Irish Session article

Alison Neubauer
Jrn 400
First beat article
780
In the corner of a dimly lit, single room neighborhood bar, a circle of 10 empty chairs await the arrival of their weekly occupants, traditional Irish instrumentalists. These Champaign residents gather each Wednesday at 7 PM In Bentley’s Pub to participate in traditional Irish music sessions.
“It’s a group of local people who all have an interest in in Irish music and get together to play tunes,” said Dean Karres, who plays the Bodhrán, a type of drum. Karres explained that a tune is just a melody, whereas songs have words. 95% of the time they play tunes.
Irish sessions take place in many cities all over the world. Champaign is just one part of a network that connects people from across the map. Karres began playing in sessions in Colorado but has participated in sessions spanning from Kansas, Ireland, Missouri, North Carolina, West Virginia, France, Switzerland and now to Champaign, IL. People can play in sessions anywhere.
“Every opportunity is wonderful. It’s totally for fun,” said Karres. “A session is a social event. Depending on the environment, it could be for the musicians or the audience could get more involved.”
Musicians continue to arrive and join in throughout the night, participating in the songs they know. Not everybody played the entire time but variations of the same people play each week.
“It’s an open thing, any musicians are welcome. You come if you can come,” said Stacey Rose, the owner and a bartender of Bentley’s. She said that anywhere between 4 to 10 musicians come every week. Karres said that they play banjos, fiddles, concertinas, accordions, tin whistles, and sometimes guitars.
“Public sessions, like this one, demand that you know a few tunes and be competent on a couple. You at least have to know how to play an instrument,” said Karres.
Jake Schumacher, with his eyes shut and a closed smile, grooved to the tunes as he played his accordion and sometimes switched to his keyboard. Schumacher is the program director for WILL fm 90.9 and also leads these sessions. He first encountered sessions when he was in Scotland.
“It’s my creative outlet, my chance to influence other people in town that play,” said Schumacher.
Traditional Irish music is not written down. It’s passed from people to people. People learn by ear. Sessions are one of these ways people learn the tunes.
“It’s a general corpus of traditional tunes that has been developed over the last 300 years,” said Schumacher.
Jordan Kaye sat at a table outside of the circle, smiling and tapping his foot to the beat while strumming a mandolin.
“I‘m just a fan. I play more bluegrass and jazz but I do know a few tunes,” said Kaye. Kaye teaches a guitar class at Parkland college. This is his second time at this session but said that he wants to start coming more regularly. He explained the different rhythms of the tunes. A hornpipe is like a sailors dance, the Air is a slow ballad and the Jig has a distinctive rhythm.
Kaye said that they play a mix of these rhythms. People don’t like to hear the same stuff. They play in sets of two or three songs switching right from one to another. It’s a nice transition.
“One famous song is ‘Irish Washerwoman.’ But never request that here. It’s way overplayed,” Kaye laughed, “It’s like the ‘Free Bird’ of Irish music.”
These sessions usually attract the same crowd of people each week , according to Rose, but they do bring in new people.
Bentley’s is a 21 and over bar located in Champaign. They opened in 2003. Bentley’s has been hosting sessions for about 5 years now and picked up the idea from another bar called Mike and Molly’s.
“I enjoy the music,” said Rose, “it’s a good way to bring in a different group of customers. The crowd is a little older and very laid back.”
The musicians do not play for money. Rose said that only the session leader gets paid and it’s 30 dollars.
“It’s really about having fun and companionship,” said Schumacher. He said that people enjoy it at bars.
When Kaye began singing a song, everyone who knew the words joined in, smiling, laughing, clapping their hands, playing instruments and singing loudly together.
Schumacher said that he plays in these sessions because it is fun and that‘s why people participate. There‘s an expression people say, “the craic, it’s the Irish word for fun. You do it for the craic.”



Source List

1. Dean Karres
217-390-3291
dean.karres@gmail.com

2. Jake Schumacher
jakes@illinois.edu

3. Jordan Kaye
217-867-2700
Jkaye@parkland.edu

4. Stacey Rose
217-359-7977
staceyroses@yahoo.com