Lilt @ Jammin Java, Washington DC - March 160, 2013.
This excellent local duo was able to squeeze in a matinee show at the Jammin Java in between the many sets they are performing this weekend, when their music is the soundtrack for so many people headed to the clubs. But this is the perfect way for me to celebrate St. Patrick's Day--Irish music with a small enthusiastic sober crowd (I'll happily cover the Pogues another time of the year).
Lilt played its usual set of reels and jigs and even slipped in a song with vocals and a traditional sounding tune written in the last few years. Even staying tight within the genre, there was a lot of variety here.
They again invited a dancer to join in on a few songs. Today, it was a woman from Footworks adding a modern Irish style which including the shocking visage of her arms moving. That subtle addition brought a jazzy flair to the dancing which helped in the usual manner with a percussive strike to the floor or top of a barrel (nice touch).
The bouzouki and banjo of Keith Carr and the flute and tin whistle of Tina Eck worked the usual magic as they locked into these classic tunes. There is a circular flow to most classic folk songs and a lot of ancient music in general where the song seemingly ends at the beginning with an active and natural flowing walkabout in between.
It was easy to drift off into this music today as their playing is of such great quality and feeling. It was this Irish music that many years ago set me digging in deeper to all forms of European folk music and psychedelic folk music of the 1960s and 1970s, so it is important that I can still take it in, especially when it is played as well as Lilt is capable of. They also added a pleasant stage presence with nice stories of the songs and what is going on for them. You owe it to yourself to take in traditional music at least once in a while, and I can recommend few better than Lilt.
First published @ dcrocklive.blogspot.com.
Photo Credits:
(1)-(2) Lilt (unknown).
