VOL. 31 LEITRIM

With Lough Allen cutting a swathe across the belly of the county, Leitrim lost no time in developing a twin track approach to musical identity, long before the rest of us ever dreamt of such creative schizophrenia. And so it was that north and south Leitrim declared their distinct musical identities through their fiddles and flutes (with the odd pipe thrown in for good measure).

Those in the know tend to characterise Leitrim music as intensely invigorating, with an excitement rippling through every tune and the occasional karate chop thrown in every now and again.
Charlie Lennon of Kilticlogher is one of the finest agents provocateur of the north Leitrim style. Having grown up in the bosom of a richly musical family, Charlie and his older brother, Ben Lennon, hit the ground running when it came to savouring the local tunes and adding plenty of stock to the local store as well.
I grew up surrounded by music , Charlie recalls. I remember my brother Ben saying that he could count no less than 51 fiddlers within a bike s radius of our house. That was in the 40s and 50s of course. Then between then and the 90s the local population was virtually halved with emigration, but there are signs of revival in more recent years.
Charlie Lennon is renowned not only for his fiddle playing but also for his intricate and elaborate compositions, including the highly successful famine suite, Flight From The Hungry Land . On the brink of releasing what he calls a straight trad album later this month, entitled Time For A Tune, he s anxious to bring the less well-known Leitrim repertoire of tunes to a younger audience. As well as placing his own stamp on what he calls some of the classics of the 20th century , Lennon s latest CD also showcases his own original material, and with an eclectic mix of guest musicians (including his daughter, Eilms, singer Thom Moore and pixie flautist and piper, Mick McGoldrick), he anticipates a lively summer ahead.
Having embraced the spirit of the tradition and the excitement of original composition, Charlie Lennon is well placed to judge the health or otherwise of the local musical style, long renowned for its verve and drive.
I suppose that all regional styles are under threat, he acknowledges, but this CD seeks to redress the balance to some extent. You can definitely pick out the north and south Leitrim styles though, in that the south is very strong in both flute and fiddle, with John McKenna probably the best-known exponent of the flute from the early part of the last century. The fiddle dominates the north of the county and John Quinn (cousin of Patrick Kavanagh for all you trivia buffs) was one of the best known players long ago.
Brian Rooney is a player who s brought that style right up to the minute with his solo album, (released in the US), enigmatically entitled, The Godfather. Whether therein lies a reference to the Leitrim Mafia remains a closely guarded secret!
Charlie and Ben Lennon s legacy will live on effortlessly, thanks to the combined efforts of their families. Ben s son, Maurice Lennon is a former member of Stockton s Wing, and he now plays in numerous sessions and recordings all over the country. He also runs a weekly traditional session in The Harcourt Hotel in Dublin. Maurice s brother, Brian Lennon plays the flute, while Charlie s offspring, Eilms, Sean and Donal are further embodiments of the Lennon family s renaissance approach to music: fiddle, bouzouki, guitar, piano jostle for position amid the musical enterprises of the clan.
Ben Lennon has also been busy keeping the tradition alive and thriving, both as a player and as a teacher. His last album, released last year, The Natural Bridge, captured the essence of the musical style of North Leitrim and Fermanagh that melds so seamlessly around the area of Rossinver, Lennon s homeplace. The Natural Bridge is also a reference to a local limestone outcrop which straddles Ulster and Connaught, and it s an image that seems strangely fitting in these days of stop-start powersharing on either side of the border.
Ben also belongs to the wonderfully titled quartet, Dog Big Dog Little, who have previously featured here in the Great Record when we stopped by the roadside in Fermanagh.
Charlie Lennon s musical force has moved westwards, with the much-talked about studio, Cuan Studios now open in Spiddal. With Lennon s dream of offering an organic recording environment now realised, he can bask in the delights of listening to (and working on) scores of traditional recordings which have emerged and continue to emerge from its womb.
The county s musical exports have been many, including Tom Mulligan, whose son, Neil Mulligan is a fine piper, and can be intercepted in The Cobblestone in Stoneybatter if you re lucky. Earlier players who left the county include Pakie Duignan and Michael Daly who was a venerable collector of tunes, and even found time to be elected conservative Mayor of Worthing.
The Liddey Brothers, Joe (fiddle) and Tom (accordion) also left their mark well beyond the boundaries of the county, and Joe belonged to The Belhavel Trio at one time. The Lough Gill Quartet were another well-known ensemble, while Hugh Byrne gathered together a formidable collection of local tunes that has rarely been matched.
