Folk That: A Whirlwind Affair

When Dervish first got together 21 years ago, no-one had even heard of the internet. So the idea of a session going out live on the web to an international audience would have seemed pretty far-fetched.

Dervish released their first album, The Boys Of Sligo, on May 21, 1989 and like many bands before and since, started gigging in increasingly wider circles to promote it.
Over the years they’ve been to Europe, Canada, the United States, the Middle East, China and Japan. To mark their 21st anniversary they are returning home to Sligo. At 9.30pm on May 21 they will assemble at Hargadon’s pub to play a session that will be broadcast live on www.livetrad.com.
Anyone who logs on will be able to interact with the band who’ll apparently even be taking requests over the web. Partly it’s to acknowledge how important Sligo has remained to them (being awarded the Freedom of Sligo a few years ago has been a high point of their career) and equally it’s to acknowledge the sheer scope of the geographic spread of the audience they’ve carved out for themselves; this is, simply put, the only way they can reach out to them all.
Later in the year they’ll be releasing From Stage to Stage, the live album they recorded at last year’s Sebastopol Folk Festival in California and at Sligo Live, which features guest appearances from Duke Special, Ron Sexsmith, Vasen, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill and mandolin maestro Mike Marshall.
The LP will be officially launched at this year’s Sligo Live. Between now and then, they’ll be doing what they’ve done right throughout that two decades plus – touring wherever the audience takes them. This year they’re going to be so busy they’ve even had to turn down an offer to play at the 40th anniversary of Glastonbury.
Session Americana is an interesting take on the idea of a supergroup. To a degree, Americana is too laid back really to fully take the idea seriously. It’s a genre, after all, where the playing is more of an issue than the personalities. What do you call it, though, when you gather the six core members of Session Americana around a small round cafe table?
The band features Billy Beard, Jim Fitting, Sean Staples, Dinty Child, Ry Cavanaugh, Jon Bistline who between them have clocked up road miles as current and past members of Treat Her Right, the Patty Griffin Band, The The, and have played with Dennis Brennan, Kris Delmhorst and Lori McKenna.
On their Irish excursion, they’ll be joined by fiddle player Laura Cortese. They’ll be appearing at the Cherrytree in Walkinstown on Thursday May 6, at the Glens Centre in Manorhamilton the following evening, and Wexford Arts Centre on Saturday May 8. Their final show of the tour will be in Dolan’s in Limerick Sunday May 9.
Freddie White is also making a return to the Cherrytree on Saturday May 15. If you ask musicians of a certain age what sparked them off on their career path it’s astonishing how many will give you the same answer – Freddie White’s now legendary, incendiary performances where his interpretations of classic songwriters such as Randy Newman, Tom Waits, John Hiatt or Guy Clark sat alongside his own impassioned compositions. Like a good wine he’s aged well and still puts everything into the performance.
Jace Everett is best known for his swampy ‘Bad Things’, the theme tune for the hit TV series True Blood.
But although he seemed to appear – magically no doubt – from nowhere, he has in fact been around for a while. The track is taken from his 2006 debut album which he has since followed up with album number two Red Revelations. He brings his vision of country blues to Whelan’s, Dublin on Sunday May 16.
The following evening you have the chance to see Sandi Thom in the same venue. Famous, or maybe infamous, for her 2006 single ‘I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair)’, she has now shrugged off the major label trappings with her latest release Merchants & Thieves.
The music has taken a very definitely bluesy turn and her performance at Celtic Connections this year certainly woke many people up to the fact that she has left the fey constructs well behind her, turning in a blistering performance on guitar and finding a blues voice.
Gráda are one of those bands who seem to spend the bulk of their time winning hearts outside the country so it’s good to see them gigging here. They’ll be in Dolans, Limerick on Friday May 7, and in the Pavilion in Cork on Wednesday May 12. The following evening they’ll be performing at the Town Hall Theatre in Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo and they’ll be in Temple Bar’s Button Factory on Friday May 21. They’ve taken their original traditional roots and subtly blended in washes of Americana, jazz and a diverse range of other influences. You’ll also be able to pick up a copy of the band’s fourth, Tim O’Brien produced album, Natural Angle, at gigs on the tour.
Lunasa, who have just marked the end of a four-year recording drought with the release of Lá Nua, recorded in the idyllic surroundings of the Cooley mountains, will also be at the Button Factory on Thursday May 27, as part of a short blitz of Irish dates tucked into the gaps of a hectic tour schedule. They will also be appearing at the Baltimore Fiddle Fair on Sunday May 9, Galway’s Town Hall Theatre on Sunday May 23, The Dock in Carrick on Shannon on Wednesday May 26 and Glor in Ennis on Friday May 28.