Long Time Courting: Reviews

Maggie Dean, featuring the lilting voice and inventive phrasing of flautist Shannon Heaton, tells the story of a woman seeking work aboard a ship, traditionally a man's place. When the heartbreaking chorus enters, the women sing together "this fair maid she stole away to seek a trade" atop lush drones provided by the haunting tones of Ariel Friedman's cello and Sarah Blair's fiddle. As guitarist Liz Simmons joins Heaton with a soprano line supporting the verse, we are swept away in the story of Maggie, who proves herself to be quite able to work in a man's world."

We're lucky to be living in an age where gender stereotypes are fading away, yet I continue to feel that music is dominated by men. Listening to Long Time Courting, I'm struck by their precision and creativity– this is not a "girl band" for the sake of being so. These women are true masters of their craft. Their driving rhythms are decidedly feminine, and I mean that in the best way. Friedman's cello becomes an alto voice or a percussive tool, the melodies are taken to a new level with the glorious playing of Heaton and Blair on flute and fiddle, respectively, and Simmons provides a deep groove with the guitar. Each woman sings beautifully, and when they all join together, the effect is tremendous. I'm a sucker for inventive harmonies, and Long Time Courting delivers every time.

Montpelier’s Sarah Blair, a nationally recognized Irish fiddle star, is a member of the Boston-based Long Time Courting, and their first CD “Alternate Routes” has just been released. It is an exceptionally good album that puts this four-woman band in the spotlight as one of the best new groups playing in the Celtic genre.

Blair, who has previously recorded with The Sevens, and released her own solo CD two years ago, has found her musical soul mates in Ariel Friedman on cello, Liz Simmons on guitar and Shannon Heaton on flute. Each sings, although Simmons delivers most of the leads on this 11-track album.

While the best-known all-female Irish/Celtic group is Cherish the Ladies, Long Time Courting shows that an all-woman band is not a gimmick. The singing here is sweet and interesting and the instrumentals flow like the smoothest Irish whiskey. The vocal harmonies reminded me of the clarity that the Anonymous Four brought to its American folk music album. LTC’s vocals blend well resulting in a full-bodied listening experience.

Cello is not a traditional Celtic instrument although it has been used effectively in Scottish music, but Friedman’s harmony lines here help give the arrangements a “bottom” that is often lacking in the Irish harmonic landscape.

Simmons is a very good guitarist, with a solid understanding of the rhythmic role the instrument plays. Heaton is a leading flute/whistle player with many years’ experience in the Boston Irish music scene.

Blair’s fiddle prowess is well known, but over the years she’s kept a somewhat low profile, devoting most of her time to teaching and playing locally with many different musicians and bands. LTC might require her to step out more and it would be good for audiences to hear her stylish approach to the fiddle.

The songs on this album, “Maggie Dean,” “My Johnny Was a Shoemaker,” “Barbara Allen,” “Islander’s Lament” and “The Miller and the Lass,” highlight this group’s ability to take material that is either obscure (“Maggie Dean”) or seemingly overplayed (“Barbara Allen”) and breathe new life into it.

The instrumentals are also chosen well, with new tunes for the listener to contemplate.

Overall, this is a very satisfying album that should bring Long Time Courting lots of concert work, and listeners many pleasurable hours.

Alternate Routes: that is the name of a tune, a set, and a new album from the band Long Time Courting. It also works to give a hint of the music within, and the routes the four women of the band took to get to it.

The story of Maggie Dean starts things off. Maggie disguises herself as a man to sail away on a ship bound for America, not, as is common in such songs, to follow her man, but rather to seek a trade. She ends up making a life on the sea, not, as is also common in such tales, rescued by becoming the captain’s wife, but rather learning the seafaring trade herself and marrying a fellow sailor. A traditional melody carries this turn on the familiar story in words composed by Shannon Heaton. Heaton plays flutes and whistles with Long Time Courting. Sarah Blair is on fiddle, Liz Simmons plays guitar, and Ariel Friedman plays cello. All four of the women sing. The New England based musicians also have other commitments from teaching to touring to playing in duos, trios, and other bands, and among them they have worked with artists ranging from the Eagles to the Clancy Legacy.

What they have created with Long Time Courting is not so much a blend of talents as it is a tapestry, with bright threads of voice and instrument weaving in and out, coming to the fore and supporting in the background through a series of musical conversations that comprise both song and tune. LTC is rooted in Irish music, but they bring in American roots and on occasion other threads of music as well. The song Barbara Allen is well known on both sides of the Atlantic and in many different styles. LTC offers it in slowed down form, almost as a lament, with a nod to Johnny Cash as as well as to tradition. It is also a very fine instance of how the women’s singing creates a whole that is more than the sum of its parts.

Their collaboration through their instruments is equally strong. The Alternates Routes set, which bookends Heaton’s original title track with two traditional pieces, finds the meeting of rhythm from Simmons guitar, breath of Heaton’s flute and dialogue between the bright sound of Blair's fiddle and the darker tone of Friedman’s cello all carrying the story with no words needed. The York Street Stepper set is another place to note this, as the title tune from LTC founding member Ellery Klein kicks off the journey and weaves in to two pieces from the tradition.

Each of the songs -- there are five of them, including My Johnny Was a Shoemaker, from the tradition, and Islander’s Lament, a contemporary song written by Robbie O’Connell -- offer strong story, engaging voice, great harmony, and thoughtful playing. The six tune sets deliver as well, and all show greater depth which each listening. A well woven tapestry, this, and a thoughtful musical journey, one which reveals more color and depth with each listening.