Pine Tree Flyers

The Pine Tree Flyers' full-length debut album proudly waves the banner of New England (US) roots music. Fundamentally, this fiddle-based music was derived from the traditional Scots-Irish and Celtic repertoire, which informs most of the contemporary old-time, bluegrass, and string band playing. What lifts the 11 tracks on Pine Tree Flyers above the fray is a lightness of being, a sweet soulful exuberance and palpable delicacy discernible in the performance and material, which permeates songs such as "Lady of the Lake/Lady Walpole/Lady Ann Montgomery", "Elly's/Iles de la Madeleine" and "Shadows on the Lawn". All of the members of Pine Tree Flyers—Katie McNally (fiddle), Emily Troll (accordion), Owen Marshall (guitar) and Neil Pearlman (piano)—hail from Portland, Maine, which is in the extreme northeast corner of America. This particular geolocation accounts for the Quebecois and Nova Scotian influences in the steadily rollicking rhythm and bright melodic riffing that runs through "La Bastringue/Joys of Quebec" and "Smith's Reel/Point-au-Pic". Pine Tree Flyers want to raise what was previously considered mere "dance music" to a place of significance alongside its Americana and Canadiana kin. With this debut, they might well consider their mission accomplished. - Songlines

The Strad Issue: June 2024

Description: An infectious and inspirational showcase of traditional fiddle music

Musicians: Pine Tree Flyers

Catalogue number: TRADCAFE RECORDS www.pinetreeflyers.com

A quartet based in Maine, US, the Pine Tree Flyers is clearly on an important mission: to highlight and establish New England fiddle music alongside its more prominent stylistic counterparts as a rich, rewarding concert music. Indeed, its debut release unapologetically sets out its musical stall, and the result is a revealing, rewarding and deeply enjoyable experience in its mix of tunes and styles, and – most evidently – in the players’ inventive, ever-changing arrangements across their quartet of fiddle, accordion, piano and guitar.

Katie McNally’s fine, precise fiddling often takes the melodic lead, amid the bristling energy of the opening trio of tunes ‘Lady of the Lake’/‘Lady Walpole’/‘Lady Ann Montgomery’, for example. It’s a joy to listen to: smooth, fluid and with an unfussy agility to it, though never lacking in character.

McNally often shares melodic duties with accordionist Emily Troll – the two women almost vie for attention in the breezy ‘Smith’s Reel’/‘Pointe-au-pic’. Guitarist Owen Marshall and pianist Neil Pearlman are hardly relegated to chugging accompaniments, however: Marshall takes melodic lead in ‘Echoes of Scotty O’Neil’ against chiming interjections from Pearlman, and it’s almost as if McNally’s shadowy fiddle line is accompanying Pearlman’s bright piano in ‘Shadows on the Lawn’.

It’s clear that the Pine Tree Flyers has plenty to say about its myriad traditions, as well as the technical prowess and musical insights to say it boldly and inventively. That noted, however, despite a few unexpected harmonic twists and unusual tune reimaginings, an obvious respect for tradition runs deeply through the release.

DAVID KETTLE - The Strad

Fiddler Katie McNally’s Pine Tree Flyers band not only champions traditional music from New England on the dance floor, it’s taking the style to festival and concert stages. The quartet (McNally, accordionist Emily Troll, guitarist Owen Marshall, and pianist Neil Pearlman) has brought its local music to listening audiences in the UK and Canada—and, of course, throughout New England. They’ve played at Celtic Colours in Cape Breton, Celtic Connections in Scotland, and the Ossipee Valley Music Festival near their home in Maine.

They describe the songs on their first album, just out on TradCafe Records, as “New England tunes—grounded in tradition, flying forward at the speed of sound.” New arrangements of old tunes dominate the album; among the infectious reels and other dances, there is the bittersweet ballad “Elly’s/Îles de la Madeleine”and the breathless, long-lined “Glise de Sherbrooke.” I spoke with McNally from her home in Portland.

How old were you when you started the fiddle?

I started at eight and grew up playing two dances a month in a community contra-dance band in Westford, Massachusetts, playing with some of the older folks in town. Since I started professionally, I have been focused on Scottish and Cape Breton music; it’s the hometown sound that’s always been in the back of my mind and has been very formative for me. And, of course, I love the fiddle because it’s so expressive. It can be really driving and percussive and sweet and lyrical too. I love having that palette, that breadth of sounds to draw on.

Where did the New England fiddle style come from?

As with all American roots music, it has a lot of different influences in it, in this case an American melting pot of Scottish and Irish immigrants who brought their tunes with them. With musicians in Quebec and New Brunswick, those tunes are going back and forth across the border all the time, and the music we’re making is coming from this bunch of different repertoires—all have their own tunes, their own bowing patterns, their own grooves, their own feels. And it’s all kind of been mashed up into what New England fiddling is today.
What’s unique to New England–style fiddling?

One thing that has defined it for a long time is that it’s been tied to contra dancing, fitting in with those square 32-bar tunes and making them really danceable and lively. It is dance music first and foremost. And what we’re doing in this band is taking those contra-dance tunes and putting all their danceability and lively energy in front of a listening audience at festivals and concerts.

How’s it going?

We’ve been touring in Maine and Canada and in the UK, and we’ve had a stunning response—which has sort of been unexpected. Of course the hometown crowd is really excited about it. We’re playing tunes that they’ve known since they were children; we’ve just elevated and brushed them off a little. But when we played Celtic Connections in Glasgow, the folks there were delighted with how much commonality there is between the music we play and what they’re used to hearing.

Tell me about the Pine Tree Flyers.
We formed in 2022. Everyone in the band lives in Portland, Maine, and before the pandemic had projects with other bandmates who lived in Nova Scotia or Ireland or California or wherever. After the pandemic, we were forced to look in our own backyards and appreciate each other and the music here at home. We also had a real drive to bring our music to a wider audience, have it acknowledged as a fiddle tradition that’s as worthy as bluegrass or old time or these other American fiddle traditions we all know really well.

Tell me about your bandmates.

Owen Marshall is a great guitar player. He grew up in Vermont, playing for contra dances. He brings more of the Irish side of things into the equation. Neil Pearlman plays piano, which is a really important part of the New England dance-band tradition. Neil plays a lot of Scottish music and grew up in a musical family playing Scottish music. Our accordion player, Emily Troll, grew up in Massachusetts. She’s the most hardcore in terms of playing for contra dances in the most traditional settings. This is the first concert band she’s ever been in, and she’s our secret weapon. She’s amazing.

What are your hopes and dreams about where you’re going?
What we hope for is to get New England music on the map and help create a larger appreciation for it and hopefully help uplift other bands from the area, other musicians from the area, and just give it a bigger platform than it currently has.

If you’ve trained classically and want to get into New England fiddling, what do you do?

There are all sorts of ways to participate. Anyone of any age or any level is super welcome. Go to a contra dance—go and dance, feel the music that way, listen to the music that way. And then I would say try a fiddle camp. They are really great entry points into this kind of music. And there are fiddle camps all over the country, all over the world.

I’m going to teach at one in France. I run one in Vermont in the fall called Boston States Fiddle Camp, in Marlboro, Vermont, at Potash Hill. It’s for Scottish and Cape Breton music. Also, for New England music, there’s nothing better than Maine Fiddle Camp, which happens in the summer in June and August. - Strings Magazine