Where does the time go? I can’t believe that Mithril is celebrating nearly a decade together. We started as a duo – Andra Bohnet playing Irish flute, whistle, and Celtic harp with me on fiddle, mandolin, octave mandolin and guitar. This was going to be our ‘hobby’ music—just something to play . . . → Read More: ‘Along the Road’ with Mithril-Our New CD]]>

The New CD from Mithril

Where does the time go? I can’t believe that Mithril is celebrating nearly a decade together. We started as a duo – Andra Bohnet playing Irish flute, whistle, and Celtic harp with me on fiddle, mandolin, octave mandolin and guitar. This was going to be our ‘hobby’ music—just something to play for fun. But fun turned into an obsession with Irish Trad music, and that obsession grew as we played as a duo at restaurants and functions around the area. In late 2002, we released the first Mithril CD, Banish Misfortune, and thanks to the magic of studio overdubbing, Andra and I played almost every single note on the CD.

Of course we quickly realized that if we were ever to perform those tracks live, our band would need a few more members. After a number of false starts with a variety of players, Ben Harper came in as guitarist and original percussionist David Hughes took over the rhythm duties until his departure in late 2011.

What a trip the past 10 years have been! And now we are releasing our 6^th CD, appropriately titled, Along the Road.

The new album features Andra, Ben and I playing our usual instruments, along with two new masters of rhythm, Sam Gaston (on a wide assortment of ‘world’ percussion) and Andy Kruspe (on bodhran, the traditional Irish frame drum).

Mithril, l to r: Sam Gaston, Andra Bohnet, Ben Harper, Tom Morley

Recently, Thomas Harrison with Mobile Press-Register (read his complete article here) asked me how the band has changed over the years, and I only had to think for a minute before I knew the answer. I told him that we’ve changed a lot, yet we really haven’t changed at all. We’ve played from one end of the country to the other, for intimate groups and gymnasiums full of school children, by ourselves and fronting 60-piece orchestras for audiences of thousands, every way we could think of to share our love of Celtic music with our fans.

I know that along the road, we’ve become seasoned performers and have honed our craft as well as any musicians could. But the original vision of the band hasn’t changed in the least. We’ve always loved Celtic music in all its forms—energetic jigs and reels, slow and beautiful airs and tunes, from the simplest instrumentation to the most complex arrangements, all mixed together with exotic melodies and high-energy rhythms from around the world. That’s the formula we started with on the very first Mithril album and have continued refining right up to this latest release as well.

We will officially release Along with Road on St. Patrick’s Day at our performance with our favorite “60-piece back up band,” the Mobile Symphony. This will be our fourth appearance with the MSO, I’m proud to say, and it’s always great fun to play with our friends.

The CD is available at Dr. Music in Fairhope, and at the Mobile Arts Council in downtown Mobile. It will also soon be available at other local locations and at websites including cdbaby.com and out own Flying Frog Music online catalog store.

I’m thinking back fondly of the week I spent teaching Irish and Old-Time Fiddle to 5 big classes of students of all ages and abilities at the Mark O’Connor Method Camp in Charleston SC.  This first Method Camp came together in August 2011 with the . . . → Read More: O’Connor String Method Camp-Looking Back & Looking Ahead]]>

Teaching Irish Fiddle Tunes at the O'Connor Method Camp Aug. 2011

I’m thinking back fondly of the week I spent teaching Irish and Old-Time Fiddle to 5 big classes of students of all ages and abilities at the Mark O’Connor Method Camp in Charleston SC.  This first Method Camp came together in August 2011 with the help of Pam Wiley and a host of other string teachers from around the country who have embraced the ‘New American School of String Playing’ that Mark has developed. I had the pleasure of working (and sometimes jamming!) alongside teachers including Ashley Liberty, Jaime Letourneau, and Andy Reiner to mention just a few. I had some of the best teaching experiences of my career, showing students who were learning to play violin using O’Connor Method Books 1 & 2 some Irish reels, jigs and polkas.

