Kennedy's Kitchen A Pocketful of Lint
Irish
American News:
March 2007
Freelance Writer: Joseph Harvey
Kennedy's
Kitchen at DeBartollo Performing Arts Center with Tommy Makem
Photo by Patrick Ryan
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Kennedy's Kitchen A Pocketful of Lint Freelance Writer: Joseph Harvey We
Irish know that our music is at it's best in spontaneous moments: the
back snug
of a small pub after hours, singing with friends on a sidewalk as we
walk home
in the rain, or sitting in the kitchen over pots of tea.
Kennedy's Kitchen plays its music there, in the kitchen, the
heart of
any Irish home, where our music is at its intimate best.
On stage and on recordings they strive
for that same intense intimacy, the mystery, wonder, and just pure darn
fun of
our ancient music. A
Pocketful of Lint, their
third CD,
shows the comfort and polish of almost ten years together.
The first years they sessioned as
friends, family, and neighbors just getting together each week to play
traditional Irish tunes and to sing a bit as do so many Irish in pubs,
coffee
houses, and homes all around the world. These
last five years Kennedy's Kitchen has been a working
band, and it
shows. With A Pocketful of Lint the band has arrived. Their
original compositions and fresh takes on old favorites
honor the tradition while showing astonishing ambition for a local band
from
South Bend, Indiana. Sleeping
Under The Tables, the opening
track
of the CD begins with a traditional sound, a bare whistle and bodhran. The track then builds, bringing
the listener from the old world sitting by the hearth to a big, full,
new
sound. That first tune is
original, by Nolan Ladewski, the
band-leader joHn Kennedy's nephew, but it sounds ancient.
It might be a Donegal tune, repetitive,
driving, the sound of an army in the final maddening march to an
inevitable
war. The next two tunes in that
opening track are well worn veterans, The Musical Priest and The
Salamanca. Many tracks on the CD
begin this way, a traditional, spare sound, perhaps an unaccompanied
voice, and
then instruments and layers are added while maintaining the traditional
core of
Irish musicÉwhich is the intense love of melody. In
a pub or concert, an evening of music with Kennedy's Kitchen is a carefully unplanned event,
joHn says, ÒWe know how we intend to
start a show and we know how we intend to finish up, and sometimes it
works out
that way; but we let the middle of an evening take care of itself. The best musical moments are usually
surprises so we try to leave room for that to happen.
In Kennedy's
Kitchen hear whistles, fiddle,
guitar,
bodhran, mandolin, tenor banjo, bass, songs (both old and new), voices
(both
old and young), stories (exaggerated to the point of being true), all
together
with joHn Kennedy, his nephew Nolan Ladewski (O'Brien), Chris O'Brien,
Bob
Harke, and Rob Weber. No, they
have not put out a cookbook yet, but it's only a
matter of
time. In
concert you might hear a moving recitation or an unaccompanied voice
raised in
song. In a pub you might hear the
sacred text of Finnegan's Wake,
the unabridged version, telling of how Saint Patrick himself converted
the
pagans of ancient Ireland to the church and the message of
self-sacrifice by
singing to them in the language that they understood: whiskey, the
water of
life. In concert or pub you'll tap
your toes to jigs, reels, and hornpipes played with imagination and joy. On a great night, if only for moments,
we'll all feel like we are sitting together in a small kitchen, that
we've
known each other all these years, shared the tragedies spoken of in our
songs,
and risen together again and again to dance and sing another day. |