It’s not easy to sum up the thirty nine years of music making and entertainment that Shaskeen have been at the forefront of Irish Traditional Music. Listening to their new CD ‘Walking Up Town’ it is clear they are going to be leading the way for quite a while yet.
Having been caught up like many musical groups in the whirlwind of the set-dancing era, Shaskeen’s last four albums were of music for the sets. Now they are making a change to concert style performances.
Album number fifteen got its first showcase at the launch in Ennis on January 17th and it marks a return to their original musical formula. It’s an album ‘for listening to’ and features a generous collection of jigs, reels, waltzes, polkas, barndances, and songs. The title tune ‘Walking up Town’ is an American ‘breakdown’, a fun rag-style tune. It’s probably the best summing up the band could ask for.

It is hard to beat well-seasoned musicians and the members of Shaskeen are as experienced as they are skilful. Another winning thing about Shaskeen is that they have maintained the same ethos over the many years and the many variations in line-up. Although quick to tell you how much work everyone else does in the band, the continuity may be because of founding member Tom Cussen who has steered the course of the band and managed its affairs.

There is a great honesty to Shaskeen, in every way, their music, the way they perform and in the way they get along together. The current line-up boasts eight musicians, all well known in their own right, and on ‘Walking Up Town’ they also have a number of invited guests.

Formed in London in 1970, at a time when Irish Traditional Music was at its peak, Tom Cussen responded to a request from the owner of the Oxford Tavern (now changed) in Kentish Town to put a band together to play on Friday nights. Tom had been in London since late ‘67 having moved there from Galway and was playing in sessions in some of the music pubs. The first line up included husband and wife team, Johnny and Maureen Minogue (on accordion and fiddle), Sean McDonagh on flute and Benny O’Connor on drums. Tom and Benny had met through the Fleadh Ceoil Competition in London and a ceili band they competed with called The Old House Ceili Band.
“I think the name came about” remembers Tom, “because I was probably after learning The Shaskeen reel, and I said we’ll call it The Shaskeen Band and it stuck. We played every Friday night for 12 months in the Oxford Tavern, and we had no singer at the time. We sat up there belting out jigs, reels, a few hornpipes and waltzes, and the place used to be heaving.”

Tom returned to Galway in 1971 when he was offered a job there and became immersed in the music scene, playing in pubs and attending the Comhaltas sessions which were held in O’Reilly’s in Forster Street. As it happened, Benny had also returned to Galway and they met one day in Eyre Square. Tom had also met up with P.J. Hernon in O’ Reilly’s and said to him he was thinking of re-starting the band. P.J. was interested and so they started with P.J. on accordion, Benny on drums, Johnny Dooley on guitar and vocals and Tom on banjo. They rehearsed and found they played together well, and began playing in O’Reilly’s on Wednesday nights. Brian Mooney, another legendary character in Galway musical history joined the band when Johnny was unavailable. “It went from zero to log jammed as well” recalls Tom about that early success in O’ Reilly’s. They began playing in other venues around the county and one notable residency they had was in The Shamrock Bar in Tuam where they played every Monday night for two years. “People went out that time four or five nights a week” says Tom, “There was a huge amount of live music.”
P.J. stayed with the band for two years. Connie Murphy joined after that for about six months to be followed by Johnny Walsh from Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo who stayed with the band for some seven or eight years.
They recorded their first album in 1974 with Release Cabaret, and quickly followed it with albums in 1975, 1976 and 1978. The years from the mid-70s to the mid-80s were the band’s busiest time. “We were really up there with the best of them” says Tom. And they were, their records were in every household in the country. Certainly in Co. Galway, Shaskeen were top of the hill, synonymous with dancing and fun. They could be heard on Radio Éireann every week; their records were played regularly, increasing their popularity and fame.
They continued to record, issuing singles, EPs and four more albums during the 1980s. The band line up changed from time to time, with Sean Conway, Mike Fahy and Sean Keane coming in as singers. Charlie Harris was with the band for some 14 years on accordion. Kevin Rohan stepped in and out as he was available and featured on several recordings.
They didn’t confine themselves to Ireland but spread the good music to England going there up to three times a year. “In latter years we’ve travelled to Spain and Germany and Norway to festivals. One memorable trip was when we played in Moscow in 1990.” says Tom. “We did America a good few times but getting into America is hard work – it’s difficult to cover and you need a lot of people doing the groundwork. Now we’d like to go back and do some of the festivals and hopefully with this line up we’ll get invitations to do so.”

