2007 Tui Finalists

News release
December 19, 2007

Experienced artists lead folk music finalists

The finalists for New Zealand's Best Folk Music Album of 2007 have been announced with the contenders all experienced artists.

The finalists are Phil Garland, The Hobnail Boots and Owen Hugh who between them have released more than 30 CDs in careers collectively spanning more than 55 years.

Often referred to as 'the father of New Zealand folk music', Phil Garland is a finalist for 'Southern Odyssey', his 18th album.

It's the fourth time the Southland folklorist and balladeer has been a finalist for the award. His very first album "Springtime in the Mountains" took out the inaugural Folk Album of the Year Tui at the New Zealand Music Awards in 1984 as did 'Send the Boats Away' a year later - an album to which he contributed.

Following a break to raise a family, The Hobnail Boots singer/songwriter Rob Joass and partner Jo Moir have reformed the Wellington five-piece to release their fifth album, "The Fortune Horses".

The former bar band is now plying its trade at folk clubs, wineries, cafes and theatres where their songs have more space to breathe. The Hobnail Boots has toured throughout New Zealand, the US, Canada and Europe over the past decade..

Originally from Scotland, Owen Hugh recorded his first album in New Zealand in 1991. His new record called "You and I" is Hugh's first in seven years after working on archive tracks and overcoming writers' block.

The Auckland-based artist appears regularly on the city's folk circuit and recently returned to Scotland to perform there and in England.

The Tui award for Best Folk Music Album of 2007 will be announced in Kumeu at the Auckland Folk Festival on Sunday 27 Jan 2008. The winner will also be acknowledged at the New Zealand Music Awards in October 2008.

Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) CEO Campbell Smith is delighted the finalists are such experienced artists.

"Folk music has never been stronger if the quality of entries received is anything to go by," Campbell says. "And, it's great to see that some of the genre's most experienced artists are being recognised for their contributions not only in 2007 but for their work over decades."

The Auckland Folk Festival runs from Friday January 25 until Sunday January 28, 2008. The festival is in its 35th year and its 18th at the Kumeu Showgrounds. Information about the event is available at http://www.aucklandfolkfestival.co.nz/

NOTE TO EDITORS:
The Tui for Best Folk Album 2007 is for recordings released between 16 November 2006 & 15 November 2007. The Folk category was introduced to the awards in 1984.

Recent previous winners of the Tui for Best Folk Album
2004 - Bob McNeill for his album 'Turn the Diesels'
2005 - Lorina Harding for the album 'Clean Break'
2006 - Ben the Hoose (Kenny Ritch and Bob McNeill) for 'The Little Cascade'.
Or refer to http://www.nzmusicawards/ (see history section).

Finalists' websites
http://www.philgarland.co.nz/
http://www.hobnailboots.co.nz/
http://www.owenhugh.co.nz/

About RIANZ: The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand Inc (RIANZ) is a non-profit organisation representing major and independent record producers, distributors and recording artists throughout New Zealand. RIANZ works to protect the rights and promote the interests of creative people involved in the New Zealand recording industry.

Issued for the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand by Pead PR

Contacts:
Bonnie Smail, Pead PR, Tel: 0-9-918 5581; Mob: 021 722 276, bonnie@peadpr.co.nz

Battlefield Band Concert Review, Dunedin

It was not without trepidation that I waited for the doors to open at the Regent Theatre at 7pm. I tried to suppress an initial flush of optimism as a few people fronted up right away and headed for the ticket counter. I allowed myself a small increase in positivity as an orderly queue of twenty or thirty assembled at the auditorium door. By the time those doors opened and the bow-tied and suited ushers were tearing tabs off tickets, I was something approaching elated. This was a big financial undertaking for the club and it was looking like any bath we might take would at least be a warm one.

A healthy Thursday-night cohort of about 450 people settled in and Lindsey Shields cut a dapper figure as she strolled into the limelight to welcome everybody and introduce the support act, Ben the Hoose. Bob and Kenny played a sterling set, Kenny’s Scottish fiddle styles were sublime and Bob delivered his self-penned songs in what proved to be the pick of the voices this night. His warm tones rang around the Victorian alabaster and shut the Scottish cold out. It was pleasing to see a New Zealand act every bit the equal of the international act to follow.

