Folk Centre: War is over if you want it

The ceasefire is over a decade old, the Reverend Doctor Paisley and Martin McGuinness are getting cosy on the couches at Stormont, blowing butterfly kisses in each other’s direction, and the red, white and blue paint on the East Belfast kerbstones has all but faded....so can somebody explain to me why there’s a sudden rash of rebel songs appearing on trad and folk albums?
In the last week, I’ve gotten three albums featuring the kind of rebel Brit-bashing singalongs that droned their way through my youth.
I grew up in Newry in the 1970s, listening to these songs (rarely of choice). They were almost without exception practically devoid of any musical merit, which is why I (and many like me) jumped ship with indecent haste as soon as we’d heard the first couple of bars of ‘Anarchy in the UK’. The folk canon was never enriched by the bulk of rebel material, and it led folk music down a blind alley of chauvinism from which it almost expired.
But get this, people – THE WAR IS OVER! So can we please, please stop playing crap songs out of force of habit? No more do we need to sally boldly forth with an Armalite in one hand and a steel-strung Takamine in the other to liberate our cohorts. Maybe there’s an argument that playing these trainwrecks of songs is catering to an audience demand. If that’s the case, we need musicians to lead from the front. It’s called social responsibility, and it’s one of the cornerstones of the folk movement. There are enough other issues in this country to sing about, God knows. OK. Breathe out. Rant over.
Buoyed up by the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the re-release of her debut album When Two Lovers Meet, Sarah McQuaid [pictured] has taken herself back into the studio. She is once again working with Trevor Hutchinson pushing the faders and Gerry O’Beirne in the producers seat, and the plan is to make an album that has the same open, expansive sound as her debut.
Although the sound may be similar, the choice of material this time round will be very different, drawing mainly on the old-timey songs and tunes that Sarah was familiar with growing up in the US, but also straying into some pretty mainstream corners including the somewhat surprising choice of Bobbie Gentry’s ‘Ode To Billy Joe’. Maybe it’s Gentry’s peripatetic lifestyle that has struck a chord in Sarah (who continues her own wanderings when she decamps to the UK this summer) but the Chickasaw County songstress has now supplanted Ella Fitzgerald as her favourite singer. There will also be a couple of new compositions, and on one track Liam Bradley will be stepping out from behind the drums and shakers to wrangle a vocal mike.
The fruits of all this endeavour won’t be seeing a formal release until early next year, but there is a sniff of some taster tracks being previewed on Sarah’s website.
If you want to catch Sarah live before she leaves, there are still a couple of dates left on her current tour. On Sunday June 17 she plays in the Bailey in Enniscorthy, and the following Wednesday, June 20 finds her in Cork’s Triskel Arts Centre. Her last Irish date for the foreseeable future will be in Waterford’s Bowery Bar on Thursday, June 21, after which you’ll have to follow her to Cornwall, where she does have a fairly full schedule of shows.
Another resident of Ireland’s sunny South East, Eleanor McEvoy, is making a few forays over the course of the summer, including a trip to Belfast to take part in the Big Buzz/Naked Sun Irish Entertainment Awards at the Whitla Hall on June 14.
Next month sees her in Bantry from July 9 to July 11, for the Songwriting workshop being held as part of the 2007 West Cork Literary Festival, with a gig on the final evening in St. Brendan’s Church in Bantry.
The following evening she is featured in the Clonmel Junction Festival where she plays a gig in The Posthouse, after which she heads across the sea to Wales where she performs as part of the Festival Of Small Nations on Friday July 13.
Drogheda singer SJ McArdle has signed a publishing deal with Nashville based publisher Vanguard Music and he has been out in Nashville writing and recording, working with members of Rodney Crowell’s band. On the evidence of his recent Spirit Store performance, it’s an experience that has pumped a lot of new energy into his writing. The new songs are dark and deep and not in the slightest bit ‘Nashville’, and they make the most of his great baritone voice. There is enough material there for a strong album, but he isn’t rushing into things, and is holding out for a decent label which will get properly behind the release.
Austin City Limits has been running on the US PBS television network since 1974, and has recorded over four hundred major artists in concert during that period. Over the last couple of years, they have been delving into the archives and recompiling footage from the shows for release on DVD. The original shows are half an hour long, but on the DVD there is considerably more previously unseen footage. The latest release to come our way as a result of their partnership with New West Records is Guy Clark’s 1976 performance which features a smorgasbord of great songs, most of which have been covered by the likes of Johnny Cash, Rita Coolidge and the Everly Brothers.
Fionn Regan has just announced that he’ll be playing two nights at Glastonbury this month – 22 June on the Leftfield Stage, and 24 June on the Park Stage. This is in addition to a bagful of festival appearances over the summer, including Isle of Wight and Homefires. On the homefront, he will be performing at this year’s Electric Picnic.
July 10 will be a red letter day for him as his debut album The End Of History is released in the US on the hugely influential Lost Highway label, best known for releasing much older artists with an established track record. His label mates will include Willie Nelson, Elvis Costello, Johnny Cash and Lucinda Williams. This, in fact, will be the first time the label has released a debut album by an Irish or UK artist.
The World Fleadh this year moves venue to Portlaoise, where it will run over the week of August 6 to August 12. With an anticipated 600 performances over the seven days and nights, the event will run over three major stages and a festival village. Performers announced (although there is a disclaimer to the effect that the organisers reserve the right to alter the bill) include Katie Melua, The Duhks, Flook, Cora and Breda Smyth, the Kilfenora Ceili Band, Frankie Gavin and Hibernian Rhapsody and Micheal O Suilleabhain. The schedule also includes daily sessions in 10 of the town’s pubs as well as 10 ceilis and a range of fringe events.