Elise Boeur & Adam Iredale-Gray
Fiddle Tunes
Fiddlehead Records
25 November 2022
Among the most respected roots musicians in Canada, Elise Boeur and Adam Iredale-Gray pretty much epitomize the saying ‘having fingers in many pies.’ Partners in music and life, both are core members of the acclaimed ‘prog-trad’ outfit, Aerialists. Whether live or in the studio, they also, individually and together, frequently collaborate with musicians in many fields. When not writing, recording, touring, or teaching, Iredale-Gray can often be found guiding all manner of recordings from the producer’s chair. Considering this admirable work ethic, greeting another album featuring either or both in any capacity comes as no great shock. What is surprising, however, is that it has taken so long for this particular project to finally appear. Boeur has long been recognized as a highly-skilled fiddle player, and while Iredale-Gray is a noted multi-instrumentalist, it’s his fiddle playing with the (currently dormant) band Fish & Bird that most, including myself, will likely have served as an introduction to his musicianship. And as folk musicians at heart and in origin, this pair has been duetting on fiddles since their teens, so Fiddle Tunes – their first collaborative album of exactly that – has been a long time coming.
As an ‘it-does-exactly-what-it-says-on-the-can’ album, its title could hardly be more direct. We have a collection of almost entirely Irish and Scandinavian origin, both traditional and contemporary, performed with vim and panache by musicians deeply versed in a vast catalogue of such tunes. As such, there is no pretension involved and no attempt or need by Boeur and Iredale-Gray to impress listeners with the depth of their knowledge of the canons from which they have selected what to include. Purely, simply, whether around a campfire with a few pals, at a cèilidh, or in front of a paying audience, these are tunes they just love to perform, and to that end, the joy they glean from doing so absolutely roars from the speakers.
Needless to say, both play fiddle on the album, Boeur also takes up the hardingfele (a Norwegian instrument, anglicized as the Hardanger fiddle), and Iredale-Gray also contributes acoustic rhythm guitar. They’re joined only by the musically exploratory upright bass player (and poet) Robert Alan Mackie (robertalanfuturehearts / Harebrain / Sarah Jane Scouten), with whom they’ve worked across various projects, including Aerialists. All three are at the absolute top of their game on Fiddle Tunes, but then that should be expected from considerably experienced musicians who have studied at institutions including the Berklee College of Music in Boston, the Victoria Conservatory of Music (BC), and Høgskolen I Telemark college of folk arts in Norway.
From the opening set of Winnie Hayes’, Gan Ainm and The Monk’s the playing is a beautiful blend of fiery and silkily skillful, setting the scene for what follows. Interestingly, the jig Winnie Hayes’ was also recorded by Aerialists bandmate Màiri Chaimbeul, and Jenna Moynihan on their 2014 EP, Back & Forth, so it boasts an overlapping history predating the band. Don’t quote me on it, but I understand its title is after a County Clare concertina player who lived to the grand age of 100.
Other tunes here dovetail within Boeur and Iredale-Gray’s considerable network of folk musicians, such as the first of the following two-part set, La Coccinelle, which has been recorded by their Victoria, BC-based friends Qristina & Quinn Bachand (as Fil Et Bobine), and Daniel Lapp (as Filet Bobine), providing ample evidence of its popularity and staying power. It has a gorgeous, lilting melody, sweetly rendered before gliding into the pretty Osterøy, named for a Norwegian island municipality located in Vestland county, Nordhordland.
Up next, the lovely standalone waltz, Evening Glory, is performed with subtlety and sensitivity and is followed by the blithe old-timey polka, Chinquapin Hunting, which at its midpoint features a fabulous bowed double bass solo from Mackie. Crossing the Atlantic again from there, on its heels comes Polska Efter Jöns Persson, a tune of Swedish origin that showcases Boeur and Iredale-Gray in spectacular harmonic unison.
More Scandinavian material is highlighted with the two-part set of Fröken Agnes and Polska Efter Kusen, on which the playing is simply sublime. Played in a blistering, seamless fashion, an Irish set of favourites then ensues, in the form of the reels Martin Wynne’s # 2, Toss the Feathers, and The Sally Gardens. Toss the Feathers has been recorded in excess of 200 times, including by The Chieftains, The Dubliners, Fairport Convention, Boys of the Lough, The Corrs (in a rock arrangement), and, again, Qristina & Quinn Bachand. Not far behind in the laid-on-wax stakes at around 180 versions to date is The Sally Gardens, including by Boeur/Iredale-Gray associates, The Fretless, on their Live from the Art Farm album – a release I reviewed for Folk Radio that served to provide me with a much greater appreciation and understanding of Celtic music.
Brureslått Rull Fra Jølster is a haunting, melancholy piece with a stealthily memorable melody that I found myself whistling through my teeth as I did the dishes hours after my first airing of Fiddle Tunes. It’s as impeccably delivered as everything surrounding it, which is all the more remarkable considering the album was captured live off the floor during a five-day session in May last year. However, the mood then shifts to full-on dance mode with Nils Og Jens Og Gjeidaug; it’s tremendous, but at just under 2 minutes, something of a tease. Just as I was priming for a prance around my living room to its spirited refrain, it stops on a dime.
Approaching the climax of Fiddle Tunes, next is a set comprising the hornpipe Rodney’s Glory – famously recorded for the 1972 all-star Morris On LP – married to the jigs Scully Casey’s and Dave Collins’. Displaying all three musicians at the height of their powers presents another opportunity for some brilliant work from the impressive Mackie. Then – a seemingly unlikely but ultimately inspired choice – comes London Ūt, composed by Icelandic jazz outfit ADHD (who, Peter Gabriel style, titled their first seven albums eponymously 1 through 7). Indicative of the breadth of Boeur and Iredale-Gray’s musical influences and exploration, in their skilled hands, this delicate jazz piece – originally written for guitar, keyboards, saxophone, and drums – has become a pensive, quite beautiful folk ballad. It is truly wonderful.
All good things must come to an end, and it’s another set of Irish material that brings the curtain down on Fiddle Tunes in an apposite manner. Beginning with a reflective take on Frank Thornton, sliding subtly into the slip jig Cock and the Hen, then wrapping things up until the second volume of Fiddle Tunes – which will surely follow at some point – with Cottage in the Grove. (More commonly known as Coen’s Memories for composer Tommy Coen, it’s been recorded by such as Horslips and Stockton’s Wing.)
Due to their origins, it may be that Boeur and Iredale-Gray are principally viewed as folk musicians. While Fiddle Tunes is an undiluted return to their pure folk roots and an obvious recorded statement to that end, their diverse track record to date suggests that we should always expect the unexpected from this pair, so who knows what they may dish up for us next…but, as I’ve hinted at, Volume 2 would be nice.
Fiddle Tunes is released on Iredale-Gray’s Fiddlehead Records, on CD on November 25th.
Website: https://www.eliseandadam.ca
Bandcamp: https://eliseandadam.bandcamp.com/album/fiddle-tunes