Now a band made up of Austrians and Scots playing folk and celtic music may be a concept you’ve not heard before, but with one member based in Scotland and the other three in the Austrian capital of Vienna, this truly European collective are Down Under at present, introducing audiences to their unique blend of musical styles.
Impressively, Paul Dangl, accordionist/pianist Colin Nicholson, guitarist Christian Troger and vocalist/guitarist Mira Lu Kovacs have put together a setlist that reflects their collective tastes, creating an interesting mix of covers done in their own inimitable style (the group describe themselves as “Modern Folk Music with a Scottish Backbone“) and a few originals too.
“We’ve been on tour now for like three weeks,” observes Paul, whose love for Scottish music grew when he lived in the country for a time some years ago. “We went to the Woodford Folk Festival to start the tour and afterwards we went down to Bruny Island to play at the Cygnet Folk Festival…
“After that, we went to Sydney and Canberra and then the Illawara Folk Festival and then southwards to Sale, at the Performing Arts Centre, and tonight is our concert in the Thornbury Theatre in Melbourne.”
And how’s the tour been going? What has the reaction been like?
“I think we’ve had loads of positive reactions… The people really love the music, I think, especially the broad variety of it. It’s like this mix of European folk styles, including also some bluegrass and some American folk songs.
“The emphasis is on this Austro-Caledonian thing, the Austrian and Scottish collaboration on the songs. I think that’s what the people really appreciate, as well as the yodelling from Austria. People also like the beautiful voice of our singer, Mira. I think they are really fascinated by her voice, by her interpretation.”
As mentioned, this tour is the first the gifted four-piece has undertaken in Australia and I asked Paul how it came about.
“Last year I was here with my family on vacation,” he explains. “We went to many places and we also went to the Woodford Folk Festival. A really good friend of mine from Ireland, called Andy Irvine, used to perform there. He’s a really big name in the Irish Celtic music scene.
“I asked him if he could help to build up some contacts in the Australian folk scene and he said, ‘Give me 15 CDs of yours and I will give them to the right people’ and he did and we were able to set up the first gigs. So that’s how this tour came together.”
For anyone wondering how the members of this cross-cultural endeavour ended up working together, here is Paul with the story: “Well 10 years ago, I was living in Glasgow… I decided to live there for one year, to learn the music, to get into Scottish folk music.
“I think my roots are folk because my father ran a folk club in the village where I was brought up. I came into contact with folk music at a really early age, so I decided just to go to Scotland and really get to the roots of it.”
And finally, where did the name Black Market Tune come from?
“I came up with this name because with the material we play, we try to pick tunes and songs that are not so well-known, like tunes you would hardly find in the common folk scene. We try to pick not-so-well-known songs, like stuff from the ‘Black Market.’ That’s how I came across this name.”
Black Market Tune play the Albert Park Yacht Club in Albert Park, Victoria on Friday 30th January and the Roxbury Hotel in Glebe, New South Wales on the 31st.
For more information, visit their official website.
