DÁITHİ SPROULE


Lost River Volume 1 Cló Iar-Chonnacht CICD187


Derryman Dáithi Sproule has for some time lived across the pond in Minnesota; his CV includes stints with the groups Skara Brae, Bowhand and Trian, and latterly he has toured and recorded extensively with Altan. Dáithi’s first solo album, A Heart Made Of Glass, was released back in 1995, and an instrumental guitar album (The Crow In The Sun) followed in 2008. The naming of this new record as Volume 1 implies either a projected series, or at least one further “collection drawn from the deep river of traditional song”; certainly Dáithi would seem to have amassed over the decades an inexhaustible supply of traditional songs that he has clearly – judging from the demeanour of the performances on this disc – known and loved for some time.


Dáithi is well-known for his use of innovative guitar styles (which he helped to pioneer in traditional Irish music), and on this album he uses two open guitar tunings (including the now-trusty DADGAD). His playing is expert and polished, subtly supporting and embellishing the melodies of the sung texts that form the heart of this record. His singing is enviably even in tone, with an appealing use of decoration. Just two of the dozen traditional songs on this disc utilise original melodies composed by Dáithi himself: The Unquiet Grave and Lynchehaun. The former is rather reminiscent of the style of early Bob Dylan (in his “neo-traditional” mode), whereas the latter is taken from a live concert recording with Altan.


Each of the other tracks finds Dáithi’s voice and guitar accompanied by one or two other musicians drawn from a pool of guests that comprises Seamus McGuire or James Kelly (fiddle), Peter Ostroushko (mandolin), Liz Carroll (fiddle), Billy McComiskey or Paddy O’Brien (accordion), Laura McKenzie (whistle), John Wright (bass) and Dean Magraw (guitar), with Randal Bays (guitar and fiddle). The highlight of the disc for me is On The Banks Of The River, where Dáithi unfolds the narrative especially persuasively with the assistance of Liz and Billy, while The Maid Of Ballydoo even introduces some nifty dancing from Danielle Enblom to put an extra spring in the step of the tale. This is an expertly-managed, affectionately-realised collection, a quiet gem that will amply repay your investment.


David Kidman


MICHEÁL Ó HEIDHIN, CHARLIE LENNON, STEVE


COONEY Ceol Sidhe Cló Iar-Chonnacht CICD186


I first met Mícheál Ó hEidhin at a Comhaltas weekend when he gave a talk on concert production. His suggestions still remain in my mind, even though it’s decades since I had a hand in concerts. At the end of the session, I


The Living Tradition - Page 52


unsure of its origin. Ó hEidhin has yet another, plausible reason; that it’s about a young woman, Esther Snowe, losing the man she loves. I well remember a Winifred Letts poem of the same name that my mother was very fond of, about a mother mourning the death of her only child. It has the opening stanza: “My jewel of the world, she sleeps so fast,/She will not hear you, Spring wind, if you blow;/So let you shake the blossoms of the thorn/Till her bed is hidden deep in Easter snow.” (Some people in Ireland still call fallen blackthorn blossom ‘Easter snow’.) Maybe Letts had the tune in mind when she wrote the poem; the air certainly has a poignancy that fits her words.


asked him about the modes used in traditional Irish music. I’d long struggled to understand the structure; he explained them in less than a minute and made the whole thing seem so simple. That’s a measure of the man; that he could go to great lengths to expand on a subject yet simplify another so that it seemed obvious.


There’s no real reason for it but I’ve always thought of the concertina as a woman’s instrument. I’ve nothing against it, in fact I like it, but maybe I got the idea from PJ Conlon’s sister Rose Ann Murphy. She had a dislike for it that seemed strange at the time. Ó hEidhin’s playing is so sensitive yet spirited that I’d rather have him play the concertina than the piano accordion he was so well-known for. It’s certainly better-suited to slow airs; the piano accordion has too big a ‘voice’ for them.


In the introduction, Steve Cooney is described as ‘sure-footed’; that’s an understatement for sure. You’ll be aware of Cooney’s guitar but you’ll not be distracted by it. Charlie Lennon has been a pillar of traditional music for decades; his fiddle-playing here is as sure as ever. It’s good when friends swap tunes, even better when they swap their own tunes as they do with the two reels on track 6. The first is by Ó hEidhin, the second by Lennon. Of the 36 tunes, four are by Ó hEidhin and six by Lennon. And they’re not just something to prove their composing abilities; they’re well worth a place in the general repertoire. Rather surprisingly, reels are in the minority, outnumbered by jigs, hornpipes and flings as well as five slow airs.


I’m not a great fan of more than one instrument at a time playing slow airs; it usually means that different interpretations work against each other. There’s no problem here; Lennon and Cooney are so sensitive to the tunes that it’s almost like one instrument playing rather than three. Track 5, Limerick’s Lamentation, is a good illustration. It’s one I’ve been playing for years (along with just about everyone else). But I’d never have thought that this slow air can be played as a march, let alone a double jig too. It works well; if word gets out, these settings will give the tune a new lease of life. It’s a joyful feeling, like finding relatives you didn’t know you had.


The slow air, Easter Snow, was a great favourite of Séamus Ennis; so much so that he named his place in The Naul, North Co. Dublin, just that. There are many theories about the name of the air; even Ennis admitted to being


Na Géanna Fiáine (The Wild Geese) is another air that deserves to be played more often. Its strange how one particular phrase can snap your mind to attention. Ó hEidhin does a masterful job of portraying the wild longing of those exiles who left Ireland after the Williamite war. The final track is a set of polkas, played in the distinctive fiery Kerry style. These are Ó hEidhin looking back to his time with the Brosna Céilí Band while taking his BMus at UCC. A mark of Ó hEidhin’s broad musical taste is the inclusion not just of flings and Strathspeys but of a slow air composed by Big Tom Anderson from Shetland. There aren’t many Shetland airs that I know of; this one is beautiful.


It’s a wonder to me why Ó hEidhin has waited so long to record his music. He gives a reason but it’s not a good one. People with his talent ought to make records; there are enough people with much less talent doing it. Just when you think that Clo Iar-Chonnacht can’t come up with yet another great CD, they release Ceol Sidhe. Let’s hope that isn’t a one- off; I could do with one like this every year.


Mick Furey


HOME SERVICE Live 1986


Fledg’ling Records FLED3085


I know there’s some of you out there too young to remember this outfit, who burst out of early 1980s Albion Band roots with a flourish, provided many of us with a soundtrack to the miners’ strike, made us sit up and take notice, then promptly went their separate ways when on the cusp of success. They produced three fine studio albums, provided the music for the National’s ‘Mysteries’ (which was memorably televised), and trolleyed around the festivals for a couple of memorable years.


The essence of this band were John Tams and Graeme Taylor on rhythm and lead guitars with the tightest of rhythm sections and assorted horns – and before you begin to think of a Commitments style band, they played traditional English rural fare, with a few new Tams offerings included for a contemporary thrust (mind you, I bet they could have been a fab soul band if they’d set their minds to it). The politics of the time meant that if they hadn’t already been planned, Home Service would have had to have been invented. Always at their best in a live situation (but how on earth they


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