A couple #Ying & Yang recordings to check out

[mad dawg]

I have been playing a couple of great Irish-inspired CDs in my car recently, and I realized that they represent a sort of a Ying and Yang approach to trad.

The Baltimore Consort's The Mad Buckgoat (linked here (http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?userid=2UQEYA8AL0&ean=53479027924)) has a really great selection of tunes, mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries, with several tunes composed by John & William Neal, and John Edward Pigot. This group doesn't use mandolins, but they do rely heavily upon the Cittern, as well as Lute, Rebec, Bandora, Recorder, Whistles, and various Viols. The Cittern carries The Old Woman's Hornpipe, and it sort of reminds me of how Peter and the Wolf uses the contra-bassoon to give you a visual of Peter's grandfather ambling along.

NYC's Whirligig released Spin in 2000 (linked here (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004RD4G/qid=1077562258/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-7371115-6973549?v=glance&s=music)), and it has recieved many a spin in my CD player. There is a fair amount of mandolin on this CD, and they mix trad tunes with trad-inspired tunes penned by the band. They give the music a bit of a modern treatment in thier arrangements, and their use of the (non-traditional) clarinet really stands out on a few cuts.

Do any of you have either of these CDs in your library, or do you have any other CDs from these groups that you would recommend?

[Eugene]

I love the Baltimore Consort. #Be warned, the cittern they employ is nothing like something from Sobell's or S.O. Smith's shop, but more like this:
http://www.crab.rutgers.edu/~pbutler/cittern.jpg.
If you like The Mad Buckgoat, check out its early Scottish forerunner On the Banks of Helicon...and all their other CDs for good measure. #Ronn McFarlane, their lutenist, has a couple solo CDs in like vein: The Scottish Lute (much of which is recorded on renaissance mandore, an early lute/mandolin relative) and The Highland King (all on lute). #Chris Norman, their flutist, has recorded a number of solo projects inspired by his Nova Scotia roots. #These also feature a good deal of modern "cittern"/big mandolin a la Sobell. #Look for The Man with the Wooden Flute, The Beauty of the North, and The Caledonian Flute. #Custer LaRue, their soprano, has a number of solo CDs of early folk songs with a similar mood. #The consort tours frequently, both as a group and on their independent projects, and any/all are always worth seeing live.

[mad dawg]

Thanks for the info, Eugene.

BTW, I also love the way that Cittern sounds on the title cut and Willie Winkie. (Unless what I think is the Cittern voice is actually that of the Bandora?)

[Eugene]

I don't have the CD on hand, but can tell you that the bandora is a bass cittern/bass orpharion (i.e. if it's deep, it's bandora).

[mad dawg]

A bass Cittern; I'm guessing it's not tuned in fifths, else you'd need monster hands to play it!http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

[Eugene]

Definitely, I brought The Mad Buckgoat to amuse me in the office today and the melody is definitely carried by the bandora early in "The Old Woman's Hornpipe." I'm not sure if Ronn plays a 6- or 7-course bandora, but a common renaissance tuning would be, low to high, (G')-C'-D-G-C-e-a (in six courses, mostly fourths with one added whole tone below D). #When I last saw them perform in consort, Ronn had had rather cheap modern tuning machines fit to his renaissance bandora. #The shame! You can hear the cittern chording at the beginning of "Yonder, Westwards, Is the Road She Went." Cittern also carries the melody in a portion of the title track (ca. 0:39-1:08).