Greetings Music lovers!

June is here and which no doubt brings us to summer. You know, hot dogs, watermelon, fireworks and traditional folk music. OK, that last one is actually not seasonal. It is, however, a little different that anything you have seen on Green Monkey before. How oh how, you may ask, have we come to dip our toe in the folk music pond? It is like this.

I moved to Olympia a year ago. You knew that. I have been acclimating myself to what is going on musically in my old/new hometown. Along the way I ran into the brothers Faulk and asked myself the GMR question. Do I like this and do I like this enough to release it? The simple answer was yes, so here we are.

Beirt (Irish/Gaelic for twosome) is the debut album of young (15 & 13) Olympia brothers, Dante and Eros Faulk, a cello/fiddle folk duo. While classically trained, they now focus on folk and traditional styles of music, ranging from Celtic (Irish, Scottish, Cape Breton), Scandinavian, Quebecoise, to Old Time, Bluegrass and modern day fiddle tunes.

Dante and Eros have been playing music their whole lives; both are multi-instrumentalists. In addition to cello and fiddle, they play guitar, bodhran (Irish drum), banjo, cajon (boxdrum), ukulele, mandolin and heck, on occasion, they even sing. As a duo and with their teen folk band REDS, they have performed in a variety of events, local markets and festivals, including the Oly Old Time Festival, Bellingham Folk Festival, Olympia Fall Fiddle Fest, and The Washington Center for the Performing Arts Young Arts Ambassador Showcase. They have opened for the acknowledged masters of their field, the Scottish/American duo Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas. In July of 2017, they will be opening for another world renowned duo, Newgrass masters Darol Anger and Rushad Eggleston.

Dante and Eros’ Beirt is step one in what the brothers wish to be a long and beautiful journey and a fine first step it is.

In other news of possible interest, we have a new digital single from me, el Presidente, It is called Trump-ville. If you are a fan of our current US president, you may want to skip this “fair and unbiased” (and possible humorous) travelogue of recent days.

We also have a pretty nice video of Trump-ville with excellent dancing Russians that you may enjoy!

The Mighty Fuzz will be playing their first show of 2017 at Slim’s Friday June 23.

In July, we are going to release the debut of Swedish Finnish – total pop masterpiece! They will be playing West Seattle Summer Fest on Sunday July 16 at 2 pm and a record release show shortly thereafter – date TBA.

We are close to having a new Green Pajamas album done as well. Beyond that, who knows?

See ya next month,

td
June 2017

Dante and Eros Faulk – Beirt

1. Tuttle’s Reel/The New Custom House
2. Monti’s Jig/The Queen’s Jig/The Hare in the Corn 3. Cheese Closet
4. Gravel Walks/Temple Hill (Eros’ Solo)
5. Billy O’Rourke is the Boy/Butler Cove
6. The Mountain Road/The Wind that Shakes the Barley
7. Billy in the Lowground
8. Eilean beag donn a’ chuailein riomhaich(The Little Brown Island in the Sea)
9. The Lilting Banshee/Fraher’s
10. Lazy John/The Bucking Mule (Dante’s Solo)
11. St. Patrick’s An Dro/Gweebara Bridge/Farewell to Erin
12. Fead an Iolair (The Eagle’s Whistle)
13. Star of Munster

Dante Faulk, 15 yrs – Cello, Bodhran, Vocals. Eros Faulk, 13 yrs – Fiddle, Guitar, Banjo, Foot tap.

Album Notes by Eros:

1. Tuttle’s Reel/The New Custom House

We start off with a couple of our favorite Irish tunes. The first we got from a workshop with Irish fiddle master, James Kelly, and the second from a recording of Irish music duo icons, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill.

Eros: Fiddle, foot tapping; Dante: Cello

2. Monti’s Jig (Eros Faulk)/The Queen’s Jig (Dante Faulk)/The Hare in the Corn

The first two tunes are original compositions, written a few years ago. The last tune is a slide that we got from the playing of Irish fiddler and friend, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh on the album 2, by The Gloaming.

