Irish and American, traditional and contemporary, all come together in a way that defies any musical pigeon hole for the band We Banjo 3. By whatever name you choose to call it, the driving force of the band is the stunning virtuosity of the four musicians who form its core: Enda and Fergal Scahill (brothers), and Martin and David Howley (yes, also brothers).
In between a full tour schedule that keeps them busy on both sides of the pond, the band found time to release Haven, their new album which features a collection of traditional and original tunes that continue to expand on the band's trademark "Celticgrass" sound.
We sat down with the band's go-to mandolin man, Martin Howley for a chat about the new CD and his role as their primary mandolin player. As part of the interview Martin prepared a special video for the Cafe that details his approach to a traditional Irish jig.
About the author: Charlie Schwartz makes his home in Lawrence, KS along with a number of resonator and open-back banjos, a Martin guitar and an Irish flute. A fan of everything from The Louvin Brothers to traditional Irish music, old-time, bluegrass and outlaw country, he previously produced the We Banjo 3 interview for the Banjo Cafe. He plans to catch the band at Kansas City's Irish Fest later this month before attending the Walnut Valley Festival in September.
What would you like to tell us about Haven, the band's first release since String Theory in 2016?Haven was reactionary. Whilst on tour we were consistently receiving feedback that our live shows had become a refuge from the maelstrom of social, environmental and political strife. We've always strived to balance virtuosity and honesty with a sense of fun and escapism. That feedback loop made us look deeper into our roles as travelling minstrels providing happiness and refuge.
We started to compile our collective writing, sifting through for a resonant theme. We all hung on this vision of a safe harbor during a storm. We grew up on the west coast of Ireland, which receives the full fury of the North Atlantic and her capricious storms. We wrote from that place, gathered together in Connemara during a huge Winter storm and thus Haven sprung to life. The work doesn't intend to make commentary but rather shape an idyll, a community well of compassion we can all draw from.
As such, it was a very different process for us. Our first three studio albums were mainly re-imagining Irish, Bluegrass, Appalachian, and other folk repertoire. We are proud of our Irish heritage, Irish traditional music is incredibly rich and complex and has given us a platform to explore other folk traditions which share musical DNA with our native music. All our exploration through these other albums has naturally lead to Haven, and we are incredibly proud of it.
The band created a playlist on Spotify of various artists that inspired Haven. It's pretty varied with everything from songs by John Mayer and Radiohead to Bob Dylan.
Our engineer, Frank Marchand, has worked with us on the road for the past five years, which naturally led to working together in the studio. He is an astounding studio engineer, very musical and sensitive to the creative process. It was Frank's suggestion to create a musical "wall" of sounds we loved, records that spoke to us for their writing, their production or their movement. The Spotify playlist is a snippet that came from that wall. We've grown up in the traditional sphere, with a keen sense of curiosity. Some of the records on the playlist played a seminal role in who we are as musicians. Others have impressed on us the need to be bold and follow our own sound. It was fun to share the playlist with fans and see their reactions.
The band has a focus on the banjo, but often as not several of you are playing mandolin.
We all grew up playing multiple string instruments, guitar, banjo, fiddle, bouzouki and mandolin. Both sets of brothers grew up in musical households where there were always instruments around. David, our guitarist, started on mandolin as his first instrument. Fergal, Enda, and David all play very well and often compose on mandolin.
I've been on this journey with the mandolin in the last 10 years, I feel like it has so much more to say with an Irish accent. It's an instrument that languishes behind in the traditional Irish music setting of a session, and is still relatively young within the tradition. I've worked on refining my technique on mandolin, trying to speak through it. It's become part of our We Banjo 3 sound and that's still evolving.
Martin breaks down his amazing technique for the tune "Dawn Breaks," a jig that kicks off a set by the same name from the new album "Haven." David Howley on guitar, Fergal Scahill video and editing.
Where is your touring taking you next?
We are on the road supporting the new album and will be throughout the Midwest for the next month and out to Colorado to finish this leg Labor Day at Four Corners folk in Pagosa Springs alongside David Grisman and Sam Bush.
We are out West from Washington to California in October. Then we have a mammoth spring run next year, all over, East, Midwest, South and West. All the dates will be up on webanjo3.com and if the Cafe folks are interested they can join our email list and we will send exclusive pre-sales and such.
Tell us about your mandolin gear.
My main mandolin is a Collings MF-5. Steve McCreary and the team at Collings have been so supportive. Dan Voight in Nashville does all my setup. I'm currently using an L.R. Baggs Radius pickup into Grace Design Felix Preamp for stage. I'm using Elixir medium strings and a BlueChip Pick that Adam Chowning at Carter Vintage Guitar in Nashville designed. Fletcher Brock is currently building a custom octave mandolin that I am very excited to get stuck into.
Additional Information
- Purchase Haven from the Artist
- Purchase Haven from amazon.com
- Purchase Haven from iTunes
- We Banjo 3's website
- We Banjo 3 on Facebook
- We Banjo 3 on Twitter
- Interview from 2016 of David Howley on the Banjo Cafe
Photo credit: webanjo3.com
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