Folk Centre: Iberian dreaming

In the same week that I saw John Spillane sing ‘Magic Nights In The Lobby Bar’ to a rapt audience in Dundalk’s Spirit Store, I also experienced a magic night of my own in an unpromising, badly-lit basement in a Madrid bar.
While I was in Madrid I had caught a show by Irish exile Garrett Wall [pictured], whose acoustic folk is now embedded in a sound which marries a disparate collection of instruments and influences where his own hallmark guitar style, with it’s mix of melodic and percussive elements, is underpinned by the cajon playing of Robbie Jones, a New Yorker whose bluegrass background will mean he’ll be familiar to the regulars at the Longford Banjo Festival, and the liquid bass playing of Bray native Dave Mooney. The melody lines are hoisted aloft by English trumpet player Howard Brown.
With a wealth of new material which is due to get an international baptism of fire at the Edinburgh Festival, we should also see a new album featuring the songs before his slew of Irish dates at the start of October. While his last album Daylight Nighttime had some fairly lush instrumentation, the intention this time is to take the supremely tight ensemble into the studio and put the tracks down more or less live.
Anyway, to get back to the night in question, having decided to go for a ‘copa’ or two with Garrett and Robbie we found ourselves in a little sidestreet bar which didn’t on the face of it seem too crowded.
Seeing the guitar and cajon, we were quietly taken to one side and invited to go down into the basement where a flamenco jam was in progress. Coming across like a seisún on steroids, this was an unforgettable experience.
Like Irish traditional music, flamenco lives best in the moment. Fundamentally a live improvisational form it rarely translates well onto record and even more than its Irish equivalent, sean-nós singing, the song at the core of it all is only one element of the performance.
Like most sessions there was a broad range of skill on display from the beginners whose guitar skills rose just above the proficient to the maestros whose technique was such that their playing had a majestic flair and fluidity.
Flamenco is a bristling, macho environment where performers exert the full force of their personality to take control of the room and where they draw performances from each other with a distinctive mix of taunts and encouragement.
There was a tangible scepticism when Robbie took the cajon out of its case, but as a veteran of many such flamenco sessions he had no problem in heading off whatever doubts they may have had. The stakes were raised considerably when Garrett challenged the über-macho singer Valerio to a sing-off – Spanish flamenco versus an improvised folk/sean-nós hybrid which took full advantage of the Dubliner’s extraordinary vocal range. It was a risky undertaking, almost matador like.
The egos on display from these flamenco singers are an enormous part of the performance and their pride in their skill and technique is palpable, so if you put it up to them you would want to have the courage of your conviction. Here though, was one of those moments of musical transcendence when the bristling pride on show melted away in face of the skill and beauty of Garrett’s singing.
Previously better known for his work with the Chieftains and De Danann, Mayo man David Munnelly is now carving out a substantial patch for himself and this summer sees him and his band make an extended trek round the US, where he’ll be trying to cement the reputation he established on previous trips. With a band which includes Paul Kelly and Daire Bracken the standard of playing has been a crucial factor in his success.
Although Andrew Murray has now left the band, with vocal duties being rolled over to Shauna Mullins, some of the tracks recorded at last year’s appearance at the Walnut Valley Festival are currently being mixed for a live album so it’s a case of gone but not forgotten. Walnut Valley will again be one of the ports of call this year in a tour which includes performances at some of the biggest folk festivals on the US summer circuit, from Colorado Irish Festival on July 14 and 15, via Milwaukee Irish Fest from August 17 until August 19 to Michigan Irish Music Festival where the band finish the tour on September 16.
One stop along the way will be the annual Catskills Irish Arts week, held in East Durham, NY, and this year the other Irish performers making the stateside trek will include fiddle powerhouses Martin Hayes, Randal Bays, Patrick Ourceau and Matt Crannitch; pipers Cillian Vallely, Brian McNamara and Benedict Koehler; button accordion impresarios Billy McComiskey, James Keane and Jackie Daly; concertina champions Chris Droney, Micheal Ó Raghallaigh, Edel Fox, Michelle Mulcahy, and Tim Collins; whistle queen Mary Bergin and a raft of other noted teachers for banjo, flute, harp, bodhrán and piano.
This year’s guest lecturer will be Harry Bradshaw who will be passing along some of the thousands of nuggets of wisdom and knowledge with which his head is filled.
At a time when new festivals are popping up all over the place and finding it difficult to sustain themselves it’s good to see Strandhill Guitar Festival is now shaping up for its fourth outing. This year the Sligo village is going to be swamped with the sounds of guitars, both electric and acoustic, between September 28 and 30. It’s one of the most inclusive of events, celebrating all styles of guitar music and the launch night for this year’s festival takes place in Kelly’s Bar in Strandhill on Friday, June 29.
Declan O’Rourke becomes the latest recruit in the campaign to bring good music out of Dublin’s city centre when he plays a gig in the Cherrytree in Walkinstown on Friday 29 June. He’ll be supported on the night by Eugene Donegan. The two have been playing together since they first met in Australia years ago and in fact recorded a seven track mini-album while they were in Sydney which might prove tricky for the completists out there to track down.
The Cherrytree also plays host to a couple of great gigs during the otherwise quiet-ish month of July. On Sunday July 8 Thom Moore (Midnight Well, Pumpkinhead) joins up with multi-instrumentalists Seamie O’Dowd (Dervish) and Gavin Ralston (currently playing with Luan Parle), and Sligo based bass player Dave Carty to play the venue and on Saturday July 21 Andy Irvine will be playing there. On the bill with him will be Australia’s Wise Family. They do exactly what it says on the tin, they are in fact a family – mother, father and three daughters – and they play an array of instruments between them as well as harmonising, often using five part harmony in songs. In a real case of keeping it in the family, all of the stringed instruments used by the band are made by father, Scott, who is widely respected not only as a musician but as a luthier too.