Irish fiddle virtuoso Martin Hayes and American guitarist Dennis Cahill push Irish music to the edge on their way to becoming one of the most celebrated duos in Celtic music.
Hayes and Cahill perform Thursday in Edmonds.
Several times, Hayes has won the all-Ireland fiddle championship and the Irish equivalent to a Grammy. He grew up playing traditional County Clare music with his father, P.J. Hayes, leader of the well-known Tulla Ceili Band.
The music of County Clare has its own style, one that emphasizes but isn’t limited to a slower lyrical style.
“It’s in the nuance of rhythm and inflections of rhythm, and that the melodies are viewed as reflective pieces of music. (In County Clare) it’s not all about high-powered energy and rhythm,” Hayes said.
“I think it allows for a broad range of expression. It’s left a lot of room between very melancholic and very high-powered music, shadings and degrees that the music of the region covers very well.”
Hayes said there is a spiritual element in the music. Once you feel it, you’re caught in a sense of invincibility and the music flows.
Cahill brought knowledge of classical, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and country to the partnership. Chicago-born to parents from County Kerry, Ireland, Cahill studied music before his innovations created a breakthrough for guitar in the Irish tradition.
“He is able to look at the music rhythmically and harmonically from that perspective,” Hayes said. “He had plenty of raw talent, and it allowed him to reinvent ways of playing the guitar in Irish music.”
The partnership is grounded in communication.
“We talk about the music a lot. If either of us didn’t really like something the other person was doing, we’re not shy about saying it. We really get to the teeth of it as soon as possible,” Hayes said.
They’ve played together for many years, with Hayes chasing melodies and Cahill exploring harmony and rhythms.
“We both wanted to stretch a little bit. We were in an experimental band in Chicago where we experimented with rock ‘n’ roll and jazz ideas.
“The curious thing is, that experimenting makes you go deeper into the music, more into the guts of it. (That’s) not where you think you’re going to end up, but you do.
“You arrogantly assume that you’re smarter than the body of music, but when you explore it, you discover you didn’t know this and this and this, the potential of the music,” Hayes said.
The experimentation led him back to his musical roots.
“You want to see what’s over the next hill. You want to know if your little world of music is the full universe of music. I needed to know that my enjoyment and appreciation (of Celtic music) wasn’t just sentimental, wasn’t just nostalgia. I needed to step outside of it to know.”
His discovery: “Everything I needed was already in this music.”
Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill perform Thursday in Edmonds.
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