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The trio leapt into its first number
with Tommy McDonell drumming out a fever
pitch, James Riley taking sole command
of the guitar and Eileen Ivers fiddling
her violin into the rosined flames of
musical madness.
"Well," Ivers said, certainly
grateful her instrument hadn't burst
apart in her franticness, "we thought
we'd ease into the evening there."
With her band Immigrant Soul, Ivers
took center stage Wednesday night in
the Ellen Eccles Theater with a unique
style of world and Irish fusion.
Sensational and peerless, Ivers
and Immigrant Soul surpassed genre restraints
combining everything from traditional
jazz and bluegrass to Irish reels and
African percussion.
Called the "Jimi Hendrix of the
violin" by The New York Times,
Ivers grew up in the Bronx, New York
with a strong Irish influence. Living
in a cultural melting pot, Ivers immersed
herself in the different musical styles
she found and, after graduating with
a degree in mathematics from Iona College,
began performing her signature sound
with other ensembles until she started
her current touring group.
The band is as diverse as the music
they play. Including an original Blues
Brother and Bronx native on percussion
and vocals (McDonell), a Dublin-born
piper (Ivan Goff) and guitarist (Riley),
a Brazilian percussionist (Adriano Santos,
not at the show Wednesday) and a bass
player from Chicago (Chulo Gatewood),
the six year touring ensemble melded
together into one of the best examples
of musical synergy I've ever heard.
The group performed Irish jigs with
African underpinnings in "Afro-jig"
and took classical music to a strange
Celtic level with their variation of
Pachabel's Canon, "Pachabel's Follies,"
which began traditionally enough (excluding
the tin whistle), but eventually morphed
into an Irish reel.
Joining the band on stage for a few
of the numbers were three dancers from
a school in Salt Lake City who "Riverdanced"
members of the audience out of their
seats.
Ivers took the show to the multitude
and never forgot who it was she was
playing for, even leaving the stage
and dancing with the crowd during the
bands rendition of "The Blizzard
Train."
"We are feeling you guys, Logan,"
she said after one frenzied number."This
is gonna be fun."
With hands clapping and a few courageous
souls dancing in the isles, the evening's
performance created a musical hurricane
ending in two standing ovations and
one of the most happening encores to
hit the Eccles theater - a folk song
with a heavy, hallelujah hit of gospel.
Ivers and her band proved that even
though their roots go deep into Ireland,
their branches cover the whole world.
Though there were more highlights than
I could possible enumerate, when Riley
bent down and replaced a string on his
guitar in under a minute, joining the
band for the last refrain as if it had
been planned the whole time, I didn't
think it could get any better.
But then, as Ivers, after fighting
off a kamikaze insect aimed at her ear,
announced that McDonell had received
the "guest of the day" award
at his hotel in Salt Lake City earlier
that morning, I can't say there weren't
a few tears.
In his acceptance speech, McDonell
tearfully told the crowd, that "of
all the hotels I stayed in, that was
one of them," adding that all he
really wanted was world peace.
And heck, with their world-incorporating
musical mix, that peace thing might
just happen a bit sooner than expected.
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