The black stuff

Not many people release double albums any more. They belong to a more optimistic time, when the industry was brave, vinyl was king and people had the luxury of time to listen.
Frances Black still has that optimism; she releases a double album, entitled This Love Will Carry on February 3rd.
Having decided to go back to her roots in folk music, Frances has put together a stunning collection of 24 tracks. The album will comprise of songs from her days in Arcady, the Black Family, and compilation albums such as A Woman’s Heart and Eist.
She has recorded several new tracks for the record, including a duet on ‘The Hills of South Armagh’, with her daughter, Aoife Scott. In addition, she duets with her sister Mary on ‘The Bantry Girl’s Lament’.
Dougie McLean’s ‘This Love Will Carry’, Briege Murphy’s ‘The Hills of South Armagh’, and Kieran Goss’ ‘Cast The Stone’ all figure on the collection. Each is a classic interpretation of a great song.
Having been set up as a Cultural Quarter and then transformed itself into the European Centre for Alcohol Research, Temple Bar, Dublin is dusting itself off and trying to recapture its former lustre. Dermot McLaughlin is at the helm, and if he can’t do a cracking traditional festival, no-one can.
From January 26th to 29th, Temple Bar will be the backdrop for a series of concerts, children’s theatre, session trails, workshops, and story-telling events.
Many of Ireland’s top traditional musicians and singers will perform in intimate venues over the four nights. Legendary vocal group Skara Brae will give a rare performance along with renowned instrumentalists such as Noel Hill, Tommy Peoples, Seamus Creagh, Peter Horan and Arty McGlynn. Singers on the bill include Seán Tyrrell, Rosie Stewart and Desi Wilkinson from the group Cran.
Piper Seán McKeon, recent recipient of the TG4 Young Musician of the Year Award, will also be performing.
A special children’s programme will run during the festival in The Ark, children’s cultural centre. Among those to feature are celebrated story-tellers Len Graham and John Campbell, who will give a special performance of traditional songs and stories for children.
Other festival highlights will include a traditional Irish music session trail in many of the pubs and bars in Temple Bar. Admission to all sessions along the trail will be free.
A dedicated festival club will also run throughout the festival in The VAThouse Bar, Blooms Hotel, with late night sessions and plenty of craic. Flute and fiddle master classes with Harry Bradley and Jesse Smith, and Irish culture workshops, will also be part of the festival programme.
After he has recovered from his exertions in Temple Bar, Sean Tyrell will be heading off to Germany and Austria for a few gigs between February 2nd and 6th.
Don’t worry if you can’t make it to his Temple Bar appearance. There will be more Irish shows in mid-February. He plays The Moving Stairs, Boyle, Roscommon on February 16th, Annesley House, North Strand, Dublin, February 18th and DeBarras, Clonakilty, Cork on February 23rd.
Somehow it seems far too early in the year to be writing about festivals. Yet there’s no stopping the Gathering, which takes place in Killarney this year between February 15th and 19th. Over five days, throngs of trad enthusiasts from all over the world will descend on Killarney. Headlining the festival are Sharon Shannon, Altan and Teada.
The first Gathering took place in 2000 and since then the festival has grown from strength to strength, celebrating the best in the trad community!
The slate for this year’s festival includes five days of concerts, ceilis, sessions, set-dance and instrument workshops, guided walks, a tour of Sliabh Luachra and a Schools Outreach Programme.
The line-up is packed to the gills with musicians you could give up an arm to hear live. Josephine Marsh, Mick Kinsella, Jackie Daly, Seamus Creagh, Paul De Grae, Seamus Begley and Jim Murray promise to make this one a real juggernaut.
There will also be set dance workshops and instrument masterclasses for the accordion, fiddle, concertina and tinwhistle, along with a singer’s concert with Meattai Joe Sheamuis O’Faharta and Jim Walsh.
The Gathering is one event to which people from around Ireland, England, Germany and the USA return year after year to take part in one of the best events on the traditional music calendar.
Gerry O’Beirne will be doing a handful of Irish shows with fiddler Rosie Shipley. There are shows in Dublin, East Clare, and Kerry spread over a couple of weeks. First up is Tulla, Co. Clare where the duo play the Island Music Club, Minogues Bar on January 28th. They’ll be in McCarthy’s Pub, Dingle on February 16th. On the following night they’ll be at Listowel Arts Centre where they’ll be joined by Eoin Duignan on pipes.
Eoin’s musical sparring partner Glen Hansard will be bigging it up with the rest of the Frames as they take over Vicar Street for three nights from February 6th to 8th. The Frames have spent most of 2005 away from home, touring the US, Europe and Australia in support of Burn The Maps.
Released on the band’s own Plateau label here in September 2004, it went straight to number one in Ireland and became a constant fixture in the album charts, racking up double platinum sales.
The rest of the world got to join the party in February 2005 when US based Anti Records released the album, which made an impact not just in terms of sales but in critical terms too, finishing at number five in the New York Times end of year poll.
Supporting the Frames on the evening of February 7th will be the Guggenheim Grotto, busy with their own tour later in February.
It kicks off with a bijou show in Bewleys Café Theatre on February 9th before taking in Dundalk’s Spirit Store, the Roisin Dubh where they’ll be getting romantic on Valentine’s night, Dolan’s of Limerick, Glor in Ennis, The Stables in Mullingar, and a trip to the far north for a show in the Derry Playhouse.
One of the venues they’ll be visiting as they make their way around the country is The Glens Centre, Manorhamilton, where they’ll be taking the stage on February 11th.
Later in the month, the Co. Leitrim venue will be getting visits from Gerry ‘Banjo’ O’Connor, Brendan O’Regan and Tony Byrne who play there on February 17th. John Spillane and Louis de Paor’s Gaelic Hit Factory songfest will roll into town on February 23rd, and on March 4th Swedish traditional group Frifot appear in what is the first of a four part series celebrating Nordic music. Sean Keane is certain to stuff the place when he sets out his stall there on March 9th.
Also getting around the country during February, following a hugely successful US tour in Michael Flatley’s Celtic Tiger, Mayo fiddler Cora Smyth will be joining sister Breda. They get things underway in the Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise on February 2nd and continue via Enniskillen, Westport, Ballaghaderreen, Leighlinbridge and Bantry, winding up with a show at the Tintean Theatre in Ballybunion on February 25th.