The set dancing era descended on Ireland in the early 1990s and dances and the cabaret pub music scene changed utterly. Shaskeen adapted and took to the longer more arduous gigs that set dancing demanded with the same vigour they approached the cabaret and dance performances.
“Dances at the time would be ceili and old time and there would be sets as well.” says Tom. “But there was a great mixture; you’d be doing a quickstep in the middle of it as well. When the set dancing came in, at the beginning you had ceili and set dancing, then the set dancing took over and the waltzes disappeared almost out of it, but they’re beginning to come back again a bit now because people want a bit of enjoyment.”

“Walking Up Town” represents a return to that former style where interaction with the audience and variety in the performance is to the fore. It is augmented by some modern influences introduced by the new members in the band. Tom explains Shaskeen’s early musical formula,
“We were doing the cabaret thing, the folk thing, the jigs and reels, and I think the combination that we had at the time was relatively new, in the sense that we had box, banjo, drums and guitar. There was a right ould kick out of it, even if I say so myself. I think people enjoyed that aspect of it. Maybe it was a bit raw but it was good and lively and the whole emphasis really was on entertainment and talking to people. The idea of talking to people and having the craic and just bouncing off people and they off you, and that’s still happening today and that’s why we want to go back.”

In the current line-up on ‘Walking Up Town’, Tom Cussen is the only one of the founding members still there but Benny O Connor who retired from the group five years ago joins the band for a number of tracks. Eamon Cotter is the next longest serving member with some twenty years in its ranks. Seán Conway who soldiered with the band for many years also makes a welcome return with the great sing along ‘All for me Grog’. P.J. Curtis who produced the album got the gentlemen in the band to provide backing vocals, perhaps the first time we have heard their dulcet tones on a CD. Sean Tyrell who once toured with Shaskeen also guests with the beautiful ‘Angel’s Whisper’, a poem that he recently set to music.
At the core of the band are Tom Cussen on banjo, Eamon Cotter on flute, Patsy McDonagh on accordion, Johnny Donnellan on bodhrán, Pat Costello on banjo, mandolin and guitar, Pat Broderick on pipes and whistle, Tony Howley on flute and saxophone and Geraldine Cotter on piano. Geraldine accompanied Shaskeen on all their recordings for the sets and is now a regular in the band. Pat Costello has a long involvement with Shaskeen having produced many of their recordings before becoming a regular band member.

For their launch in Ennis on Jan 17th last, Shaskeen had the full ensemble present with guests and the additional musicians who appeared on the album – Alan Wallace on guitar and Maeve Boyd on fiddle. It was a joyous occasion and the music was out of this world. The banter from the stage was humorous and entertaining and there was never a dull moment.
A unique spirit in traditional Irish music, Shaskeen has something special. They have an ease and a comfort with each other, a one-ness with the music and a love for the craic and especially for their audiences.

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Matt Keane is a curious mixture of devilment and determination, quick witted and humorous both on and off stage but also earnest about his work and music. “I’m desperately serious at the back of the whole lot” he says, “It’s determination rather than intent, when I put something into my head, nothing really moves it.”