Although steeped in fiddle and flute, Leitrim has her share of balladeers as well. There are numerous songs declaring their allegiance to the county, including Lovely Leitrim , The Lakes of Lough Bran , and An Bun7n Bum.
The McNamara Family of Aughavas have caused quite a stir on both a local and national level over the past 18 months in particular, since the release of their CD, Leitrim Hidden Treasure. Garnering the Best Newcomers Award from Irish Music Magazine in 1998, the McNamaras have wasted little time in bringing their brand of Leitrim music to the rest of the world.
Brian McNamara, the family s chef de cuisine, traces the genesis of their debut album:
Our father, Michael is a well-known flute player nationallyn, he notes, but the primary source for our CD was the tradition of the area itself (south Leitrim). We were so lucky in that we had a very strong musical legacy to draw from, and in particular, the strong fiddle tradition which we learned from (the aforementioned) Fr John Quinn of Gortletteragh.
The McNamaras evidently cherished the fact that they had at their fingertips a unique repertoire, fuelled by a number of manuscripts of early Leitrim tunes discovered by Stephen Greer. Brian McNamara attempts to sum up the quintessence of the south Leitrim style thus:
It s a melodic, sweet sound that has a rich tonalityn, he avers, adding that it s characterised by what s known as a cut and slur bowing style.
Brian is busily putting the finishing touches to his own debut solo album, entitled The Piper s Dream which is due for release shortly. Consisting of a mix of piping tunes from the 17th and 18th centuries, along with more well known piping classics, he s anxious to bring the neglected piping music to younger listeners who may not have had a chance to hear it yet.
I think the purpose of recording is twofold reallyn, he suggests. Of course there s the commercial aspect, but ultimately it s about preserving the music for posterity and passing it on to younger listeners.
Brian McNamara s not one for sitting back and waiting for the audience to come to the music either. This week sees him play three concerts in Kyoto, Japan, where his fans are nothing if not intent on catching every nuance and gesture of the south Leitrim style he loves. Neither is he content to shackle himself to live sessions, which naturally only reach a limited audience. Piping and cyberspace make for remarkably cosy bedfellows on both his and his family s websites: www.brianmcnamara.irish-music.net; www.mcnamara.irish-music.net
The folk circuit in Leitrim may be limited but the county s produced a fine singer in the shape of Eleanor Shanley who found her feet as lead singer with De Danann and is now firmly established as a solo artiste and touring the country (with Ronnie Drew) as we write.
One of Leitrim s adopted sons is Charlie McGettigan, one of folk music s gentlemen. Although a former winner of the Eurovision (with Paul Harrington), McGettigan makes little of his 15 minutes of global fame, and opts instead for the delights of a more sustained, if low-key career. A native of Ballyshannon, McGettigan moved to Drumshanbo when working for the ESB some 28 years ago, and despite plans to move on shortly after, is now firmly ensconced in the heart of the village. He s currently in the throes of recording his fourth solo album which he plans to release in September on his own label, Jargon Records. He readily cites the advantages of living in a place the size of Drumshanbo.
It keeps your feet on the ground, he avers. And I find that they re often anxious to have me on the television. It s as though you can be a bigger fish in a smaller pond, living outside of Dublin.
He acknowledges that he has literally, thousands of songs stockpiled at this stage in his career, but still, the urge to keep on writing is as strong as ever. As well as sending songs to other singers who are currently recording, McGettigan has begun to collaborate with other writers too, including local man Maurice Lennon. The art of songwriting is an elusive one, he hints, and it certainly doesn t get any easier with time or experience.
It s like a puzzle really, he offers. Sometimes I get a melody sent to me, with a request for words, and then again, I might get half a song, with a chorus or middle eighth missing. It s a difficult business, but you re always on the lookout for those precious times when it just comes to you.
He s not shy to acknowledge the potential catharsis that songwriting and singing offer either.
Of course there s the industrial side to writing, when you trawl through the stockpile in search of a song that might suit a particular singer, he says, and then there s the expressive side of writing, where you get a chance to write about something and sing it out loud. Of course there are times when you might sing a very emotional song to an audience and you re left with them gaping at you, with no understanding of what it is you re trying to say but you have to take the rough with the smooth and put it down to experience!