And follow they did. The first half of the Battlefield Band concert seem to set them all up individually, featuring each in turn playing to their strengths: a rugged set of pipe tunes from Mike Katz, an inspired set of strathspeys and reels from Alisdair White who has just released a solo album (“The White Album” – no mention of The Beatles) and songs from Sean O’Donnell (the Tom Waites Shiver Me Timbers being a particular favourite) and band kaumatua, Alan Reid. Reid took great delight in the theatre’s Yamaha grand piano which enabled him to move away from his twin keyboards for a more traditional Scottish accompaniment.

In the second half the band delivered en force tunes and songs that made the wee hairs stand up. The unison playing of pipes and fiddle were perfect to the finest ornament – it is only in a sound-reinforced concert or studio recording that these two instruments could be equal in volume, so it is pleasing to be able to experience the synergy of both. And as for the sound, while for the most part perfectly balanced, I did find the overly lavish reverb left a harsh tail on the vocals, fiddle and whistles which I found quite distracting.

All in all though, it was the most pleasing way to spend one of the coldest Dunedin nights for a while.

e-Interview with Ben the Hoose

Ben the Hoose is the award-winning duo featuring fiddler Kenny Ritch from the Orkney Isles and songwriter-guitarist Bob McNeill from Glasgow based here in New Zealand, albeit in different cities. Their music is a spirited interpretation of the dance mu-sic of Scotland; uniquely rhythmic and energetic, they embody the modern Scots tradition. I asked them a few questions by email.

Scottish fiddling is the new gravy on the potatoes of Celtic music. John McCusker is all over and under everything that comes out these days. Is this a good bandwagon to be on? Do you think there is a Renaissance in Scottish music?

Bob: Yes I suppose so. I think the Scottish music world is in a very healthy state. In the last few years I think there’s been a real revival of what I see as the spirit of the music, in contrast to the tendancy for some of the drier institutions to view it a bit academically. There are so many young ones playing now, it’s fantastic. And so much diversity.

Kenny: I’d say that Scottish fiddling has been gravy for a very long time and by that I mean very nice, slightly peppery gravy with no lumps. Being on the Scottish music “bandwagon” is a great thing and Bob and I both know how lucky we are to have grown up with it. A renaissance in Scottish traditional music has been going on for years now. Blazin’ Fiddles injected a lot of life into the scene back in 1998 and it really opened the eyes and ears of young folk all around Scotland who perhaps didn’t appreciate the music they had at their fingertips. Since then young Celtic bands have been appearing all over Scotland.

Do you prefer the guitar for accompaniment rather than the cittern/bouzouki or, for that matter, the piano? Bob, what instruments are you currently playing?

Bob: I like both guitar and piano for accompaniment. It’s not the instrument, it’s the person playing it! Generally, I like far more guitar backers than piano backers. I’m not a huge fan of the “vamp” style on any instrument, especially piano, so I’ll leave that alone, thanks. I also really don’t like the modern splashy right hand style they have in Cape Breton. Kenny and I found early on that guitar worked much better for us in Ben the Hoose, to the extent that I don’t play bouzouki at all in the band now. I wish my piano playing was better!

Kenny: I’ve always loved hearing piano and fiddle together. My Granny, when she was alive, was a lovely pianist and she used to play with me at competitions when I was living at home in Orkney. When Bob and I started playing together, Bob played as much bouzouki as he did guitar. It didn’t take us long though to realise that the sound we were after only came out when he played guitar. Yes, I obviously love the guitar (how could I say otherwise?) but a tune with a great piano player is a magical thing too.

Who is inspiring Ben the Hoose?

Bob: Gavin Marwick, Jonny Hardie, The Iron Horse, Capercaillie (their early music especially), Cry Cry Cry, Richard Shindell, Mark Nevin. A big mix of people.

Kenny: Fiddlers Johnny Hardie and Gavin Marwick are two huge influences for me and the two albums they made together are unforgettable. As far as bands go I’d have to say Session A9 and The Iron Horse and the early Capercaillie stuff. Then there’s Alistair Fraser, Gordon Gunn, Eilidh Shaw, Jennifer Wrigley …

There's a fair bit of kudos in winning the 2006 Folk Tui but is it helpful?

Bob: Well. We suppose it will be especially so when we go abroad (outside NZ) with the band. For us I guess it came across as a sort of vote of confidence in what we were doing – that a Scottish album (albiet with some New Zealand flavour to it) could win in NZ.

Kenny: Winning the Tui was a great thing for us and has certainly helped to boost album sales. Bob and I didn’t set out to win an award with the album – it was just a good way of solidifying a lot of the music we had in our heads – but getting recognition for it is always appreciated.

How do Orkney fiddle styles and arrangements differ from Scottish?

