Seamróg - Traditional Irish Music
Lynda's fiddling is rooted in the traditional Shetland style but an attraction for Irish styles - particularly Donegal tunes - has widened her playing to a more Shetland/Irish hybrid. Frances delivers driving rhythm and ear-catching chord progressions on bouzouki - and is also a great tenor banjo and mandolin player. In this new band, the girls team up with Sean Cunningham, a great flute, whistle and pipe player who cut his trad teeth in the New York session scene in the 90s.
The Band
Here's the basics - until we get a proper bio up. Great quality Irish and I hate to use the word but 'Celtic' musicians have lived in and played around Nashville for over 10 years. Although few seem to be aware of their presence, these musicians have played in band formats (such as The Rogues) as well as in smaller groups for pub sessions (most commonly at the sorely missed Sherlock Holmes bar and a regular appearance at McCreary's in Franklin). While Nashville is recognizably a city filled with great traditional and acoustic music, the Irish/Scottish scene is much smaller and so less-well known about than the bluegrass scene - which is understandable, given that lots of the world's best bluegrassers live in Nashvile!!
So, where do we fit into all this?
Well, in the ongoing progression and growth of the scene in Nashville, long-time local musicians Sean and Frances Cunningham (who both toured professionally for years) have teamed up with Lynda Anderson, a fiddle playing native of the Shetland Islands who moved to Nashville in 2006. Lynda and Frances met at a session in late 2006 and were immediately intrigued by the similarities in their preference for tunes and a driving rhythmic style of playing.
The Instruments
Fiddle
Bouzouki
The Irish bouzouki comes from the Greek bouzouki - they are different in that the Irish bouzouki has a flat back and a different tuning. The Irish form of the bouzouki came along in the 60s and thanks go to Johnny Moynihan for the introduction of the instrument into traditional Irish music. Some have 8 strings, some have 10 strings and the 10 stringed variety is called a cittern.
Frances plays a 10-string bouzouki built by Davy Stuart of Christchurch, New Zealand in 1999.
Flute - the wooden flute has been utilized in traditional Irish music since the mid 1830s. When Theobald Boehm developed his conical bore metallic flute, many of the older wooden flutes were cast aside in favor of the new technology. Irish traditional players picked them up and adapted their style of playing to suit the instrument. For many years, these 1800s instruments were practically the only options for people interested in playing Irish music on the flute. Since the 1960s though, many new manufacturers are resuming the process of building the old-style wood flutes.
Sean plays a Terry McGee 6-key Pratten's Perfected model instrument made of African Blackwood built in 2001.
