The first thing you probably notice there, they are all partial chords.ĭOYLE One of the things I’d noticed was a lot of people who like the music don’t necessarily hear the actual tune. That’s the tune, right? So the chords to that are basically D, G, D, G, A. Say, for example, you were going around a tune, “The Wind That Shakes the Barley”. This is why dropped-D tuning and D A D G A D tuning work really well as far as strumming and backing is concerned, because they have that low note. Irish music tends to be around D, as it all revolves around uilleann pipes and the lowest note is D. So I was much more into the idea of what could happen.Ĭan you give an example of how you take a simple progression and create variations through chord substitutions?ĭOYLE So, go to dropped-D tuning, where you have this low D drone. There’s less of an idea of, this is what should happen. So there’s more freedom for backers than there is for tune players. There isn’t as much of a staid tradition of this chord should be here and this chord should be there. In Irish music or Celtic music, the idea of backing is relatively recent. ![]() If there had been a bass player in Solas, you wouldn’t have had the same kind of freedom to change the chords.ĭOYLE Exactly, and that was one of the joys of doing it. ![]() I was trying to be a bass player, a percussion player, and a guitarist at the same time, because we couldn’t afford a bass player or a percussion player. All the tunes we played with Solas were very intense. Between all those people I tried to get this particular driving sound. Donal Lunny as well-he was a rhythm player on the bouzouki and had a way to work around harmonic substitutions-and Andy Irvine. I loved Brady’s intensity, and I loved Arty McGlynn’s solid musicianship. I was an urban musician, so my style was angst-ridden, but I would go back and have this rural time as well.įrom a very early age, I was really influenced by Arty McGlynn and Paul Brady, and I was trying to mix the two of them up. How did you arrive at the perpetual-motion rhythm style you first became known for in Solas?ĭOYLE I grew up in Dublin and my father was from Sligo, so I had this dual aspect about the music. Before the show, the easygoing virtuoso sat down with his left-handed Muiderman flattop to shed light on how he honors and stretches tradition as a guitarist and songwriter. I met up with Doyle at a Philadelphia-area house concert where, joined by fiddler Duncan Wickel, he performed a stunning show that displayed the full range of his powers on guitar, from rollicking rhythm to beautifully melodic fingerstyle (actually played with a pick and one finger). Doyle has lived in the United States for more than 20 years now (currently in Asheville, North Carolina) and performs solo and with Casey and others. Since Doyle left Solas in 2001, he has pursued a number of projects, including collaborations with fiddler Liz Carroll and original Solas vocalist Karan Casey a recent stint leading Joan Baez’s band and two other solo albums, Wayward Son and Evening Comes Early. On tunes that most players would cover with two or three chords, Doyle is all over the neck, substituting chords on the fly so each pass through a tune is a different harmonic journey, with bass runs and countermelodies that make the music jump. Few rhythm guitarists demand the spotlight, but Doyle’s superpowered accompaniment in trad-music settings like Solas is a marvel. This 2011 album is a natural step for the Dublin-raised musician, who first made a splash in Celtic music circles in the ’90s for his kinetic guitar work with the Irish-American group Solas. Shadow and Light is a singer-songwriter album that finds its lyrical power not by pondering personal experience, but by personalizing history. A scan of the liner notes, though, reveals that these sturdy tunes are not “Traditional, arranged by” but Doyle’s new creations-even songs about 19th-century shipwrecks and the travails of Irish soldiers in the Civil War. ![]() ![]() Spinning the John Doyle album Shadow and Light(Compass), you might easily believe you’re hearing a set of Irish songs and tunes dating back centuries, all sung and played beautifully on acoustic guitar, bouzouki, and other stringed instruments. This article is free to read, but it isn't free to produce! Make a pledge to support the site (and get special perks in return.)
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