DECEMBER 15TH, 2015 | JOHNNY'S 12-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
It is hard to imagine that Johnny passed away 12 years ago already... So much has happened in the world since 2003, but we have peace knowing that Johnny is with us every step of the way. Thank you to everyone who continues to hold Johnny and his loved ones in your hearts, and who celebrates his life and music the world over.
Hundreds Gather to Witness Historic Induction Ceremony of the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame
By RUDY CHEEKS, Alahverdian News
"On Sunday, April 26, 2015, the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame (RIMHOF) held its 4th annual induction ceremony and concert at The Met at Hope Artiste Village in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Earlier in the week, there was a ceremony at Bovi’s Tavern in East Providence for the jazz inductees, consisting of Duke Belaire, Bob Petteruti and George Masso. Both events were sold out shows.
The main induction ceremony and unveiling of the new exhibits at the Hall (conveniently located next to the Met in the main hallway of Hope Artiste Village) was a joyous and eclectic affair featuring performances by a trio of garage bands from the 1960’s – all of whom had records on the charts back then – Brenda Bennett, veteran rhythm section players Marty Ballou and Marty Richards, and local legend Mark Cutler and two of his bands, The Schemers and The Raindogs." * We know Johnny was there in spirit!
The Incomparable Mark Cutler
Then came Mark Cutler and his early bands: The Schemers and The Raindogs. Before beginning his set, Mark, in a reverential style, hung a jacket owned by the late fiddle master Johnny Cunningham on a microphone stand on the stage. Johnny was a member of The Raindogs (as well as the legendary Celtic group, Silly Wizard). Also there were former Raindogs, Jimmy Reilly (Stiff Little Fingers, Red Rockers) and Darren Hill (Red Rockers).
The Schemers, perhaps Rhode Island’s most beloved rock band, still play occasional concerts and have a new record out called The Last Beach. The Schemers and The Raindogs were inducted by Paco Zimmer and Bill Flanagan.
Bill Flanagan Introduces the Crew
Bill Flanagan, 2014 inductee into the Rhode Island Music Hall of Fame, and former VP at MTV, introduces Johnny, Jimmy Reilly, and Darren Hill at marker 8:10 of the ceremony.
Congratulations to Mark, Emerson, Darren, Jimmy and Johnny! http://youtu.be/9vXxarSuCgU
The Blue School
This past year, the violin class at the Blue School in downtown New York, NY, had the opportunity to learn 'The Darling Waltz,' composed by Johnny Cunningham. The Blue School is an innovative school that was created by The Blue Man Group.
It's a Raindogs Kind of Year
Remembering Lost Souls
By Jimmy Guterman, ROLLING STONE (February 22, 1990), 3.5 Stars
"Lost Souls is an auspicious debut record from five seasoned players who dig for new nuances in the most established rock & roll forms. The Raindogs, led by songwriter and guitarist Mark Cutler, are a dream of a bar band, able to execute fierce three-chord rockers as well as strong, thoughtful tunes at more deliberate tempos.
The Raindogs' songs are built around Cutler's earnest tales of people in emotional and moral conflict, but the band's secret weapon is fiddler Johnny Cunningham - the member who sets the Raindogs apart from a hundred other good roots-obsessed groups. The Raindogs integrate fiddle into their arrangements with an easy assurance. This extra dimension, with its nods to both the Louisiana bayou and Celtic music, adds firepower to the band's sound and lifts straightforward midtempo rockers like "May Your Heart Keep Beating" and the overtly traditional "Under the Rainbow" to higher ground. For his part, Cunningham always subordinates his lead lines to the songs, and the Raindogs' ensemble playing brings warmth to the edgy pop of "This Is the Place" (with its wryly ambivalent key line, "This is the place I like to call home") as well as to the craft garage blues of "I Believe."
Although the Raindogs open up their sound in a variety of ways, the tough ideas behind the songs aren't at all diffuse. What makes Lost Souls so invigorating is that it reminds you how a good record can explore musical byways and still be firmly grounded in hard, riveting, mainstream rock & roll."
Johnny's Memory Lives On in 2015 World Holiday Music
Johnny read Dickens on the radio, along with Robert Anderson and other members, on Christmas Eve years ago... and now his memory lives on in holiday music around the world! Read below to see how he features in Canada, the US and Spain, in 2015...
Chamber Concert of Advent, Solstice & Christmas Songs Blend in Manitou Woods, Canada
By Marta Hepler Drahos, Traverse City Record Eagle
MAPLE CITY - Logs crackled in the fireplace and lamplight glowed warmly as members of the chamber ensemble Manitou Winds rehearsed in the living room of their founder.
All that was needed to complete the feeling of winter were fat snowflakes drifting outside the picture window.
It’s an atmosphere the ensemble hopes to recreate Saturday at its "Winter Songs & Carols" concert at Grace Episcopal Church in Traverse City. The program blends songs of Advent, winter solstice and Christmas to set an introspective and reflective tone for the holiday season.
“I wanted to explore the season outside Christmas, but including Christmas — all the moods of winter,” said founder and creative director Jason McKinney, who plays oboe, piano and harp. “There’s a surprising amount of Canadian music, which wasn’t planned, and a lot of Celtic music, which wasn’t intended.”
