Photos provided Generic cut line to ID Faire May band members (left to right) Zac Gordon of Wheeling, Max McGovern of Wheeling, Jacob Coughlan of Steubenville and Jariel Henthorn of Moundsville.

WHEELING – Rummaging through the sheet music left behind by the quintet of sisters that rocked Cockayne Farmstead in the Victorian era has ended well. The members of Faire May have unearthed the kind of jewel that violinist Zac Gordon says turns “old soul” musicians on.

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

“One of the most fascinating things to do is find something… that no one has ever recorded and put your own twist on it,” he said of the group’s commitment to upholding it. traditional music alive.

And Cockayne’s Victorian stuff is actually one of the most recent pieces in their repertoire. The group is also looking at 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.

Group member Jariel Henthorn, a home-schooled teenager in Moundsville, said her favorite from the latter era was “Carol of the Birds,” which is 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 makes pipe organs at a Steubenville store – Henthorn feels both a connection to history and a sense of timelessness when playing traditional music.

“I don’t think people have really changed since then, or since the dawn of time,” Henthorn said, imagining what life was like when the Cockayne sisters sang the same song. “They always went to parties, they had friends, they had family. They were like us.

Well, apart from the clothes, she added.

While the guys in the group perform in historic styles that really aren’t that different from what men wear today, she wears historic dresses hand-sewn by Gordon’s sister Kara Gordon, who also directs Cockayne Homestead.

There’s nothing timeless about the hustle and bustle, especially when getting into a car, Henthorn said. Or when she wields the double bass that she often plays during performances.

“It’s like 50 pounds,” little Henthorn joked about the bass. “But, with three guys, they’re all gentlemen and they offer to wear it.”

MUSIC FOREVER

Faire May banjo player Coughlan agreed there was an element of eternity in their repertoire – Christmas music and beyond. “It’s an expression of his heritage, a way to explore other cultures and tell timeless stories in a way that is only possible through music.”

Henthorn and Gordon said they suspect musical timelessness is linked to shared humanity, both for songs with lyrics and those without.

For sung pieces, for example, the lyrics often include topics like love, heartache or homesickness, Henthorn said. While not all living humans can identify with the party lifestyle that Henthorn believes many contemporary songs celebrate, she said almost anyone can relate to these universal topics.

And, because the traditional lyrics are faith-compatible (and, at Christmas, often faith-related), Gordon noted that their gigs and running the band are literally family affairs. Parents and siblings are involved in tailoring and creating unusual promotional programs and products 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 bedroom and listening to punk rock music,” Gordon joked of everyone’s welcome nature of something like the violin.

However, there is more to the mix than violins. The band members, aged 15 to 22, play a wide variety of instruments. Some are easily recognizable stringed instruments. Others include things like small bagpipes meant to be played indoors, a Celtic drum, and whistles.

For Gordon, whose musical interests often celebrate his Scottish ancestors, there’s an added fascination with how songs written in the 1200s aren’t really that stylistically so different as, well, one of those songs. punk rock.

“The balance between singing the song and playing the song instrumentally right after that is something they did in medieval times as well,” Gordon said. He also noted that 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 dance, 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 complete way of expressing yourself.”

BANDAGED

TOGETHER

It is also a link with the community, they added. All four have performed with groups such as Gallowglass (a Wheeling band that focuses on Celtic music) and Crandall Creek (a Moundsville-based bluegrass band now producing original music that ranks.)

Faire May formed in late 2019, they said. The group participated in a season of live Christmas concerts before COVID-19 closed concert halls in Wheeling and Steubenville. These towns have since become their home territory.

“We kind of brought together a lot of folk genres,” Gordon said. “We like to do Irish, German and Old Appalachian. This allows our shows to remain very diversified. Sometimes the band sings in other languages, including Gaelic and Latin.

Christmas concerts feel natural given the general themes of Faire May, but he noted that St. Patrick’s Day and West Virginia Day are also the best times to book.

Henthorn, who like Gordon aspires to perform for fun rather than a career, said the band members were also surprised to now receive private bookings. This month, for example, they’ll be performing colonial Christmas music for a family reunion that includes a birthday party.

Readers interested in one of Faire May’s public performances will have three opportunities this season:

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

On December 21 at noon, the group 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 auditorium of the Ohio County Public Library. There is no charge, but places are limited. The program will also be shown on the library’s website, YouTube and Facebook Live.