"Celtic Stone"

by

David Clauss & Robyn Llewellyn

A Brief History. Celtic Stone, 1982-1983

The story of the band begins at the Colorado Renaissance Festival, June, 1982. David Clauss was out on the Renaissance Festival circuit for the first time playing his hammered dulcimer and had a few copies of "Idylwild", an instrumental tape he and three friends had recorded in Prescott, Arizona. At that time, the Ren Faires refused to allow musicians to sell their recordings, since it was an "anachronism" to the Renaissance Festival concept of the time.

Rob Hilliard, performing as Robyn Llewellyn, ne'er-do-well Welsh minstrel, was also beginning to tour the festivals, having played the BARF (lovely name, isn't it...the Bay Area Renaissance Festival in Largo, Florida) for both their first and second years, the Ringling-Sarasota Medieval Festival, Viscaya (Miami) and Scarborough Faire in Waxahachie, Texas. Colorado was to be his first show under contract. He had a series of small stage shows scheduled, but lots of time between for "street minstrelsy." During one of these breaks, he heard David Playing "Soldier's Joy", a tune he had played for some time at venues such as the Florida Folk Festival on the Suwanee River. Taking the proverbial bull by the horns, he just stepped in and added his curious folk-rock inspired rhythm guitar to the dulcimer's unique sound.

A little bit of music magic happened and suddenly the crowd of 4 or 5 folks listening to them swelled to about 40. Dave and Rob looked at each other with a "Woah, what's this?" look on their faces and proceeded to "Haste to the Wedding" and several other tunes from the "Old Fiddler's Songbook," many of which were to become the basis of Celtic Stone's repertoire. That half hour of jamming sold David's remaining stash of Idylwild, requiring him to retreat to the car for more copies.

They played a lot together during that show, also jamming with long time Ren Fair veterans such as Todd Menton and Phil Belknap. The energy and enthusiasm for the sound increased every weekend. Terry Foy, the artistic director of the show, asked if they'd consider joining together for the following year's show at a sizeable increase in salary. Well does the proverbial Pope poop in the woods? Is the Bear a Catholic?

Robyn, still in the naissance of his career, had a contract to work at Carrowinds and Canada's Wonderland amusement parks for the following six weeks, so he and Dave wouldn't see each other until the Minnesota Ren Faire in August. Rob stopped by the Chicago "King Richard's Fair" to audition for the following season as well. Minnesota was Todd Menton's home show, so when they all were back together again, they began playing together several times a day, frequently joined by vocalist Ruthie Replogle. They were at this show for tips again, but after the first weekend, the entertainment director offered them a real paycheck if only they'd agree to play together as a group for three stage shows per day...done! "Something's happening here" With Todd's encyclopaedic knowledge of Irish Trad, Robyn's rock background, Ruthie's "Bawdy Wench" routine and the glistening sound of David's dulcimer, the band was a minor hit at the show. They needed a name and Robyn, ever the Jethro Tull inspired jester, came up with "Pith and Vinegar". Well, it might have been a little weak, but they were able to generate a few jokes with it...an absolute necessity at the Ren Faires. Again, they were offered a contract for the following year. Their short-term destiny was coming together rather nicely, with two of the biggest shows in the country asking them back for the next year.

The last big show of the year was the dreaded TRF, the Texas Renaissance Festival in October and November. Again, without a contract, Rob and Dave bravely sallied forth to see if the magic would work in Houston as well. David sold out of Idylwild several times during that one and King George, the owner of the show, came by every day with a substantial tip for the lads and a "You'll be with us next year, won't you?" Absolutely, George. We wouldn't miss it!

During the TRF, Dave and Rob covertly plotted out the ideas for a new tape of this new sound. Dave had heard of a little studio in the oxymoronic town of Humble, Texas and so they decided to record a demo tape with Todd to see how it would work together. They booked a couple of hours and recorded "The Irish Washerwoman/Swallowtail" and "Little Beggarman." The studio was 8 tracks (Woah!) so they even did some overdubbing, particularly of percussion. Todd even played a wooden board! "Swallowtail" wasn't bad, but "Beggarman" rocked! In fact, the song sounded so good that it is the version that ended up on the "Celtic Stone" tape.

