Bodega

Young Scots who make up Bodega are interested in more than jigs and reels

Depending who you ask, the word bodega can mean all sorts of things.

In New York City, it’s what the locals call a convenience store – a hole-in-the-wall shop that will sell you just about anything. Visit Poland and ask to be directed to a bodega, however, and you’ll likely find yourself at the door of a brothel.

The word designates a slightly more innocuous locale in some Spanish-speaking countries, referring to a warehouse – in particular, one for storing wine or other spirited beverages.

“Bodega” can also mean the clip on a pen, should that topic ever come up in conversation. But since 2005, Bodega has taken on a new meaning – the name of a quintet of young Scottish musicians of whom some have said, “they may just be the the future of (Celtic) traditional music.”

Bodega opens the Tulsa Performing Arts Center Trust’s Celtic Music series as part of the group’s first-ever U.S. tour.

The band was formed at the Sgoil Chiuil na Gaidhealtachd – the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music, for us English types. The school was founded in 2000 by former Battlefield Band member Dougie Pincock and is dedicated to teaching young Scots the ins and outs of jigs and reels.

Students live at the school, where they have a regular educational curriculum in addition to specialized instruction in bagpipes, fiddle, accordion, clarsach (Scottish harp), piano, guitar, whistle, flute, and Gaelic and Scots songs. Each year’s class is commemorated with a CD produced in the school’s own studio.

Gillian Chalmers was one of the very fi rst students at the Centre, where she polished her abilities on the pipes she had been playing since the age of 9.

She joined with fiddler Ross Couper, vocalist and accordionist Norrie MacIver, June Naylor on harp and piano and Tia Files on guitar to form Bodega. That fi rst performance was supposed to be a one-off, casual thing, but the quintet realized their interaction was something special.

The group entered and won the Young Folk Award from the British Broadcasting Company, and began playing festivals throughout Great Britain and Europe.

A self-titled album came out in August 2006, which prompted one writer to dub the band, “Scotland’s answer to Nickel Creek.”

And while the band is setting out on a tour that will take them around the U.S. and to Italy, they haven’t left the academic world behind.

Four of the players have moved to universities, such at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

Guitarist Files, the youngest in the band, is still attending the National Centre for Excellence in Traditional Music.