by Jeremy Reynolds
Far from being an outdated or even obsolete instrument, the lute makes a stirring pitch for its continued relevance in the hands of the ensemble Ayreheart, which released Barley Moon in June 2016 on the Sono Luminus label. In this album, four modern day troubadours with lutes and drum and sweet, sweet voices harken for an hour to a simpler musical era. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
On Thursday, April 7 at the Bop Stop, the Renaissance band Ayreheart presented a concert titled “Will You Walk the Woods so Wild.” The captivating program — performed by Ronn McFarlane, lute, Brian Kay, vocals and lute, Will Morris, colascione, and Mattias Rucht, percussion — explored the intersection between folk music and art music in 16th- and 17th- century England, Scotland, and Wales. It also highlighted the intersections of Renaissance folk music and classic rock. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
On Thursday, April 7 at 8:00 pm at the Bop Stop, the band Ayreheart (Ronn McFarlane, lute, Brian Kay, vocals and lute, Will Morris, colascione, and Mattias Rucht, percussion) will present a concert titled “Will You Walk the Woods so Wild.” The concert will be repeated on Friday, April 8 at Kent Unitarian Universalist Church in Kent, also at 8:00 pm.
“We do call ourselves a band, but we’re hard-pressed to figure out what kind of band we are,” Ronn McFarlane joked during a recent telephone conversation while en route to Michigan to start Ayreheart’s ten-day, nine-concert tour. “We formed to play original music that I was writing for lute, and songs with lute and other instruments like percussion and bass. But we also love the old music, so even when we have concerts focused on the new we always play a good bit of old.” [Read more…]