All Things Bright and Beautiful

IF YOU’RE IRISH . . .
These are good times in which to be Irish, especially if your chosen field of activity or creativity is in the arts and entertainment field. Not only is there a thriving interest in most things Irish on the home front, but the international scene has recently witnessed an impressive procession of Irish successes, from the stunning impact of Jim Sheridan’s exposé of what used to be euphemistically known as British “justice” in the film In The Name Of The Father, to the unrelenting acclaim for U2 and the recent chart-topping D:Ream single with the prophetic title Things Can Only Get Better.
The last few months have seen Roddy Doyle laughing all to way to the hole-in-the-wall following the sales of Booker Prize-winning novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, and, as if to prove that Doyle is not the literary one-off that the music dullards thought U2 were, there are other novelists following in his wake, including Joe O’Connor and the lesser-known Castleknock-based thriller writer Glen Meade whose debut novel Brandenburg, the first of a three-novel deal with a major UK publisher, is due out this month.
In the film world, Liam Neeson’s performance in the lead role in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List adds to the previous big screen acclaim for Into The West, The Commitments and the afore-mentioned In The Name Of The Father. We sure have come a long way film-wise since The Quiet Man and Darby O’Gill And The Little People, haven’t we, begorra?
When things have reached the point that a traditional Irish track like ‘Duláman’, sung in the Irish language by Mairéad Ni Mhaonaigh of Altan, can be played on a Saturday afternoon on BBC Radio 1 (their rock station!) and sound perfectly at home in the slot, BBC Radio 2 broadcast a live Mary Black gig and the BBC’s World Service play tracks by Seán Keane and Begley and Cooney, then surely it is time to bury the home-grown begrudgery once and for all, without even granting it the courtesy of an undeserved wake.
MORE LATE NIGHTS
In the USA too, Irish musicians have never had it so good. U2, The Cranberries, Enya, Clannad and Van Morrison are currently major album shifters. U2 and The Chieftains recently received prestigious Grammy awards, while Philip King reached the final six in the Music Video long-form section for his production Rocky World, about U2 producer Daniel Lanois. And we had the unprecedented situation of one indigenous Irish record label, Tara, garnering three nominations, a feat never before accomplished by any of the Irish-based multi-nationals.
In fact, virtually all of the recent successes in Irish music in Ireland have been achieved by small, under-resourced Irish companies led by hard-working people with a genuine love of, and commitment to, their artists.
It’s now even reached the point where Irish music is spoken of and written about in the most unexpected contexts. Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson has been quoted in the US press about the influence Irish folk music had on the band and there were even reports of Bob Dylan, perhaps in preparation for his rumoured settling down in Kildare, incorporating what sounded suspiciously like an Irish jig into a recent live set.
And now along comes an album by critically unchallenged New Jersey songsmith Greg Trooper with a track on it called Ireland! The album, entitled Everywhere after a particularly aching anti-war song, written by Trooper and a firm favourite of Billy Bragg, has been snapped up for Irish release by CBM Records.
This Irish-owned label has already provided a safe haven for such homegrown talents as Four Men And A Dog, Draíocht, The Brothers, Cran, The Afternoons and Seán Keane, three of whom were short-listed in the Roots category of the Smithwicks-Hot Press Awards this year. Tracks by all of these artists are now featured on a spanking new compilation called Crossing Borders from CBM Records, which will also include tracks by Kieran Goss and Frances Black and Alec Finn.
The Greg Trooper album features a production credit for ex-Springsteen/ E Street Band member Garry Tallant and with sleeve thank-you’s to Maura O’Connell and Denny McDermott, perhaps the presence of a track about Ireland is not so surprising after all. In fact O’Connell is just one of several artists (Billy Bragg, Vince Gill and Steve Earle are others) to have recorded Trooper songs.
The decision by CBM to move into the area of adding overseas artists to their already illustrious roster is a welcome development since it is important when championing the progress of Irish artists onto the international scene to remember that it’s a two-way street and that there are inherent dangers in ghettoising Irish artists or being unduly protective of our music. An open-minded approach can benefit all musical aspirations, as proven by the presence of a comparatively lesser-known Dylan track, ‘Abandoned Love’, on Sean Keane’s excellent CBM album All Heart No Roses.
For those of you wishing to scrutinise Trooper’s credentials in a live setting, his Irish tour continues until 21st March, with dates in Tramore, Dingle, Cork, Dundalk, Monaghan and Dublin and we also hear of plans by the label to release a new album by Alec Finn shortly. So it looks like a few more late nights might be in store for the tireless CBM folks over the coming months.
FOLK AND ROOTS
Another label where sleep is obviously not a major priority is Dara Records. Over the past few years the label has enjoyed some extraordinary commercial and artistic success with Mary Black, but the A Woman’s Heart project also owes its existence to the label. Not only did the album sell in stratospheric quantities, but it also helped establish Eleanor McEvoy and Sharon Shannon (currently working on her long-delayed second album) as major artists. Equally they established unequivocally that Irish labels are more than a match for their more heavily funded international counterparts in both the A&R and creative marketing departments.