Bob: Orkney has theoretically been Scottish since 1472. However, its culture and by entension music, seems to have remained quite unique until fairly recently. Kenny’s the expert here, but I hear a lot of north east fiddle style in Orkney music now – all the regions in Scotland have borrowed, expecially recently, from all the others – Bands like Blazin’ Fiddles, Session A9 and Fiddler’s Bid, all of which have lots of fiddlers, have encouraged this

Kenny: It’s hard to say if there’s any difference at all. Perhaps 100 years ago you could have drawn a distinction, but not now – there’s just too much blending of influences. That said, I’m sure if you asked a Scottish mainland player about Orkney fiddle playing they’d swear it was fuelled solely by beer and single malt. Who am I to argue?

Bob, your original songs are particularly well crafted and evocative of the bleaker bits of Scotland and its history. There seems to be a very methodical approach to you songwriting, is this so? Who is covering your material?

Bob: Thank you! But that’s really only one aspect of my writing. I’m not a historical writer at all in fact – just that, when I started writing songs, I found that type of song easier to write. Most of the stuff I’ve written in the last three years has been contemporary, about modern themes.

I can’t do what somebody like James Keelaghan can do with real stories. (By the way, the Scotsman newspaper described him as the “Master of Disaster” - brilliant).

I think when you’re talking about songwriting you can get very technical about some-thing that really isn’t – there’s a particular evocation of sound and melody that I’m going for, every time, to frame the words and the way the character is saying them. The lyrics, phrasing, singing style, guitar style, chord shapes and tuning are all textures that, if you get it all right, will make the listener hear what you heard, when you wrote the song. Great songwriters make you feel what the character feels, not what the songwriter feels, I guess. That’s what you aspire to.

Who’s covering me? I don’t actually know, a lot of the time. But I do know that people are. I get emails asking for backstory and lyrics etc, the two most recent ones from Ireland and Germany, and I do get the (small) cheques, too, so I know people do actually do them and report it, bless them. I don’t Google myself much. Should I?

Explain the cuisine component of the full Ben the Hoose experience.

Bob: Difficult. I refer the interested reader to The Playboy Gourmet Cookbook by Thomas Mario. There you will discover a world of cuisine, elegance and class that I personally found hugely appealing. It may be a strange thing to say, however, in my opinion at the time, this was what was missing from Scottish music.

Kenny: When Bob and I started playing together in mid-2005 we quickly realised that we both have a bit of a passion for good home-cooked food. We did a wee workshop at the Dunedin Celtic Arts Festival that same year that involved us playing tunes and yapping while cooking steak (with a particular tasty red wine sauce). We did plan on putting recipes on our album sleeve but it never happened. Anytime we’re together having a tune, mince and tatties, bacon sandwiches or steak feature high up on the meal list. Music and good food is a killer combination.

Rumours of Bob's imminent departure from these shores would appear to put the duo into recess - or is it something that can be maintained and developed despite the 'tyranny of distance'? Does Ben the Hoose intend to do some international touring? Does Ben the Hoose aspire to being an internationally recognised unit?

Bob: Yes. Yes. Yes.
I wouldn’t think that if either of us were to return to Scotland it would make all that much difference to Ben the Hoose’s modus operandi. We tend to do gigs in bunches anyway, and living in different cities, we have to do a fair bit of planning ahead. Currently gigs have to pay a certain amount before they’re feasible – that’ll just get more pronounced. We’ll just do fewer gigs, but bigger ones. Longer term, having one of us in Scotland, for example, would be a big advantage – there are a lot of festivals over there.

Kenny: Certainly Bob being in Scotland is a trickier situation than him being in Wellington but we intend to keep things going. We’re looking at the possibility of touring Scotland, Ireland and parts of Europe and having Bob based over there will make that easier.

Both of you being musicians AND working in computers must make you Super Geeks. How do you manage to communicate with your audiences?

Bob: For me, it’s the left brain – right brain thing. It may sound hackneyed, but it’s true. A good balance is to use both. I suppose that our core audience is from the Web generation as well, they’re our age anyway, but I hadn’t really thought about it like that… I’ve always regarded having a day job as fairly separate from what I do at night.

