Getting it together in the country

Seems like you can’t own a country house in Ireland without throwing it open to a motley rabble of beer-swilling sunburnt bowsies – and that’s just the musicians. Coming fast on the heels of the Streets Of London charity concert at Castlebar’s Turlough House is the announcement by Blackstairs Opera that they’ll be promoting an evening of traditional music on Sunday 9th July with a concert in the verdant surroundings of Borris House, Borris, Co. Carlow.
The line-up features a mix of musicians from Ireland and Scotland with Ireland being represented by David Power and Tony MacMahon, while Scotland field Scots Gaelic singers from Uist, Margaret Callan, Gillebrìde & Mary MacMillan.
The event runs at the same time as the Carlow Fleadh which this year features headline appearances from Kila and Dervish, so there was always going to be a vibrancy about the place. With the main gigs taking place in the Music Factory (which is more used to hosting Doves and Pete Doherty), the more sedate environs of Borris House should provide an alternative for those who might like a more chilled take on their trad.
Opera and traditional music have more in common than first appears. A lot of songs in the traditional repertoire date back to the same era as the classic operas and they often deal with similar themes - love, death, war, mourning and carousing – albeit with traditional song taking a blunter and less melodramatic viewpoint.
The Midlands Music Festival also rolls into view before the month is out at yet another country house venue, this time in the grounds of Ballinlough Castle near Athboy. I was in Athboy Post Office recently (don’t ask) and there was much gabbling about the recent Garden Party there, with the general consensus being that it had been great for the area and that the only people objecting were “blow-ins from Dublin”. Oh the delicious irony of it! Anyway there’s certainly a fair bit of excitement locally as the line-up for Midlands is choc-a-bloc with acts that people have grown up with as well as some acts that will be an unknown quantity outside of country and Americana circles. One of the treats in store is an appearance by the Hacienda Brothers, who cooked up a storm at the Kilkenny Rhythm and Roots festival a couple of years back. This time round they’ll emerge blinking into the daylight, having been holed up in the studio in Tuscon, Arizona where they’ve just completed their second album What’s Wrong With Right, working once again with legendary writer/producer Dan Penn. Led by Chris Gaffney and Dave Gonzalez, both highly regarded in their own right, and who put the band together after jamming at a birthday party for the man who was to become their manager, the band has a stonkin’ sound mixing country, honky-tonk and stripped back old-school R&B and with some incendiary instrumentalists in the band they should set the night ablaze at Ballinlough Castle.
Fans of roots music in the North-West have been delighted by the news that Colin Gillen’s venue in Barry’s in Grange is now open for business again after a four month lay off in which time the place has been completely overhauled. Before the reconstruction it had established itself as one of the country’s must-play venues for touring musicians, drawing top national and international artists such as John Martyn, Richie Havens, Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny. The bar has been propped up by none other than Shane McGowan and even Paul Brady has shown up on occasion for a session.
Small specialist venues like Barry’s, the Cobblestone and the Seamus Ennis Centre in Naul have been responsible for keeping the musical gene pool topped up with fresh water and the dedication of the promoters there mean that visiting musicians with no visible profile can draw crowds that most rock bands in Dublin would be delighted to see. And just in case you’re thinking that it all sounds too worthy for words, some of the best gigs this year have been in these small rooms with musicians like Will Kimbrough (best known as the guitarist in Rodney Crowell’s band) turning in a blistering acoustic set of his own material at the Seamus Ennis Centre before strapping on an electric to provide some beautifully atmospheric backing for Kate Campbell.
Having flatly rejected the notion of another Planxty reunion in favour of driving forward his renewed musical partnership with Declan Sinnott, Christy Moore has announced that the pair will play a pair of shows in Galway’s Black Box Theatre on Friday September 29th and Saturday 30th September. Having reconquered the Point Depot with their recent CD and DVD release, both of which charted in the number one position, they clearly feel that they would prefer to play some more intimate venues where there is more of a real sense of contact with the audience.
World Circuit Records and Gael Linn Distribution have announced the release of Savane, the last solo album by the legendary Malian singer and guitarist Ali Farka Touré. Recorded in Bamako with his specially assembled down-home ngoni group, Savane is a powerful reaffirmation of Ali's umbilical link to his Malian musical roots. Already acclaimed as his finest album, Savane is both one of the most traditional and seemingly the most blues-drenched of his recordings. The record occupied Ali right into his last weeks, and he finally declared himself satisfied with it shortly before his death in March this year.
Fans of Craobh Rua won’t be seeing a lot of them in Ireland for the foreseeable future as they have just announced touring plans which see the band in Washington DC and the New England at the start of July before heading off for a few Italian dates. August sees them travel to Austria and by September they’ll be back in the US where they’ll play a very tightly packed string of dates culminating in three days at the Celtic Classic in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Also touring hard in September will be Fil Campbell, she of the luxuriant tresses, who will be bringing a show based on her very successful television series Songbirds on tour. Kicking off in the Riverside Theatre, Coleraine on September 15th, her musical homage to the songs of Bridie Gallagher, Delia Murphy, Margaret Barry, Mary O’Hara and Ruby Murray also visits Roscommon Arts Centre, the Royal Theatre, Castlebar, the Ramor Theatre in Virginia, the Backstage Theatre Longford, Dunamaise Theatre in Portlaoise, Galway’s Town Hall Theatre, Sligo’s Hawkswell, the Civic Theatre in Tallaght, Birr Arts Centre, the Market Place theatre in Armagh, Enniskillen’s Ardhowen Theatre and the Burnavon Theatre in Cookstown before finishing up in Vicar Street on October 22nd.
RTÉ Lyric FM is offering a scholarship worth €1,270 to attend this year’s Blas Summer School. The scholarship covers all tuition, attendance at the Blas public concerts, as well as meals and accommodation in one of the University of Limerick’s newly-built student villages. This year, the tenth in which the school will have taken place, Blas runs from July 10th to 21st and tutors include John Carty, Máire Breatnach, Tommy Hayes, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Steve Cooney, Garry Ó Briain, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Harry Bradley and Niall Keegan.