Stolen Heart

Tonight, my friends from Beggars' Circus will take the stage at Roanoke College's Olin Hall and perform in a joint concert with the nationally known eclectic group , "No Strings Attached." Recently, Beggars' Circus has been riding a wave of popularity that is unbeknownst to them. Many students at Roanoke College know of their fine musical work, and hopefully they will be coming out from behind the woodwork tonight.

What follows is sort of like a review of their latest compact disc.

Stolen Heart

Beggars’ Circus has released their third compact disc, Stolen Heart, and it is packed with Celtic flavors. Their fan is ecstatic.

The group, which consists of Tim Summers, Michelle Lawrence-Walker, and Mary Beth Coffey, is based in the Roanoke/Floyd County area and performs all over the region at festivals and celebrations. Their first CD was entitled Peddlin’ Bedlam which was followed a couple of years later by Moor For the Asking.

The new CD, Stolen Heart, is contains a spiffy mix of traditional reels and tunes.

This review consists of an insightful and sometimes witty look at each track from the new CD. As an added bonus, you will be able to directly link to a snippet from each track (in progress) so that you can validate my insights.

Sarn Mere

No doubt I will mention it over and over here (or maybe naught) that Michelle Lawrence-Walker is a superb wind player. Sarn Mere is hauntingly still. Every breath Lawrence-Walker takes sounds as if it will be her last. Mary Beth Coffey’s resonating viola walks solemnly beside Lawrence-Walker’s flute. It’s as if some doom is being visited or retreated from.

Behind The Bush In The Garden/The Rose of Castleton

Beggars’ Circus provides no clues as to the meaning of this woven piece. Perhaps they are simply allowing me to make up something…and that’s okay by me.

Castleton is a small village in the Peak District in Derbyshire. It’s most famous for the stunning Peak Cavern. This cavern, which has the largest natural cave opening in the British Isles, is also known as “The Devil’s Arse” and is home of the headwaters of the river Styx.

Throughout the piece, the trio happily dances on the devil’s arse.

Julia Delaney

Eileen Ivers performed this tune on her debut solo album, Traditional Irish Music, in 1994. The earliest recording of the song, however, dates back to 1903 according to the Irish Folk tune index.

As a consumer of this music, I find this piece to be driving somewhere, hard at it and percussive.

Paddy’s Lament

Tim stands alone behind the microphone for this song. To say it’s grim and depressing is grossly insufficient. It’s a downright hopeless tale, the kind that Beggars’ Circus brings forth with relish.

I spoke with Tim for some time about this song, and the more we talked about it, the more it struck a chord with me. In the song, “Paddy” leaves for America to see if he can find a way to feed his starving family back in Ireland. As he gets off the boat, he’s conscripted into Lincoln’s army and sent off to fight the Confederates. In the process, he loses a leg and his dreams.

Paddy’s tale isn’t altogether much different than my Polish grandparent’s tale. Some forty years after Paddy came to America, my grandfather came over to find work and to feed his new family. Eventually, he sent for my grandmother and his baby daughter. The voyage for them was very difficult with the baby contracting measles and was being taken from my grandmother. No one ever saw the child again. It is assumed she died on ship. My grandmother was heart-broken, confused by the foreign language, and angry. When the officials tried to give her someone else’s orphaned baby to take the place of her lost daughter, she refused. Paddy’s and my grandparent’s tales were more the norm rather than the exception, I think.

Canfield Polka*Three Penny Bit*The Templehouse Reel

Other-worldly weavings of sound and emotion. That’s what these three tunes share. The trio begins in a time not recognized by modern peoples. Then it morphs onto a table in a smoky pub where it lays out for all to hear.

Parcel of Rogues

Robert Burns. Unification. Dark. Damp. Wood smoke in the kitchen. Not rosy times. Lawrence-Walker’s deep harmonies under Coffey's lonesome lead vocal seal the true sad, depressing nature of this weathered tale.

Scharriff Riffle*Highway to Limerick*The Pigeon on the Gate

With these little pieces, the band marches away into the sea of Side A. Lawrence-Walker's whistle is haunting and driving. This intricate arrangement with a free-flowing manner steals the first half of the recording.

Needles

The band thought themselves extremely clever by placing a recording of a needle scraping across the virgin grooves of blank vinyl at the end of record side. Clever. Very clever.

I Know Who Is Sick

Coffey and Lawrence-Walker vocalize in this relatively painless ditty. They adroitly point out that no one is “sick, dying, crippled, drowned or otherwise inconvenienced for once in this one.”

Blizzard Hambo

Sadness and melancholy is what I absorb when listening to this musical Swedish tale. I want to know who is hurt and why they are suffering. As the tune builds, I cry along with them.

The Gypsy Laddie

When is it okay to allow yourself to succumb to charms from an enchanting, mystical person? Any tine is a good time. Gypsies invade this tune and turn it on its ear. Summers busts out the tune with vigor and a believer’s passion.

The first time I heard this song, I thought of the original Heavy Metal rock group, Jethro Tull. Ian Anderson's vocals on "Aqualung" sound boxed...much like Tim on this song. Hey, if it worked for Ian Anderson, perhaps it will work for Beggars' Circus, too!

Banish Misfortune*The Cat on Her Shoulder

Summers bangs out his percussive guitar beat and the band joins right along with him. Together they explore another side of the conscious reality, a new beginning. Yet it’s not even the last track on Side B.

Bonny George Campbell

Coffey laments the rugged yet beautiful simple life of Scotland back during a time when everything was most harshly simple. Building barns and building a family experience. It’s a life story.

The Kerry Reel*The Lads of Laois*Dunmore Lasses

The group has become known for arrangements of dissimilar tunes and weaving them into a single entity. An excellent finish to the record, this compilation leaves the listener longing for a time and place far from the stress and insanity of the modern world. It’s like it should be. All right.