McCullough returns August 5th 2016
LE McCullough comes to Pittsburgh August 5th to perform with Devilish Merry at PointBreezeway Friday, August 5th at 7:00pm. Doors will open at 6pm for an early chance to get a good table in the intimate space. Complimentary food items will be offered along with soft and hard punches. BYOB, tickets at the door, $20.
For one show only, LE joins Devilish Merry's original band members, Sue Powers, Jan Hamilton, and me, along with fellow collaborator, Jeff Berman.
McCullough came to Pittsburgh for academia, and became a part of the 1970's folk music and dance community of the era. While here, at age twenty-five, he earned a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Pittsburgh with his doctoral dissertation titled "Irish Music in Chicago: An Ethnomusicological Study." This was the first dissertation-level analysis of Irish traditional music ever published.
In 1976 McCullough wrote The Complete Irish Tinwhistle Tutor, a highly acclaimed instructional manual now distributed by Music Sales, Inc. From 1977-86 McCullough operated Silver Spear Publications, a book publishing company devoted to issuing Irish music instruction books and tapes. His book/CD publication,121 Favorite Irish Session Tunes, was produced by uilleann piper Patrick Sky and is distributed by Homespun Tapes, who issued McCullough's instructional video, Learn to Play Irish Tinwhistle in 1996.
His book of 61 original Irish traditional compositions, St. Patrick Was a Cajun, was released by Ossian Publications in 1998 along with a double CD.
In the 1970s L.E. McCullough earned a reputation as a tinwhistle and flute virtuoso and Celtic music scholar, performing, recording and touring with a variety of groups including Trim the Velvet, Devilish Merry, Bourrée Texane, Money in Both Pockets and The Irish Airs.
Recently the New York Irish Arts website published an article with LE about the importance of July 3rd. He writes, "July 3 is my favorite day of the year. No, it’s not my birthday, or my wedding anniversary to my beloved bride, Lisa. Not even our cats’ birthdays. July 3 is the day I learned and fully memorized my first traditional Irish tune on the tinwhistle.
I recall July 3, 1972 starting slow… another ordinary work day for my 20-year-old self on a grounds maintenance crew at a detergent factory. But it turned out to be a Momentous Day. The latest Pakistan-India War ended. Blues guitar legend Mississippi Fred McDowell died in Memphis. Four hundred miles upriver in St. Louis, suave bad-guy actor Matt Schulze was born in St. Louis. In New York City, jazz meisters Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Kenny Burrell and Mary Lou Williams recorded a superjam at Radio City Music Hall. Badfinger was in Akron, Ohio playing the Rubber Bowl. From a film set in Los Angeles, actress Joan Crawford wrote a letter to a fan in Uruguay named Lillian. In rural Massachusetts, two dozen witnesses reported a translucent, triangle-shaped UFO hovering for almost one hour (7-8 p.m. EST) in the sky over Hanscom Air Force Base.
July 3, 1972 was busy all over the world. And in the second-floor bedroom of a small split-level ranch house on the Westside of Indianapolis, Indiana, I got busy learning an Irish air composed by harper Ruairí Dall O Catháin in the early 1600s. “Tabhair Dom Do Lámh” (“Give Me Your Hand”) might seem an odd choice for a first tentative toe into the teeming ocean of Irish music. It’s long (52 non-repeating bars) and can’t quite decide how to end. It’s asymmetrical in melodic structure and has a capricious rhythmic pace. It’s got five consecutive shrieking high Bs in the middle section and a shiver-wild, fork-fingered F natural raring up out of nowhere in the second-to-last cadence.
A celebration was in order: I downed a cinnamon pop tart and mug of bad instant coffee. And started in playing the bloody air over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And then a few more rounds to keep it fresh in mind. I wager that if I ever, godforbid, fall victim to dementia, the very last crumbs of memory to scatter away will be the notes to “Tabhair Dom Do Lámh”.
Recently, I was talking to a local fiddler and mentioned my tune-iversary. He was astonished and, I think, a bit amused I could (or would) remember something like that. But learning “Tabhair Dom Do Lámh” that summer night sent my life spiraling along a serendipitous path that’s led to meeting at least a thousand amazing people and undergoing hundreds of incredible experiences — all of them subtly defining the human being I became over the last 40 years. Which is more than you usually expect from your typical 17th-century waltz. I’m not sure if I believe in the soul finding its destiny, but learning Irish music was like being born again. And being re-born and re-born over and again with every tune you learn.”
You have to love McCullough's way with words. He wrote the liner notes to Devilish Merry's debut LP, "The Ghost of His Former Self." I love the way he describes our band now in its current line-up.
"Devilish Merry makes music that is mellow, edgy, ethereal and intense, enchanting and nefarious. It's music that you'd likely hear wandering in the shadows of misty Glendalough and suddenly coming upon Dock Boggs sitting in with a host of urban shaman.”
We look forward to seeing and playing for you on August 5th. I'll be leaving for a year in Athens, Ohio August 13th.
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