The Musical Box

battlefield band: sean o'donnell, alasdair white, mike katz, alan reid. photo by louis de carlo.

When asked at last night’s taping of the WoodSongs Old-Time Hour at the Kentucky Theatre to describe the instrument he cradled in his hands, Battlefield Band’s Mike Katz didn’t hesitate. “It’s beautiful,” he said. “It’s the sexiest of all instruments.” Then again, how else would you expect a six-foot-something Scot with a beard that would put ZZ Top to shame to profess his love for the Highland bagpipes?

Katz actually spent more time doubling on bouzouki last night, meshing with fiddler Alasdair White and guitarist Sean O’Donnell to create a sort of Scottish string band hybrid sound. Still, the pipes wheezed, whirred and roared to attention during the Counting Cowries finale of the Ku’ula-kai medley, one of four “pursuit of wealth tunes” Battlefield Band pulled from its new Zama Zama (Try Your Luck) album.

Once considered a bit of a rogue Scottish folk operation for its sometimes contemporary accents, Battlefield Band steered down a largely traditional path last night with the dance hall flavor of founder Alan Reid’s electric keyboards taking a back seat on the string driven Baile An Or (Gold Town).

But the traditions surrounding the performance took flight from Scotland more than once. While Plain Gold Ring became a lament of Celtic-spun desire thanks O’Donnell’s stoic vocals, the tune didn’t originate in ancient Scotland at all.  It instead emerged on American pop charts in the ‘50s as a hit for Nina Simone. Then there was the blues spark that prefaced the bagpipe celebration of The Pretty Apron. And let’s not forget that the title Zama Zama boasts zulu ancestry.

Adding to the program’s international thrust was Bardstown multi-instrumentalist Pauly Zarb, a native of Australia. Much of his set leaned toward Americanized pop-folk performed in almost vaudevillian one-man-band fashion with Zarb juggling keyboards, congas and guitars with his hands and kick drum and hi-hat with his feet. A nod to his homeland by way of a cover of the 1982 Men at Work hit Down Under added flute to the mix.

Zarb and the Battlefield Band also teamed for impromptu jamming at the show’s conclusion. While neither really needed the other’s help, the onstage bonding was fun to watch. But in the end, when Katz cranked up the bagpipes one last time during the encore of The Merry Macs (from Battlefield Band’s 2001 album Happy Daze), the global summit wound down as that sexy beast from “the ol’ kintry” took centerstage.