When Irish Hands are Playing: Goitse at Music Haven, July 28

Goitse leader and bodhran player Colm Phelan joked that he practiced for hours to pronounce “Schenectady;” so we owe him this much: “g-WITCH-ah.”

Long past those days when Irish traditional music mainly meant the Chieftains, then everybody else, Goitse charmed a large, happy crowd at Music Haven Sunday. Working with traditional tunes and tools, songs and sounds, they modernized only slightly by crafting fresh tunes that sounded like venerable old ones. They played and sang them in blends so seamless that no one bothered to play Name That Tune or decipher the seques and instead went along for the ride. However, dancing was disappointingly scanty, even with Steve Nover in the audience.

Rhythmically, Irish music hails from the opposite end of the groove world from funk. Rather than settle in for hypnotic effect, beats flow along, usually for just a short while, then mutate, usually to speed up. 

Goitse’s arrangements brought a fresh feel to dance tunes by aligning Conal O’Kane’s strummed acoustic guitar with Phelan’s bodhran (circular hand drum) played with several different-sized sticks; as Alan Reid’s banjo set up a cheerful, treble bridge between. Daniel Collins beefed up the beat when he shifted occasionally from keyboards to accordion, going low on the chord buttons while fingering melodies on the piano side. A late fill in on this tour, fiddler and singer Joanna Hyde proved highly compatible, confident and commanding. Soloing on most tunes, she sparkled at the mic also, going poignant in “Ireland’s Green Shore” early and later wryly introducing “Belfast Love” as one of few happy Irish tunes.

The dance tunes, rolled strong with smooth riffing punctuated with tempo shifts, as in the peppy “Months Apart” with a crackling accordion break and “Morning, Noon & Night” – its headlong momentum climaxing in a hard stop.

They eased the tempo some, both in the love songs Hyde crooned and the lullaby waltz “Write Me Down” that Phelan quipped afterward got a reggae spin. His intros often brought a laugh, as when he set up “Biggest Little Journey” with a wandering tale of travel travails he later admitted might have been the biggest little song introduction.

In the slow “Henry Joy,” Hyde warned they’d take their time, stretching to eight minutes; but then pointed out Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was even longer, so why not? She kept the laughs coming by inviting a singalong on tough-to-remember lengthy vocal phrases; some in the crowd actually managed to follow.

In fact, all their songs engaged this way: Inviting melodies, played with tight, shared expertise. All their songs, that is, except Phelan’s right-before-the-end unaccompanied bodhran solo. If this sounds dubious – a solo played in just one drum when full-kit drum solos earn yawns – Phelan made it work by changing the pitch by pressing the drumhead from inside – like Steve Amedee of the much-missed subdudes, the Jimi Hendrix of Cajun percussion.

Hair of the Dog turned the place into one big pub maybe better than leader-singer-guitarist Rick Bedrosian feared. The quartet’s 45-minute opener felt rushed as songs blurred hastily together and Bedrosian noted time racing against their set list. Nonetheless, they entertained effectively with expert Celtic rock that took off from traditional jigs and reels and wound up with the anthemic “All Of the Hard Times Are Gone,” a staple of both Hair and McKrells shows. 

Everything worked, confident grooves from backbeat drummer Gene Garone and finger-picking bassist Dan Samson, Larry Packer’s flashy fiddle and Bedrosian’s high vocals and acoustic guitar strums. Traditionals, including a spunky “Whiskey In the Jar,” had late-night-in-the-pub spirit, earning fans’ attention when they slowed the tempo.

GOITSE SET LIST

Invasion

House on the Hill

Ireland’s Green Shore

Months Apart

Trusty Messenger

Write Me Down

For Good Measure

Morning, Noon & Night

Henry Joy

Biggest Little Journey

Cave of the Wild Horses

Belfast Love

Tall Tales

Queen of Argyll

Bodhran Solo

Transformed

Dog Reels

Music Haven gets extra-busy with jazz next week. Clarinetist Anat Cohen leads her Brazilian-inspired Quartetinho Sunday when locals Art D’Echo Trio (plus percussion leprechaun Brian Melick) open. Monday, the SUNY Schenectady Jazz Faculty Combo features guest trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis (brother of Wynton, Branford and Jason; all sons of Ellis).