Irish Music Magazine (IRL)

When a German band appears alongside top Irish acts at the 2007 Boston Irish Connections Festival (ICONS) and wins the rapturous attention of the audience, when five young German musicians playing Celtic tunes can enthral American crowds night after night on their first US tour, so much so, that the touring agent decides immediately to do a follow up tour, then this band deserves a mention.

The band I'm alluding to is Cara, the name is of course, taken from Irish, meaning friend. Cara has been playing together since 2003, although the bodhrán player, Rolf Wagels day time commitments prevent him from devoting himself full-time to music. His animal patients also require his services, he is a vet. In the beginning Claus and Sandra Steinort also had full-time day jobs. Music was played in their free time, but now times have changed and Cara has become their main employer. Now that has inevitably meant travelling the length and breadth of Europe and then some, crossing oceans, taking with them Irish and Scottish tunes mixed with traditional musical influences from other cultures. Yet at the base of all this is their main sound, which still remains very much Celtic. They also include their own Celtic-inspired songs, which are just as enthusiastically received.

Looking back at their musical biographies, it is no great surprise that their music is of such high quality. Gudrun Walther started with fiddle as soon as she could hold it and she played mostly Irish material. "My older brother was a real fan of Irish music and played it non-stop. So I had no other choice but to get involved also. I knew nothing about Ireland at that age. I didn't understand the lyrics but it had me spellbound and it hasn't let go." Her peers of the time were fans of the typical pop groups and Gudrun was listening to the Tannahill Weavers and the Battlefield Band. "They were my boygroups", she says with a chuckle. Apart from playing the fiddle, she also plays viola and button accordion, and last but not least, she is one part of the wonderful voices of the band.

The other voice is Sandra Steinort, who originally studied the piano but because of her love of Celtic music she also took up the wooden flute which she learnt at various workshops during her many visits to Ireland. Claus, her husband, spent a year in Ireland during his college days. He's a master of the Irish concert flute and was a little sceptical in the beginning on having a line up with two flutes. However, after a couple of rehearsals, he realised that his doubts were unfounded. Indeed the twin flute arrangements are now a sort of trademark for Cara.

The first sessions in the current line-up actually didn't take place in South Germany where Gudrun Walther and JĂĽrgen Treyz live nor in North Germany where Sandra, Claus and Rolf are located but in the North West of Ireland, in Donegal to be exact. This is the area where they have found some inspiration and where they spent a lot of time especially in the winter months when they attended the Frankie Kennedy Winter School over the New Year in Gweedore.

Jürgen Treyz studied the guitar in Munich and opened a recording studio in 1993 that specializes in folk and acoustic music productions. He has written music for theatre and television, his musical prowess can be heard on more than 70 CD's and he has already received one of the highest musical achievement awards in Germany. Rolf Wagels instrument is the bodhrán. He is one of the top players in Germany and in Ireland he can certainly hold his own. Rolf has even put this to the test by playing with some members of Altan especially during his visits in Donegal.

It's important to look at the musical background of the group which shows that, even though, they have not been exposed to Irish music from the cradle, and the fact that their grandmothers and grandfathers didn't rock them to sleep with Irish lullabies, they have still managed to attain such high standards by their dedication and love of Celtic music. Above all their music was greatly influenced by Planxty, The Bothy Band and by Altan, of course. Now and again Tola Custy, a fiddler from County Clare joins the band, indeed he made a guest appearance on their current CD, "In Between Times".

Is it not difficult for a German band to compete on a market that is littered with such talent from Ireland and Scotland? "We don't see ourselves as competitors" replies Gudrun. "We feel we are part of this scene and our musical colleagues from the Celtic shores have always accepted us as also belonging to this genre. They have embraced our style, our way of playing Celtic music. We have so much joy and fun when we meet at festivals, we exchange ideas and just have 'craic' together often ending in spontaneous sessions. That happened again recently in the United States", says Gudrun Walther. "Anyway", she continues, "we probably all listen to the same CD's at home." Even though Cara doesn't need to hide their own talent they still have respect and admiration for the "greats" in the scene. Gudrun says: "When somebody like John Doyle or Paddy Keenan come up to us after the concert and say well done we certainly stand a little prouder."

All the band members also play with other groups or are involved in other musical projects. This diversity of interests has helped unintentionally to make Cara a band that is open to new impulses. The hard question is there to be asked of course, why are German folk musicians playing Irish folk music and not German folk music? It's an interesting topic that cannot be answered in just a few sentences but suffice to say that at least two of the band, Gudrun Walther and JĂĽrgen Treyz, are also involved in the German folk scene.

In Germany they are a duo, known as Deitsch, who are out and about promoting the real traditional German folk music and not just the typical folk music normally associated with Germany. But that is a bigger story for another day.

Cara have released two CD's so far "In Colour" and "In Between Times" and both albums have received critical acclaim. A DVD is also in the making. Hopefully Irish audiences will soon get a chance to see them perform more often live in Ireland. It's a concert tour you shouldn't miss. When will an Irish tour happen? Take a look at www.cara-music.com and be the first to tell your friends.