SWITCHBACK

They've had youngsters swinging pigtails and bouncing small knees in county schools. And they can make the Allamakee elderly dance, if only down the corridors of memory, where a lifetime can slip inside a few bars of wistful Celtic tunes.
Then, there's Dar's Place. When Switchback's Brian Fitzgerald and Marty McCormack bring their blend of oh-so original music and traditional Irish jigs through the swinging screen door, the result is nothing short of a boot-stomping, Budweiser-banging good time.
In the map of music, where individual taste and upbringing breed differing preferences, Switchback's universal appeal, with McCormack on bass while Fitzgerald plucks the guitar and mandolin, is hard to come by. It's a rare trait, and one the well-known Chicago duo intends to continue cultivating in their recent Allamakee County relocation.
While Webster's terms musicians as those who play music, McCormack and Fitzgerald, both born to musical families and raised in the Chicago area, may be more aptly re-termed as "musicians: those who are music."
"As a kid," says Fitzgerald, "I was building drum sets. I got my first guitar at 17 and picked up some jazz, classical and folk songs as well as pop." With the purchase of his first guitar came introductory lessons, and Fitzgerald soon picked up basic chords and rhythm.
From a family of nine, Fitzgerald's elder siblings brought home records, exposing him as a youngster to artists such as Crosby, Stills and Nash and Frank Zappa. More influential yet is Fitzgeralds's upbringing in the family-owned Chicago club, Fitzgeralds, still a thriving urban facilitator of live music.
Fitzgerald grew up scrubbing the club down during the day. Evenings, he'd cover the door, lending an ear to caliber acts such as Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jethro Burns. "I was subjected to it all," Fitzgerald recalls, referring to the club's eclectic play list, from cajun to country, rockabilly to rock. And an early love of jazz led to Fitzgerald taking up, and never putting down, the mandolin.
McCormack, meanwhile, was sewing some roots, more to the tune of "Danny Boy," on his own. There's his grandfather, native of Claremorris, County Mayo, Ireland. A great-grandma, who attended music school, long ago, in Prairie du Chien, WI. Two travelling great-uncles whistled their way up and down the Mississippi River as members of the WW l -era Imperial Dubuque Orchestra. And another great-uncle, bless him, married a Lansing girl.
There was always music to be had in the McCormack household, whether it be old 78's on a victrola, the soundtrack from "Oklahoma," Neil Young, or the voices of the McCormack family singing in unison, to mostly Irish tunes, under the direction of his grandfather. McCormack, in fact, sang in public before he ever placed his sneakers inside a kindergarten classroom. Later on, as a college student, he took up the bass he plays today.
Fitzgerald first spied McCormack 14 years ago, in an Irish pub where the McCormack family performed. "We just hit it off," recalls Fitzgerald. "It's like we were meant to do something together." For a time, the two would coincide at music festivals and enjoy a few songs. Eventually, they formed a band, the Wailin' Banshees, and performed strictly Irish music.
Over time, both Fitzgerald and McCormack desired to explore non-traditional music. They wished to write their own songs and perform a variety of styles, Irish and other. Today's Switchback came into being, and the two have been making sometimes beautiful, sometimes strange, and often downright good-and-silly, songs together ever since.
"It's not like we're both inspired at the same time," says Fitzgerald of their song-writing process. They have, however, written a wealth of material in their years of travel throughout the Midwest and have come, gradually, to be moved by area landscapes. As a result, Switchback has found, as unexpected but somehow predictable as July thunder showers, a home in Allamakee County.
Fitzgerald first visited the community of Lansing on a trip while dating his future wife, Maggie. The couple also discovered what is now the Fitzgerald Inn, owned by Fitzgerald's brother, Jeff. In subsequent years, other family members have purchased homes in Lansing, with one owned by Fitzgerald himself, his wife, Maggie, and children, Siobahn and Chris.
"I came out here," says McCormack, "when Brian moved. I've been happy to find a healthy Iowa music scene." Both band members list Iowa as holding "a definite spot on the music map" and agree they are in a good location to develop musically. They've had occasion to meet a variety of other musicians, playing guitar, harmonica, fiddle or just the saw. And they've had a good time in particular with the area band, The Toetappers.
Allamakee, says Switchback, has influenced their recent music. Songs such as "Stranded, Ragged and Poor," based on a flooding Mississippi, are evidence of their new leanings. "This whole area," says Fitzgerald, "has an affect on your soul."
Switchback has a full band back in Chicago, with cellist Cathy Kuna and percussion/vocalist Alpha Stewart adding new sound and creative incentive to the customary duo. They've even got a fan club out there, and a website, www.waygoodmusic.com/switchback.
But the expression, "way good," now the identifying label on productions "Ain't Going Back, Check On Out, 7 Rowdy Irish Songs and 2 Sad Ones, Good Church," and yes, "Dar's Place," was gleaned from Fitzgerald and McCormack listening to Dar's Brenda A'Hearn depicting simple, indescribable things as being just "waygood."
Future "waygood" releases are to include a collection of traditional Irish pieces, "Bolinree," and another disc of original songs, "The Fire That Burns." McCormack and Fitzgerald have shot photos for possible CD covers on the Blackhawk Bridge in Lansing and posed, together with the local Sweeney brothers, at an area one room schoolhouse.
Switchback is scheduled to perform July 15 at the Farr Side, Spillville; July 16, Dar's; July 28, Haymarket, Decorah; and July 29, Cafe Deluxe Courtyard, Decorah. Next October, the band will tour Austin, MN, to Austin, TX, raising funds for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
In between, the band will be busy writing songs in rhythm to the yellow highway stripes from Waukon to Chicago. And back. Local fans will be pleased to know the band comes to view Chicago, more and more, as a satellite location, necessary for energy, but more like an antennae on the house itself.
The new house, it seems, is being built here in Allamakee. And while Switchback is on the road, we'll be at home banging out a song of our own. Ours is a little jig, with room for a spin or two, called "we're keepin' em, we're keepin' em, we're keepin' em....".