Getting Into The Habit

If, like me you were a Ramones fan, you’ll have been saddened at how the group fell like tall trees over the years, leaving a void that could never be filled. There is one ray of light, though. Sole survivor, Tommy Ramone has transformed, in the company of Claudia Tienan, into Uncle Monk, a lean, mean bluegrass machine who have defied the critics and naysayers by being straight-forward, un-ironic and just plan good at what they do: cranking out bluegrass on an arsenal of guitars, mandolins, dobros, banjoes and bass.

Tommy's take on their sound is that intriguing: "There is a similarity between punk and old-time music. Both are home brewed as opposed to schooled, both have earthy energy, and there is a certain cool in old-time music that is found in the best alternative acts". Expect "1, 2, 3, 4!" to be screamed over a wail of mandolin in Whelan’s on Thursday April 29.
Bill Whelan did it for Irish music with Riverdance and now Spain’s Paco Pena is trying to do something similar for the Spanish Flamenco tradition, with his Flamenco Sin Fronteras show which lands at Dublin’s National Concert Hall on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 June.
Born in Cordoba at the centre of Spain’s Andalucian heartland, Paco Pena has dedicated his life to flamenco, picking up his first guitar aged six when he began lessons with his brother.
He made his first professional appearance at the age of twelve and hasn’t looked back since, embodying both the authenticity and spirit of constant innovation that informs flamenco.
Just as immersed in his native culture as Paco Pena is in his, Dick Gaughan is enormously proud of his mixed Scottish and Irish heritage. His link to this country is in the form of a fiddle playing grandfather from Iorrais and a button accordion playing grandmother from Killala, County Mayo.
His songs have been widely covered by artists as diverse as Billy Bragg and Christy Moore but are always recognisable as being his. As hard working now as he was at the outset 40 years ago, he is in the country now for gigs in the Seamus Ennis Cultural Centre in Naul on Saturday April 24 and in Whelan’s on Monday April 26.
When you think of the biggest selling album of all time you probably reckon on the Beatles, the Stones maybe, possibly one of Pink Floyd’s efforts. In fact, according to the Recording Industry Association of America at least, it’s The Eagles Greatest Hits 1971 – 1975. Jack Tempchin wrote and co-wrote the legendary hits ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’ and ‘Already Gone’, both of which appear on that album. He has also written a brace of songs on The Eagles’ latest record Long Road Out Of Eden.
That’s without getting into his writing credits with the likes of Glenn Frey, for whom he wrote ‘Smugglers Blues’, and Johnny Rivers whose top 10 hit ‘Slow Dancing’ he also wrote.
With a live album in the offing, Frey is taking the unconventional route to profile building and playing a trio of UK dates with Talon, an Eagles tribute band from Britain. Unfortunately, he won’t be with them on any of their Irish dates, but the Eagles obsessives out there can see him in Edmonton on Wednesday April 28, Southend-on-Sea the following evening and Peterborough on Friday April 30.
His new solo effort, Singing In the Street: Jack Tempchin Live At Tales From The Tavern, is a live recording due to see the light of day this summer. It will feature several of his hits performed acoustically for the most part, interview segments, anecdotes and stories about his experiences with the rock stars behind the songs that made him famous.