J.P. Cormier & Tim Edey – Once
Self Released – September 2018
We sometimes listen to music to match a particular mood but listening to anything new is inherently unpredictable. On the other hand, a new CD with guitar and box player Tim Edey’s name on it is a safe bet to provide a joyous lift and Once, with guitarist and fiddle player J.P. Cormier, is absolutely no exception.
Tim Edey won two BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2012; Best Duo with top New Zealand harmonica Brendan Power and Musician of the year, and was nominated for the later again this year. The list of artists Tim has toured and/or recorded with is, to say the least, impressive and in itself tells a lot about his abilities – to name a few: The Chieftains, Christy Moore, Sharon Shannon, Altan, Kevin Burke, Seamus Begley, Lunasa, Julie Fowlis. In the space of six months recently I have seen captivating performances from Tim with Mike McGoldrick, with Luke Daniels and Dermot Byrne at Celtic Connections, and with Gino Lupari and Gerry “Banjo” O’ Connor. See our review of Tim’s last but one album How do you know? here – the busy man also released a calming, gorgeous solo guitar album, The Sleeping Tunes, last year. J.P. Cormier (who I must admit I had not heard of previously – a new, rich seam to mine) is from Ontario, has conquered Cape Breton fiddle, played in Nashville with the likes of Waylon Jennings and been a successful singer/songwriter.
Tim wrote about Once in his newsletter: ‘I am incredibly proud of this release, and it marks a milestone for me as a musician and a human being on this musical journey’. He told me how he came to meet, play and record with J.P. Cormier:
‘My friend and fine musician/producer Steafan Hannigan first told me about Canadian guitarist J.P. Cormier. I was just mesmerised, and I studied him on record and youtube for many years. Then Brendan Power, myself and my partner Isobel [Crowe] were invited to Celtic Colours Guitar Summit in Cape Breton in 2010. There I met J.P. on stage for the first time and I felt, and he did… something very magical happen in our meeting and playing together. The following year I went out again, with Isobel and guitarist Peter Gazey in my band. Me and J.P. went into his studio on the lakeshore at D’escousse on Cape Breton Island and just played solidly for 6 hours, ate pizza and drank whisky.’
This video of them playing together, for that very first time, in 2010, is quite remarkable. Once, the product of their 2011 recording session, has lots of the magic Tim talks about.
Proceedings open with The Winston Set, first tune The Lass O’ Corrie Mill which is a lovely measured strathspey, with the duo encircling each other’s playing on acoustic guitars, and the set picks up pace tune by tune to end with Carnie’s Cantor, a reel, where it isn’t ever quite clear who is chasing who. Other sets – The G Jigs, The Golden Eagles Set and The Wicked A Set and the final track (which includes Ain’t Misbehavin’) – follow the same pattern, slow start and speedier tunes as the set progresses, with no let up in the compelling and quite unpredictable guitar work from both players.
The enthralling Little Bird Set moves (clearly with some of the few overdubs J.P. refers to in his sleevenotes) from Tim’s gentle composition Little Bird on guitars, to the reel Moving Cloud with guitar, banjo (J.P.) and box (Tim), to Sally Goodwin with a fiddle (J.P.) thrown in for good measure. The more precisely titled, The Mando-Box Set, is great fun, mostly with duelling, no surprise, mandolin (J.P.) and box (Tim) and includes Tim’s very bouncy composition Celtic Thunder which featured on Folk Radio UK as a Tune of the Day last year when Tim was joined by Charlie Mckerron, Ross Ainslie and Marc Clement.
J.P plays fiddle more substantively on The Lake Ainslie Set, showcasing his mastery of Cape Breton style fiddle playing. The introduction of additional instruments provides a welcome variation, but not a necessary one – I could listen to these two play guitar all day long.
On an otherwise acoustic album, J.P. picks up an electric guitar for a couple of tracks. On The Electric Jigs set, the contrast between electric and acoustic guitar works particularly well on the first and last tunes, A Cape North Jig and Coilsfield House Barndance, and similarly well on the penultimate track on the album, which has some wonderfully inventive interplay between electric and acoustic.
J.P. Cormier describes the recording session (in the sleevenotes):
‘This album was recorded in its entirety in the space of six hours. Two microphones were put up, we sat roughly three feet apart facing each other and started to play. There was no planning, no indication by either party what was going to be played, and no prior knowledge of any arrangements. No cut was scrapped, we literally kept everything we played as it went down. 11 tracks, no rehearsal. All one take performances’.
When I spoke to Tim about the recording session he added:
‘We just played, I can’t explain it really, each man just led… and followed. I have, after this experience, come to the realisation that playing live is my way forward. I believe music is honest this way and the true spirit and soul for the listener is there, rather than some massively edited CD where things are tuned, moved, copied and pasted – folk music was never meant to be like that’.
Despite the absence of planning the material, there is a clear thread that runs through many of the tunes on Once and that is the music of the place where it was recorded – Cape Breton fiddle music. In particular, there are lots of tunes from the famous and influential Cape Breton fiddler Winston “Scotty” Fitzgerald, whose music, together with that of Angus Chisholm, made a big impression on J.P. in his mid-20s. Many of Fitzgerald’s tunes have also been recorded by later Cape Breton fiddlers such as Jerry Holland – one of Jerry’s own tunes is on the album too – and Natalie MacMaster, who Tim has toured with. Beautiful Lake Ainslie gloriously played on guitar and fiddle is by yet another Cape Breton fiddler, Elmer Briand – Lake Ainslie is a spectacular lake in Cape Breton and the tune here is redolent of the beauty in the title. For good measure, there are a couple of tunes by Scotland’s prodigious composer and fiddle player James Scott Skinner.
There is evidently a great deal of genuine mutual admiration between these two musicians. ‘Mesmerising’ was Tim’s reaction to hearing J.P.’s guitar playing. In turn, J.P. sums up the phenomenon that is Tim Edey as well as anybody ever has:
‘How do I describe Tim Edey? I just know I’ve never seen anybody do what he can do. He has some sort of precognitive ability to know exactly what’s coming down the pipe in real time as he plays, which makes it appear as if he’s rehearsed for days each nuance, each magic moment, each second of brilliance he draws from himself and the person he’s playing with’.
Tim Edey and J.P. Cormier are consummate players who demonstrate astonishing versatility in their ability to pitch up and play completely riveting music; each in turn, as Tim said, ‘leading and following’. Once is frankly stunning, with absorbing, uplifting playing throughout. Even if guitar instrumental albums don’t always keep your attention, this will draw you in and demand repeat playing. One not to be missed.
Once is available from Tim Edey’s website http://timedey.co.uk/shop/. Tim is playing gigs in Scotland and England over the next few months – details here http://timedey.co.uk/tour/