Spirit Chasers

You couldn’t ask for a more onomatopoeic name for a fiddler than Cleek Schrey, at once sonorously clackety and redolent of the rub of the rosin on the bow.

He’s been mentored by New York-based ex-pat Brendan Mulvihill and tutored in the ways of the Longford fiddle tradition by Paddy Reynolds who also inculcated in him a love for the playing of the 78rpm era.
He is, furthermore, a devotee of the Appalachian stringband tradition, in which he has collaborated with old time fiddler Rhys Jones. Outside of the traditional ambit he has also worked with dancers and composers bent on teasing out fresh horizons for the fiddle.
For now, though, he’s one third of the Ghost Trio, in which he is conjoined with the almost as onomatopoeically, and slightly more mellifluously, named Iarla Ó Lionaird, that golden-throated giant of the West Cork Cycle.
The Cork man is best known still for his work with the Afro Celt Sound System and his time with them has undoubtedly established him in the public imagination as a restless experimenter. However, there’s far more to him than that narrow snapshot and his experimentation goes deeper and broader than the loops and samples of the Afro Celts.
He has worked with English composer Gavin Bryars and, closer to home, Donncha Dennehy and the Crash Ensemble. He has also released a well-regarded series of solo LPs. Providing the wind power to drive them along is uileann piper Ivan Goff, Dublin born and bred but now Brooklyn-based. He’s long been a go-to musician for bands like Dervish and Lunasa who have called upon his talents when gigging in the US. Their tour comes courtesy of the patronage of RTÉ Lyric FM and Music Network who have become champions for a certain thread of adventurous, risk-taking, trad. The idea, initially, had been to perform John Cage’s Roaratorio. However, this may have evolved into something more by the time they reach the stage. The tour kicks off in Dublin, at the Grand Social on Tuesday, March 19, with gigs following in the Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge (20), the Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon (21), Triskel, Cork (22), Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray (23), Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar (25), Station House Theatre, Clifden (26) and wrapping up with a show in Siamsa Tire, Tralee (27).
He may have moved on from these pages but