"Druid Wood"

by

Celtic Stone

A Brief History Part 2, The Druid Wood Story, 1983-1984

The 1983 tour began in Tempe, Arizona at the Mill Avenue Merchants' Association (MAMA) Spring Arts and Crafts Festival, where David Clauss and Robyn Hilliard, assisted by David's girlfriend, Maria, the first of the ever-faithful-direct-sales-and-marketing ladies, played for hours and hours each day and sold a healthy number of the "Celtic Stone" tapes and some "Idylwild"s as well. That generated enough income to get them to Waxahachie, Texas and settled in for Scarborough Faire's year 3. Todd Menton was booked at that show as well, so the trio combined stage shows and street performances, thus beginning a tradition of long hours and intense performances that was to become their reputation at the festivals. There was still a sanction on the sale of recordings at the faires, but the management of Scarborough allowed it to go on unchallenged, primarily because they were getting quite a good deal for the money they were paying the band, balanced against the excitement generated at their shows.

At that time, there were several music acts at the festivals, most of which were early music consorts, playing authentic Renaissance and Medieval music and widely ignored by the crowds. A few notable exceptions of note were Sungarden, a hippie recorder trio of Jim Brunke, Peggy Turner and Bob Bielefeld (who would later actually be a part of Celtic Stone), Peasants Under Glass, David Roe (another future Celtic Stoner) and Michael and Marilyn Marzella (who frequently were the King and Queen of the Festivals at that time) and Minstrel, an exceptional vocal and guitar quartet from the Minneapolis area. As a trio, Celtic Stone with their irreverent humor, folk-rock rhythms and rock band energy rather burst on the Ren Faire scene that year. All of these musicians were at Scarborough that year, and nearly all of them joined in at the Celtic Stone performances on a pretty regular basis. It was to become the beginning of a Ren Faire musical fraternity that continues to this day, twenty years later. In addition, it has spawned some absolutely wonderful independent recordings.

The rest of the 1983 tour would also set a pattern for the next few years. Scarborough Faire to Colorado Ren Fest to King Richard's Faire to Minnesota Ren Fest to Kansas City Ren Fest to Texas Ren Fest, keeping them busy from mid-April to mid-November. "Celtic Stone" the tape became the first officially approved music recording at most of these shows. When the band approached the management of the Colorado show, the Music director and owner agreed, with the caveat that the band had to prove that they could come up with a "period" sales pitch. Robyn leaped into the breach and came up with "Magical musical boxes, made for us by that famous French wizard, Phillips Cassette...you simply take them in hand and shove 'em...into the player and out comes our music any time you want to hear it!" Later, the pitch would be embellished and improved upon, but it was always used at the shows.

Even the starchiest of the festival management teams liked the idea, particularly when the band convinced them that everytime a customer played the tape for someone who'd never been to a festival, it was like free advertising. And so it went, show after show. Notable friends and eventual parts of Celtic Stone shows and recordings were met that year and the following, particularly at the Chicago and Houston shows. In Colorado, they played with teenage fiddler/prodigy, Stewart Martz. At Chicago's King Richard's Faire, the band played with the earliest incarnation of Cantiga which would eventually become the New World Renaissance Band. Members of Cantiga included Bob Bielefeld, formerly of Sungarden, Martha Gaye, Houston-area harpist and Malcolm Smith, fiddler extraordinaire. Also at KRF was Jerry Spurlock, from Amsterdam, Holland-expatriate American Norwegian Lap Harpist and one of the most incredible songwriters ever to be ignored by the general public. Steven Lauterbach, Minneapolis based guitarist and vocalist was a frequent guest at many shows. In Kansas City, they met Kris Barnes, lovely blonde singer and guitarist (who would go on to perform with Stevie Ray Vaughan). Last, and certainly not least, they met Jim and Joyce Lillquist (Hammered Dulcimer and Vocals), Rio Blue (Doumbek and other percussion) and Dave Ballard (Puppeteer, pipe and tabor) the core of what was to become the Gypsy Guerilla Band.

The 1983 tour ended up in Houston and David and Robyn had a couple of Christmas Crafts fairs lined up to keep themselves busy until Christmas. Todd wanted the band to settle in Minneapolis, but the weather was too intimidating to Robyn and his family (particularly since Michelle was only about 6 months old at the time). The decision was made to find a place to stay in Austin, Texas, which was to become the home base for the band from here on out. It was a cold, hard winter with very few opportunities to work, so when it came time to pack up for Scarborough Faire, the guys were ready. Todd had come down to Texas about a month early to work on the coming year's shows. David and Robyn felt that a bass player would really benefit the group, and so they began looking around for one that could play an accoustic, stand-up bass, since electronic sound enhancement was still forbidden at the festivals. While at an Austin music store, Robyn found a business card from Bruce Boyd, who was looking for bookings as an Irish fiddler. They called Bruce to find out if he knew of a bass player that might be looking for a gig for the year. He didn't, but asked if the band would be interested in having a fiddler. They invited him to a practice session, where he proceeded to blow them away with his expertise and the sheer excitement of his playing. Bruce, though firmly entrenched in a very traditional, Sligo style playing, was also excited by the opportunity to get in front of large crowds.

