A postcard after sunrise
Local Notes: Irish music for all ages
Posted Thursday, December 28, 2006
LAS VEGAS --- This morning, I woke up with a view of the Tour Eiffel. In another window, the sun rose over the Arc de Triomphe. Last night, I had margaritas and juicy carintas quesadillas inside an Italian plaza, accented with a fountain of talking Roman gods. Vegas lets anyone travel to other parts of the world through a network of walkways, monorails and taxi cabs. The other day, I visited a Vegas interpretation of an Irish pub inside the Big Apple. Nine Fine Irishmen welcomes gamblers with warm candle light, Guinness and Murphy's on tap and quotes from Irish poets and rebels. According to the bartender, I looked 17. Someday, this mistake will feel like a blessing. At least that's what people tell me.
You can also find a Kansas version of the Irish pub at Frances O'Dooleys. On the weekends, Kansas native goes back to his Hibernian roots at O'Dooleys....entertaining the bar crowd with traditional tunes. Rich Stevenson is the Irish Rebel at O'Dooleys and he was kind enough to join me in an e-mail interview about his music. 
KVP: How did you get started with performing Irish music?
Stevenson: There is just so much variety within one style of music, that it’s always appealed to me. Once, while my brother Kenny and were driving to Colorado to meet up with another brother and our dad to do some trout fishing, I taught him the words to the song “Garryowen”. We had a ball singing that at the top of our lungs and that memory has always stuck with me. My wife and I go to the Weston Irish Festival quite often and the “infectious” feeling that comes with being there is another large part of it. Playing at the Irish Festivals is a large part of why I got into this, but now I’m too busy to travel to the festivals, and that’s ok too!
KVP: Many of your lyrics are rebellious, bawdy and often about the underdogs. What are these songs rebelling against?
RS: First of all, please understand that my “Irish Rebel” songs are performed, for the most part, as nostalgia and there’s no hatred felt or intended, but, more a “wonderment” at how a people could find joy in song at the worst of times. Quite often, O’Dooley’s and myself will host visitors from Ireland and the UK, who are very excited about hearing, especially the rebel songs as many of these songs have been banned from pubs in Ireland and the UK because of the feelings they can sometimes incite.
The simple “one word” answer to the question is: Tyranny. Within the answer “Tyranny” lies: Oppression, conscription, internment, partition, apartheid and religious persecution. The extended answer is a people’s 800 year struggle for freedom at the hands of a ruthless oppressor. In this 800 year struggle, nearly every generation of Irish has “risen up” against British rule.
At one point in Irish history, it was also treasonous to speak in their native tongue, to use the Gaelic spelling of their names, or sing songs of Ireland or of her patriot heroes, so the Irish began singing “In Code” if you will. (For example): The term “The Old Woman” would often be used to speak of Ireland. And “The Stranger” was commonly known as Britain.
KVP: Your gigs at Frances O'Dooley's are fun, rowdy and interactive. Many enjoy singing-along. What is the history of the call-and-response format of Irish music?
RS: Music is such a large part of Irish culture and tradition. It is very common, in Ireland, for a fellow to start singing a song and the pub, as a whole, joins in with him. The call-and-response that’s used in many of these sing-along songs, allows everybody to join in on selected portions of a song without having to know all the words. Oft times it is the crowd who develops a certain response that can quickly become part of the repertoire, which has happened a number of times with the fun crowd we get at O’Dooley’s. I also provide songbooks at my gigs for anybody who’d like to sing along and it is highly encouraged.
KVP: What are your musical inspirations?
RS: My musical inspirations are endless and continue to grow. I’ve played drums and sung in bands nearly every weekend since I was 13 years old. In this 34 years I’ve played in (swing) “Big Bands”, Country/Rock bands, Country/Swing bands and Rock bands. When I turned 18, I moved to California and was the drummer with a 10 piece band that backed up an Elvis impersonator. I even had a Rockabilly band together in the ‘80s with which I was the drummer and lead singer. Each and every one of these music styles has made an impression on me of some degree.
More recently, my biggest inspirations are the Irish band “Planxty” of which Andy Irvine is the Bouzouki player. The complex rhythm patterns in his heart-felt songs trigger a deeper feeling in me than I can explain.
KVP: Is performing music your full-time job?
RS: Not yet.
KVP: What else do you do?
RS: I’ve been an industrial maintenance engineer at Dolly Madison/Hostess (IBC) in Emporia for the past 20+ years and have recently given that up because of the gas prices. I’m currently selling items on eBay including my Championship Duck Calls (I was the Kansas State Duck Calling Champion in 1999) - handmade from deer antler and exotic woods.
KVP: At the Irish Festival in Kansas City - I checked out a show by Seven Nations from Florida. I was impressed at seeing this amazing range of ages in the crowd - from kids to grandparents. What makes modern and traditional Irish music appealing to all ages?
RS: I feel the variety of the music itself is what makes it appealing to a variety of ages. The themes of most of these songs is something most everybody can understand and when you combine that with a powerful and upbeat delivery, even if you missed the message or story in the song, you can still tap your toe to it.
KVP: What is the most outrageous thing to ever happen during your live performances?
RS: Kris, you’ve really made me dig into the old memory bank for this one. While playing at O’Dooley’s, nothing too outlandish has occurred. A friend of mine proposed marriage to another friend of mine right in front of me. There was a night when an Irishman, an Englishman and a Scotman (sounds like a joke lead in eh?) were all having a great time singing along and kidding each other. If I include all the bands and venues I’ve played at since I was 13 the list grows quickly.
- guy falls into my drums and bleeds on them
- guy falls into bass players bass and breaks it
- streaker
- guy steals guitar
- guy gets thrown through plate glass window directly behind my drum riser
- smoke bomb hurled into dance hall
- mooned by 12 people from the peak of a barn at an outdoor dance
- guy loses girl while swing dancing and she falls into my drums
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The Irish Rebel performs every Friday and Saturday night at O'Dooley's (9:00 to 12:00).
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