Celtic group Anam at Clark Art Institute
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., March 12, 2000)
Alas, lightning never strikes twice in the same place.
The group that performed before a sold-out audience at the Clark on
Saturday night was not the same as the one that performed in February 1998,
and I’m not just referring to the slight change in personnel in the interim.
Whereas 1998’s Anam made a virtue of its versatility, this year’s model was
plagued by a lack of focus that undermined its very raison d’être. Where the
original version capitalized on the strengths of its four diverse members,
today’s Anam is a jumble of contradictions and of parts that do not mesh.
And none of the language I used to describe the 1998 show, with terms such
as “boisterously entertaining,” “skillful pacing,” and “deftly-wielded
dynamics,” found its way into my notebook as I sat in the audience Saturday
night wondering what happened between then and now to this group that seemed
destined to lead Celtic folk into the new century.
The most obvious difference between then and now is the replacement of
Aimee Leonard, the group’s former vocalist and percussionist, with two new
members: vocalist/percussionist Fiona Mackenzie and fiddler Anna-Wendy
Stevenson.
The group lost more than its singer and “frontwoman,” as I described her in
my earlier review, when it lost Leonard. It lost its ballast, its focus, and
much of its personality, as well as a key talent.
Not only was Leonard a more pleasing singer than Mackenzie, whose keening
wail was undermined by an errant harshness, but her work on the bodhran – a
large hand drum – was much more creative than Mackenzie’s, juicing the group
’s material with a hint of contemporary funk.
Mackenzie’s playing, like that of fiddler Stevenson’s, lacked energy and
swing, which was only driven home when leader Brian OhEadra sat in on
bodhran for one number on Saturday night and inadvertently demonstrated the
rhythmic punch utterly absent in Mackenzie’s technique.
Mackenzie also harmonized with OhEadra on several songs, and rarely have
two people’s voices been less likely to blend than these two. There is just
something in the quality of this pair of voices that refuses to allow them
to merge, as good harmony singing should. Instead, the singers sounded as
far away from each other as they were on stage – they stood at the extreme
right and left.
The addition of Stevenson’s fiddle to the ensemble brought little to the
group’s arrangements. At times it seemed she might as well not even have
shown up; when it was her turn to take the lead, she was a shrinking violet.
One wanted to give her a kick in the pants and say “fiddle!” Her lack of
drive was most apparent when she would be followed by Neil Davey on mandolin
or bouzouki; when Davey takes a melody, it comes to life and starts dancing.
He was the one soloist who knew how to take a melody and drive it home,
grabbing focus along the way. Alas, as soon as he was done, the car ran out
of gas.
It’s a mystery why leader Brian OhEadra, who sang and played acoustic guitar
and who wrote several of the evening’s numbers, has allowed his group’s
focus to sag. One wonders if he grew uncomfortable sharing the spotlight
with Leonard and if that’s why she is no longer in the group. It’s a shame;
the two made a lively duo in Anam’s previous incarnation.
Without Leonard’s funky edge to balance OhEadra’s sweetness, the flavor of
treacle is overwhelming, and Anam is just a bland folk group playing bland
arrangements of Irish, Scottish and Cornish reels and jigs.
Seth Rogovoy rogovoy@berkshire.net music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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