Reviews

Portland, Oregon, has long been a hot bed for creative Celtic music. The latest to crawl out from under the covers is Elizabeth Nicholson and Stringed Migration. As the name suggests, there are lots of sizzling acoustic instruments: fiddles, harp, viola, guitar, bouzouki and double bass, with occasional forays into violectra, whistles and electric bass. The fact that Nicholson plays harp, sings in a high soprano, and flavors Celtic music with world seasonings invites comparisons to Loreena McKennitt, but Nicholson's repertoire is even broader. Expect everything except the usual assortment of jigs and reels; Stringed Migration like to do things such as pair "The Unquiet Grave" with a Lebanese medley, an Irish hornpipe with a Romanian hora, or a 14th Century Italian tune with a Swedish waltz whose melody is so full of sixteenth notes that it ricochets more than sashays. Solid vocal work completes a wonderful album and, true to form, Stringed Migration rounds their magical ten-track release not with a bothy ballad, but an American shape-note hymn.
-Rob Weir, Sing Out!

Based in Portland, Oregon, Elizabeth Nicholson & Stringed Migration are an acoustic band with a repertoire of mostly Irish and Scottish traditional material. Though (so I judge from photographs) a young woman, Nicholson is already a formidably skilled harpist and a striking vocalist besides. She's surrounded herself with four comparably gifted musicians (fiddle, guitars, pipes, percussion, bass) with experience in a range of genres, including rock, jazz, classical, Appalachian and Middle Eastern.
Celtic sounds, however, are very much at the forefront, with others incorporated with charming, unforced ease. Though the playing and the arrangements are sophisticated and modern, they don't feel that way, which I mean as flattery. The consistent excellence notwithstanding, nothing showy is happening here, and the band seems at once to be floating outside time while yet rooted firmly in place. As the best bluegrass bands do, the finest Celtic ensembles -- happily for all of us who love the music -- never run short of creative approaches to what are in prosaic truth a finite store of ideas. Of course, the longer this goes on, the higher the level of technical excellence and musical imagination required. That's not a problem here; in Fly Not Yet, Nicholson and company achieve the desired, if in lesser hands elusive, feat of feeling both familiar and fresh.
The line-up consists of instrumentals and songs in approximately equal measure. The latter comprise, with a couple of exceptions, classic Scots ballads from the Child canon: "The Unquiet Grave," "Lord Thomas" and "The Dewey Dens of Yarrow," performed with the sort of resonance that separates masters from neophytes. Ballad singing, like blues singing, is a whole lot more demanding than it looks. My personal favorite vocal cut, however, is the title piece, with lyrics by the 19th-century Irish poet Thomas Moore set to an air ("Planxty Hugh Kelly") associated with 17th-century Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan.
Among the instrumentals, the traditional Italian harp piece "La Rotta" and an old Swedish fiddle tune identified simply as "Waltz from Orsa" join in exquisite medley. A Lebanese melody shows up as an intro to "Unquiet Grave," and the klezmer "Romanian Hora" shares medley duty with "Galway Bay" (not to be confused with the song of the same name). Fly Not Yet, let us hope, is just Stringed Migration's first flight.
-Jerome Clark, rambles.net, March 2008

(THUMBS UP!) Fly Not Yet imaginatively mixes material from Scotland, Ireland, North America, Lebanon, mediaeval Italy, Sweden, and Romania. Elegant, crystalline performances on vocals, harps, violin, viola, acoustic bass, bouzouki, guitar, and whistle. Merging The Unquiet Grave with a Lebanese melody is pure genius!
--FolkRoots magazine, UK

Now I generally focus on Canadian bands, but there was no way to pass up the opportunity to give Fly Not Yet a listen since Elizabeth Nicholson & Stringed Migration are a band noted for their fine Celtic music, another genre that always catches my attention easily. The band, from Portland, OR, which is darned near Canada, describes its music as “a lush synthesis of Celtic and international roots music with a twist of jazz.” Now if that isn't enough to be intriguing to a music fan, I'm not sure what would be. For me, as a fan of Celtic and of jazz, it was like honey and I was the bee. The question was, would the music live up to the expectation? The answer is a resounding yes. The music here has the undertones and base of traditional folk and Celtic, but you can clearly hear where Elizabeth Nicholson & Stringed Migration has added in twists of world music and jazz. Right from the opening cut: Lebanese Melody/The Unquiet Grave, which has, not surprisingly a Middle Eastern feel, this group takes listeners on a stunning musical adventure. The interesting thing is how easily Celtic music seems to absorb other influences and still coming out sounding right. For that reason, the music here always holds together as a package because there is Celtic at its heart. That said, almost every song throws a twist at the listener, from the Middle East on cut one, to great hand drum work on Paddy Fahey's/Cape Breton Reel. And, then there is the harp work of Nicholson, that adds such depth to much of the music. She is also the female vocalist here, and she has a sweet, lyrical voice that fits perfectly for the music offered here. Bob Soper is the male vocalist, along with a long list of instrument credits.In terms of instrumentation, this group offers whistles, bouzouki, fiddle, 6-string violectra, and a number of more traditional ones. The varied mix gives the music here a depth of sound and allows it to cross genres smoothly. Fly Not Yet may be a debut effort, but it has a maturity to the sound which tells you this band is well-seasoned. The quality is also such that it makes a music fan like myself drooling at the prospects of where they might take their music on future recordings. Any music fan should hop on board now with Fly Not Yet, and take the musical journey with Elizabeth Nicholson & Stringed Migration, to enjoy watching this fine band grow. Check them out at www.stringedmigration.com
-Calvin Daniels, Yorkton (SK. Canada) This Week newspaper Oct 15, 2008

