Timeless Gentlemen Please

Geraldine MacGowan is afraid that trad fans in Ireland don't know who she is. She modestly underestimates how many people have fond memories of her contribution to Oisin in the seventies, not to mention the three solo albums she's made since domiciling herself in Hanover in Germany.
The latest of this trio is Timeless, a quality-driven look at folk songs through the ages, from such classics as 'Blackwater Side' and 'January Snows' to more contemporary gems from Kieran Halpin and the late Sandy Denny.
According to MacGowan herself "I wanted to do an album where the songs were the most important thing, and I wanted to do some of the old songs and some songs I'd always been a bit afraid of trying. Like for years I couldn't bring myself to tackle anything by Sandy Denny. She was such a great writer and such a great singer that I hadn't the nerve to do it, to be compared to her. But it seemed to work out fine in the context of what I feel is a more relaxed, more intimate album. I wanted to get back to basics, really, and I was learning to follow my own instincts and ignore people telling me what to do."
Living in the Dublin suburb of Ballyfermot, MacGowan started her musical adventures at sessions in the sixties in pubs like the Wren's Nest with people like Sean McKenna, brother of the more famous Barney.
"I went to see bands like The Dubliners, and Emmet Spiceland who had Donal Lunny in the line-up. It was easy to get sucked into that scene. I think things were more personal on the music scene then. The artists had a closer contact with the audience because the places where the music was played, mostly rooms in the back of pubs, made it easier to have that direct contact," she recalls.
The intimacy that live music brings has, she believes, been replaced by a more formal approach to music-making, partly brought on by the growth in popularity of the music itself.
"As Irish music got more popular there was a need to do it in bigger venues. That automatically created a kind of barrier between the people and the musicians. I think that actually makes it harder for the musicians today, they have to try harder to overcome that barrier and only the very best can do that", she avers.
She herself learned to communicate across that barrier first with Na Sultoiri and later with Oisin with whom she spent ten demanding years, made a half dozen albums and logged over a thousand gigs, and through a busy schedule that has seen her over the years guest with artists of the calibre of Paul Brady, Davy Spillane, Steve Cooney and Paddy Glackin.
That experience has also latterly enabled her to deal squarely with the music industry, but that's another area where, she believes, life has changed enormously.
"When I was in Oisin I didn't know what royalties were. You were just happy to be recording music you loved, playing gigs and having a great time generally. But I think today's artists are more sussed about all that," she says.
Having toured throughout Holland, Britain, France and other parts of Europe with Oisin she began to feel differently about the music. So she departed from the band at a time when Ireland was suffering a serious recession and settled in Hanover in Germany where she and her husband Shay bought a pub which quickly became a magnet for Irish music fans in Germany.
"The Germans really took to Irish music like few other nations. They heard The Dubliners, Clannad, The Fureys, De Danann and the rest of them and they were almost insatiable. They'd go on holidays to Dublin and go down to Doolin and get saturated with it. Some of them even got so far into it that they started bands themselves to play Irish music. But this was at a time when the German economy was very healthy, whereas now there's a bit of a recession and things are quieter here at the moment."
But the Irish and German philosophies of life are quite different, so had MacGowan a problem adjusting?
"Well, I'd been very lucky in that I'd been able to tour all over the place with Oisin. But it was hard to settle in at first. It's one thing to visit a place for a break or to pass through on a tour and another thing to live there all the time. Not only do you have to do obvious things like learn a new language but you have to deal with a totally different mind set. In Ireland you might get an ESB bill and decide to pay it soon or next week or whenever, but in Germany they expect you to pay promptly. If you promise something they expect you to honour that promise. You also have to accept that they are as entitled to their culture as we are to ours. But in time myself and Shay settled in fine."
At that time the German government was putting a lot of money into music, much to the benefit of Irish music and Irish musicians, but that has become considerably curtailed in recent times. Another development since then has been the explosion of Irish pubs all over Europe, most notably in Germany. This has been well-celebrated, although some will argue that its value in helping Irish music is questionable.
MacGowan is acutely aware of all this. "It's gone a bit like McDonalds," she reckons, "with an Irish pub on every main street just for the sake of it. Some of the venues get somebody to play a few tunes or sing a few ballads in a corner, somebody who probably would find it hard to get a gig at home. They pay very little and that makes it very hard for the serious artists to get decent money, especially when you add in the cost of a band touring, travelling around, hiring gear, hotels and so on."
But if the German music fan is often unwittingly subjected to a low standard of Irish music, thankfully there are the likes of MacGowan around to give them a shot of quality Irish music at its most vibrant.
She returns to Ireland for occasional gigs, and this year her itinerary included Dublin and Cork, an experience which she describes as "like starting all over again." She's even had fleeting thoughts about moving back here permanently. But in the meantime her artistry on her solo albums can be savoured. Timeless would be good place to start. n
* Geraldine MacGowan's three solo albums Timeless, Reconciliation and Til The Morning Comes are available in Ireland on the Magnetic Music label.