My fiddle classes met on the site of the historic Circular Church

If Mark’s method focuses on American music in all its glorious diversity, how did I get invited to teach Irish fiddle music, you may well ask. American music (especially fiddle tunes and folk songs) has its roots in the immigrants who left their original homes to make a new life in America, of course. And that includes millions from Ireland and Scotland. Many of them arrived to this country with little but the clothes on their backs-and their music. And the music of those Scots-Irish settlers could be called the ‘taproot’ of American Roots music! Irish music has enjoyed a great resurgence in popularity starting in the 1970s, when it was featured at the Smithsonian Institution’s Bicentennial Festival on American Folklife in 1976.

I may be looking back at the great experiences I had teaching at the first O’Connor Method Camp, but I’m also looking forward to returning to teach at the Second Annual Camp, which will be held in Charleston once again, July 30-August 3rd. This time around I’ll be teaching ‘Advanced Irish Tunes & Ornamentation’. I look forward to showing students who have advanced into the brand-new Method Book 3, some fancier jigs & reels. We’ll learn the ‘bones’ of the tunes first and then I’ll demonstrate how to layer ornaments (and slurs) into the melodies to really give them that authentic Irish sound.

We learned some tunes from music, and others by ear.

Make sure you check out the Method Camp website here and maybe I’ll see you at my Irish Fiddle class this year!

Here’s an update on the Irish Fiddle Workshops I’ll be giving in July & August, and the Summer Camps that I’ll also be teaching at. There’s something here for players of every age and every level!

In Pensacola, Florida, Jonathan Clark has been running a great 2-week Summer String Festival . . . → Read More: Share a Fiddle Tune With Me at an Upcoming Workshop/Summer Camp]]>

It's fun to learn Irish Fiddle tunes!

Here’s an update on the Irish Fiddle Workshops I’ll be giving in July & August, and the Summer Camps that I’ll also be teaching at. There’s something here for players of every age and every level!

In Pensacola, Florida, Jonathan Clark has been running a great 2-week Summer String Festival at 1st United Methodist Church for several years now. This year he’ll hold the 5th annual camp from June 19-July 1st and he’s chosen a theme that I really like, ‘A Celtic Celebration’. I will be coming in to work with his students each day during week 2 (June 27-July 1). I’ll be teaching them tunes not only from Ireland, but also from the other ‘Celtic Nations’ including Scotland, Galicia and Britany. This camp is open to intermediate students ages 10-14. Contact Jonathan Clark at 850-341-5759 for more information and to sign your child up for this fun and educational experience!

The Alabama Folk School at Camp McDowell in Nauvoo, Alabama will be hosting its 2nd Annual Irish Music & Crafts Weekend on July 22-24, and I will be returning to once again teach Irish fiddling. If you are an adult novice player who would like to learn some Irish jigs & reels, then this weekend camp is for you! (Teens accompanied by an adult are also invited.) I’ll be joined by Jil Chambless (flute, whistle) & Dan Vogt (Celtic guitar), Roberta Stamp (set dancing) and Dena Hand (Drawing Celtic Knots). Jil, Dan & I will even put on a little concert for everyone on Saturday night. Visit the Alabama Folk School page at the Camp McDowell website here for more information.

And last but certainly not least, I’ll be teaching Irish & Old-Time Fiddling to children of all ages at the Mark O’Connor String Method Camp in Charleston, South Carolina, August 1-5. This camp is the newest addition to the series of prestigious fiddle camps that iconic performer/educator Mark O’Connor has been holding for well over a decade. The focus at this camp will be his new highly-acclaimed ‘American String Method’ books, and students will be learning & playing fun American music from the method throughout the week, in addition to enjoying elective classes (including my Irish & Old-Time fiddle classes). I hope you’ll visit the official website for the camp here as there is so much more information than I can include here in my blog!

It’s going to be an exciting summer for me as I travel throughout the south, meeting new string students and teachers and making new friends along the way!

In addition to our bi-monthly slow sessions, the Fairhope Irish Trad Workshop Players have been keeping busy recently. On Feb. 20th we presented our first official concert at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fairhope (with almost 100 audience members in attendance!) and there was also a  wonderful feature article . . . → Read More: Fairhope Irish Trad Workshop Players upcoming performance @ 5 Rivers]]>

Fairhope Irish Trad Workshop Players in concert 2/20/11

In addition to our bi-monthly slow sessions, the Fairhope Irish Trad Workshop Players have been keeping busy recently. On Feb. 20th we presented our first official concert at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fairhope (with almost 100 audience members in attendance!) and there was also a  wonderful feature article about the group in the March issue of Coastal Lifestyles magazine.