Drumshanbo isn t a one-trick village either. It boasts a PLC course in Music (Irish Music), with students studying everything from traditional music to music analysis, music industry and event production. For further details, contact Drumshanbo Vocational School at: (078) 41085.
Much else has emerged from the genesis of the PLC Music course, including the most unlikely offspring of all: Samboeire, a Samba, percussion and dance festival which has run for the past two years in late April. Emerging out of a series of percussion workshops and a samba band, both of which were the brainchild of one Klaus Vormehr, who successfully partnered the local County Council to fund a youth music group. By providing loan instruments to students who had completed the first year of the course, Vormehr tapped into a well of local talent. It s a partnership of which local arts officer, Terry Duffy is justifiably proud, and anxious to see continue as younger students replace more experienced players in the queue to sample and make exotic sounds and rhythms.
Orbital Works is a recently-launched recording studio in Ballinamore, and chief cook and bottle washer, Brian Megahy is hopeful of heady days ahead as the kWorks establishes a name for itself as a recording studio to be reckoned with. Concentrating on film music and band recordings, Megahy is currently putting a portfolio together in readiness for the business he hopes will beat a path to his front door.
Megahy entered the music business through an idiosyncratic route that would be the envy of any aspiring rocker with an appetite for the bizarre and the unreal. A graduate of the Music Business Management Course (which was run by the Enterprise Board as a Cross Border Initiative, with Banbridge as the northern participant), Megahy found himself spending no less than 2 months in Toronto being trained in all aspects of working in the music business. Based in the Harris Institute for the Arts, one of the assignments of the course consisted of producing a CD, entitled Omnium. Hardly the stuff of conventional course work, Megahy acknowledges that it was a dream come true to find himself saddled with such a pet project. Another local, singer songwriter, Damien O Rourke also participated in the course, and recorded one of his own songs for the CD.
Having swapped his student card for a mixing desk, Brian Megahy s Orbital Works is now open for business, and welcomes contact from musicians wishing to record without having to sell their souls to the devil.
Of course in any discussion of Leitrim we here in The Great Record would be remiss if we were to ignore the phenomenal success of showbands from and in the county. Larry Cunningham is definitely the Don Williams of the region, but how many people knew that The Rainbow Ballroom in Glenfarne was the original Ballroom of Romance, later immortalised by William Trevor and personified by John Kavanagh?
Paschal Mooney is another Leitrim export who found his way on to the national airwaves during 2FM s early days, when he held court nightly with his Keep It Country broadcasts. He s now graduated to the headier locale of the Senate where he can hold forth just as fluently and as flaithizthlachly as he did back in the late 70s and early 80s.
And just in case you thought the county was bereft of any rock n roll at all, we managed to unearth two young bands who are intent on changing the musical face of the county forever.
The enigmatically-monikered, Virtus are a three piece from Drumshanbo who are only beginning to rise to a gallop. Fronted by lead singer, Thomas Nolan (with Darius Doherty on bass and Kieran Kielty on drums), they re currently cutting their teeth at local gigs, but we re assured that their assault on the wider world is only a stone s throw away. Thomas Nolan has already been flexing his musical muscle by winning first prize in local music competition, An Tsstal, and he s now hell-bent on raising the roofs of a few more establishments outside of the town bounds.
Waif are another Drumshanbo band with an eye to the spotlight. Together since 97, and fronted by Tony Tighe, they re are a quartet with an appetite for rock n roll and all points east and west. Playing a mix of their own original music and covers, Waif are gigging their way across the county so watch out for them this summer.
And if all of that weren t enough! . . . Classical music fans in Leitrim have been enjoying a slow but steady increase in the availability of music locally, with Rossinver-resident, Rod Alston, the director of the Sligo Early Music Ensemble and also of the smaller ensemble, the four or five piece, Pafelmusik. Leitrim County Council has also trailblazed by being the first county to have a composer in residence on a countywide basis. Belfast-born composer, Ian Wilson has been busy conducting music seminars in five areas throughout the county, as well as composing and performing a new piece for string quartet, specially commissioned from him during his tenure as artist in residence. Terry Duffy, Arts Officer is keen to highlight that Wilson s presence is part of the County Council s determined strategy of building audiences for the arts throughout the county. It s an admirable initiative and one that other counties would do well to replicate. Meanwhile, Leitrim s musical legacy continues to blossom across the spectrum of musical styles: from samba to trad, and folk to classical and rock. Make no mistake. There s a lot more to Leitrim than merely its lovelieness.