Now Dara have released the debut solo album by Frances Black called Talk To Me. Frances is already well established. She began singing professionally in 1986 and impressive stints with The Black Family, Arcady and in partnership with Kieran Goss (who is also making waves with his own solo career) followed. But those who might regard her as merely Mary Black Mk II will be pleasantly surprised by the striking individuality of her confident performances throughout Talk To Me.
While much of that confidence might be innate – and growing up in such a musical family would have done her no harm at all – Frances has also worked all over Europe as well as Iraq, Australia, New Zealand and the US. To coincide with the release of her solo album, she has put together a distinguished band with James Blennerhasset on double bass, Greg Boland (guitar) and Graham Henderson on keyboards.
Black’s Talk To Me tour starts in Dunboyne on 10th March and is scheduled to end in Dundalk on 16th April, having progressed through most of the rest of the country, from Donegal to Belfast, Dublin and Waterford and virtually every hot-spot in between. So here’s your chance to touch base with a rising Irish talent.
Frances’ sister Mary has been an unapologetic supporter of Irish songwriters throughout her career, and the next generation of composers have an opportunity to strut their stuff through the Smithwicks Songwriter Competition, which has been organised by Hot Press and links up with Mick Hanly’s forthcoming nationwide Happy Like This tour, to promote his current album. Hanly’s songwriting success in the USA has been well documented and it is heartening to see him taking the time to help other budding young Irish writers through his association with the competition, details of which are printed elsewhere in this issue.
While the live Irish rock scene seems to be going through another of its periodic upheavals, this time partly caused by the upsurge in interest in dance music, the folk and roots scene is actually healthier than it has been for a long time, as the regularly good crowds at Whelan’s, the Harcourt Hotel and elsewhere testify.
ZEST AND ENERGY
That good health is reflected by the continuous stream of new album releases. But not all such releases are from fresh-faced emerging talents. Sean Tyrrell has been singing for 20 years, and his passionate commitment to his art overflows from his debut album Cry Of A Dreamer, released recently on the Longwalk label.
Tyrrell’s soulful voice was already heard to good effect on Davy Spillane’s Shadow Hunter album and Spillane returns the favour on Cry Of A Dreamer, which also features sparkling contributions by such stalwarts as Martin O’Connor, Johnny Mulherne, Liam Lewis and others.
The Galway man’s use of poetry as a source for his songs gives him a distinctiveness from other performers in the field, and over half the tracks on his album are settings of material which had already seen the light of day in poetic form, such as ‘Bagpipe Music (No Go)’ by Louis MacNeice, ‘The 12th Of July’ by John Frazier and a trilogy by the 19th century poet John Boyle O’Reilly.
Cry Of A Dreamer bears the added imprimatur of having being produced by the redoubtable PJ Curtis, whose previous credits include The Bothy Band and the Smithwicks-Hot Press Award-winning Altan.
Irish poetry fans intrigued by what might be in store for them with Tyrrell’s accomplished and inspired album should also note that both Pat Ingoldsby and Paul Durcan have new collections available. The Phantom has copies of the Ingoldsby tome on offer for a competition in this issue, while Durcanophiles should note that the man himself will be signing copies of his new collection Give Me Your Hand at Books Upstairs on College Green from12.30 p.m. on Saturday 12th March.
It can hardly be a coincidence that the revitalisation of Irish music, poetry and song is accompanied by a spontaneous renewal of interest in the Irish language, assisted partly, no doubt, by the arrival of Radio Na Life (broadcasting to the greater Dublin area on 102FM).
But for nearly four decades, the Gael-Linn organisation has been supporting Irish culture through its promotion of the language, the Irish arts in general and through the advancement of the social and economic life of the whole island, especially in the Gaeltacht. Indeed, much of Gael-Linn’s achievements can be attributed to to the countless supportive individuals all over the country who enthusiastically promote its aims.
Gael-Linn’s activities are many and diverse, but they include its well-known record label, arguably the country’s most valuable public storehouse of native traditional talent. There is also their Irish language courses which can accomodate people of all ages and at all levels of proficiency.
The organisation runs numerous promotional events through the medium of Irish, publishes the Irish-language Sunday newspaper Anois and is the principal organiser of Slógadh Gael-Linn, Ireland’s premier youth festival devoted to the arts.
With St Patrick’s Day upcoming, this could be an appropriate time for you to celebrate and nurture your Irishness no matter what your cultural or entertainment preferences might be. Gael-Linn will be more than helpful in assisting you to add to your knowledge and appreciation of the Irish language in particular and Irish culture in general.
But whether you wish to do so or not, one thing is for sure. The number of excuses for doing nothing are rapidly dwindling and may even be totally out of stock before very long. While virtually every other small country in Europe is rediscovering its own unique cultural heritage, there is absolutely no excuse for a country such as ours, traditionally rich in a wide variety of arts, not do likewise with even more zest and energy.
And that’s precisely where you come in.