Folk column: Roots manoeuvres

We’ve all been seduced by the glorious weather over Easter, and now the first inklings of the various festival line-ups are starting to leak out. We’ll be diving for the credit cards in anticipation of basking in a field somewhere with a balmy breeze wafting over us, having somehow managed to bury the memory of last year’s rain-soaked, drunken fiasco.
The Kilkenny Rhythm and Roots Festival, now in its 10th year, comes fresh out of the box over the May Bank Holiday Weekend, Friday, May 4 to Monday, May 7. Whether they’ve gone out of their way to ensure that their passage into double figures is marked by a doozy, or whether it's simply a testament to years of making the experience as good for the musicians as it is for the audience, this year’s event boasts a line-up that any festival would be proud of.
The name that will immediately jump out at the casual observer of this year’s programme is Mark Eitzel, founder member of the legendary American Music Club; he’ll be pulling into town for two shows which are bound to sell out quickly. Richmond Fontaine makes a return visit, having first played the festival four years ago, when they were promoting their breakthrough album, Post To Wire. They now return with their latest long-player, Thirteen Cities. Frontman Willy Vlautin will also be doing a book-reading.
Be Good Tanyas fans can look forward to Po’ Girl, who feature Trish Klein in their ranks; their sound is a mix of folk, country, jazz and punk.
As ever the festival also throws open the stages to the best Irish alt/roots acts, and this year there’ll be shows from Kilkenny’s own red hot rockabilly foursome The Migrant Hawkers (making the 10-yard trip), Cajun-country-blues rockers, Raglan Rodeo, bluegrass stalwart, Niall Toner, the sonic hotch-potch of , the easy-going West Coast blues of Hollywood Slim and the Fat Cats, and also the Rye River Band, Gentleman Tim and the Contenders, Frankie Lane, Jezzebelle and the Ben Reel Band. There’s some exciting new visitors in the throw-up for this year’s bar-room blitzes as well, such as Cork’s Los Langeros.
One of the first of the international festivals to announce its line-up for this summer is Cambridge, which runs from Thursday July 26 until Sunday July 29. The continuing support of the BBC and the local authority means that the bill they’ve been able to put together is a fantastic mix of stellar names and interesting new faces, with more than a handful of bands on the up.
As usual, some bands will be playing on a couple of days during the festival for those who can‘t make it for the whole bash, though at under £100 for a full four day ticket it would be well worth trying to catch the whole thing. The festival kicks off with an unplugged set from the Alabama 3, which should make for an interesting experience given that the central plank of their musical approach has been the ‘plugging in’ of acoustic music. Seasick Steve, who has played at Belfast’s Open House festival on a couple of occasions, will also be performing on the opening night.
By Friday the stakes begin to raise and this is your opportunity to catch big guns such as Steve Earle and Clifton Chenier (famously name-checked on Paul Simon’s Graceland album). Friday’s line-up also includes Sharon Shannon, The Waterboys, Oysterband, Bruce Cockburn, Allison Moorer, Show of Hands and Under One Sky.
Saturday is perhaps the strongest day of the festival and continues the mix of Americana and Brit-Folk with slots for Joan Baez, Kate Rusby and Toots And The Maytals, with Solas, Four Men And A Dog, Shooglenifty, Fiddlers’ Bid, Haugaard And Hoirup and Rachel Unthank and the Winterset also on the bill.
Things wind down on Sunday with Nanci Griffith, Ricky Skaggs and Toumani Diabate with his Symmetric Orchestra and repeat performances from a number of the acts who will have played on previous days.
With ‘Be Good Or Be Gone’ riding high in the airplay charts, Fionn Regan takes off on a tilt round the country. He has been polishing his stage presence with some support slots with Damien Rice. and he’ll be ushering Ann Scott through the revolving door of karma as she takes to the stage before him on this tour, which sets off from CrawDaddy on the April 20 and makes a previously unscheduled stop in Whelans on April 21, where an extra Dublin date has been pencilled in due to demand. They’ll be in Belfast on Sunday 22 at the Empire, An Grianan Letterkenny on Wednesday April 25, The Traveller’s Friend in Castlebar on Thursday April 26, Galway’s Roisin Dubh on Friday April 27 and in Dolan’s of Limerick the Saturday April 28 before heading south to the Savoy in Cork to finish out the tour.
His last round of Irish shows created quite a buzz and, following on from some lavish critical acclaim in the UK press and a recent visit to the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, this is an exciting time for Fionn.
The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick will be hosting its eleventh annual Blas Summer School of Irish Traditional Music and Dance on the University of Limerick campus from June 25 to July 6. Tutors will include Martin Hayes, John Carty, Mel Mercier, Kevin Burke, Andy Irvine, Niall Keegan, Karan Casey and others yet to be confirmed. Blas 2007 is guest-directed by Carl Corcoran, musician, composer and radio presenter on RTÉ Lyric FM
Blas offers on-campus accommodation in the University’s student-villages. Dr Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Director of the Irish World Academy has announced that several scholarships to attend Blas have become available, sponsored by RTÉ Lyric FM, Aonad na Gaeilge at the University of Limerick, Limerick City Council and Limerick County Council.
As well as tuition, lectures and master classes, Blas students can expect a whole range of activities including field-trips, sessions, concerts and céilís and above all, the opportunity to share tunes with some of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians. The public concerts taking place during the summer school include Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill on Thursday June 28, a second concert featuring Niall Keegan, Sandra Joyce and Friends with guests including Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Muireann NicAmhlaoibh, Clive Carroll and more. Sponsored by Aonad na Gaeilge at the University of Limerick, this concert will take place upstairs in Dolan’s, Dock Road Limerick on Tuesday July 2. The third concert welcomes the legendary band Patrick Street to Limerick on Thursday July 5. Patrick Street is one of the seminal Irish traditional bands and features a stellar line-up which includes Kevin Burke on fiddle, Andy Irvine on vocals and bouzouki, Jackie Daly on box, John Carty on fiddle and banjo and Ged Foley on guitar. Members of the band will also tutor for two days at Blas, allowing students to access their vast experience and wealth of tunes.