The Rough Guide to Irish Music, Dublin to Donegal

Thursday, March 17 2005 @ 12:39 PM EST

San Francisco, California, USA – Coinciding with the celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day, the Rough Guide series has released the Rough Guide to Irish Music, Dublin to Donegal: essential sessions & evolving traditions.

Music has always been an essential part of Irish culture, and the musical traditions of Ireland - focused around pub sessions - remain amongst Europe's most enduring and vibrant. Songs (sung in Irish and English) hold a special place in Irish life and exemplify the vivacity of the Irish singing tradition and its wide range of subjects. This all-new second edition of The Rough Guide To Irish Music provides an extensive introduction to Ireland's musical landscape, from the driving music of Donegal and the foot-stomping polkas and slides of Kerry and Cork to the work of those exploring the borders between traditional music and other genres.

Compiled by Irish music specialist Geoff Wallis, this album is bursting with reels, jigs, polkas, flings, fiddles and flutes. Over a twenty-year career, Altan have achieved worldwide acclaim and the track featured here is a sneak preview from their latest 2005 album, Local Ground Irish-language songs she learnt as a child and the county's vibrant dance music.

From Strabane, Co. Tyrone, Paul Brady has been one of Ireland's leading musical figures for the last forty years. He learnt the piano as a child before moving onto the guitar and “Mary and the Soldier” is from a live 1978 recording, The Missing Liberty Tapes.

Matt Molloy is one of Ireland's most traditional flute players and here he plays the popular air 'A Stor Mo Chroi' in typically evocative fashion before heading off into reel territory.

Dervish have remained true to their Sligo roots and reinforced their importance on the Irish music scene with many notable albums. 'An T-UII' ('The Apple') comes from the album Midsummer's Night, and the fruit serves as a metaphor for a beautiful woman.

Frankie Gavin's fiddle is one of the most distinctive sounds in Irish music and the man is also unreasonably talented on flute, whistle, accordion and piano. From Corrandulla, Co. Galway, his renowned skills can be heard on this album with reels derived from his solo album Fierce Traditional.

Cran, currently compiled of Scan Corcoran (vocals, bouzouki and guitar), Desi Wilkinson (flute, whistles, Highland pipes and vocals) and Ronan Browne, have been at the forefront of Irish music since they formed in the early 1990s. Taimse 'N Arrears' tells the tale of an unrepentant wastrel whose wife locks him out.

Together, Paddy Keenan and Tommy O'Sullivan form a powerful musical partnership. Paddy began learning the uillean pipes at the age of ten and the tunes here reveal Paddy's eclectic compositional skills.

'The Walrus' is taken from Lúnasa's fifth album and their unique sound derives from the interplay between Scan Smyth's fiddle, Kevin Crawford's flute and Cillian Vallely's uillean pipes, supported by the driving rhythm section of Donogh Hennessy's guitar and Trevor Hutchinson's double bass. Composed of three flute and whistle players and a guitar.

Flook's material has a distinct Irish edge. 'Hooper's Loop/Pressed For Time' are from the band's most recent album, Rubai.

Lasairfhiona N1 Chonaola's roots are embedded in the sean-nos singing tradition of her native Inisheer, the smallest of the Aran Islands, and 'Bean Phaidm/Paidm's Wife' is taken from her astonishing debut album, An Raicin Alainn.

Also on this album, Maighread & Triona Ní Dhomhnaill sing a sad take of a man who regrets enlisting in the army, with the legendary Donal Lunny.

Ciaran O Maonaigh learned the fiddle from his grandfather, and on 'Loughisle Castle' he is joined by the Derry fiddler Dermot McLaughlin, who plays part of the tune an octave lower, a technique known as 'reversing' in Donegal.

Also featured on this album are Dubliner and flute player Paul McGrattan and Gerry O'Connor, one of Ireland's most renowned banjo players. The Rough Guide to Irish Music features a snapshot of the exceptional and diverse talents on the thriving Irish music scene including North Cregg, Mary McPartlan, Paul Moran & Fergal Scahill, Seamus Creagh & Aidan Coffey, Seamus Begley & Jim Murray, The Prodigals, Helen Roche and Seamus Quinn & Gary Hastings.

World Music Central
http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20050317103949992