The 08-09 lineup (L-R): Sara Craig, fiddle / Sean Ewing, guitar / Emily Powell, fiddle /
Ian Mortensen, bodhran / Linda Mortensen, flute, whistle, recorder, song /
John Mortensen, uilleann pipes, Irish box, 5-string banjo, whistles, Irish flute, and stuff
Click on the album pictures above to hear sound clips from both CDs.
Five new videos!
Fun video from the St. Patrick's gig. Check out the heavy metal interludes.
And another St. Patrick's Vid.
Here is a video of a cool set of tunes called Brian Boru's Big Day.
The Demerits are all over the web!
The Demerits on MySpace (some audio and video clips)
The Demerits on CD Baby The best place to get Demerits music cuz they have CDs and mp3 downloads. The mp3's are higher quality than you get on iTunes. Also, they come with no Digitial Rights Management so you can easily put them on your computer, mp3 player, or whatever. Burn them to CD if you want. Please don't give them away, though.
Or open iTunes and search for "demerits" (download complete CD)
You can also get The Demerits' music on most mp3 sites like Napster and stuff.
Recent photos, courtesy of Sean's friend Drake:
The fiddlers making tunes happen.
Bo goes in for the kill.
Bo laying down the groove.
Victory. Triumph.
A tutor tooted the flute.
Banjo riffs.
Linda, Sean, Emily
Photos from the recording sessions for Made from Scratch:
About The Demerits
The Demerits are happiest when tossing off a set of lilting jigs, blazing reels, and bluegrass tunes for anyone who will listen. Formed in 2003 on the campus of Cedarville University in Ohio as an emergency measure to appease angry crowds demanding traditional Irish music, The Demerits have since gone on to record four very reliable CDs, “Plays Well With Others”, "Roadtrip", "Not Far from the Tree", and "Made from Scratch". They have performed in a few different places, none of which was very prestigious, but all of which were a good deal of fun.
The group members are mostly fugitives from classical music. After hearing them rip through a rowdy Irish dance set you might not guess that they also have perfectly respectable lives in a little college town.
They play Irish and American roots music, which is cool in itself, but what makes them kind of different is that the traditional tunes are intricately arranged with harmonic and rhythmic complexity that draws on the polyphony of Bach. Not trying to brag here, but you really have to know your stuff to pull that off.
Recently they have begun to acquire a reputation in Ireland. What happened was, this one lady got their CD and sent it to her daughter who was staying in Ireland, and the daughter called the mom and said the music was good. Technically that is an international reputation if you think about it.
So you can see that things are really picking up.