By Karen Dale
Even before I became a Irish fiddler, I was already a fan of Molly’s Revenge, a Celtic and Old Time trad music trio who often played the Bethel Church on Vashon. To see David Brewer dancing about under a set of highland pipes nearly as big as he was, with John Weed whip-sawing out fiddle runs and backed by Stewart Mason’s steady guitar, was truly to see a firecracker of a show.
Most trad newbies soon sign up for summer music camps, and in 2018 when I heard that the three all taught at Mendocino’s famous “Lark Camp,” I signed up. Here at an old CCC camp in the Mendocino Woodlands, there’s three simultaneous music camps – a Balkan camp, a camp for trad musics of the Americas, and a Northern camp for Irish, Scottish, French, and Scandinavian musics. Four, actually, for there’s also a Youth Track.
On the outback stage devoted to Lark Camp’s Youth Track, I spotted – heard, actually – a lickety-split banjo run coming from a kid with dark, floppy hair and an outsized sweatshirt. He MIGHT have been all of ten years old. “Oh, that’s Tyler, one of the Weed boys,” said my companion. “Their father teaches the fiddle track. Little Evan next to him; he’s musical, too”
Wow, I thought – if they’re John’s kids, they’re kids to watch.
At the end of COVID, I got word of a yard concert with John Weed and son Tyler, backed by Portland guitarist Cary Novotry. Tyler, then 15, was playing both mandolin and tenor banjo. I was impressed yet again.
Meanwhile, younger brother Evan had taken up Celtic harp and jazz piano during the pandemic, and had started composing tunes. John of course was posting videos of his sons’ musical exploits; I was rather startled to hear a jazz turn coming out of the Weed living room. According to the press release John sent out, Evan won a position in the nationally ranked SFJAZZ High School All-Star Big Band, only the third eighth-grader in 40 years to do so. Last year, Evan became a 2025 National Young Arts Winner in the categories of composition and jazz piano.
Now Band-Daddy John is touring with both of his talented sons up and down the West Coast. They’ll be on Vashon on Wednesday, September 16th at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit. Doors open at 7:00 p.m., with the concert to begin at 7:30 p.m.. Suggested donation is $25. Evan’s composition “Supernatural” provides the title of their new CD, inspired “by a particularly fruity African coffee roasted by fiddler and band-daddy John Weed.”
John says, “Enjoy a musical journey that begins and ends in ancient Ireland, venturing ‘across the pond’ to explore influences from Appalachian mountain hollers to occasional hints of modern jazz. The folk process unfolds as John enjoys a musical conversation with two of the next generation’s rising stars. Hearing sophisticated arrangements of driving Irish jigs, reels, and slower heartfelt selections, you’ll leave uplifted, knowing the future is in good hands as The Weeds raises your spirits, honoring this tradition with a vital, new voice.”
