Dan Milner
9th Annual World Traditional Song Nominee
9th Annual World Traditional Album Nominee
Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!
Genre: World Traditional
Smithsonian Folkways
www.folkways.si.edu
onclick=”document.getElementById(‘light’).style.display=’none’;document.getElementById(‘fade’).style.display=’none’”
href=”javascript:void(0)”>
HOMEBASE/COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA/Ireland
ALBUM NOMINATED: Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea
WHERE WAS ALBUM RECORDED? Hawthorne, New Jersey, USA
WHERE IS YOUR MUSIC AVAILABLE? Folkways.si.edu
WHICH GENRES BEST DESCRIBE YOUR MUSIC? Traditional Irish
IS THERE A THEME TO THE ALBUM? Yes. Pirates, shanghaiers, slavers, and smugglers are just some of the central characters in this album of authentic maritime songs; others are ardent patriots, hard-pressed immigrants, and weathered sailors sheltering in the taverns of the seven seas. All are midway between some dicey spot in life and an uncertain future.
WHAT UNUSUAL INSTRUMENTS OR TECHNIQUES DID YOU USE ON THIS ALBUM? The instruments are not unusual for Irish traditional music. What is remarkable is that patience paid off and I was able to get the cream of Irish America’s musicians and singers into the studio to join me.
DID FANS HELP FUND THIS PROJECT? No. This was entirely self-produced and funded.
WHO IS SITTING IN YOUR AUDIENCE? People interested in working class cultural history. Many – certainly not all – are Irish Americans and Irish women and men. They share a love of authentic traditional folk song; they appreciate the research that goes into finding outstanding examples, and they enjoy performances in which the artists defer to the meaning of the songs. The instruments don’t obscure the words. My motto is, “It’s not the singer, it’s the song.”
WHAT MAKES YOUR FANS UNIQUE? Basically, they find me. I write and teach and do a lot of research, which doesn’t leave much time for self-promotion. I’m also a little embarrassed by flattery. Some fans must spread the word because people I couldn’t possibly have met all the people who have sent me mail.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE PLACES TO PLAY? Anywhere that people really want to listen. Folk clubs and singers clubs are almost always very good because the audience is usually more knowledgeable.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE BAND’S MOST MEMORABLE ACHIEVEMENT TO DATE? Receiving the 2009 IMA nomination of course. Additionally, this and other CDs have gotten very favorable reviews in the USA and abroad, and many people who care for traditional Irish music like them.
WHAT’S IN THE WORKS FOR 2010? Civil War Navy Songs for Smithsonian Folkways.
FINISH THIS SENTENCE: THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IS…The product of clever and resourceful people who, beginning in the early 19th century, combined foreign and domestic musical elements to create new American popular art forms.
WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF SUCCESS? There are few things on earth better than a “first take” in the recording studio, and it’s always stupendous to have the finished song sound better than I had imagined it. Success, too, is not needing to tell people who you are so you can concentrate on finding out who they are.
WHAT’S ON YOUR IPOD THAT WOULD SURPRISE YOUR FANS? Heinrich Ignatz von Biber’s Passacaglia and Fugue from the Rosenkrantz Sonaten.
NAME SOME ARTISTS YOU CHAMPIONING: I’m very grateful to all of the very talented friends who joined me of Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea. Most of them are far better known than me but I always sing their praises. I champion The Washington Square Harp & Shamrock Orchestra, the student-community Irish band of NYU’s Ireland House, of which I’m a member, and South Street Seaport Museum’s official maritime song group, The New York Packet. I love the playing of 2 of my younger friends, Pat Mangan and Eliot Grasso, and the singing of my wife’s a capella group, The Johnson Girls.