After TRF, Rob had a two weekend Christmas Ren Fair in Phoenix, so he arranged to spend a few days in Prescott with David, playing and plotting. He planned to spend the winter in Orange County, California where he could work with his Dad's cable TV company on the off season. It so happened that there was a recording studio right across the parking lot from the shop. Robyn had met several San Diego area musicians in Phoenix, most of whom knew David as well. He arranged to record a solo album there and had contacted the San Diego folks to help out. Before more than the basic tracks for six tunes were recorded, David called and said he had the time and money to do the album. Rob arranged a reasonable contract with the studio, so it was decided to do the recording there in the LA area.

Despite the fact that Todd couldn't get out to the Left coast and the limited time to finish the project, the recording went incredibly well. Credit for this has to be given in large part to Simon Spalding who, at his own incentive, scored out parts for the other musicians. Simon was to become an integral part of the band's history, but more of that later.

The record of the sessions is integral to the sound of the album. Inspiration, brilliance, dumb-f**king-luck and sheer Chutzpah combined so very nicely that to this day, many Celtic Stone fans cherish their copies of this tape above any other Ren Fair musical product. One incident that became emblematic of the process was when it was time for Jeff Pekarek to cut the first bass lines for "Drowsy Maggie." After listening to the basic tracks a couple of times, Jeff looked into the control room with complete consternation. "I don't know what it is you want here," he said. Rob pressed the "talk" button and said "Noel Redding." A beatific smile broke out over Jeff's face, and he proceeded to cut the absolutly fantastic bass line on that song in one cut. If you've got it, play that song with the bass turned up really high some time and see what I mean.

Other moments came with Robyn's improvised guitar part to David's original piece "Peddling up the Hill", the haunting vocal treatment by Sharon Fisher of "Do You Love an Apple?" and the neo-psycyhedelic touches on "Two Magicians", "Irish Washerwoman" and "Black Nag." David waxed somewhat political on "Gerryowen/Brian Boru's March" which correlated perfectly with the integration of "Trouble with a Capital T" riffs at the end, borrowed from the Irish radical band, Horslips. Inspired by the production techniques of Norman Smith (with Pink Floyd), George Martin (with the Beatles) and Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson, Robyn talked Dave into putting several sound effects and other odd little touches on the album, almost all of which worked (OK, the foxhunt runs right over the singer, but nine outta ten ain't bad). See if you can hear the finger cymbals...there's only one little "ding" on the whole album.

While David worked with the musicians and the duplicating company, Robyn did the J-Card artwork while they both tried to work out the song order and the upcoming schedule on the Festival tour. The only real dispute came when David insisted that despite the great performance of the old Humble, Texas version of "Beggarman", the recording quality wasn't up to the standards of the rest of the album. He was right, of course, but Robyn insisted that the opening cut had always been planned to be "Drowsy Maggie" the sound-effect rooster waking up poor little Maggie and the audience for the following show. Much to Robyn's discontentment, it was finally agreed to hide "Beggarman" by putting it on the first track of side one, thereby preventing comparison with anything previous to it. Robyn then spent many late night hours at the mixing console with Rick Foltz, our engineer, doing the final mix and getting the two track master ready for production. We had agreed that the album's title would be "Celtic Stone", suggesting both the Irish roots and the stoned aspect of the psychedelia. We never expected it to become the name of the band, but David had an airbrush artist duplicate the tape's cover art on the stand of the dulcimer. The name stuck.

The album was finally ready for release in March, 1983, corresponding with the birth of Robyn's third daughter, Michelle. The last weekend of that month was the MAMA festival in Tempe, Arizona, and the tapes arrived the day before the crafts festival opened. Dave and Rob drove to Tempe and played for about 9 hours a day, selling dozens of the new tape. Celtic Stone was up and running. It would eventually become one of, if not the, biggest selling recording in Ren Faire history.

Songs, Players & Commentary

The Band's History, part 2

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