Battlefield Band still preserving Celtic sounds almost 40 years on

By: JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer | Wednesday, March 5, 2008 12:46 PM PST ∞

Founded in the heady days of the late 1960s and early '70s, Scotland's Battlefield Band has carried forward the musical idealism of that era. Melding preservation and modern influences, the Battlefield Band combines traditional Gaelic music with contemporary strands ---- similar to what Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span were doing with English music in the late '60s.

Veteran keyboardist Alan Reid (he joined the Battlefield Band in 1969, just months after the band's founding) said those English bands were influences on the young Battlefield Band (which plays tonight at the San Marcos Civic Center main hall), but not the only ones.

"Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span were kind of coming out with this new folk-rock thing," Reid said by phone from a rehearsal in Scotland. "Pentangle ---- I remember going to see them in Glasgow ---- they were more jazzy but very interesting.

"We as a band were more influenced by the Irish bands, like Planxty and the Bothy Band ---- those were the first bands in Celtic music that did a mix of instrumental music with lots of arrangements; songs with a fairly sophisticated arrangement. Prior to those bands, most Irish and Scottish folk performers had a couple guitars and a stand-up bass; Planxty and the Bothy Band had fiddle, guitar, bouzouki, Uilleann pipes. Those were the guys who were the template, rather than Steeleye or Fairport, which were more electric."

While Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention were playing music festivals and hobnobbing with rock music royalty in the late '60s and early '70s, Reid said the Battlefield Band was a local band for its first few years in existence.

"We were by no stretch of the imagination a serious band," he said of those early years. "It wouldn't be until '73 or '74, as we started to travel a bit and become semiprofessional, that we began to become serious."

With some four decades worth of music under its belt, the Battlefield Band could have quite the repertoire if it tried to keep every song in its current playlist. But Reid said necessity demands that the band focus on its most recent albums.

"We've got a pretty big library of recorded music, partly because the band has been in existence so long," he said of deciding on the playlist for any particular show. "It's usually just the current album and three or four cuts from two or three albums before that. There's a set of tunes we play that we recorded 10 years ago, and another set that's about 8 years old, but almost all the other stuff is much more recent."

Still, as one of the better-known Celtic bands and one of the few with 40 years of history, Reid admitted that long-time fans will come up and request a favorite song from 20 or 30 years ago.

"I have to smile apologetically and explain that the band doesn't remember that song," Reid said with a laugh. "What I mean, of course, is that I don't remember how to play that song anymore."

While Reid is the longest-serving member of the band ("I'm the nearest you can get to a founding member"), the lineup hasn't changed all that much through the years, he said, giving the band a fairly consistent sound over the decades.

"Quite simply, we replace like with like. So if a piper leaves, then a piper joins; if a fiddler leaves, then a fiddler joins. Scotland is a small enough place that most of the musicians know each other. Over the years, our audiences, our fans, have come to trust the band, that if someone leaves then whomever joins will be of similar quality as far as musicianship is concerned.

"Sean O'Donnell is our latest addition; he joined us two-and-a-half years ago. He's from Northern Ireland, but he's living in Scotland, and the two countries are very close to each other."

While descendents of Scottish and Irish emigrants have been huge supporters of the band and Celtic music in general during the band's numerous world tours, Reid said there is something universal about the music that draws in people with no Gaelic blood at all.

"I think Celtic music is a great music to travel because quite apart from ex-pats or people who have sort of a blood link or cultural link, the music is very accessible to non-Celtic people.

"On one extreme, it's very joyous music ---- it can be very captivating; it's hard not to clap or tap your feet, it's hard not to respond to it. At the extreme, it can be gut-wrenchingly soulful as well. I think those emotions transport themselves very well."

The Battlefield Band

When: 7 p.m. today

Where: San Marcos Civic Center Main Hall, 3 Civic Center Drive, San Marcos

Admission: Free

Info: (858) 694-2415 or sdcl.org

Web: battlefieldband.co.uk

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