It was 2002 and as luck would have it, I bumped into Paddy at a large open air music festival…Andrew with a whistle bag slung over his shoulder and Paddy with a bodhran on his back. He looked a bit odd, and still does. We had never met, but quickly become great buddies with music an ongoing theme in our friendship. At the time, I was playing a duo with John Gilligan…just a great time back then…we sang all the rebel songs, opened for Hadrian’s Wall, played a few AOH conventions, the odd fundraiser, and drank a lot of coffee. It was a blast really. We had this tiny PA, a guitar, 2 whistles and a melodica. In any event…Paddy was brought on as a third. The three of us played regularly while Paddy and I played on together frequently as a duo, recorded the unreleased “Skibbereen” , and began to develop the repertoire that was the early backbone of cliudan with tunes like Ye Jacobytes, Barrett’s, Lord Randall, and Sam Hall still sneaking onto our set lists today.
It was in 2003 that I called up an old friend to have a bit of a session. Noah had been out of state working down in the South and was just now coming back to New York. A very long night at my kitchen table…we worked an old seeger tune I had, which side are you one, that night…the same way we most recently recorded it. It was a good night shared by a couple of old friends with a lot of tunes…Noah agreed to help get something going. cliudan was off the ground in the original three-man format, the same love of this music and mix of personality that remains at the core of our sound to this day.
cliudan quickly organized, adding Lydia Bergevin on fiddle and Al Izzo on bass. I came across Lydia sessioning with a fiddle in one hand and a macchiato dopio in the other. We played a few tunes and things clicked well. We played a bunch of tunes that day but I mostly remember a set we half-taught each other that became “the 4 way” as we recorded it and continue to play it. Al Izzo was working the same day job as Paddy at the time and they both seemed equally thrilled to be there…with much conversation over coffee, commiserating, and the like. It turned out Al was a bassist and I went over to his place for a few tunes. It went well enough we asked him along for the rather spontaneous project that came to be “The King Street Sessions”. The day we recorded it was the first time Noah had ever met Lydia or Al. We recorded the thing at Paddy’s old house, all of us in the same room with all of it going down in unison in single takes. We put some good tunes on that one though…I’ve always been partial to Back Home in Derry as it went down that day on King Street.
We had something going, booked a bunch of shows, drank a lot of gingerale, and saw a lot of New York state. Some very long car rides, late nights, bad hotels…it was a good and exciting time for us. The music was just alive for all of us, with new tunes working their way into sets daily. It was shortly thereafter that Al Izzo left the group to pursue and further grow his acoustic solo act which he continues with to present.
In Al’s absence, I called up an old friend of John Gilligan’s (John was going it alone with his solo act at this point, which he continues with to this date when not on stage with cliudan…but I’m getting ahead of myself). Pat Curley was a well-known bassist in the area, with a really eclectic and driven style of play. His bottom line was a driving force through his tenure with us, and stands up nicely on the “cliudan live 2004” recording. In time, Pat also moved on and has since enjoyed playing in a number of standout local rock and jam groups.
All the while, cliudan continued playing as heavily and traveling as wide and far as multiple day jobs, parenthood, and such would allow. At this point, we were gigging throughout the Northeast from Buffalo to Massachussetts, Ottawa to NY Metro, Pennsylvania and so many great places in between. We went it as a four piece very nicely over the next one year, laying down our third release “whiskey on sunday” as a sort of tribute to all the friends and family that had been there for us from day one. It was a nice collection of tunes though my favorite has always been Noah and Lydia singing North and South. It was well-received, got us on the radio, and got us a bunch more work. We were as busy as ever. It was at shortly after this that our original fiddler Lydia Bergevin left the group to have more time with her young family. In her absence, Noah, Paddy and I continued to play a heavy schedule as a trio, with the occasional guest musician, but really just going at it again as the same three guys that got the ball rolling to begin with.
As in the past, the three of us took a look at each other, dug in deep, and began the largest and most creative evolution of our music to that point. We were heavily influenced by Christy Moore, Old Blind Dogs, Neil Andersen, Solas, the Prodigals, The Bothy Band, Planxy, Moving Hearts, Rusted Root, and really just far too many other great folks to ever mention, much less do any real justice in this kind of forum. We kept very busy…opened for the Makem Brothers, learned more tunes, forget more tunes. It was at this time, as we began to really develop our own driven acoustelt sound that we asked our old friend John Gilligan to come on board and handle some percussion…which he of course did, and is still doing, naturally and wonderfully.
We quickly settled in, and a whole new body of material was coming together. We decided it was again time to record. The tracks on “Smoke and Strong Whiskey” really seemed to choose themselves, like so much of this music seems to choose the people that play it. We’ve all played most of our lives, and feel fortunate to have this music, and each others company. We feel even more fortunate to have so many people interested in our music and what we’re doing. Without your support we’d still be in my kitchen…which really isn’t a bad thing after all. We’re now moving ahead, stronger and more energized and excited about the music than we’ve ever been. We hope to see you soon.
Thanks for everything!
andrew