Favorites include Loreena McKennitt’s “Snow, Sarah McLachlan’s “Wintersong” and Johnny Cunningham’s “King Holly, King Oak.” McKinney’s own “Three Celtic Carols” — composed using folk songs from Brittany, Ireland and Galicia — round out the group.
Also on the program: traditional Christmas carols including “In the Bleak Midwinter,” singer-songwriter Tori Amos’ “Winter” and former Vermont Benedictine monk Gregory Norbet’s “Winter’s Coming Home.”
It’s the first Christmas concert for the chamber ensemble, which formed in 2014. Other members include Sam Clark, piccolo and flutes; Anne Bara, clarinets; Laura Hood, horn and guitar; and Christina Duperron, bassoon.
All are active area musicians who felt something was missing until they got together.
“Chamber music is everybody’s secret (desire),” said Hood, a music teacher at the Leelanau School who frequently performs with area orchestras and bands. “You can hear yourself, you can hear others. It’s a musical conversation. It’s not a conductor telling you what to do.”
Wyoming Valley Art League Hold ‘A Christmas Carol’ Reading Set to Johnny's Music in the U.S.
By Gene Axton, Times Leader
WILKES-BARRE — When Wyoming Valley Art League members Robert Anderson and Rose M. Wright lived in Massachusetts, Anderson organized Christmas Eve readings of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” that aired live on the radio station at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
“We did these readings for seven years,” Anderson said. “I thought it was a great idea because ‘A Christmas Carol’ is done by many different groups during the season but we were doing the complete text of it. We weren’t doing an adaptation or an abridgment or anything like that, we were just reading the entire text.”
Anderson felt this would’ve worked great as a benefit, but the event never grew past a holiday gesture from the seven or eight friends who volunteered a sizable chunk of their Christmas Eve night to read for the listening community of U Mass Dartmouth. After spending a large amount of time in West Wyoming with Wright’s mother, the two moved to the area (of which Wright is a native) in 2010. When Anderson and Wright organized their first WVAL event in October 2014, it served as a benefit for Ruth’s Place, the Wilkes-Barre homeless women’s shelter. This inspired him to revisit the “A Christmas Carol” benefit idea.
“It was my version of Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest,’ in which I used Beatles music,” Anderson said. “It was the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth year and the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ discovery of America, so we combined these two into a play and we did it here as a benefit.”
Anderson’s Christmas Eve productions of “A Christmas Carol” sometimes featured musical accompaniment from late Scottish fiddler Johnny Cunningham. Theremin player Jason Smeltzer will accompany Nov. 29’s performance, which Anderson said will evoke a fitting atmosphere for Scrooge’s ghostly encounters.
Anderson started Sunday at the Circle series as a celebration of the arts, but the November iteration of the event is also a celebration of the holidays and the Wilkes-Barre community. When Anderson and Wright moved to the Wyoming Valley, they brought their Christmas tradition with them, and they’re using it to assist their new community in helping others.
Los dos últimos programas de Tráfico de tarareos en Diariofolk, (in Madrid, Spain)
Una interesante entrevista al grupo Vigüela, con motivo de la publicación de su último disco Temperamento y música tradicional de origen céltico son los protagonistas de las dos últimas ediciones del prestigioso programa de Radio Círculo, presentado y dirigido por Fernando Martínez.
El pasao viernes 21 de Noviembre, en el Espacio Ronda de Madrid, el grupo de Carpio de Tajo presentó su último disco, titulado Temperamento, un trabajo en el que recopilan algunos de los estilos más característicos de la música tradicional de esta comarca de la Mancha. Fandangos, seguidillas, jotas y sones componen su repertorio.
Después de treinta años de trabajo, abordan la investigación de la música de raíz desde otra perspectiva, basándose en los acentos musicales que encierran las melodías más que en el ritmo, la métrica y el compás. Temperamento es un disco realizado con mucho rigor pero a la vez con mucha emoción.
Listen: Vigüela, música muy tradicional de la Mancha
Dos familias que mantienen viva la tradición musical en Irlanda y en Escocia
Por un lado, Triona y Mícheál O’Dhomhnaill, irlandeses, y por otra Phil y Johnny Cunningham, escoceses, perpetúan la música tradicional de sus respectivos países, fundidos en varios proyectos. Desde Skara Brae, la primera referencia discográfica de los primeros, hasta Nightnoise. Una selección que incluye discos de Silly Wizard, The Bothy Band, Relativity y Nightnoise. También la propia Triona en un disco en solitario.
MEMORIES
Ever An Inspiration. Johnny is ever an inspiration to musicians and laypeople with a musical bone... here is a song for your 12th anniversary, Johnny: La valse d' Amelie by Yann Tiersen. - Jenn
A Brighter School Life. My time at Portobello High school was made much brighter by hearing Johnny and Phil Cunningham play at the music competitions and school concerts. Thank you for many hours of light. - Lilly
Souveniers. Je red écouvre Johnny en cherchant sur Facebook, aprés avoir retrouvé un vieux disque vinyl de Silly Wizard. J'ai connu le groupe é Limoges (en France) entre 1973 et 1975... Je suis triste que Johnny soit parti, avec son violon... Qu'est devenu Bob Thomas? - Thanks, Nicole
For Johnny. The intent of love continues... - Zouhbie