Stirring Up Ghosts

Flute, voice and uileann pipes are the heart of Cran s identity. A trio who ve been together, albeit sporadically, since 1992, Cran encompass an eclectic mix in the persons of Desi Wilkinson (flute), Sean Corcoran (vocals) and Ronan Browne (pipes). With their third album, Lover s Ghost, now on the racks, Cran are poised for flight with a sparkling collection of songs and tunes that give free reign to their members musical talents.
Desi Wilkinson is the tour guide for this latest release, and his appetite for the music is palpable.
The album s been in gestation really, since we finished Black, Black, Black in 1998, he explains. We had a lot of material because prior to that we hadn t recorded since 1992, and all of us had been doing different things, so we actually had enough material for a couple of albums.
Ronan Browne had been earning his crust with Riverdance, and later, the Afro Celt Sound System. Sean Corcoran is constantly working as a folklorist with the Irish Traditional Music Archive, and Wilkinson had been ensconced in academia in France where he was completing a Ph.D. in Breton music. These days he s back teaching in the University of Limerick.
The latest CD s title is taken from a song, After Dawning , a flag bearer for a tradition of love songs found particularly in Ulster.
It s an old epic Ulster love song, which belongs to a genre of songs called lover s ghost songs in the old English language tradition, Wilkinson offers. You know She Moved Through The Fair is the most famous one. So that s why we chose Lover s Ghost for the album title.
With a trip to Paris this weekend to record a live audience for Radio France, and tour dates in Holland and the Netherlands, Cran are revving up the engines to give Lover s Ghost a proper christening. Gigs in Ireland remain to be confirmed but the band is scouting for venues and locations all over the country. Having played on the Music Network tour last year, they got a real taste of the kind of setting that suits their music.
Because of the nature of the repertoire we have, it s not all kickass music, Wilkinson offers. It s a bit reflective. We do like playing kickass music as well of course but the tunes that we ve arranged with harmony singing you can t do them in a pub where everybody s going bananas. So that takes us out of some venues where we d otherwise like to play. When we play live we try to go through the gamut of emotions from fun and having a laugh, to being a bit reflective and lonesome about the world.
At the end of the day, we accept that when we get up on stage we re there to entertain. We would hate to be seen as not entertaining and boring to not touch people in some way, whether it be a lonesome sadness or just an elated feeling. We like to communicate with an audience.