Hanz Araki holds album-release party at the Treehouse

By Luciano Marano • May 29, 2019 9:10 am
Image courtesy of the Treehouse Café | Singer-songwriter, and traditional Irish flute player, Hanz Araki will celebrate the release of his new album “At Our Next Meeting” at the Treehouse Café at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 13.
Image courtesy of the Treehouse Café | Singer-songwriter, and traditional Irish flute player, Hanz Araki will celebrate the release of his new album “At Our Next Meeting” at the Treehouse Café at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 13.

Singer-songwriter and traditional Irish flute player Hanz Araki will celebrate the release of his new album “At Our Next Meeting” at the Treehouse Café at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 13.

Tickets, $15 for reserved table seating, are on sale at www.treehousebainbridge.com. Entrance is for those 21-and-older only.

With a three-decade-long career and a well-established base in the Pacific Northwest, Araki made the cross-country move to the New England city of Portland, Maine in 2016. The move eastward may seem counterintuitive after a full career, but it became clear to him as he heads into his next 30 years of music that access to Ireland would become increasingly important.

His new recording, “At Our Next Meeting,” represents this closeness, all the while reflecting Araki’s rich musical past.

The West Kerry town of Dingle, the birthplace of Araki’s maternal relations and locale of producer Donogh Hennessy’s studio, is a home-away-from-home for Araki. The transformative effect of Kerry, and the love he has for the place, can be heard in every note of the album.

Guests artists Niamh Varian-Barry (violin, viola), Laura Kerr (fiddle), Méabh Ní Bheaglaoich (accordion) all call Dingle home, with Dublin-based Trevor Hutchinson providing bass, and Portland-based Colleen Raney on backing vocals.

After self-producing 10 albums, Araki reached out to Donogh Hennessy to produce “At Our Next Meeting.” Hennessy, formerly of Lunasa, seemed like the right choice among the many friends and colleagues encountered over the years, being a skilled and experienced recording engineer and superlative guitar player. The creative collaboration between Hennessy and Araki keeps this album of largely traditional music from only looking backward.

The songs collected for “At Our Next Meeting” are all informed by some part of Araki’s life both as a musician and before.

Contemporary folk choices — like “Song for the Asking” by Paul Simon — show Araki’s long-standing love of Simon & Garfunkel’s harmonies, and represent his earliest inspirations as a musician.

The inclusion of David Francey’s “Saints and Sinners” is also deeply personal, being a favorite of longtime friend and musical partner Finn MacGinty, who passed away in 2018.

Polkas “The Gullane,” “The Harvest Fair,” and “Miss Mulvahill” were collected from accordion players Johnny B. Connolly, Junior Stevens, and Méabh Ní Bheaglaoich, all dear friends and colleagues of Araki.