It's all good

Sharon Shannon, Damien Dempsey and Pauline Scanlon were among those representing the auld sod at the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival in central London on Sunday, March 14. Organised with the support of the Mayor of London, the concert in Jubilee Gardens was compèred by Norah Casey and TV presenter Dermot O’Leary.
A big congratulations to Cara Dillon for winning Best Irish Female at the Meteor Awards and to the aforementioned Damien Dempsey for walking away with not one but two awards – Best Folk/Trad Act and Best Irish Country/Roots Artist, beating stiff competition from Dillon, Kíla, Lúnasa and the aforementioned Sharon Shannon in the first category and from Daniel O’Donnell, Finbar Furey, Declan Nerney and Frankie Lane in the second. Dempsey himself acknowledged the calibre of the opposition when he accepted the Country/Roots award, telling the audience that “Frankie Lane should have got this award.” Also honoured on the night were The Dubliners, who were presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award and performed a medley of their favourite songs.
Gregory Grene, who grew up just outside of Belturbet, Co. Cavan, and has spent the past six years fronting New York-based Irish band The Prodigals, will be returning home a few days in advance of the group’s forthcoming Irish tour to head up a seisiún at the Harbour Bar in his home town on March 31. He’ll be accompanied by 30 band fans from the US, many of whom will be in Ireland for the first time. “It was really important to me that the fans get a chance to see the roots of the music,” he says. “I love playing the concerts, but this is a chance for them to really understand where that music comes from, which is from the informal seisiún, and in my case that happened above all at the harvest parties we had every year at home. The reason I play the box, no two ways about it, is because of Sean Donohue, who played at every one of those parties.” Dubbed “the best Irish trad rock band, NYC’s jig-punk answer to the Pogues” by The Village Voice and described by The Columbus Dispatch as “The Chieftains on caffeine”, The Prodigals will be playing gigs in Dublin (the Cobblestone, April 2) and Galway (CUBA, April 3).
For those singer/songwriters who aren’t already aware of it, the Last Sunday Showcase now has its home in the new Green Room in the Holiday Inn Dublin City Centre. Officially opened on March 9, the 350-seater custom-built venue boasts a state-of-the-art sound and lighting system, purpose-built recording facilities and complimentary underground car parking as well as a bar and catering service, separate VIP area and air conditioning. As you might have twigged from the name, the Showcase events take place on the last Sunday of every month and feature both new and established Irish singer/songwriters. For more information, contact Donal McGuirk on (01) 670 3666 or e-mail donalmcguirk@
holidayinndublin.ie.
Ceardlann Earraigh, a day of masterclasses in traditional music, song and dance sponsored by the Kildare County Board of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, takes place at Scoil na Mainistreach in Celbridge, Co. Kildare, on April 3. Among those teaching workshops are Bobby Gardiner, Noel Hill, Brendan McGlinchey, Marcas Ó Murchú, Néillidh Mulligan, Brian Fitzgerald, Antaine Ó Faracháin and Róisín Ní Mhainín. In the evening, there’ll be a Grand Concert at the Glenroyal Hotel. For more information, contact Nuala Keane on (01) 627 3274 or (086) 842 2437, or Nóirín Ní Shúilleabháin on (01) 627 1559.
Readers with very good memories might recall that way back in October of 2002, I wrote about a forthcoming live album by Mozaik, a new band consisting of Andy Irvine, Scottish guitar wizard Tony McManus, American old-timey fiddle and five-string banjo player Bruce Molsky, Dutch fiddler/guitarist Rens van der Zalm, and Hungarian multi-instrumentalist Nikola Parov – an old mate of Andy’s from Budapest who plays “anything Bulgarian and everything else as well.” Consisting of a mixture of old-time tunes, Balkan music and Andy’s original songs, the album was recorded in Brisbane, Australia, during the group’s inaugural tour in March 2002. Since then it’s been rather a long wait for further news, but I’m happy to be able to report that the album, titled Live From The Powerhouse, will finally be released on April 6 by Compass Records, the Nashville-based label founded by Alison Brown. The group is currently in the middle of its first-ever US tour, which started on March 19 and finishes up on April 11. I’m not sure how soon the CD will be available in shops over here, but will keep you posted.
A new album by Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill is also in the pipeline, I’m told. Unfortunately, contractual problems with the label have delayed its release, which was originally timed to coincide with their current tour. The pair played a special invitation-only St. Patrick’s Day concert in Frankfurt, hosted by the Irish Embassy, to celebrate Ireland’s presidency of the EU, then went on to play three gigs in Italy. They’ll be in Ireland right about the time this magazine hits the newsstands, playing Glór in Ennis on March 25 and the National Concert Hall on March 26, then heading over to England, Scotland and Brussels.
Hayes has been busy lately with a number of special commissions, including the score (created by Hayes with composer Amy Dennis) for ‘The Vivian Girls’, a dance theatre piece by choreographer Pat Graney, which premiered in Seattle, Washington, in January 2004. The piece was inspired by the watercolours and texts of Henry Darger, a reclusive, untrained ‘outsider’ artist who lived in Chicago and whose strange and disturbing work was discovered only after his death in 1973. Hayes’ original passages for the violin and viola were described by critics as “intense”, “beautiful” and “conveying an aching sense of purity and innocence ... and at times a horrifying violence.” Graney, a distinguished American contemporary dance choreographer, is currently involved with the International Festival of Dance in Dublin and Mountjoy Women’s Prison with a project she has developed called ‘Keeping The Faith’ – a performance-based programme for incarcerated women. ‘The Vivian Girls’ will tour throughout the US in 2004-2005.
The recent call for submissions to the Special Committee on the Traditional Arts drew some interesting responses. Look out for excerpts from a few of them in this space in the next issue of hotpress.

Musicians and singers with news to share can e-mail Sarah on [email protected]