‘Every picture tells a story’ he says in the sleeve notes to his new album ‘Pictures in Time’, and this, his second release in less than two years is aptly named. ‘Any collection of songs” he continues, “is a snapshot of that period in your life, although you don’t realise it until you look back”
Matt is one of the renowned Keane family from Caherlistrane in Co. Galway and like his siblings has been singing all his life. “It was a very natural thing” he says. “We didn’t learn music at all, we absorbed it.” Although singing all his life like the rest of his family, his early forays were in musicals and operas, performing in over 25 productions with Tuam’s Marian Choral Society and the Headford Musical Society. His first role in 1979 was as Detlef in ‘The Student Prince.’ “That gave me the confidence to go out in front of any stage” he says.
His first recording experience was in 1984 on ‘Muintir Catháin’, an album by Gael Linn which featured the whole family, Teresa, Pat Christina, Matt, Dolores, Noel and Seán, as well as his parents Bridie and Matt snr and his aunts Rita and Sarah.
More recently he recorded ‘Echoes of the Valley’ with Kevin Coyne, with whom he has performed in pubs and sessions for over fifteen years. Then in 2002 he recorded again, this time with his brothers Seán, Pat and Noel as ‘Citizens Keane’ and they performed a series of sell out concerts around the country.

Matt is a curious mixture of devilment and determination, quick witted and humorous both on and off stage but also earnest about his work and music “I’m desperately serious at the back of the whole lot” he says, “It’s determination rather than intent, when I put something into my head, nothing really moves it.”

Recording his own album was always a dream and in 2006 he began the process in earnest, putting down a song here and there, culminating in the release of ‘Out in the Fields’ in January 2007. A perfectly produced package, its acoustic ballads and folk songs were greeted with enormous enthusiasm and Matt has been performing to full houses at his concerts ever since.

Matt himself has five children and naturally being Keanes, they all sing as well. His second daughter Orlaith sang on Matt’s first album, Mary Chapin Carpenter’s ‘The Moon and St. Christopher’. On ‘Pictures in Time’ she sings almost half of the tracks. Gaining confidence and enjoying performing since the earlier effort, Orlaith demonstrates her ability and massive potential. Matt recalls “They all would sing a song at parties and occasions like that but when Orlaith would sing, everyone would be quiet. She has something special as well as being able to sing. Lots of people can sing. I think it’s more than that. Its being able to pick a song that she’s able to do and make a good job of it.”

Like their Dad, Orlaith and her sisters Eimear and Eilish, gave their first performance on stage with the Marion Choral Society. “I was Mr. Snow in ‘Carousel’” says Matt, “and they were my children. They sang and walked around the stage with me.” After that it was sessions at home, choirs and groups in school and whenever the opportunity arose to sing.
For Orlaith herself recording has been quite a new experience. “I don’t think I would have ever thought about it” she says. “Daddy said one day, ‘For the craic why don’t you go in and do a song and see how it turns out’. It wasn’t really decided, it just happened. A lot of people wouldn’t get the opportunity to do it, so it’s brilliant.”
“Scary!” was how she described her daunting first stage appearance at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway last year. Now she looks forward to the concerts. “I love it” she says, “and there’s more stuff I’d love to do.”

Her interests and influences in music are quite diverse. Crystal Gayle was a great favourite of herself and her sisters growing up, now she enjoys some of the American country singers like Alison Krauss and Tricia Yearwood. Of the Irish divas, her favourite is probably Maura O’ Connell, but she also likes Mary Black, and of course her aunt Dolores Keane has always been a strong influence.

On ‘Pictures in Time’ Orlaith showcases a variety of songs in style and tempo. The gentle country rhythm, of “I Wish it would Rain” gives way to the more up tempo beat of Alison Krauss’ ‘The Lucky One’ and ‘Candlelight and Wine’, Richard Thompson’s ‘Farewell Farewell” and Eric Bogle’s ‘Leaving the Land’ are thoughtful and plaintive, while Tricia Yearwood’s ‘Hearts in Armour’ is full of emotion and feeling.
On stage Matt and Orlaith share just one song – the Dick Gaughan classic ‘Both Sides the Tweed’ and their harmonising is definitely something they will do more of in future, given the right material.

