In its first Charlottesville performance, D.C.-based string band Scythian brought the house down this past week at The Southern, located on the Downtown Mall.
This appearance has been a long time coming, band member Ben-David Warner said. Warner, a Charlottesville resident, has been trying to bring the band here for the past three years.
Frontmen Alexander and Danylo Fedoryka pair traditional Americana style with their Ukrainian heritage, which, when coupled with Alexander’s knowledge of Celtic folk, creates a thoroughly exciting and emotional performance which is more than welcome in the Charlottesville music scene.
The name "Scythian" comes from a group of nomadic Ukrainian horsemen who thrived before fourth century BC, Alexander said. Known for inventing the stirrup, these people are said to have met with early Celtic peoples and created a cultural “melting pot.”
“[We] didn’t want to be locked in to [any particular style],” Alexander said, making this ancient, free-form society an appealing namesafe for the group.
The Fedoryka brothers are classically trained by their mother, a Julliard alumna. They began their musical careers playing on the streets of Washington, D.C. — experiences Danylo said gave him and Alexander their ability to engage and interact with audiences while onstage.
A pivotal moment in the group's development came when Alexander traveled to Ireland for four months to learn and perform the art of early Celtic music. Upon his return to the United States, the rest of the band spent some time “learning all the old standards” from him. Danylo refers to this as a sort of “apprenticeship” — the group wasn’t writing its own music, just honing its skills in this traditional style.
“First it was all Celtic, 100 percent Celtic,” Danylo said. The style was transforming Scythian’s dynamic and people were responding well, he said.
Later, the brothers decided to explore their own heritage and experiment with Eastern European sounds and instruments, like the accordion, which Danylo now plays onstage.
The sound these influences create is “more of a mission statement than a genre,” Danylo said, bringing together the old and the new in a way which appeals to a vast range of generations and cultures.
The brothers have created an all-inclusive style and feel, making the communal purposes of early Celtic and Eastern European music feel modern and fresh — what Danylo calls “magic.”
Indeed, magic is the perfect word. With the instrumentalists constantly switching between bass guitar, fiddles, banjo and mandolin, and playing each at extraordinary speeds, the performance requires not just the band’s concentration, but its total immersion into these instruments. They obviously enjoy themselves onstage; with bright smiles and raucous shouting, band members were simultaneously exclusive and intimately inclusive, much to the admiration of the crowd. Though Scythian appeared lost in its own world of passionate music-playing, members also interacted with their audience.
The group’s repertoire ranged from reimagined folk classics, tense ballads, purely orchestral melodies, and even a few covers of country songs, like Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler.” Some choices were dark and dramatic — like Ukrainian folk tune “Hatsulka Ksenia” — while some were light and happy, like “Dance All Night.” One was even wholly Irish in subject and tone: Warner’s rendition of “There Were Roses.”
The album which kicked off Scythian’s tour, “Jump at the Sun,” works “better than any other album to interweave all the different genres that [they] play,” Danylo said. It was the natural direction for their music to go, he said, and the album absolutely flows with the members’ natural talent and experience. After 10 years of playing together as a band, Danylo said it feels like the first year again.
The album has even proved quite popular in Ireland, Danylo said.
The Fedoryka brothers take no issue with this — just after its performance at The Southern, the band embarked on a “fan trip” in Ireland, traveling with 90 fans to play shows. Danylo and Alexander were particularly excited to play at The Lakehouse in Tuosist, Ireland, a huge barn-style dance hall.
After the set at The Southern, Danylo said the group is working hard to build a Charlottesville following, but its clear their style and energy are already firmly rooted in the hearts of many local music-lovers and concert-goers.
Scythian will play at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. in December, with a return to Charlottesville unscheduled but likely imminent.
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