Monthly Archives: August 2009

Music under the mountains festival in Hollywood, Co Wicklow

Posted on by

Friday 18th
Hollywood Inn at 9.00 p.m.

Emer Mayock, Donal Siggins, Cormac Breathnach, (flutes, low whistles, bouzuki)

Saturday 19th
Tuttys at 2.00 p.m

Steve Larkin and friends

Ardenode Hotel 8.30p.m

Arc, Frankie Lane and Buille

Sunday 20th
Tuttys at 12.00 p.m
Alyth McCormack from Isle of Lewis to host the singing session

Tuttys at 8.00 p.m.
Michelle O’Brien, Peter Brown, and Paul Meehan (fiddle, accordion and guitar)

See http://musicunderthemountains.blogspot.com/ for ongoing information.

Great night at Twisted Pepper

Posted on by

Loved seeing Daire Bracken (also of Slide) in Electric Ceilí mode but without the electric part. (Also got to meet Daire afterwards and he was kind enough to give me a copy of their forthcoming CD for my son, who saw them recently and cried at the thought that he wouldn’t see that exact concert ever again! More anon about the CD.)

Was also blown away by The Third Twin with Eoin Dillon (of Kíla) on pipes and Steve Larkin on fiddle. I’d heard Steve play twice before, and Kíla a few times, but this was my first encounter of Eoin’s solo project and I am keen for more.

Also got to say hi to Emer Mayock who was just in from her live performance and chat on the Radio 1 Arts Show, about Tarab. Emer will be performing in three different assemblies at the Festival of World Cultures in Dun Laoghaire this weekend coming.

Emer Mayock, Donal Siggins, Robbie Harris & guests

Posted on by

Took kids to ‘The Session’ Family Traditional Music Show devised by Emer Mayock and Robbie Harris, at the National Concert Hall on Saturday. It was a super idea and brilliantly executed by all involved. My kids loved it and I think learned a lot. It ended with half the kids up on stage with the dancer all giving it a lash.

Irish Times article today on role of art…

Posted on by

Irish Times article today on role of artists in an economy such as ours: “Many artists won’t sit idly by while our future is brokered solely by economists, accountants and solicitors.” http://short.ie/vfethq Times Martin Hayes: “And if you look at the economy at large, you’d have to say that for many years, we were abandoning a lot of who we were and how we recognised ourselves, in favour of saying that we were the most dynamic economy in Western Europe. That, in large measure, became our identity, particularly outside of Ireland.”

Gerry Godley: “perhaps we were human and went down the same acquisitive road that the vast majority of our society did, but the job of the artist is to be a constant, to be there when society chooses to turn back to it. “

Last Night’s Fun, by Ciaran Carson

Posted on by

“Ciaran Carson is a class of centaur-a flute-playing poet and a word-rich musician. Last Night’s Fun is a cracker of a book, pure pleasure, stuffed with anecdotes, memories, wit and humor and deep knowledge of traditional Irish music. The reader is transported into the smoke and warmth of certain rooms in Northern Ireland where a glass of whiskey stands on the table, the black, cast-iron pan sputters on the burner, and a tune falls canted and sly out of the instruments.” –E. Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News

“Last Night’s Fun is an uproar.”–Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times

“This whole beautiful little book is… full of metaphor and observation and side trip and word-juggle and anecdote. It could well be the ideal book to read before a trip to Ireland, offering, instead of maps of highways, a deep drink of what the place is really all about.” –Charles M. Madigan, Chicago Tribune