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By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Philip and Pam Boulding, a Celtic song duo from Washington state, have played all over the world together for forty years. On Tuesday night they made their Westwood debut. And while their instrument playing was impressive, it was just a small part of what the duo does.
Philip built almost all of the instruments the two played, including his harp made of cherry wood. He also composed almost all the songs the two played, and made sure to give a brief story about where they were composed and what inspired them.
Stories ranged from the light hearted - like “The Toasted Toaster Rises Again,” in which Boulding commemorated his being able to repair an antique toaster his son Brennan had discovered - to the deeply emotional like “Lullabye for Elisa.” The latter piece is a lullaby Boulding composed beside his mother’s deathbed in the last week of her life as she struggled with Alzheimer’s disease.
Boulding donned sunglasses for his mini guitar blues performance. Photos by James Kinneen
The majority of the compositions revolved around places, like “Longing for the Blaskets,” about how the Bouldings could not seem to get on the ferry to take them to the Irish islands; “The North Wind,” which was written on the hill they live on, which overlooks Puget Sound; and “The Fairy Wind,” which was composed in Ireland. Boulding explained how he had brought a small harp with him on the trip and while on a cliff the winds whipped through his harp and made a series of deep, organ-like sounds. When he spoke to a local about the incident, she explained that those sorts of things happen in Ireland, and that those were “the fairy winds.”
One of the more interesting songs was one inspired by Philip’s annoyance at trying to tune a guitar in an old Washington church. This was a blues song, played on a small guitar Pam found for him in Maui. Acknowledging the interests of the group's typical audiences, the song included the line: “I know this ain’t no Irish song, bear with me it won’t be long.”
Among the stories was a most interesting one of Pam’s about how she and Philip met. Pam heard a dulcimer hammer and spent two years trying to find one (this was before the internet). Finally, she found a business that would let her play one, but only if she took lessons with them. While taking lessons, she made the tuner show the entire class how to tune the instrument, using hers as the example. Philip was the tuner, and they’ve been together ever since.
This was the first time Philip and Pam Boulding played together in Westwood.
Hopefully it won’t be the last.