It's a lovely recording, with some exotic material (Balkan melodies and tabla drumming) setting off the Celtic jigs and reels, in alteration with incredible lead and harmony singing. The male lead vocalist (Bob Soper?) reminds me of the lead singer in Northampton Harmony, but Elizabeth Nicholson has a voice like nothing else I've heard recently. You owe it to yourself to get hold of this CD and listen closely, beginning to end, and then once more.
- John McLaughlin, Host, Roots & Wings, WMUC-FM, UMD in College Park MD

Just a couple of years ago, Portland (Oregon)-based Celtic harp specialist and singer Elizabeth gave us a lovely CD Sink Or Swim, on which she presented a persuasive collection interspersing her own takes on traditional balladry with some tunes from (or inspired by) the Celtic tradition. On just over half of that CD she was accompanied variously by the four musicians who have now come together to form the group Stringed Migration: Bob Soper (percussion, occasional fiddle and guitar), Jim Chapman (whistles, bouzouki), Eddie Parente (violin, viola and violectra) and Rob Barrick (bass - although, confusingly, Tim Renner takes bass duties instead on the majority of tracks on this, SM's debut CD). There's inevitably a little more of a bias towards tune repertoire here than on Elizabeth's solo record, with five of the ten tracks on Fly Not Yet being purely instrumental.
The mix of musics is invigorating, bringing to the traditional sources via the musicians' varying backgrounds a melting-pot of more worldly influences: several Irish tunes are given a special kind of lift from elements such as spirited fiddling and harp playing and the use of djembe (not bodhrán) as rhythm-driver. There's also a Cape Breton reel, a Roumanian klezmer hora and a Lebanese melody (which is ingeniously linked to a fine rendition of The Unquiet Grave), while a linked trio of Eddie's own compositions proves particularly nifty. The songs are strong too: Elizabeth's singing is more purposeful and displaying a keener sense of the drama than hitherto, and there seems greater dynamic contrast within her voice. Bob adds his vocal skills to two of the songs: Lord Thomas becomes a duet with Elizabeth, while on the atmospheric shape-note closer And Am I Born To Die he sounds uncannily like Tim Eriksen I thought; those two selections are definite high spots of the record. Another specially interesting choice is the title track, where Thomas Moore's words are set to a planxty by O'Carolan. With not a weak track among the ten, this is a highly listenable and most intelligent disc, with excellent (and refreshingly unostentatious) musicianship throughout.
-David Kidman, March 2008, NetRhythms.co.uk

Elizabeth Nicholson and Stringed Migration are a quintet made up of some of the most well-balanced and talented musicians hailing from Portland, Oregon. They are multi-instrumentalists who’ve trained in styles from jazz, to Indian, to Paraguayan. What they all have in common, though, is their mastery of Celtic-style music and that’s what shines throughout this album. The range of instruments that were used to create this release is phenomenal. There are the easily recognizable sounds of instruments like drums, guitar, bass and violin mixed with the captivating sounds of instruments like the harp, bouzouki, and the fiddle. Although these instruments all have their histories rooted in different countries and styles of music, Elizabeth Nicholson and Stringed Migration brought them all together to create a modern take on classic Celtic music that was influenced by living in a country like America where musicians, and all people, can be exposed to the music of uncountable cultures. The highlight of the album, for me, would have to be the title track, Fly Not Yet, where Nicholson is able to show off her wonderfully powerful, but not dominating voice by singing the words of the Irish poet Thomas Moore. The strings work beautifully throughout this album to create interesting and enchanting melodies that sound harmonic beside the raw and natural sounds coming from the percussion. Mix that with Nicholson’s voice, which is a whole other instrument in and of itself, and you’ve got an album that’s both fascinating and a pleasure to listen to.
-Lucid Forge magazine, Canada

Based in Portland, Oregon, Stringed Migration is Elizabeth Nicholson on vocals, harps and guitar; Eddie Parente on violin and viola; Bob Soper on percussion, fiddle, vocals and guitar; Rob Barrick on double bass and Scottish smallpipes, and Jim Chapman on Irish and Greek bouzoukis and Irish whistles. There are all accomplished and experienced musicians in their own right and between them they cover a gamut of world music styles. They freely blend Celtic, Latin, Balkan, Americana, Mediaeval, Western and Indian classical music and jazz. The arrangements are imaginative, the instrumentation varied and the vocals (supplied by Nicholson and Soper) are excellent. They move smoothly from instrumental pieces to songs and back again. This recording demands serious listening and will grow on you with every play.
-Tim Readman, Penguin Eggs folk music magazine, Canada

"I knew 'Fly Not Yet' would be great, but it's better than great. It's one of the most seriously creative and natural sounding uses of differing ethnic traditions that I have ever heard. There's deep serious, stuff going on here - judging by the credentials of your players, I'm not surprised."
- Peter Clark, Calgary Music producer and former Seanachie guitarist

"The arrival of the new ensemble Elizabeth Nicholson & Stringed Migration is one of serious import. This flock of global music "superstars" draw from their various accomplishments in world genres to create a debut CD that is fresh, vibrant and brimming with unexpected delights.
- Lisa Lepine, Bite of Oregon booker