Concert Preview—

Multi-Instrumentalist John Hoban Will Share Music And Insight

By Andrew Carey

In a time when music is all too often formulated, synthesized, and marketed like soda pop, just as quickly consumed and just as quickly forgotten, John Hoban travels the world to remind us that it doesn’t have to be that way. Singer and instrumentalist, songwriter and composer, Mr Hoban is most of all, in his quiet, steady, and constant way, a teacher.

An African proverb quoted on his website                 (www.castlebar.ie/arts/hoban) sums up his view of the arts: “If you can talk, you can sing. If you can walk, you can dance.” His style of teaching, much like that of a master martial artist, is based on a gentle example, a patient manner, and the conviction that a teacher learns as much from his students as they from him.

Mr Hoban will be in Newtown this weekend, performing at Newtown Meeting House on Saturday, October 19.

When asked what he would like the audience to come away with from his upcoming concert at the meeting house, Mr Hoban said he hopes his audience will realize he has done something “just for them … [that they’ve] heard something individual,” he said over the phone this week from Houston, where he and his wife Isabella were visiting relatives on her side of the family. “Something honest, from the heart.” That phrase sums up Mr Hoban’s music better than any other.

Mr Hoban is the kind of Irish artist who isn’t often heard outside of Ireland; his music lives in small venues and intimate settings just like the meeting house on Newtown’s still-very-traditional Main Street. His talent cannot be properly appreciated in a big auditorium.

He plays traditional dance and listening tunes on a variety of instruments, including the fiddle, banjo and tin whistle, but considers his main instrument to be his voice, which he accompanies on the mandocello, a large, deep-voiced cousin of the mandolin. He sings the songs that move him, whether they’re from the Irish tradition, his own compositions, or the work of songwriters such as Woody Guthrie or John Denver.

A simple tune, he believes, internalized and played from the gut, is better than a flashy one that’s memorized but never becomes a part of the player. While the heritage of our musical ancestors should guide us, it should never blind us to a song that speaks to us or a tune that moves our hearts and feet.

Like the old Irish fiddlers and pipers who adopted Scottish reels and Polish mazurkas and made them their own, Mr Hoban doesn’t pay much heed to musical boundaries. He has played with singer-songwriters Jackson Browne and John Prine, as well as master traditional artists such as accordionist Sharon Shannon and Chieftans fluter Matt Molloy.

Mr Hoban will play a full concert at the meeting house beginning at 8 pm on Saturday. The program is the latest  being sponsored in Newtown by The Shamrock Traditional Irish Music Society. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children, and early reservations are suggested. Shamrock Society shows have always hosted musicians that draw full crowds and many people have arrived at venue hoping to purchase last-minute tickets, only to be disappointed at the door.

At 2 pm on Saturday Mr Hoban will be teaching a workshop at the Gaelic-American Club in Fairfield. Donation for the workshop is also $10 for adults and $5 for children. Participants should bring an instrument and have basic skills.

Call 203-256-8453 for tickets to the concert or to reserve a place in the workshop (openings are still available). Newtown Meeting House is at 31 Main Street (Route 25) in Newtown, at the flagpole.