artists Management of Chicago is booking appearances with symphony orchestras around the country, and Chattanooga-based Alkahest Artists is overseeing festival bookings.
Thanks to the Internet, Mithril has fans worldwide. Its CDs are listed on a popular site for independent artists called CDBaby.com , and music lovers in Europe, South America, Japan and New Zealand are showing an interest.
"The latest e-mail we got the other day was from someone in Switzerland," Morley says. "They loved our version of 'Lord of the Rings.' So, you never know."
Morley says joining the Celtic festival circuit "is trickier than you think."
"If we had nothing better to do than play for our darn selves and make enough money to get gas from one gig to the next, we'd probably hit a string of festivals," he says. "But I'd rather do concerts, symphonies -- and with our booking agencies. it doesn't bother me that much."
Hughes says the band's current pace allows the musicians "to keep our regular lives and play sporadically.
"If we were all in our early or mid-20s and didn't have a spouse or families, then yeah, we could hop in the Mithril van and drive all over the country," he says.
Bohnet says the members of Mithril want to avoid the problems that befall other groups.
"I guess we've found while driving around in concert mode, there are other Celtic bands who don't come off that well in a concert situation," she says. "They don't have the stage presence or the energy. I mean, they play great as long as you're not looking at 'em. It's a crazy thing."
Hughes says many of those bands are "people used to sitting around in pubs and drinking."
Harper says the Mithril vibe is different, more upbeat, and the guys would like to keep it that way.
"The bottom line is, we're all hams," he says, "and if you stick us up in front of a bunch of people, we're all gonna have fun.
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