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Keepin' it reel >>Tuna is no Irish Rovin' Celtic band by CHRIS YURKIW
Right. St. Patrick's season. So much more than a day ("It starts with the St. Patrick's Ball," advises Dave). But of course, Dave Gossage is much more than a Celtic guy. He's a flutist and guitarist, a pub player and session musician, an arranger and soundtrack producer, a fusionist and a traditionalist. He's a pillar of the local (Celtic) scene, but after years of standing on those postage-stamp stages spitting out old-country standards, you can get to wondering what it is, exactly, that you're holding up. "When we're coming into St. Paddy's season we have a schedule that's insane," says Dave. "We're all playing in the morning, we're playing at night, and it's basically the black-velvet band, Irish Rover-type stuff. And it's quite brutal. "It's all bussed-in people who are suddenly Irish on that day and they're screaming at you in the pubs. And we thought we wanted to do something that gets us back into why we play this music. It's not for the black-velvet bands and all that kinda stuff--that's the way we make our living. It's for the more sophisticated stuff--because it is sophisticated music, it's difficult to play, and there are a lot of interesting subtleties to it that are lost on that crowd." Gossage tops off that last line with a laugh, like he knows he's biting the hand that throws money (and bottles) at him. Enter Tuna. Actually, the full name of the new group is Tuna m.u.c., which stands for Montreal Urban Celtic. (Don't ask what Tuna means. Oh alright--it's Gaelic for "You can tune a piano but you can't tune a fish," i.e. a pub flub who drinks like one). The "urban" part of the acronym is a little misleading, however, since Tuna is an instrumental and trad outfit (as opposed to Gossage's fused-up Orealis, who'll put breakbeats behind a reel), a Chieftains to the pub circuit's Rovers, as Gossage likens it. And the "we" Dave keeps referring to isn't just any bunch of "Celtic guys." "This kind of band is more for people who know Celtic music a bit better, who like the reels and jigs and the instrumental tradition of the music," says Gossage. "And there are a lot of people like that."
Tuna m.u.c. make their live debut this
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"We're coming up to the season when no one has any time at all," says Dave Gossage. "I mean us Celtic guys."