Boston-based husband and wife duo, Matt and Shannon Heaton — world-class American performers with Irish roots and universal appeal — return to La Grua Center on Friday, September 30 to blend traditional Irish music and instruments with songs from North America. They’ll be bringing Becky Tracy and Keith Murphy to complete their quartet. We sat down with Matt and Shannon and talked about about this cultural blend, working with another duo, and all the various instruments you’ll hear at this concert. Here is an excerpt from that conversation:
What are your favorite musical memories?
(Matt) My father was a church organist. One of my occasional jobs was to turn pages for him. However, a LOT of his music was very old, and the bindings were pretty beat up. I always lived in terror of accidentally flinging a page off the balcony!
What made you take up your instruments (wood flute, guitar)?
(Shannon) I lived in Nigeria when I was young. We had a Belgian neighbor who started teaching me music lessons, first on the recorder, then the flute. I really gained a love of community music making from those early experiences. When I returned to the states and started playing Irish music in earnest, it made sense for me to start playing the wooden (Irish) flute, since that is a much more common instrument than the sliver (modern) flute.
On your podcast, Irish Music Stories, you explore Irish, Scottish, and other Celtic traditions. What inspired you to start showcasing songs from Ireland and how do you weave your own musical influences into your performances?
(Shannon) One of the great things about learning music by ear, is you often have a specific association with a tune. Where and when and from whom you learned it. Those stories have always been part of the music. When I started doing the podcast, it was a natural extension of those stories, and with that medium, it’s possible to weave in many different voices. Doing the podcast has been an extremely challenging and rewarding project, and hopefully has given listeners a bit of insight into how the music can feel to those of us who play it.
You’ve performed as a duo at La Grua Center before and now you’re bringing two more musicians, Becky Tracy (fiddle) and Keith Murphy (various instruments) to Stonington. What is the switch from duo to quartet like? Does anything about the whole process surprise or unexpectedly challenge you?
(Matt) We’re so excited to be coming back! I think we originally scheduled this two years ago, so it’ll be great to finally get back on your stage. Keith and Becky are two of our favorite people and players. Playing with them is a great compliment to our own music, because they have great depth of knowledge of some traditions (Quebecois, Contra Dance) that we really don’t. We’re more of a “Duo Duo” than a “Quartet” as one duo will kind of lead an arrangement, and the other duo gets to fit in around it. It’s a really exciting way to make music.
Speaking of various instruments, our audience might be familiar with the bodhrán, but what about the bouzouki? Isn’t that a Greek style instrument? What makes this a preferred stringed instrument for this concert?
(Matt) It’s originally a Greek instrument. Back in the late 1960s a number of Irish musicians started experimenting with bouzoukis in Irish music, and at this point, it’s become a mainstay. The construction of an Irish bouzouki is different than a traditional Greek one; the Greek bouzouki has a bowl shaped body, and often a longer neck. The Irish bouzouki tends to be a flat, teardrop shape, which brings out the low notes better. It looks like an overgrown mandolin. As I like to joke, my instrument is a real world traveller: it’s an Irish version of a Greek instrument which was built by a Scottish guy who lives in New Zealand.
In these strange times we live in, what do you hope is the message of your music? What do you hope our audience will take away from your performance on Friday?
(Shannon) That’s a big question! I think that music is one of the things which actually can bring people together; we’ve all sat down and played tunes with folks who might not share the same politics. As a listener, music can transport people, and sometimes feeding the soul with beauty is necessary for folks to keep going. Hopefully we can provide a little light amidst the dark.