Kenny: By talking out of our mouths. In these days of email and text messages it’s quite a novel way of communicating, but it really does work. But, if that fails, the following computer code usually works:

10 Print “Hello, we’re Ben the Hoose”
20 Print “Here’s a set of Scottish tunes …”
30 GOTO 20
RUN

Ben the Hoose - NZ North Island Tour 2007

Scottish duo Ben the Hoose announce a North Island tour in March 2007 in support of their album The Little Cascade. Ben the Hoose is a duo featuring fiddler Kenny Ritch from Orkney, and songwriter and guitarist Bob McNeill from Glasgow. One of New Zealands most exciting folk/roots stage acts, Ben the Hoose draws heavily on the fiddle dance tradition of Scotland to create irresistible music. Live performances feature a wealth of traditional Scottish tunes as well as modern compositions and Bobs original songs

Ben the Hoose released their debut album The Little Cascade in October 2006. It has since won the Tui Award for Best Folk Album of 2006.

Dates for the Ben the Hoose shows are as follows:

• 07/03 Comfort Hotel, Wellington
• 08/03 The Plateau, Taupo
• 09/03 Marae Atea, Waikato Museum, Hamilton
• 10/03 Rocky Bay Hall, Waiheke Island
• 11/03 The Bunker, Devonport, Auckland
• 13/03 Mayfair Cafe, Upper Hutt

Full details can be found on the Ben the Hoose website. See: www.benthehoose.com/calendar.asp
Warning: Contains Scottish Music

Fiddle Pick-ups

The question was asked:

> ...does anyone have any advice on the best way to amp up a fiddle?

And an answer came:

It's a bit like asking, "What sort of computer should I buy?". To which the response should be, "What do you want to do with it?"

So. What do you want to do with it?

If, as I suspect, you want to play pubs and clubs and earn money, the best (imho) way to go is an "in the slot" bridge pickup and a preamp. They give pretty good sound on most fiddles when set up properly, are non-invasive and non-permanent inslatations which don't damage the fiddle, although they will have some small affect on the acoustic sound of the instrument but that's usually only noticeable to the player. Fishman is one maker. The good thing about them is they are bullet-proof, don't readily feed back, you can install them on the bass or treble side of the bridge - whichever gives the best sound (it's different for different fiddles, there's no rule of thumb) and they sound like a fiddle to the average pub-goer. Sometimes they even sound very good. Whatever the sound lacks can be ironed out, first with the preamp then with the mixing desk. They're prettymuch plug-and-play.

If, on the other hand, you want to be Ken the hoose and you're playing concert situations and want your instrument to sound like your instrument but louder (the ideal), then a clip on microphone; ideally one that doesn't mount on the fiddle itself will be great. The equation is simple: the more you spend on this mic, the better it will sound. BUT. (See, it's a big but.) You will be restricted in sound pressure levels, especially with foldback. So if your band is loudish, you're going to run into problems hearing yourself. However, for a Ben the Henhoose style of thing, where the fiddle is key and accompaniment is in proportion (small and kilted), it can be a good option. A friend of mine had a $16 Dick Smith computer mic on his fiddle and it sounded amazing (giving lie to the equation above).

If you want to keep your fiddle for fiddling and not pub-gigging, another option is to aquire a $300 cheap electric violin (there are plenty on trademe). They're quite playable - easy to adjust the bridge for best action because the usual acoustic considerations don't apply, just hack away at the bridge with your pocket-knife. They sound a bit artificial, but they do sound very pubsy/pogueish and you can use effects with them easily. They are surprisingly playable and essentially disposable.

My last bits of advice are: don't get anything that sticks to the body of your fiddle unless it cost you more than $500. And get a carbon fibre bow, they're pretty cheap and much better than a wooden bow of the same price (after about $800, wooden bows are better), it wont break or split if you drop it and can stand a fair bit of gig abuse.
============
Then Kenny Ritch (fiddleplayer of Ben the Hoose) said:

Ah, yes, good advice as always Mike Macaroni. I've got an Accusound uni-directional microphone (have a look here: www.accusound.com) and it's a lovely piece of kit. A touch pricey but gives a very faithful representation of the sound of my fiddle. It attaches to the fiddle using a small clip on the tailpiece.

Actually it only attaches to this small clip if you remember to take it with you. If you forget it, as I did at Whare Flat, you steal some gaffer tape from Mike and use that. Works wonders.

Tui Award Finalists 2006

Here are links to the finalists of the Best Folk Album 2006 award (the award is called a 'Tui' after our native songbird):

• Bob Bickerton, The Likes of Us
• Ben the Hoose, Little Cascade
• The Warratahs, Keep On

There are samples on all the sites. The winner will be announced at the Auckland Folk Festival, on Sunday, 29th January 2007. A full list of award winners and finalists since the category was introduced in 1984 can be found here .