BRATTLEBORO — Traditional Irish singing will meet the heartland of America with Mai Hernon and Celtic Font, a band that will perform for the first time in Vermont on Sunday, March 9 at the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery.
Hernon and musical partner, Mick McEvilley - also her husband - will present a unique combination of the old and the new in a concert that mixes Irish traditional music and Irish/American folk.
Although she is still little known in America, Hernon is a celebrated artist in Ireland. She grew up there in Gurteen, County Sligo (also known as Coleman Country after the great fiddle player, Michael Coleman).
She contends that the area was one of the best places in Ireland in which to see and hear traditional musicians, singers, and dancers, and she was steeped in the very best of the music while growing up there.
Hernon recorded three albums of traditional songs when living in Ireland, and she has toured not only Ireland but also England, Europe, and now the United States.
She has performed with some of the top artists in Ireland, such as Dervish, members of Kila, Seamie O'Dowd, Dolores Keane, Len Graham, and many others. She has conducted workshops in traditional singing and set-dancing at many festivals in Europe and America.
“In Ireland, I am classified as a traditional singer,” says Hernon. “That means I sing the traditional songs from the Irish past, some 200 to 300 years old.”
The songs she sings are often about history and local areas in Ireland, “like the great potato famine of 1847 or events even before that,” she adds.
“Mainly, I sing a cappella, but sometimes I accompany myself with a bodhrán, which is an hand-held Irish drum. While I sing, I freely ornament the songs, in a style that is not usually heard over here in America.
“Traditional music is totally free flowing, and you must open yourself to the music in a very spontaneous and personal way. If what I do seems rather rare in America, my singing is quite popular in Ireland.”
Hernon now lives in the U.S., and in addition to her tours with McEvilley, she is the front singer with her all-female traditional band, Beeswing.
“Usually I sing by myself without any instrumental backing,” says Hernon, who finds the creative challenge of Celtic Font a new one for her.
“Traditional singing is a capella, so I find it massive to learn to sing with accompanying music,” she says. “I confess that I feel a little restricted by it. But with my husband, I am excited about finding new ways to express myself.”
Transcontinental love
Love brought Hernon to Kentucky. After long being an established artist in Ireland, she moved to the U.S. on March 5, 2013 and two months later, she married McEvilley, a singer/guitar/banjo player from Cincinnati who has played with the Kettering Banjo Society and the Ragtime Riverboat Rats.
How an Irish lass from Coleman Country and a banjo player from Ohio got together is quite a story, says Hernon.
In 1999 McEvilley came to Ireland for one month. The trip turned out to be a revelation to McEvilley, who discovered for himself the the power of Irish music. More to the point, while listening to the radio there, he was struck by Hernon's music.
The song continued to haunt him and, when he returned to the United States, he felt the need to get a copy of that recording. The only problem was that he did not know what the record was called or the artist's name.
But this did not stop him. McEvilley finally tracked down the DJ on the radio station and learned the name of the artist - Mai Hernon. McEvilley still had no idea how to contact her.
“But Mick is a persevering guy,” says Hernon, “and he spent four hours in front of his computer trying to find some way to contact this mysterious artist. And finally, he succeeded.”
“What is really amazing is that I had put nothing up on the Internet about myself, and [I] forget about email. Someone I didn't even know must have posted something about me.”
McEvilley phoned Hernon, he told her that he loved her voice, and he asked her to send him the CD with that song.
The two kept up contact and in 2003, when McEvilley returned to Ireland, he and Hernon finally met and quickly became friends.
Only later did romance develop, culminating in Hernon's immigration to America and their marriage.
Hernon is frank in her admission that she has had a difficult time getting used to the new culture.
“I really miss the music from back home,” she says. “I was an established artist in Ireland, and here I have to start over. No one knows me. But I am pleased that I am now finding venues and appreciative audiences to do my music.”
Hernon not only performs but also gives classes in traditional singing and ski dancing. She finds work in workshops and traditional festivals, but also she gives talks and lectures about her art.
“In the Catskills, I teach a course in the songs,” she says. “Not just the songs themselves, but the way one should sing them. I had an opera singer taking a class of mine who came up afterwords and told me, 'I get it now. It is not just the songs; it's all about you.'”
Hernon has found an appreciative audience in America.
“Many are fearful of losing their Irish heritage and are finding in these songs a heritage precious to them,” she says.
“But for others they can relate to what I sing in different ways,” she continues. “A lot of the songs are about immigration to America, with which many in this country of immigrants can relate.”
“Yet I am surprised that so few people in America have ever heard of a song like 'Banks of the Ohio,' which is very popular in Ireland,” she says.
Hernon also has found it very interesting to discover that Appalachian music can be very similar to her repertoire. “Some songs are almost identical to mine, with a few slight changes,” she says.
She finds singing traditional Irish music as natural as breathing.
“I find it a humbling experience to be in touch with such a heritage,” she says. “You could say that my audience has always been elitist, since it is only a section of the public [who] wants to learn, love, and preserve this music.”
“But it also a very populist kind of music since it touches on the roots of being Irish,” she says.