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Young Musicians With ‘Old Souls’ Find Niche

WHEELING -- Digging through sheet music left behind by the quintet of sisters who kept Cockayne Farmstead buzzing during Victorian times came to a good end. Members of Faire May band unearthed the kind of jewel that fiddle player Zac Gordon said excites "old soul" musicians.

It was sheet music for a carol called "Christmas Bells" that the Cockayne sisters performed in a holiday concert at their home in the late 1800s. It's now on Faire May's performance schedule for 2021. And, Gordon -- a Wheeling resident and freshman at Franciscan University -- said bringing that piece back to local life more than 100 years later is a win-win for music and history.

"One of the most fascinating things to do is find something … that no one's ever recorded and put your own spin on it," he said of the band's commitment to generally keeping traditional music alive.

And, the Cockayne's Victorian stuff is actually one of the newer pieces in their repertoire. The group also searches the Library of Congress for pieces to resurrect, he said. As a result, in addition to "Christmas Bells" and familiar holiday favorites, this concert season also includes medieval pieces from the 1400s and 1500s.

Band member Jariel Henthorn, a homeschooled teen from Moundsville, said her favorite from the latter era is "Carol of the Birds," which talks about birds sharing their song with baby Jesus.

Like Gordon -- and fellow band members Max McGovern, a student at Wheeling Park High Schooler, and Jacob Coughlan, who builds pipe organs at a shop in Steubenville -- Henthorn feels both a connection to history and a sense of timelessness when performing such traditional music.

"I don't think people have really changed since then, or since the dawn of time," Henthorn said of imagining what life was like when it was the Cockayne sisters singing the same song. "They still went to parties, they had friends, they had family. They were just like us."

Well, except for the clothes, she added.

While the guys in the band perform in historic styles that really aren't that different than what men wear today, she wears hand-sewn, historic gowns made by Gordon's sister, Kara Gordon, who also directs Cockayne Homestead.

There's nothing timeless about a bustle, especially when getting into a car, Henthorn said. Or when she's maneuvering about the string bass that she often plays during performances.

"It's like 50 pounds," the petite Henthorn joked of the bass. "But, with three guys, they're all gentlemen and they offer to carry it."

FOREVER MUSIC

Coughlan, Faire May's banjo player, agreed there's an element of forever to their repertoire — Christmas music and beyond. "It's an expression of one's heritage, a way to explore other cultures, and tells timeless stories in a way that's possible only through the medium of music."

Henthorn and Gordon said they suspect that musical timelessness has to do with shared humanity -- both for songs with lyrics and those without.

For the pieces that are sung, for example, lyrics often include subjects like love, grief or homesickness, Henthorn said. While not all living humans can relate to the party lifestyle Henthorn believes many contemporary songs celebrate, she said pretty much anyone can relate to those universal subjects.

And, because the traditional lyrics are faith compatible (and, in Christmas, often faith related), Gordon noted their concerts and the management of the band are literally family affairs. Parents, and siblings are involved in costuming and creating programs and unusual promotional merch such as locally blended teas whose flavors reflect their music -- Apples in Winter and Highland Laddie, for example.

"It's not like I'm sitting in my room and listening to punk rock music," Gordon joked of the everybody-welcome nature of something like fiddling.

There's a lot more than fiddles in the mix, though. The band members -- who range in age from 15 to 22 -- play a wide variety of instruments. Some are easily recognizable stringed instruments. Others include such things as small bagpipes meant to be played indoors, a Celtic drum and whistles.

For Gordon, whose musical interests often celebrate his Scottish ancestry, there's an additional fascination about how songs written in the 1200s aren't really all that different stylistically than, well, one of those punk rock songs.

"The balance of singing the song and playing the song instrumentally right after that, that's something that they were doing in the medieval times, too," Gordon said. He also noted the tight polyphonic harmonies of the middle ages were similar to those used in modern bluegrass.

And, a lot of music, written then or now, is clearly meant for dancing, he added. "It's just fun to play and it's fun to listen to," Gordon said of these traditional pieces. "It's just a whole way to express yourself."

BANDING

TOGETHER

It's also a connection to the community, they added. All four musicians have played with bands such as Gallowglass (a Wheeling band that focuses on Celtic music) and Crandall Creek (a Moundsville-based bluegrass band now producing original music that's charting.)

Faire May formed in late 2019, they said. The band squeezed in a live Christmas concert season before COVID-19 shuttered musical venues in Wheeling and Steubenville. These cities have since become their home territory.

"We kind of put together a lot of folk genres," Gordon said. "We like to do Irish and German and Old Appalachian. It keeps our shows really diverse." At times, the group sings in other languages, including Gaelic and Latin.

Christmas concerts feel like a natural given Faire May's overarching themes, but he noted that St. Patrick's Day and West Virginia Day are also top booking times.

Henthorn, who, like Gordon, aspires to perform for pleasure rather than as a career, said band members have also been surprised that they're now getting private bookings. This month, for example, they will perform Colonial Christmas music for a family reunion that includes a birthday celebration.

Readers who are interested in experiencing one of Faire May public performances will have three opportunities this season:

Two performances will take place 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Dec. 19 at Cockayne Farmstead in Glen Dale. Tickets for these live events and a virtual Facebook performance are available through the farmstead.

At noon Dec. 21, the band will accompany Don Feenerty's presentation: "The Simple Life, a Foxfire Christmas from the Meeting House in Historic Mt. Pleasant, Ohio." The program is part of the Lunch With Books series and will take place in the Ohio County Public Library auditorium. There is no charge, but seating is limited. The program will also stream on the library's website, YouTube and Facebook Live.