Irish Music Special: The Trad & Folk Report

The success of The Gloaming and the critical acclaim of Lankum – as different as their approaches are – confirm that the wide-ranging genre of Irish traditional and folk music is in rude health. You can add the resurgence of Finbar Furey, the urban/folk hybrid of Damien Dempsey, and recent breakthroughs from the likes of Ye Vagabonds, Lisa O’Neill, and Emma Langford. It’s all a long way from the finger in the ear, Aran jumper brigade of old, and a good thing too. As Louis Armstrong, who knew a thing or two, once said, “All music is folk music. I ain’t never heard no horse sing a song.”

Langford, currently working on a second album she promises is “more Irish traditional sounding”, took an independent route. “20% of my time is playing, 80% is organisation - selling records, meeting people, and building connections, although I now have a booking agent which takes a bit of the pressure off.” Currently on tour in Germany, she sees the Irish folk scene as a great place to start, but is aware of the need to go beyond it. “Ireland is a fabulous place to cut your teeth, but it is a small country and the audience gets oversaturated. Germany is extremely enthusiastic about Irish music.”

Brían Mac Gloinn of Ye Vagabonds, currently hawking their beautiful The Hare’s Lament, concurs. “There is a big audience here but we do tour in England, Europe and Australia. Management told me that Ireland is the 14^th largest market in Europe, so you have to.”

Ye Vagabonds are signed with the River Lea imprint of the mighty Rough Trade label, although Brían almost talked them out of it. “This fella was up chatting to me at the merch table after a London gig, I told him to buy the support act’s E.P. ‘cause it was much better than ours. That was Geoff Travis! He’s taken an interest in Ireland in the last few years, and not just folk but Girl Band and Soak as well. We were probably a direct result of Lankum talking us up to Geoff. Lisa O’Neill signed with them too. We were lucky that these people, our friends, could offer advice.”

For Brían this sense of community in music is vital. “When we moved up from Carlow we started a session in Walsh’s in Stoneybatter. It became part of a scene through which we met loads of people like Lankum, Landless, and Skipper’s Alley. I think community is the most important thing, wherever you live.” Emma agrees, “There is community in the music scene, talking together about bookers, and venues. IMRO does great work but more resources need to be in place, to know which radio station or journalists you should be talking to.”

This sense of community wasn’t quite as prevalent for Iarla Ó Lionáird, the voice of The Gloaming, back in the day, but he agrees things are better now. “When I first started making solo records, there was absolutely no ear for them in the trad world, but people like Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh (Danú/Aeons) are now making more interesting and challenging work using modern modalities.”

For Emma winning the RTÉ Folk Award was “a great experience, they help bring the music into the mainstream.” Brían, although wary of “music as a competition”, adds, as does Iarla, that they are “brilliant as they give people a leg up, shining a light on what’s going on.”

Both Iarla and Brían heap praise on Irish radio. “RTÉ 1 still has integrity,” says Ó Lionáird. “I was delighted they didn’t do away with The Rolling Wave, Peter Browne was such a hero of mine. I think the future lies in radio, and podcasting.” “We’ve great support from RTÉ1 and Radió na Gaeltachta, and local people like Martin Bridgeman on KCLR,” adds Brían; although he concedes with a laugh “our music is too sad for day-time radio!”

Brían does find it strange that “There’s very little music played on Irish radio with Irish accents, although Fontaines D.C. are amazing. It’s this weird idea, if something is Irish, it can’t be as good.” Iarla has a similar thought, “Our discomfort with the Irish language is a problem. This notion of not being able to be proud of things that are our own. It would be interesting to see The Gloaming’s success leverage a bit more freedom of acceptance for the language.”

That being said, the music is in a good place. Emma: “Lankum and The Gloaming are creating these beautiful fusions and hybrids that the world should be hearing.” Brían agrees. “They could not be further apart but they’re both changing the perception of Irish traditional music.” Iarla offers the last word. “Outside of the language and the idiom I’m always hoping that our music moves people. I think there’s a lot of rope left in trad, a lot of exciting stuff people can still do. There’s huge potential, as long as the goal is creativity for its own sake. It’s a privileged time for music making, you can imagine trad people doing things that couldn’t have happened twenty or thirty years ago.”