When Deb Barry at the Rendezvous asked us to play last Friday night, the band happily obliged. Later, with pipes blasting, beer flying and all kinds of freak dancing, it’s hard to believe that this was the first public performance by Fire on McGinnis in nearly 18 months. We like to think of the Rendezvous event as the end of a troubled time for the band and the beginning of a new era.
If you saw us Friday night, and have been with us since the start, you probably noticed that we have played a serious game of musical chairs. Let us explain…
Mark Lukey became a member of Fire on McGinnis in 2005 just as the band was getting a foothold in the Juneau scene. Though he would jump up on stage to sing to “Drunken Sailor,” recite Lewis Carrol poetry and mimic the sound of a diving submarines, Mark was mostly found offstage as the bands sound engineer. With Laurie G. and Mr. G. moving on to international bagpipe competitions, the bands rock guitar player, Lazlo saw an opportunity to take over the FOM’s lead bagpipe position. This opened a rhythm guitar position that Lukey slid into naturally as he knew the songs already and loves the music. Lukey is the product of many guitar styles including acoustic finger style, folk, swing and rock. If you listen closely you can hear his Ska influence as well. Lukey didn’t rake in all the monster chords however. Lazlo still commands a large chunk of the guitar landscape and the signature guitar solos, only now he’s on double duty with bagpipes AND lead guitar!
Another chair switch was our bass player. During the 18 month hiatus, our first man on bass, James Bibb, simply went off into the ether. We love and miss James but having an ether-bound bass player is simply not a way to keep a band moving forward. Ironically it was Jame’s sister-in-law that told us about another bass player in town who was steeped in the Celtic music tradition, Mat Ghelardi. Mat brings his bass chops from an Irish band called “The Scruffy’s” based San Diego. Mat learned the complicated FOM material at a Superman like pace and has added a fun bouncy bass quality the band didn’t have before.
Lastly, as most people know, we had to replace our first drummer, Dave Sheakley due to an incurable wrist bone marrow infection. What started as light wrist stiffness developed into a nearly disabling condition. At first we just thought it was carpal tunnel or tendonitis. As as band, we took massive breaks from regular rehearsals to let young Dave heal. After a year, Dave returned to a practice to see if his wrist could hold out. The results were not good. 2-3 FOM songs and he was in agony. As a band he had to decide whether to dissolve or move on. With a heavy heart we decided to keep this brand of music alive and press on without him. We love Dave, he is part of the family, and he’s expected to live a long healthy life – just not as a wrist breaking Celtic rock drummer!
With the drums being an essential part of FOM’s sound, the band had some pretty big shoes to fill. This is no easy task in a small Alaska town with limited drummers. After months of searching, 3 auditions and near band dissolution, a Craigslist ad found our new drummer, Youseph “Yoshi” Tanha. Yoshi comes to us from a pretty solid rock background, although he admitted to being a little “rusty” at the start. The band has worked with Yoshi for over a year now. Long practices at the JACC every week plus multiple coaching sessions at Studio A and intense reviews of recorded material. Fire on McGinnis is not an easy band to drum for. In fact we are probably the hardest band for any new drummer to just “jump into” as we explore crazy time signatures and play nearly 40 songs. Now if we can only get Yoshi to calm down. None of us has ever seen a drummer that routinely breaks drumsticks!
So, it’s true. We have lost and gained a few but it’s natural for a band to evolve before settling on a solid lineup. We still think of the former members as family and they are certainly welcome to jam with us anytime. In fact Laurie G and Mr. D joined us on “Paddy’s Leather Breeches” at the Celtic fest. Our thoughts are, hey, the more pipers the better!
Currently, the leaner, less complicated 5 piece FOM is holding regular rehearsals at the JACC (usually on Sunday night). Now that Yoshi is mostly caught up with historical FOM material we have started to scat around with new ideas. For some reason, people that like Fire on McGinnis also like another band called Mumford and Sons. They have a song called “Little Lion Man” that we all love. There is one hickup with the tune however – we don’t know how to make an electric guitar sound like a banjo!
Stick with us. –FOM
