March 30, 2001– October is arriving on St. Thomas's East End immediately after March.
That's October Browne, a British-born and Canadian-based singer of Irish music who'll open a two-week gig at Molly Molones in Red Hook on Monday, April 2.
In addition to singing, Browne plays the guitar, mandolin, tenor banjo and cittern (an Irish bouzouki, or zouk, stringed instrument), plus the Irish tambourine/drum descendant called a bodhran (pronounced bow'-rawn, rhymes with "cow brawn"). Besides her two guitars, she isn't sure what will fit in her luggage for the trip to the islands, but she says she'll definitely be playing the bodhran, too.
Owner Frank Brittingham Sr. has been bringing live Irish music to Molly Molones – and to his previous pub, Finn McCool's in Compass Point, before that – for years, most recently the New Barleycorn, for the fourth straight season. But he hadn't heard of Browne until attorney Douglas Dick, who hits the WIUJ airwaves on Sundays as music show host Doug Lewis, gave him a call.
Dick describes Browne as "a very exciting singer" and has been giving her "very impressive" debut solo CD a lot of airplay on his show.
Brittingham says his son Michael listened to the CD then told him, "You're going to like her. She's really good."
Browne started her career as a London street musician at the age of 11, performing as a one-girl band on guitar, tambourine, harmonica, cymbals and even kazoo on sidewalks and in Underground (subway) stations. She learned the basics of finger-picking from others doing the same thing and at 12 made her first recording – in a coin-operated booth at Paddington Station.
She traveled to New York in 1988, where she studied guitar formally, including at Harlem's Jazz Mobile. Playing regularly in New York bands, she "felt increasingly drawn to her Irish roots and became involved as a guitarist in the Irish and acoustic scene," according to her web site, at www.octoberbrowne.com.
In 1991, she moved to Toronto and began playing with Pat O'Gorman, a bagpiper with the band Rare Air. They and three other musicians eventually formed the rock-bagpipe band Morgaine Le Faye, which played concerts and festivals across Canada for seven years and released two critically acclaimed recordings. Meantime, she started writing her own songs, with lyrics rich in the Irish tradition of poetic metaphor.
Her CD, titled simply "October Browne," consists entirely of original material. In it, her web site states, "Celtic and East Indian influences are seamlessly woven into a pop medium, although her music retains a distinctly British style. Influences of such bands as Fairport Convention, Pentangle, the Beatles and Van Morrison can be heard."
As a polished performer, she has won praise in Canada and Ireland for her Celtic finger-style guitar playing, aggressive rhythmic accompaniments and lofty, haunting vocals.
Browne will perform with keyboard accompaniment nightly Monday through April 16 from 7:30 to 11 p.m. at the Irish pub, located dockside in the American Yacht Harbor complex. There's no cover charge.
Her friend and collaborator Evelyne Datl "will accompany me on the occasional song" on keyboard" throughout the St. Thomas gig, Browne says. Datl, a popular Toronto keyboardist, produced Browne's solo CD; plays organ, synthesizer, piano, accordion, tablas and harmonica on it; and co-wrote two of the songs.
"Evelyne and I don't perform together on a regular basis," Browne says, adding that she calls on the members of the band that played on her album just for "important, high-profile gigs."
Now for the question that's always out there awaiting an answer: "October is my real name," she says. "I chose it myself when I was 15 and changed it legally. I likes the sound of the word, and I love the month."
