Clannamore
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June 8, 2000 |
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June 8, 2000 |
Happily, Clannamore’s latest recording delivers exactly what the title, Beer, Bawd, and Ballads says. Alanna Berger on hammered dulcimer and vocals, and Blaise Liffick on guitar and vocals are the husband and wife duo of Clannamore who are part of the movement to keep the folk and archaic music, mostly of Irish and Scottish origin, alive in the year 2000. They do this by choosing songs that are close to their hearts, and they have been doing this since the ‘60s. Also, they change and rearrange unappealing or outdated lyrics, a practice long-accepted in the folk tradition. Clannamore has targeted this album for the pub crowd who will find the assorted selection of lively songs a perfect accompaniment for an afternoon or evening of Guinness and peanuts, as well as your car’s cassette player on a Sunday drive through Pennsylvania countryside. For this party atmosphere, the two chose Bube’s Brewery in Mt. Joy to record their selections during a live performance.
Raise your glass along with the opening song, “Beer, Beer, Beer”. You will probably find your children finger-tapping, clapping, or whistling along, if they are within earshot. If they are, you may also hear giggles and questioning faces might inquire about chamber pots, chastity belts, tinkers, and men in skirts with blue ribbons hidden underneath! Do your best!
The kids will pick up on these things because, unlike so much of today’s music, the lyrics are actually clear and understandable and quite often tell a story. You must listen, especially because you will surely want to sing along with one of the choruses. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never had a voice lesson in your life. Liffick and Berger do not have a classically-trained sound, thank goodness. They could be your mom and dad or your aunt and uncle, but their homey vocal quality works very well together. When each takes the lead in a song, the other does an appropriately sweet harmony. As song stylists, they express very well the various characters in the more bawdy tunes that adds a nice contrasting texture to the ballads.
If you are familiar with the lovely, mostly instrumental, music of Clannamore’s first album To The Faire, you will find Beer, Bawd, and Ballads an interesting contrast. The group is able to handle well different styles of material in the same genre. This second effort is much more informal and intimate to the point of invading privacy, and very much less delicate. While there are purposefully three categories of song on this album, they somehow transcend each other and make a great six-pack! In the final analysis, Clannamore says it best, themselves: “These songs are just plain fun and entertaining.”
Co-producer and Engineer Scott “Scooter” Ramsey of Synergy Studios at Rockville , in association with Rockville Productions, Harrisburg, has done a fine job. Except for a few rude bar noises during the performance, the quality is so good that you might think the recording was done in the studio. The only disappointment here was the small crowd that could not give the group their due. Liffick attributes this to the fact that the performance was held during the week before Christmas. Everyone was probably at the mall. Too bad!
Interested fans and would-be enthusiasts are joyfully invited to join Clannamore June 23 at Bube’s Brewery, Market St. in Mt. Joy, PA, 653-2056. They will be singing songs from this album as well as from their first recording, To The Faire. Be prepared for a good, ol’ slightly bawdy time.