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The Theatre: 'A Journey to Ireland'
Do you yearn for traditional Irish music so genuine that it evokes the aroma of an overflowing pint of Guinness? But are airline ticket prices, exchange rates, and a sinking economy taking their toll on your plans for a trip to the Emerald Isle?
And do you believe that the five-string banjo and mandolin are solely in the province of bluegrass pickers Then grab that mug, forget the extra bag charges, and have your perceptions updated by making your destination Little Washington, Va.
Guitar, Celtic harp, mandolin, lutes, uilleann pipes, and two kinds of banjo are about to be combined in ways perhaps never before heard: Barnes and Hampton are bringing “A Journey to Ireland” to The Theatre near you.
Linn Barnes and Allison Hampton have played Celtic, Renaissance, and traditional American music, plus their own compositions in the cathedrals of Paris, the Galician fields of Spain, and halls great and small throughout the United States and Europe.
They are perennial favorites in Rappahannock County where they will return for their 11th annual fall concert on Oct. 18. Just back from the Willie Clancy Festival in County Clare, Ireland, their performance is inspired by and will be infused with the spirit of that mother of all traditional Irish music gatherings. Kathryn Johnson, one of their star students, on harp, will join the married couple that maintains a home in Rappahannock.
The Clancy Festival, known as ‘Willie Week’, takes place in Miltown-Malbay, an idyllic locale in County Clare on the western coast of Ireland. The setting is near Spanish Point, so-named for a portion of King Phillip II’s Armada that ran aground in a storm while limping home after its infamous encounter with the English fleet in 1588.
Each year since 1973, during the first week of July, the area is packed with the crème of traditional Irish musicians and dancers. They gather to celebrate the life of Willie Clancy, a renowned local piper. Lessons, concerts, lectures, exhibitions and spontaneous jams are attended by well over a thousand students and musical enthusiasts who crowd the Bellbridge House Hotel and many other venues.
In the midst of the many superb performances and impromptu sessions at the Clancy festival, Barnes reports one site that may approach Celtic musician nirvana. The Crosses of Annagh is a traditional Irish pub, tucked away in the nearby countryside so famous that it is rarely advertised. Directions to its door are only provided to those who demonstrate sufficient reverence for its sights and sounds.
The atmosphere of this ‘secret’ venue provided considerable stimulation for Barnes and Hampton. After several days of total immersion in traditional Irish music, Barnes and Hampton decided to break the mold a bit and arranged several 16th Century renaissance lute pieces for Celtic harp and uilleann pipes which they performed for fellow musicians at the festival to a wildly enthusiastic reception. These numbers will be included in the upcoming concert.
And, in a ‘change of heart’ that perhaps only a musician could understand, Barnes returned home to make a two-for-one exchange/addition to his vast instrument inventory. He traded his fine, hard-driving five-string ‘bluegrass’ banjo for one with 21st Century innovations including a radical 5th string configuration and a delicate and mysterious mellow tone that complements well the familiar Barnes and Hampton sound. Barnes also acquired a 100-year old Orpheum 4-string Irish tenor banjo that adds a subtle hint of jazz to the duo’s Celtic mix. In celebration of these acquisitions and the entire ‘Irish Journey’ he will premier at The Theatre a work for 5-string banjo inspired by the experiences at Spanish Point.
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