Scruj MacDuhk may at first glance appear to be the the answer to a question no one ever asked. After all, one doesn't get up in the morning and wonder what would happen if one blended Eastern Canadian Celtic fiddling with Romanian Jewish cello pieces and French lyrics. That is unless you are a Duhk. I met with the Duhks recently after a performance in Madisonville Tennessee, and they answered a few of my questions about their unique sound.

"Scruj MacDuhk" don't fall into the trap of confusing Folk with Folk rock. Further they are a true Folk revivalist band. Their music is designed to be heard in the concert hall, with the eyes of the audience near to the performers. Here then are some of their comments.

CR (Chris Range):  Oliver, I noticed you took your bass out onto the proscenium for your piece. That was a really amazing number was it Yiddish?

Oliver Swain: "I really like doing that piece with the lights on, and out in the audience where they can hear it and I can see them. Yeah it is Yiddish. Plus there is a little Romanian influence driving it there at the end. I just love doing that song up close that way."

CR: Your music is certainly well regarded, you are Prairie Music Award winners. The music of Eastern Canada is very familiar to our audience but the West, does it have that tradition? Is that part of your sound?

-The whole crew laughs at this question and fingers shoot towards Leonard Podolak amid hues of "Banjo man, banjo man..."

Leonard: Well other than some aboriginal stuff, native music mixed with a French influence... it isn't that way in Manitoba. I mean in the East they have the whole Maritime music influence. We are more influenced by other things like Appalachian music.

CR: You mentioned the Swananoa Gathering earlier. We'll be there this year. So that really is a big influence for you then?

Leonard: Yeah, well that's the music I love. It's really great to be here in East Tennessee and get to play these tunes for this audience. At Swananoa I went to a sort of banjo camp there, and that's really a place where a lot of things came together for me.

CR: Ruth - uhm, you fill a lot of roles here. You have one of the best developed voices in Celtic music. (This comment prompted a discussion of how I must say that to all the girls.) How do you choose your songs?

Ruth: Well I was classically trained, and started out singing that way. But I got involved in the Winnipeg Folk Festival, I found that I really loved singing a capella Irish songs. I really fell in love with that. Later on I met Len who I'd been going to school with forever and so we sort of got started of there. On the songs I do some research, but I just want to choose good songs.

CR: Christian?

Christian: Yes?

CR: Uhm

Christian: Yes I am French Canadian...(proceeds in utterances completely alien to me and far too fast for me to take notes.)

CR: But you are from Winnipeg?

Christian: Yes.. laughs.. I'm from the other side of the river though. We speak differently there.

-Christian smiles and we all have a good laugh. Mostly at this point I'm just dumbfounded. I mean what else can you say? He's French Canadian, he plays African drums and he rocks. It's best we move on.

CR: Jeremy, you have so much music coming out of your fiddle. You definitely have a deep bag of tricks. (Ruth is overheard at this point muttering something about how fiddling is a style not an instrument. I blush and again it's best we move on =) Your performing style is very subdued however, I mean you aren't moving around a lot.

Jeremy: Yeah, well tonight I'm just tired. We've been on the road forever. I like to move around some though. I do sometimes.

-At this point Jeremy grins, eyes beaming from behind tinted shades and begins to give the history of how he and Leonard busked hallway gigs in highschool.

Jeremy: It really was sort of a way to gain popularity. I mean before I began fiddling I wasn't the most popular...

-The rest of the band chides in muttered tones "Confessions of the soul.." and "Yes, we're bearing our inner feelings now. Ooohh gah.."

After a good laugh I thank the crew for visiting with us in Tennessee.

Coming next? Part 2 the Audio portion of the evening.

Take a look at Scruj MacDuhk in the Artist Index.

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