Eros: Fiddle; Dante: Cello

3. Cheese Closet (Leo Shannon)

This is one of our favorite tunes to play together. It s composed by our friend multi-instrumentalist Leo Shannon of the Seattle trad trio, the Onlies. We got it off of their amazing album Long Before Light.

Eros: Fiddle (FCGD); Dante: Cello

4. Gravel Walks/Temple Hill (Eros’ Solo)

These are two classic Irish reels. The first is a fun Donegal tune I picked up years ago from the album Happy Days by Caladh Nua. The second, I learned recently from the great Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser. It has also been recorded by the Irish band Lúnasa.

Eros: Fiddle, foot tapping, Guitar (DADGAD)

5. Billy O’Rourke is the Boy/Butler Cove (Eros Faulk)

The first tune is one we picked up from Martin Hayes, who first recorded it with his dad PJ in the late 1980s, and also with The Gloaming on their first album. Butler Cove is a reel I wrote a few months before the recording of the album. Butler Cove is the body of water in the South Puget Sound, where our house is located!

Eros: Fiddle, foot tapping; Dante: Cello, bodhrán

6. The Mountain Road/The Wind that Shakes the Barley

Another one of our favorite sets of Irish tunes to play. These reels are classics in the Sligo tradition. The first tune coming from the late Sligo fiddler Micheal Gorman. The second, we picked up from a recording of Kevin Burke.

Eros: Fiddle (FCGD), foot tapping; Dante: Cello, bodhrán

7. Billy in the Lowground

This tune is a fun old-time dance tune. We learned it a while back at the Oly Old Time Festival, here in Olympia.

Eros: Fiddle (AEAC#), foot tapping; Dante: Cello

8. Eilean beag donn a’ chuailein riomhaich (The Little Brown Island in the Sea)

We got this beautiful Scottish air from a recording made in the 1980s by maestro Alasdair Fraser and pianist Paul Machlis titled Skyedance. This tune most likely dates back to a couple of centuries ago!

Eros: Fiddle; Dante: Cello

9. The Lilting Banshee/Fraher’s

Here are two classic jigs. The first we learned a while back. The second is one made popular in the 70s by the piper Willie Clancy, who got it almost directly from the composer who composed it in the 1800s. Willie passed it on to James Kelly, and we got it directly from James at Randal Bays’ Cascadia Irish Music Week.

Eros: Fiddle, tenor banjo; Dante: Cello

10. Lazy John/The Bucking Mule (Dante’s Solo)

This is a set from the playing of the amazing old time musician, Bruce Molsky. He recorded it on his album Soon Be Time, Dante loves playing Bruce’s fiddle arrangement on the cello.

Dante: Cello (DADA), Vocals

11. St. Patrick’s An Dro/Gweebara Bridge/Farewell to Erin

The first is a Breton dance tune that we recently got from cello extraordinaire Natalie Haas. The second is a Donegal reel we got from a recording of Natalie and Alasdair Fraser, with a guest solo on this tune by Martin Hayes. The last is an Irish classic, also from Donegal.

Eros: Fiddle, foot tapping; Dante: Cello, Bodhrán

12. Fead an Iolair (The Eagle’s Whistle)

This is a lovely slow march that was taught to us at Valley of The Moon by Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, who has recorded it with Dan Trueman as well as on one of his solo albums.

Eros: Fiddle (GCGD); Dante: Cello (CFCG)

13. Star of Munster

We finish off with a splendid Irish reel, and a session favorite. This version comes from Martin Hayes, who recorded it on his self-titled debut solo album. The tune is normally played in A-minor, but we play it as Martin does, and drop it down to G-minor. We also decided to have some fun with the overdubs!

Eros: Fiddle, guitar (DADGAD). foot tapping; Dante: Cello, bodhrán

All tunes traditional public domain expect where noted.
Monti’s Jig, Butler Cove ©2017 Eros Faulk,
The Queen’s Jig ©2017 Dante Faulk.

All tunes and sets arranged by Eros & Dante Faulk, except, Lazy John/Bucking Mule, by Bruce Molsky.

Produced by: Jasmin-Faulk Dickerson
Recorded, mixed and mastered by: Tom Dyer, at Tom Dyer Sound, Olympia, WA