Now we  invite everyone to join us at the 3rd Annual Delta Woods & Waters Expo at 5 Rivers Delta Resource Center. Family Day at the Expo is Saturday, April 30th–there will be fun family activities and music all day long. I’ll be leading a group of the FIT Workshop Players in a rousing set of Irish jigs & reels from 12noon until 1pm. So come out and enjoy the Delta and some Celtic music too!

From the Coastal Lifestyles magazine article Fiddling Around in Fairhope:

“I’m best known as a Celtic/folk fiddler these days, but my very first solo CD reflects my long musical journey through almost every genre of music. You might say this album was 50 years in the making, dating back to when I first picked up a violin as a very young lad. I call . . . → Read More: ‘The Raven’s Wing’-The New Solo CD from Fiddler Tom Morley is NOW AVAILABLE!]]>

“I’m best known as a Celtic/folk fiddler these days, but my very first solo CD reflects my long musical journey through almost every genre of music. You might say this album was 50 years in the making, dating back to when I first picked up a violin as a very young lad. I call it a ‘curious collection of fiddle tunes’ because it touches on a number of genres that I’ve enjoyed playing with many outstanding musicians throughout my career. It’s a mix of original and traditional tunes–some well-known and some obscure–with Celtic, Old-time, Bluegrass/Americana, New Acoustic, World, Jazz, and Western Swing all represented. And while I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel here, I admit that sometimes I stirred them up a bit as well. My goal was to present some good tunes, well-played. I hope you agree. Enjoy!”

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On ‘The Raven’s Wing’, Tom is featured playing violin, fiddle, mandolin, octave mandolin, Irish tenor banjo, and guitar. Guest musicians include David Hughes, Ben Harper & Andra Bohnet of Mithril; Mobile Bay area jazz & bluegrass players Corky Hughes, Joe Morris Jr., Phil Proctor and Daniel Wainwright; and Birmingham string bassist Tim Carroll Jr. Special guests are Nashville accordionist Jeff Taylor (who performs and records with Ricky Skaggs & Elvis Costello among others); Buck Reid (long-time steel guitarist in Lyle Lovett’s Large Band); and New Orleans clarinet icon Tim Laughlin.

TO ORDER YOUR COPY OF ‘THE RAVEN’S WING’ FROM THE FLYING FROG MUSIC ONLINE STORE, SIMPLY CLICK HERE (THEN SCROLL DOWN TO MY NAME)! The CD is also available at cdbaby.com, and you can purchase tracks there as digital downloads.

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TRACK LISTING (listen to samples of every track here)

1. Stedman’s Landing (T. Morley)

2. Georgiana Starlington Waltz (T.Morley)

3. Lost in the Loop (Liz Carroll)

4. The Raven’s Wing/The Wise Maid/Dinkey Dorian’s (trad.)

5. Off to Alabama/Sarah Armstrong’s Reel (L. Hobbs/trad.)

6. Cold Frosty Morning (trad.)

7. The Blacksmith Jig/Garrett Barry’s/ The Old Favorite (trad.)

8. Heart of the Heartland (P. Ostroushko)

9. Last Night’s Fun (trad.)

10. Crossing the Cumberlands (B. Monroe)

11. Echoes of New Orleans (T. Morley)

12. Red Wing (trad.)

I recently spent a wonderful music-filled week in Victoria, which is the capital city of British Columbia, located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada’s southwest Pacific coast. There is much to love about this city, but I’ll leave that to the travel writers. I’m here with the ‘Fiddler’s Guide’ . . . → Read More: A Fiddler’s Guide to Victoria, BC, part 1]]>

Victoria BC by night

I recently spent a wonderful music-filled week in Victoria, which is the capital city of British Columbia, located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada’s southwest Pacific coast. There is much to love about this city, but I’ll leave that to the travel writers. I’m here with the ‘Fiddler’s Guide’ to the area. There is quite a tradition of folk music in Victoria, with many fine fiddlers making their homes there, not to mention many opportunities for the large number of ‘hobby fiddlers’ in the community as well.

