Music
Press
HIGH ENERGY TAIL WAGGING
By David K. Rodgers, for the Hardwick (VT) Gazette, November 2006
CRAFTSBURY - As someone once said, we should “bark less and wag our tails more,” which is partly the derivation of the name of the high energy band Wagtail, which appeared Saturday night at the Music Box with a varied offering of original, Celtic and traditional works. Featuring Susannah Blachly of Marshfield, Gabe Halberg of Plainfield, and George White and Kristina Stykos, these talented musicians blended poetic songs with purely instrumental numbers in performances that were always lively.
Blachly has a fine voice appropriate to this repertoire, with warm color and expressive phrasing. Her fiddling is very graceful and natural, relaxed in that she never has to be striving for effects. Stykos plays a skillful mandolin and an award-winning guitar (made by her husband at Froggy Bottom), while White does a professional job on guitar and a larger mandolin about the size of a lute. Halberg has studied north Indian music for years and brings the unique sharp, handslapping sound of the tabla drum to these British Isles tunes, as well as the deeper, hollow vibrations of the Irish Bodhran. Together the musicians of Wagtail perform in a highly integrated way and with an authentic quality that makes you think you dropped into a rural pub in Ireland.
Blachly is a prolific songwriter and about a third of the concert consisted of her original works, sometimes written in collaboration with White. They show the kind of osmosis that occurs when someone is totally immersed in a tradition and internalized the music so the unique subtleties of the rhythms are created anew in each composition. (Liszt, Dvorak, Grieg, Sibelius, Bartok) drew on European folk music in this manner without necessarily imitating it. She manages to combine meaningful lyrics with beautiful melodies, such as in Let The Light in: “Love’s the coat he made for you/Stiched in joy and sorrow/Love’s the coat; you know it fits/ Put it on, and let the light in.”
The instrumental music ranged from Irish to Scottish, Cajun, Appalachian and contra, having just the joyful, toe tapping beat that makes one want to get up and dance (which some of the youngest and oldest members of the audience did). Wagtail would be an ideal band for any kind of public or private celebration!
Blachly has several CDs out, the latest of which is entitled “Girl in the Photograph”. Stykos can be heard on her CD “In the Earth’s Fading Light”, and Halberg also plays with the world fusion group 35th Parallel.
- Hardwick Gazette, 11-2006
Discography
Wagtail: Availible spring 2007
Tracks on radio/streaming:
Let the Light In
Meet Me When the Sun Goes Down
Crossing the Causeway
Boatman
Train Don't Leave
Photos
Bio
Immersed in the joy of northern New England’s rich musical traditions, Vermont’s WAGTAIL fuses the well-loved sounds of fiddle, guitar and mandolin with percussion and fine vocals, bringing to the stage a blend of old time jamming, Celtic melodies, American song-styles and world beat rhythms. With original writing as their foundation, WAGTAIL offers a fresh approach to traditional music that’s fun, funky and deeply moving.
Susannah Blachly is a fiddler, tunesmith & singer/songwriter from Marshfield, VT. She draws on a diverse mix of musical traditions, and has been praised for her distinctive musical voice that is at once contemporary and warmly evocative. She has released two CDs of all original material and twice ranked on the Top Ten Best VT CDs of the Year in Seven Days, VT’s premier arts weekly. In 2005 SingOut! magazine published her song “Secret Place” and featured it on a compilation disc with such folk luminaries as Pete Seeger and Maria Muldauer. Susannah is actively performing her music region-wide, at local venues and festivals. Robert Resnik, host of Vermont Public Radio’s All The Traditions, describes her as a “veritable fountain or great original music.”
George White lives in an old farmhouse in the hills of Tunbridge VT, and that’s where his inspirational guitar, octave mandolin and vocal parts for WAGTAIL first find voice. George is responsible for much of the unique Celtic groove, rock rhythms and raw passion that shapes the WAGTAIL sound. Steeped in the music of Appalachia, blue grass, blues and western swing as a kid, he went on to play many folk and rock gigs around Massachusetts in his early twenties. He returns now to professional music making, after a long hiatus of homesteading and soaking in the cadences of the local fiddling styles.
Kristina Stykos was born with a guitar in her hands, and brings a decidedly gritty and energetic flatpicking style to WAGTAIL, as well as mandolin chops. Like Susannah, she writes for the band and adds an edgy quality to their old time vocal harmonies. She's played country-dances, weddings, and the occasional tractor pull as well as VT’s top festivals, including the Champlain Valley Folk Festival in 2005. Her solo CD “In the Earth’s Fading Light”, recorded at her home in Chelsea VT, was acclaimed “VT Album of the Year (2005)” by Central VT’s largest daily newspaper, The Times Argus. Says arts reviewer Art Edelstein: “Bruce Springsteen may have gotten all the hype for his latest effort "Devils and Dust," but for my money Stykos has written far better songs, delivered them with wonderful style, and can play the pants off of the King of Asbury Park.”
Carter has followed a path of learning and experimentation with master drummers and inspiring musicians in North Carolina and northern California, in Senegal, West Africa, in Cuba, and in Vermont. With Wagtail, he fuses these influences in support of the songwriter's vision and craft. Carter uses hands and feet with various sticks and surfaces to provide a percussive understory for
Wagtail's kaleidoscopic melodies. In recent years, he has recorded with Ekis (CD: "The Hidden Jar", 2005), Colin McCaffrey (CD: "Falomi & Malula", 2004), and Diane Zeigler (CD: "Paintbrush", 2002). He's performed with these and other Vermont artists including Gordon Stone, Pete Sutherland, Mark LeGrand and Kris Gruen.
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