Matt’s songs come from a variety of sources as well. ‘Somebody Special’ written by his good friend Don Stiffe has already become a favourite with his audiences. He covers two John Prine songs; the swinging ballad ‘Souvenirs’ and ‘Hello in There’, a song he chose because of its personal meaning to him going to visiting his mother now living in a nursing home. He takes the local ballad ‘The Lovely Green Woodlands of Ower’, and having researched its origins dedicates his new treatment of it to local man John Joe Garvey, who sang it as his party piece for years.
“If I try to analyse myself with a song, I would say it has to be melodic and tell a story” says Matt. “I’m drawn to songs and sometimes I don’t know why I’m drawn to them. I’m drawn to writers who can paint a picture for me with words.”
Sometimes songs are personal, and sometimes they are full of emotion, it’s important for Matt to feel the songs and as he sings he brings that understanding out. Orlaith displays that same forthright and honest quality in her singing as well; it’s a family trait.

Before going into studio, Matt always works out the initial arrangement for the songs himself. The three main musicians in his band multi instrumentalist Seán Regan, keyboard player Peter Gannon and guitarist Pat Coyne then take over. Matt refers to them as ‘the three divine persons’ because together they are at the core of the recording and performance. At the live gigs, the band also includes fiddle and drums.

At the moment Matt manages all the organisation around his concerts and promotions. He enjoys it but it is hard work and the future plan is to have someone else doing the management, publicity and organisation. He and Orlaith would also like to travel further afield, throughout Ireland and to Europe and America.

“We’re filling a niche that nobody is filling around here” says Matt. “It’s toe in the water for us at the moment. Our music needs a platform. It’s hard to get the people to travel but it’s easy for us to travel to them, and that’s our plan, to develop it and get people to hear it.”

‘The Irish Scattering’ is a remarkable new DVD and CD from singer and multi-instrumentalist Seán Keane. It’s fifteen years since Seán embarked on his solo career and for his eighth album release he has turned his attention to the theme of emigration tracking the progress of the Irish nation on its travels around the world. ‘The Irish Scattering’ was recorded live over two nights at concerts performed in ‘The Black Box’ Theatre Galway in March of this year. A strong cast, some 24 musicians, dancers and singers joined Seán on stage to perform a diverse range of music and song, charting the various eras in emigration and the events that sparked that movement.

The project is one that could have surfaced at any time during Seán’s career. It developed out of an interest in the stories behind the songs. Seán who has been singing all his life, grew up listening to these stories and in turn he has told them to his own audiences. ‘The Irish Scattering’ pieces the stories together to present a tableau of Irish history. Since the days when Ireland was known as the Island of Saints and Scholars, Irish people have moved abroad for one reason or another.

While ‘The Irish Scattering’ is a two and a half hour long show on DVD, Seán acknowledges that it could be twice or three times that long were all the possible songs and stories included. “I think its going to be more of a life long project than just the project it is” he says. “It’s only the tip of the iceberg compared to what could be done”.

Since starting this project, Seán has been digging deeper into the background to the songs, and researching the stories. “Like Mother Jones” he says, “the great union leader in America about whom ‘She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain’ was written. She spent all her life working on behalf of the miners, organising, marching to get their rights.” Mother Jones is just one example of the influence that Irish people have had all over the world and her story is one of many fascinating stories that are told in a book that Sean’s wife Virginia has written on the subject. In fact her research was one of the reasons this project came about. Almost nearing completion, they hope it will be published in about a year’s time. The extensive sleeve notes that accompany ‘The Irish Scattering’ are a great read and give a sample of what is to come in the book. They comprehensively chart the travels of Irish people over the last 1500 years, explaining the significance of all the songs, stories and tunes.

History, economics and our rich culture have shaped that Irish influence and the Irish psyche – some 70 million people world wide are aware they have an Irish ancestor. That’s a considerable influence considering at its peak Ireland’s population was 8 million and at its lowest ebb some 2.5 million.

