Green Growth

My sincerest apologies to the Green Room at the Holiday Inn for a piece of erroneous information that appeared in this space in the last issue of hotpress. I had been told that it was no longer accepting bookings for bands, and wrote dolefully of the disappearance of what had promised to be such a fine new venue for folk and traditional artists. Johnny Moran of that establishment has quite rightly chastised me for not contacting him directly to verify this news before printing it as gospel.
To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of its demise were greatly exaggerated, and in fact the venue is going from strength to strength and has a mightily impressive lineup of mainly acoustic gigs scheduled for the coming weeks and months. John Spillane appears at the Green Room on August 13, the day after this magazine hits the shelves, and jazz legend Larry Coryell’s show on August 15 will be broadcast live on RTÉ.
Other concerts in the pipeline include the great singer Sean Tyrrell on August 27, Moya Brennan on August 29, Hal Ketchum (making his only Irish appearance) on September 18, Don Baker & Friends in residence on September 25, October 2 and October 9, and a ‘Three Legends’ show (another Green Room exclusive) featuring Don Baker, Ronnie Drew and Finbarr Furey on October 16. Regular songwriter showcase and open mic nights also continue as normal, and the Green Room is a sponsor of the forthcoming Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival in Longford (see below); the legendary Earl Scruggs (about whom more in a moment) will be staying at the Holiday Inn during his Irish visit. More details are available on the web site www.greenroomdublin.ie. Once again, apologies both to readers of this column and to the Green Room itself, and best of luck to it in its future endeavours.
Now, about that banjo festival. Bluegrass enthusiasts will be familiar with the term ‘Scruggs-style’ picking, used to describe the three-fingered five-string banjo technique that became synonymous with the genre. Now 80 years old, the great Earl Scruggs (who was also responsible for the theme music to ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’) is still hale and hearty, and next month he’ll be making his first-ever appearance in Ireland when he headlines the third annual Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival. Running over the weekend of September 24-26 in Longford town, the festival boasts a terrific lineup that includes Matt Molloy, John Carty, Gerry O’Connor (the Tipperary-born banjo player, natch, not the Dundalk fiddle man), Cathal Hayden, Máirtín O’Connor, Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, Vinnie Kilduff, Steve Cooney, Enda Scahill, Paddy Keenan, Tommy O’Sullivan, Leroy Troy, Tony Trischka, former Hot Rize member Pete ‘Dr. Banjo’ Wernick, Niall Toner, Dirk Powell and many more. For details, visit www.johnnykeenan.com or ring 087 281 7825. Festival weekend concert and workshop passes are available at The Lost Chord, Earl Street, Longford (tel. 043 49907) or via the festival website.
If you’ve been wondering whatever happened to Margaret Brennan, the talented singer with the group D’Goya, fret no more. She’s hooked up with musician and producer Seamus Brett, who was most recently involved with the stage show Ragus, to form a new band called Sheoda (derived from sioda, the Irish word for “silks”). They’ve just completed a debut album, Sheoda: Contemporary & Traditional Irish Love Songs. Recorded at Silverstream Studios in Stamullen, Co. Meath, it’s being marketed and distributed by Torc Music Ltd (part of the Dolphin/Dara Records stable) and features guest appearances by the likes of Máire Breatnach, Mick O’Brien, Richie Buckley and Bill Shanley. I’m looking forward to hearing it.
Brendan Bell at BBC Radio Ulster would like it known that he’s actively looking for folk and traditional artists to review and/or interview on his ‘Arts Extra’ show – so if you could do with a plug, feel free to contact him directly on or by telephone at 048 90338091.
I was disgusted to read in the current issue of the Journal of Music in Ireland an account by Diarmaid Moynihan, piper with the group Calico (see review elsewhere in this issue of his appearance on the new Fiddle Fair CD), of a nasty bit of business that occurred during his recent tour of Germany with the Irish Spring Festival. Run by Music Contact Productions, the festival tour featured the Breda Smyth Band, the Red Hat Band, Cóisir and Tony Davoren – all established artists with long musical CVs. However, at the opening concert of the tour, another promoter handed round a flyer whose opening lines translate thus:
“Thank you for supporting our young people this evening. It has to be said, admittedly, that we sometimes do this too at the Irish Folk Festival. However, for two euros more you can experience world famous stars, living legends ....”
I trust that the “legends” in question (Solas, Jim Hayes & Mick O’Gorman, the Carlos Nuñez Band and “one more exciting act to be announced”) would have been horrified to learn that their names were being used to denigrate their fellow musicians. Shame on the Irish Folk Festival for pulling such a cheap stunt.
Fans of the group Fairport Convention should hurry to the website www.free-red.co.uk/cropredy or ring +44 870 429 9237 if they want to be in with a chance of buying a copy of the new Cropredy Capers boxed set personally signed by all members of the band. This distinction only applies to the first 2,000 serially numbered sets, which are available via Free Reed’s mail-order service in advance of the official release on August 16. With an accompanying 136-page full colour book on the history of the Cropredy Festival, plus a 48-page guide to the village and a ‘cut-out and build’ model of the festival (fancy!), the set contains four full-length CDs featuring tracks from Dave Pegg’s archive of digital masters recorded at Cropredy over the years. I’ve already got my signed copy, and am looking forward to getting to work with the scissors and paste ....
Grey Larsen, the US-based author of The Essential Guide To Irish Flute and Tin Whistle and The Essential Tin Whistle Toolbox, reports that a selection from his Irish Tune Bank is now a regular feature in the Scottish traditional music quarterly The Living Tradition. The material is presented so as to be useful to players of all melody instruments, not just flute and tin whistle. Check it out at http://www.greylarsen.com/join/tunebank.php.
Kind condolences to all the Begley family on the passing of their mother, Mary Ellen Begley, on July 20 at the age of 88. A fine singer and dancer, she raised nine musical Begleys – Máire, Eileen, Seosaimhín, Kathleen, Séamus, Bríde, John, Michael and Brendan, all of whom learned much of their repertoire from her – and can be heard singing ‘An Buachaillín Donn’ on the recently released Claddagh collection Na Caipíní.