Brian Mullins Cittern, mandoline, mandocello, bouzouki, guitar, flute, fife, erhu. Compositions: The Life of Riley's Brother, Siamese Triplets, The Wife of Riley's Brother, The Bellefield, County Carlow, and Vespers Hinge

Tell us about your early musical life. Did you come from a musical family? Did you have lessons?

     My mother was the musical parent; my Dad claimed an inability to carry a tune in a bucket. My Mom still sings in the choir -- a revered soloist. She instilled a love of yodeling in me and endured my early days of snare-drumming and endless repetition of "Lochlaven Castle" on the mandolin. My family practiced pygmy hockets in the bathtub and in the car on holidays. Ed Fink was the local resident barber, historian and ragtime pianist/guitarist and, while I didn't receive formal lessons from him, I did listen in earnest to his stories of playing on the radio and gleaned inspiration there. Later I received lessons on the flute and Chinese erhu and attended musicianship lessons at Boulder's Naropa University.

How did you become interested in Irish music? What is it that makes that music compelling for you?

     Sheer lack of stimulus and high blood-sugar brought me to the music -- and Martin Carthy (then with Steeleye Span) playing the "Mooncoin" Jig was certainly compelling.

What sort of music do you mostly listen to for enjoyment?

     I love Astor Piazzolla, Hermeto Pascoal, Tom Waits, Chinese erhu music, Jazz, the Yali tambor music of Turkey and mournful, droning, dirge-like laments.

What do you like best about being in Colcannon?

     The food, the company and the colorful Colcannoids that come to our gigs.

What do you like least?

     Time away from my cat, Marwabingmot.

What do you do for fun?

     Travel, biking, enjoying hot springs, playing tennis; writing mournful, droning, dirge-like laments and drinking phosphorescent-effervescent elixirs and levitating.

What kind of books do you read? Anything recently that you'd recommend?

     I like autobiographies and non-fiction books of travel. Pick of the month -- "Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches" -- Marvin Harris.

New projects?

     Well, I've been working on gathering material for a project which features instruments that only have one string, such as the diddley bo, washtub bass, berimbau, gopichand, these kinds of things with variable pitch, you know, maybe a little musical saw. Serious hillbilly classical stuff! Uncle Chester's one string hoodoo circus music. And of course I'm still arranging original music for two Chinese spike fiddles (erhu) and bassoon or bass clarinet or bass flute, or possibly trombone. With assorted percussion.

New interests?

     I've been interested in making some instruments lately like the flowerpotophone, the wine bottle marimba, the whirly chorus of corrugated tubing, diddley banjos, and I've been playing more drums. I've pieced together a drum kit with my 16 inch Pakistani tupan acting as kick drum, my Brazilian tamborim acting as timbale, various cymbals, bells, tongue drums, etc. Basically getting back to the soft underbelly of my roots.

New instrument?

     My newest instrument is a Vietnamese instrument called the dan bau (pronounced bow), or as I like to call it the diddley dan bau. This is a one string instrument with a built in whammy bar (which were originally made of water buffalo horn) which relies mostly on harmonics for its pitches.

Books you've read recently?

     The last book I read was one called Weird Wonders and Bizarre Blunders. This book contained lots of priceless knowledge, like the largest known cucumber was from Elbasen, Albania: eleven inches in circumference and 17 feet long.  It has been bronzed and now sits outside of city hall!  Really interesting stuff I'd say.

What are you listening to these days?

     I've been listening to an album called "The Art of the Toy Piano" by Margaret Leng Tan a lot, and another called "The Art of the Theremin" by Clara Rockmore. Basically the "art of" being a good prerequisite for listening. Another album called "Instrumentarium" by Bart Hopkins (no relation to "Lightnin") played largely on invented instruments. Very fresh stuff, I think.