The Adirondack Harper

A musician in the Adirondacks captures the sounds that breeze through the mountains.

Story by Gabrielle Bilik

Marta Gallagher is a musician living in the Adirondacks.  Musicians in the area aren’t all too uncommon. Artists sponge up the inspiration flowing through the mountains, the trees, the rivers, lakes, and wildlife. Gallagher is an instrumentalist of a different kind. She sings and plays the Celtic Harp, a beautiful yet out of the ordinary instrument that you won’t find on many stages.

Gallagher has always been musical. She is also sings, is a classical flautist and plays folk guitar. She studied music at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. Graduating in ’79 with a degree in music, performing, composing, arranging, and recording. At first she went to school to study Music Education, but soon realized that Music Ed. was not really what she wanted to do.

"Working in a school format day in and day out was not for me. I’m not so good at the regular," Gallagher says.

After Gallagher finished college, she started touring. She plays the coffee house circuit, and at colleges. That’s when she heard someone play the Celtic Harp and fell in love with it.

"Just as I was finishing college I heard it and thought, "that’s what I wanna play!" I didn’t know anyone who played and didn’t know where to get one so I found someone’s design and built my own."

Since then Gallagher has survived primarily by making and sharing her music.  She used to sing in a rock band and a jazz band, but once she got married and started a family, playing in bars late at night, didn’t suit her schedule anymore.

Gallagher sets out on tours, makes and sells CD’s and plays at venues as well as at events like funerals and weddings.

"I love playing at weddings. Everyone is so happy and the people that hire me are looking for something out of the ordinary, and they come to me," she smiles.

As for funerals Gallagher feels the harp is perfect. "It’s not too dark or too sad. My job allows me to bring a gift into people’s lives in a way that’s really special to them."

"I enjoy Martha's music as it can be playful, nostalgic, soothing, creative, and makes for good mind/body karma," says photographer Nancie Battaglia.

"I thought this was going to be a harp concert"

Gallagher describes her music as "original music inspired by everything."

"I always find that my music flows through me, and if I can capture it, I work it into a song. I love performing. I love being on stage. It’s probably where I feel most at home," she says, her hands swirling through the air with her words. Her gold hoop earrings sway a bit, and she is smiling.

Gallagher is, "witty, fun, elegant, classy, intense, heartfelt, exciting, respectful, honoring and powerful but always, always, always presented with charm and grace," says friend and fellow performer, Brian Melick. "I have had the pleasure not only in knowing Martha but I continue to have the extreme pleasure in performing, recording and educating with Martha over these last 30 plus years.  I am always honored to be involved in her work."

Gallagher has become quite business savvy over the years; she schedules her own tours and arranges her own playing schedule. "It’s a lot more business administration doing this as a living than I’d ever imagined."

"Concerts are dependent on people having expendable incomes…grants and theaters with underwriters. The economy has very much impacted my schedule, because I’m seeing more and more places opting to cancel."

It usually works out though, because the music scene is so unpredictable. Sometimes when one person cancels, another person will call Gallagher and ask her to play. "You have to be able to scramble at a moment’s notice. It’s just part of the job."

"The Adirondacks have a number of very talented musicians, but it’s not a big professional music community. The other musicians are not concerned about finances, and they’re happy getting fifty bucks on a Saturday night. That’s what I made thirty years ago on a Tuesday night. I do this professionally, I just can’t afford that."

Despite the hard economic times, the future for Gallagher’s career looks bright. She is planning to tour Arizona, Florida, and the West Coast in the upcoming year starting this December. She is also very excited about a project she has in the works with PBS.

She has a continual project going called "Songs from the Stones," which you can listen to on her website.

"The songs are inspired by headstones," Gallagher explains, "They’re meant to be a celebration of life. Some are sad, but there’s a lot of interesting stuff on headstones."

"Her music lifts up the spirit, and reminds us why we're here."

One of my personal favorites was from a cemetery that had a lot of immigrants from Europe buried in it. It read, "By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed/ by foreign hands thy graceful limbs composed/by foreign hands thy humble grace adorned/by strangers honored and by stranger mourned." Her eyes close as she recites the passage, waving her hands expressively.

She had always enjoyed haunting cemeteries and reading the headstones, but a few years back she began making music out of what she read and felt in the graveyards.

Now, a cinematographer from PBS named Paul Frederick is working with Gallagher attempting to create a program about "Songs From The Stones". "So we have a letter of interest, we are filming a short this week to send to potential underwriters." Gallagher says, smiling.

When Gallagher isn’t working on her music, she enjoys kayaking and tending to her herb garden. She also has a new hobby of creating art out of wire and gems. She has also written articles for a few Harp publications, which you can read in The Harp Journal, a publication by and for the American Harp Society, the largest and most prestigious harp organization in the US, and in the Folk Harp Journal, the publication by and for members of the International Society of Folk Harpers and Craftsmen.  Both articles are about her work with the MIDI harp, a harp that controls a synthesizer. Gallagher has been featured live on NCPR’s "8 o’clock Hour", and has also been in a number of interviews for the radio station.

"Martha, as a person, has lots of energy, lots of creativity, an appreciation of the natural, the supernatural, the inevitable, the surprise...and the spontaneous. She is a fun-loving yet compassionate woman, and a talented harper. And she really enjoys sharing her musical "vision". She makes things happen with her music, her life, and adds a little spice to the lives of others too," says Battaglia.

Every year since she turned 50, Gallagher has a big Performance to celebrate. "Every year there are different guests and different music. I always look at it as an opportunity to push myself and it is a great place to expand as an artist.  I also love it because I go into it knowing my audience knows that they’re going to have a good time. Knowing they’re gonna be psyched. As a musician you can feel when the audience really wants to be there."

Gallagher feels that she has to fight the idea that her music is classical. "once there were these two elderly women sitting in the audience at one of my performances and one of them said quite loudly to the other one, "I thought this was going to be a harp concert," she says laughing at the memory.

People don’t usually know what to expect when they hear about a harp concert, "They come expecting something else, but they don’t leave disappointed."

Gallagher want to clear up the stereotype that her music is all classical harp music. The Celtic Harp is actually quite different from the more known pedal harp. "My music is eclectic- it is Celtic to flamenco, classical to blues & jazz.(click to see performance) From beautiful to edgy," says Gallagher. "The harp is capable of power and beauty," she says.

Todd Moe, producer for North Country Public Radio, says, "Gallagher is an Adirondack treasure.  Her music lifts up the spirit, and reminds us why we're here."

Do you play an unusual or uncommon instrument?