WINNERS--BEST FOLK ACT IN
ORANGE COUNTY,
2004 AND 2005

NOMINATED FOR
BEST FOLK ACT
IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA!!

The Irish Herald, November 2007 vol. 5 no. 2

By Lisa Elaine Scott

What do you get when you combine a classically trained violinist, a bluegrass banjo picker, a jazz bass player and an Afro/Latin percussionist? Give up? Why Irish reels and jigs, of course. That’s right, reels and jigs.

From neighborhood pubs to outdoor festivals, house parties to concert halls, Michael Kelly, David Burns, Gordon Rustvold and Eric Hartwell, aka the Sligo Rags, have been performing regularly throughout the Southland for the past two years. While the Rags stay true to the original intent of the traditional tunes they play, they are not afraid to be innovative. The addition of bluegrass-style flat-picking and world music rhythms to these time-honored songs creates a unique brand of Irish music that these bandmates are eager to share with . . . well, anyone who will listen.

“We draw from many musical influences, and it works,” says Burns, a multi-instrumentalist who started playing the five-string banjo at age fourteen. “Each of us is rooted in a different musical style, so we just combine them and see where it takes us.”

“And it’s nice because we’re not in competition with other Irish bands,” adds bass player Rustvold, who decided on a career in music at the age of nine after hearing a Beatles tune on the radio. “A lot of the bands out there are either Irish-rock or Irish-punk and they actually like playing gigs with us because we’re doing something totally different.”

It is fiddle player Kelly who can be credited with bringing this versatile group together. In 2002, after learning several Irish songs with another group, Kelly fell in love with the music and decided to put together his own band. After seeing Burns and Rustvold performing at separate shows, Kelly convinced them that a combined effort was worth a shot.

“I just said, hey, I want to work with these guys, and I kept pushing until it happened,” explains Kelly, who started playing the violin in elementary school.

“Well, you got us a gig. That’s what happened,” recalls Burns with a smile. “And you kept getting us gigs, I’m not sure how you did it, but that’s really why we kept showing up.”

While the initial inspiration for the band belongs to Kelly, the idea for the band name came from Burns. As he recalls, the name was just sitting there in the third verse of the classic song “The Irish Rover.” According to the lyrics, there were one million bags of the best Sligo rags, and the band agreed that it would be a fitting tribute to take their name from such a venerable tune.

Kelly, Burns and Rustvold remained a trio for the first three years. They had considered adding a drummer several times and had even auditioned a few, but the fit was never right. They relied on Rustvold’s thumping bass lines to provide the rhythm and had no plans to add a fourth player until they received an ultimatum from a club owner – get a drummer or play somewhere else!

“This club owner thought that a drummer would keep us more in the rock realm and would appeal to his younger customers,” says Burns. “And we weren’t opposed to the idea. We just couldn’t find a drummer that we thought worked out.”

Enter Eric Hartwell, a graduate of the Cal Arts music program who had spent the last two years studying world music and learning to play a vast array of percussion instruments.

“I’d just moved to Huntington Beach, and I didn’t know anyone. I was hanging out in this coffee shop playing chess,” says Hartwell. “Mike came in a few times, and we talked. They were looking for a drummer, so we thought we’d give it a try.”

It wasn’t an immediate match made in heaven. The first few shows, Hartwell stayed low-key with just a snare drum and cymbal, but the formula wasn’t right. Hartwell decided that it was time to draw from his diverse musical background. He was convinced that he could come up with a rig that would compliment the music and make everybody happy.

And he did. Hartwell combined a cajon, which is an Afro-Peruvian box-shaped drum, and a djembe with chimes, a couple of crash cymbals and a tambourine mounted on a foot pedal to create what his bandmates would agree was an impressive collection of instruments.

“It really is an amazing little set up,” says Rustvold.

Kelly adds, “Not only does Eric produce an interesting sound, but he’s also fun to watch. He’s very animated when he plays.”

Since the birth of their signature sound, the Sligo Rags have been building their fan base by playing shows as often as possible. They have recorded two full-length CDs, “The Night Before the Morning After” and the recently released, “The Whiskey Never Lies” and are the two-time winners of the Orange County Music Award for Best Folk Band. But as each band member will attest, it takes a lot of work to be a successful indie band. From booking gigs to selling CDs, the Rags run an entirely independent operation.

“It’s hard sometimes. You can put in a whole lot of energy and see very little return,” admits Kelly. “We send out a lot of demos and do a lot of follow up just to maybe get one gig.”

Burns agrees. “You can’t relax. We have a good deal of momentum right now. People will come up to us after a show and say, ‘we saw you here, or we saw you there,’ but if we let up, it could all go away.”

“Yeah, when you start seeing the same faces from one show to the next, that’s really gratifying,” adds Kelly. “And people bring their friends with them, and that’s a great way to build an audience.”

But all four bandmates agree that despite the hard work, the long days and even longer nights, there’s nothing else they’d rather be doing or any other music they’d rather be playing.

“I have the performing bug,” confesses Burns. “And for me, it’s all about the audience. I don’t care how big or small the venue is. If the audience is with us, then it’s a good night.”

“I didn’t know any Irish music until I joined this band,” admits Rustvold. “My grandparents were from Ireland, but it really wasn’t until I learned these songs that I started to understand the culture. Then it occurred to me that this culture is part of my heritage.”

“But I don’t think you have to be Irish to feel Irish,” adds Kelly. “I think the music and the culture really speaks to everybody. This is music that touches your soul.”