I started out the first evening at Hermann’s Jazz Club, which (as the name implies) usually features Jazz & Swing bands. But on this occasion, I was lucky to attend  a folk/acoustic showcase. The quartet Flash in the Pan performed a set of vocal & instrumental originals and cover tunes in a bluegrass vein, featuring the crisp, clean fiddling of Miriam Sonstenes.  Miriam is well known around the area for her versatility, playing with Flash in the Pan, folk trio Shearwater, old-time music duo Sweet Ginger, and several other bands, and in addition she leads the Victoria Conservatory Fiddles (which reminds me a bit of my Fairhope Slow session group). It was great meeting her after the show and talking shop about fiddling & teaching with her. Of all the souvenirs I took home from the trip, it’s an old-time fiddle tune that Miriam played – one of her signature tunes called ‘Feed Your Horse Corn & Hay’ – that may be my favorite.

Victoria's Irish Times Pub

The next evening I made the first of several visits to the Irish Times Pub in Victoria, a fine downtown establishment that features Irish music 7 nights a week! Fiddler Calvin Cairns, a well known Canadian fiddler, teacher and musical entertainer, was holding court there with a Celtic duo. Calvin added great fiddle flourishes and passionate solos to every song, and tore into some amazingly energetic sets of reels & jigs on both fiddle and concertina. Calvin has entertained audiences coast-to-coast across Canada and in many countries around the world and it was easy for me to see why! He was also a gracious person (as was most everyone we met) and invited me and my wife Fran to take the stage, where we played some fiddle & bodhran duets ourselves. It was great fun!

Calvin Cairns & Quinn Bachand @ Irish Times Pub

The very next evening back at the Irish Times Pub, Calvin was performing with a different partner – 14 year old guitar wunderkind Quinn Bachand. The two of them sounded great on every set! Quinn has been recognized as “one of the best Celtic guitar accompanists in the world” by famous Cape Breton fiddler Ashley MacIsaac and I could tell why instantly. Later that night I sat in with Quinn and it was a real treat. His rhythmic drive and use of inventive chord patterns bring to mind the playing of John Doyle.

I have plenty more to tell about Quinn and his fiddling sister Qristina in my next post. I’ll also report on sitting in with about 60 others fiddlers in the Victoria Fiddlers Society monthly jam, and about the most energetic Irish session I think I’ve ever played in!

In the choir room at Trinity Presbyterian Church this past Sunday, we had a great Slow Session meeting. It was a big group, with 18 players participating (from a current roster of around 30). We played a selection of jigs & reels from our current repertoire (‘The Old Favorite’, ‘Out . . . → Read More: Fairhope Irish Trad Slow Session Fun]]>

Fairhope Alabama Slow Session Players

In the choir room at Trinity Presbyterian Church this past Sunday, we had a great Slow Session meeting. It was a big group, with 18 players participating (from a current roster of around 30). We played a selection of jigs & reels from our current repertoire (‘The Old Favorite’, ‘Out on the Ocean’, ‘Saddle The Pony’, ‘Dunmore Lasses’, ‘Crowley’s Reel’ & O’Carolan’s ‘Sheebeg & Sheemore’ to name a few) and also spent some time listening to classic Irish trad recordings from The Chieftains and Teada (my new favorite Irish band).

As the last player left after the two hour get-together, I turned off the lights, locked the door behind me and left in high spirits. The music alone is guaranteed to lift anyone’s spirits, but it was much more than that for me. I was proud of how the group has grown in size since I started it in December 2009, and by how much they’ve learned. I was also pleased by the diversity of the group – a mix of players of every age, from teens to seniors, and from all walks of life. This wonderful music has brought them all together and now we’re having a great time of it as we learn to play Irish traditional music as authentically as possible (just not so fast)!

The Fairhope, Alabama Irish Trad Slow Session meets every other Sunday afternoon from 4:00 until 6:00pm. If you play violin, flute, whistle, Irish tenor banjo, guitar, accordion or hammered dulcimer at an intermediate level, have an interest in playing some fun music, and live in the Alabama gulf coast area, I hope you’ll contact me here at thefiddlecenter.com. The invitation is always open to join in the fun!