Switchback's new additions!

We would like to introduce you to the musicians who sometimes accompany Switchback on the road:  Nick Hirka on drums and ukulele and Paul Russell on violin and guitar. You may have been fortunate enough to hear them play along with Switchback at some of our recent shows.

Nick Hirka is a drummer from Des Plaines, Illinois. He met Brian and Marty quite fatefully at a church picnic/anniversary celebration in nearby Rosemont.  Nick got the call, heard that "an Irish duo" was headed in to write and perform the Mass, and, interested, headed over for their first meeting and rehearsal. Switchback and Nick would meet again to play the outdoor Mass on a beautiful summer day, and after sitting in for a few post-Mass original numbers, Marty and Brian invited Nick to the Haybarn Rendezvous in Iowa that coming weekend. It took just that one weekend at the Natural Gait for Nick to be sold...

Nick told us:

...I was in. That festival changed my musical outlook. I'd been drumming seriously since I was 12 or so. I struggled the romantic struggle of a high school musician. I played in several bands after graduating, played all Chicago's venues...Then suddenly, I'm in a candlelit cave, legs sore from a forest-path load-in, playing Celtic songs. It was calm. Eclectic. Free. I felt at home.

I work a day job as a tutor, in perpetual search of high school English teaching jobs. Students I tutor think I'm cool because I cancel sessions to travel to gigs. Parents dislike me for the same reason. I'm a jack of many trades, master of drums. I can get by playing piano, and I play bass guitar fairly well. I picked up the ukulele last summer and have somewhat vigorously taken to it - Switchback has worked it in to the set at points. I have a 5-string banjo being built for me by a luthier in Arizona. I draw pretty well. (With ink.  I'm not a 'slinger.)

I've already met a tremendous number of wonderful people while traveling with Switchback, and I've already seen some wonderful places with them. I've started documenting, in loose diary form, places I've played, something I hadn't done until I started playing with Marty and Brian. I look forward to more shows, always - this band is something I've started into and am engrossed in. I have trouble wrapping up projects, trips, and ventures. And written pieces!

Paul Russell, on top of being a gifted musician, an adventurer, and a blacksmith, happens to have known Brian FitzGerald all of his life since he is Brian's sister Sheila's son and thus Brian's nephew.  Paul provided the beautiful violin accompaniment on our Ghosts of the River Folk album.  How did Paul get into music?

Paul told us:

On a quiet evening I took a walk with my father to a shop on Roosevelt Road.  When we got back home, I started scratching away on my first violin.  I was five years old.  Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Go Tell Aunt Rhody, and Hot Cross Buns were among my first accomplishments, and before long I was playing concertos in D flat major and mazurkas in B flat minor.  I had a good go with classical music into high school, but after discovering improvisational music, a new path was found.  I attended Columbia College in Chicago for a year and a half, majoring in music composition.  Like classical music, it was a good experience, but something was not fitting.  You can find me now on the day to day at Lawndale Forge and Tool Works where I work for my Dad and Uncle, who worked for their Dad, who worked for his Dad, and on and on.  My Great-grandpa made horseshoes and shoed horses in Chicago.  I plan to continue playing music as long as I've got fingers on my hands and brains in my head!

One of Switchback's most recent tours with Nick and Paul included Switchback's New Year's Eve performance in Ontario. Imagine being in Canada for the first time and not freezing your behind off! Had they been with Switchback on the previous year's tour, they would have had the normal 20 below experience. When asked about their time in Canada over the New Year's holiday, here is what Paul and Nick had to say:

Paul told us:

'Twas the best of times, 'twas the worst of times.  Most importantly it was New Year's in Canada.  Moose and partridge were eaten, scotch was drunk, music was played, and sap was tapped from the island maples for premium maple syrup.  In short, people were hospitable and gracious.  In long...well, the drive was pretty long!  Just before leaving Chicago, I had the front ball joints replaced on my car because they were about to pop out at the next big pothole. When the car started bouncing and swaying back and forth during the first half of the drive, I figured the mechanic (who happened to be Nick's dad) had messed up.  Then Nick and I heard a flapping sound, and the right rear tire blew out at 70 mph.  We had a spare though and were back on course in no time.  So it wasn't the mechanic's fault after all and the car drove fine for the rest of the time and to this day.  Yes sir, 'twas the best of times, 'twas the worst of times, it was New Year's.

Nick added: 

O Canada!

That cold and distant land!

(True, but not for us...'twas 45, just grand...)

With glowing hearts we see thine lights

The Clansman, finally!

Tucked in, inside,

O Can-I-sleep while moose cuts wait for me?

God, let me drum well on New Year's Eve

O Will-I-starve while partridge waits for me?

O Canada! It's been too warm indeed.

O Canada!

Where pines and maples grow

Bears rest outside, during our five hour show

As midnight falls, the temp it drops

But indoors faces glow!

Folk of the isle,

O Can-ya-yell, "It's New Year's on St. Joe!"

Those who I met were "maple syrup" sweet

O Can-I-stay with Colonel's family... if

SO, Canada, you'll see returns of me.

Please join us in welcoming Paul and Nick, our newest members of the Switchback team!  The next time you are out and see them with us, please come up, introduce yourselves, and help make them feel like part of our WayGood World.

http://www.waygoodmusic.com/