Following his two appearances on CBS Mornings last fall, Tyler Carson returned to a sold-out Mary D. Fisher Theatre to put Sedona in a St. Patrick’s Day mood with his “Celtic Dreams” concert on Thursday, March 13, for which he was joined by fellow Sedona violinist Teresa Joy.
His opening medley began with a long, haunting drone with high melodic lines above it, murmuring together in blurred voices. Occasional familiar phrases emerged from the current of the music and disappeared again, implying indistinct figures rising from a magic well in a misty wood and being submerged again. In truly Irish fashion, the instrumental introduction gave way to a combination of playing and poetry recitation before Carson finally flashed into a jig with a color like a ruby and began building up his own string orchestra around him, one that was alternately frenetic and inquisitive. Strings plus the Stroh violin with the horn, of course. By the movement of the audience members’ heads, he had their full and rapt attention. One beat to rule them all —and he had it.
“The Celt is being unleashed,” Carson laughed after that first energetic set. “One of the most important traditions in Celtic music is to have friends to play with, and there’s a fiddle player in town that I’ve known about for a long time, and I thought this would be an amazing opportunity to have a little jam,” and forthwith Joy emerged from backstage wearing — yes, wearing, not carrying — a scarlet Viper electric violin recalling the design of the Gibson Flying V guitar to join him for a Celtic duet. Carson set a background loop and she came in warm and wistful as he provided special effects. They joined forces and broke into a cheery dance before shuttling back and forth between both moods, dancing their music in the more lively moments. Their bowing talents in this piece, incidentally, had to be seen to be believed.
“Spontaneous harmonies and everything. That’s what the fiddle is,” Carson exulted.
In “Central Arcade,” the outcome of a visit to Northumbria, he created an early sensation of raindrops leaping in a pond, over which a sauntering, slightly cheeky theme strolled before giving way to a highly introspective passage and then a reprise. Another of his selections, the “Giants’ Two-Step,” was a charming and well-composed demonstration of Carson’s layering abilities in live performance, consisting of a broad, swinging main theme that he used as a base for a series of twisty phrases atop it, some going high and some going low, but all swaying to the underlying steady throbbing. It died away with Carson flirting with his own echoes.
The show also featured some of Carson’s popular medleys from his regular shows, including a rendition of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” that he made delicately angsty before blending it more hopefully into “A Whole New World” from Disney’s “Aladdin.” Joy doubled on “All Along the Watchtower,” providing piercing high notes over Carson’s fast fingering. Then there was his own “Fiddle” riff, which he looped and proceeded to erect a series of variations atop before sliding into an excerpt from a traditional fiddle tune and a sizzling dance.
The highlight of the concert, though, came when Carson and Joy previewed a new tune, which Carson co-wrote, that will be featured at this year’s Sedona Dance Festival on May 3. This one paid homage to the Celtic heritage of Galicia in what is now Spain. Carson provided a back drop of choppy chords and pizzicato over which Joy swirled a sultry solo before they began a dance of their two voices, sometimes in unison, sometimes in dialogue, their music making imaginary candlelight flicker in the distance. They created a rich, gorgeous atmosphere with the piece, one that gained new nuances when Carson picked up the Stroh and Joy switched ranges, again employing that pulsating tip control that she could use to give the impression of a vampire’s touch and all that that implies. Passionate, sensual, complex, the Galician interlude drew the most enthusiastic applause of the evening.
Carson performs regularly on Thursdays and Saturdays at the Posse Grounds Hub and Sedona Dances. For dates and times, visit fiddlerontherock.com.