Playing as a quartet for the first time at Scarborough was another amazing revelation. The bigger the band and the more energy they produced, the more recordings they sold. Celtic Stone had begun as a commercial venture, not as some kind of a "conservation of the tradition" group so often seen in the folk music world. The increase in sales was great for their comfort level, but more and more they were being told,"I bought this tape last year. When are you going to have a new one?" It was decided late in Scarborough's run that they had to be in a studio no later than King Richard's Faire in June and July. Throughout the run of Colorado, they worked on new arrangements and worked at getting bookings at clubs. They managed to arrange a couple of nights at Kilkenny's Castle in Cicero, IL and a three week slot at The Emerald Isle just off State Street in downtown Chicago.

King Richard's Faire, 1984, was one of the highlights of the band's career. The musical energy there was astonishing. The minstrels' jam at the end of the day was something to which everyone involved really looked forward. Anchored by Jerry Spurlock and Cantiga, the jam was probably one of the highest levels of creativity and performance excellence in the festivals. Irish step dancers and Arabian-style belly dancers showed up at nearly every one of the jams. End of the day music shows at the Ren Faires often become sheer drudgery for the players, but this one was something very special. Jerry, Kris, Martha, Bob, Todd and Malcolm went into the studio and recorded a new tape, and Robyn and David did the research to find a suitable studio and engineer for the second Celtic Stone album. They settled on Q & R Studios in Evanston, Illinois with Steve Rashid engineering. It was agreed that they could get a pretty good discount on studio time if they would agree to record after 10:00pm. and before 10:00am. Not a problem, since the Emerald Isle gig was scheduled for 10:00 to 3:30 am, Thurs-Sat.

Now, there may have been, at this point, a bit of a judgement lapse on their part. Maria and David were expecting their first child at any time (their daughter, Rachael, was born during the recording sessions), they were playing hard all day Saturday and Sunday, from 10:00am til 6:00pm at KRF, rehearsing during the week, playing the Emerald Isle (which also required them to set up and break down all the equipment for every show) and recording a new album. Someone forgot to schedule any time to sleep! In a way, it was lucky for us that we were fired from the Emerald Isle show at the end of our second week (seems they wanted another performer for the last week and didn't have any real excuse to let us go, so we were accused of "drunkenness on stage"...manifestly BS since Robyn was and is a teetotaler, and David, Todd and Bruce were total professionals, never exceeding two beers a night in a 5 hour show!). They would leave the Emerald Isle at around 5:00am and progress over to Evanston, where Steve would meet them for the day's session, running from about 6am 'til 10. Whoever was not actually in the studio would generally crash on the studio's couch.

Again, the music gods were on their side, though the fatigue level made for a few ill-advised decisions, such as keeping basic tracks that really weren't up to the level of the rest of the session. (In particular, on that account, was "Whisky & Temperance" which sounds a little 'ragged' in the context of the rest of the album, and timing glitches in "Rambling Rover"). Again, there were some real moments of beauty and inspiration. Kris Barnes was invited in to add her voice to "The Lusty Young Smith" and "Raggle-Taggle Gypsies" and Don Stiernberg, who often played with the country duo, Homer and Jethro, added his bass guitar. Other than them, however, Druid Wood was very close to a "pure" Celtic Stone recording. It displays more textural diversity than the first album, with some solid, traditionalist pieces ("Fox in the Chickens" and "Creel of Turf"), good-ol' C'Stone wierdness ("Ramblin' Rover", "Country Dances" and "Why Paddy's Not at Work Today") and even some classically based Renaissance arrangements ("Waterman's Hornpipe" and "Raggle Taggle Gypsies").

One of the finest fantasy artists around, Patricia Breeding had been a friend of the band's for a long time, and she graciously accepted our seriously under-budgeted commission to do the cover art for the album. David and Robyn had agreed on the title during Scarborough fair (Celtic Stone-Druid Wood...get it?) and the basic concept of the cover was discussed with Patricia, who agreed that she could make something excellent from it. She really did! Her druidic priest is WAY spooky! and you can't help but wonder what kind of nastiness is in that smoking chalice on the altar and what the heck he's gonna do with that sickle. It also carried on the tradition, started in Robyn's design of the first cover, of having designed images on the sides of the tapes, so that they would be immediately recognizeable in a box full of recordings, and a cover that would look like a unified whole when displayed, stacked up, at the festivals.

Celtic Stone History, part 3

Songs, Players & Commentary

Back to Celtic Stone Semi-Official Home Page

Published by Celtic MP3s Music Magazine, text courtesy of © 2003 Robert Hilliard