Seán himself was one of those people who when young left home and travelled to England in search of adventure. “Going to England was like going to Galway” he laughs. “You were never regarded as an emigrant when you went to England, I think that’s because it was always and ever going on.” He worked on the building sites and at night played with the group Shegui, the first band he toured with. “That time in London you could go to a session seven nights a week if you wanted to” he remembers. “It was a great time to be there, work was plentiful, the atmosphere was good. There was great opportunity to play in London; it was just buzzing with music at the time.”

Sadly those good times came to an end and when the tide began to change Seán returned home. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible for many others who were destined to stay there and while many thrived, many fell into poverty. ‘The Irish Scattering’ is the story of emigration the world over, good times and hard times. Irish people settled in parts of the United States, Canada, the West Indies and Australia, and behind each country are the reasons why, the stories of those first pioneers.

“We tried to represent the different periods and hopefully we have done that reasonably successfully” says Seán. The DVD opens with the sound of ancient horns, the instruments of pre history we are told in the sleeve notes. Then by way of introduction Seán sings a few verses of ‘The Dear Little Isle’. This is followed by Máirtín O’Connor playing his composition ‘Saints and Scholars’. From then on the show takes shape around the songs interspersed with stories, starkly told by Máirtín Jamsie Ó Flathartha, and with music and dance. Creative lighting and a backdrop of projected images and sequences add to the visual impact.

‘Farethee well Enniskillen’, an Ulster Scots song is one that Seán dedicates to all the soldiers that left Ireland down through history. Each song receives it’s own delicate treatment and arrangement in the hands of the expert musicians on stage. ‘Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore’ describes the gruelling experience of travel for emigrants on land and sea. ‘Far Away in Australia’ is a well known modern song on emigration to Australia, and ‘Van Diemen’s land’ recalls all those who were deported for petty crimes to the southern hemisphere. In recent times many more have voluntarily emigrated there.

The bleakest time in Irish history was during the famine years. ‘Grosse Ile’ recalls this terrible time when thousands arrived at the small island that served as the screening point for immigrants to Canada. Many of them were hungry, diseased or dying and thousands are buried there and in the nearby cities of Toronto and Montreal.

‘Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears’ is a more hopeful story about 15 year old Annie Moore the first person to pass through the screening centre in Ellis Island New York in 1892. Times were a little better then and those who left Ireland, supported those at home, subsidised the travel of other family members and became strong citizens of their new homelands.

Today, while Irish people still travel abroad to live, work and settle down, the tables are reversed in many ways and Ireland welcomes immigrants to her shores. ‘The Crossing’ is a song of hope written by Johnny Clegg who lived all his life in South Africa. It has verses in English and chorus in Zulu and Seán enlisted the help of some immigrants to Ireland in recording it. “I did it for the Ireland of today” he explains, “which has changed and we have people from all over the globe coming to live and work in Ireland. They are going through some of the things in their own countries that the Irish people were going through here.”

‘The Shipyards and Gdansk’ is a new song from Irish man James Goram who sent it to Seán when he became aware of ‘The Scattering’ project. “It’s about a Polish man here in Ireland” explains Seán, “reminiscing about going home to Gdansk where his father used to work in the shipyards. I liked the song and the sentiment and so I recorded it as an extra track.”
The Cunningham family provide high stepping dancing in the show, another great expression of our Irish-ness, and Spanish dancer Fatima Alverez Fernandez reminds us of the strong historical connection we have with Spain.

Lifting the spirits, as music and dance always did for the emigrant, when there wasn’t an instrument around, people lilted or dyddled tunes. Seán Regan, has devised his own style of mouth music called ‘clicking’ and with Seán Keane lilting along they perform a set of tunes in this most unique way, a joy to watch.

The concert progresses through some twenty eight tracks to the finale ‘Home Away from Home’ followed by a rousing set of reels involving everybody on stage.

Seán is touring ‘The Irish Scattering’ with a full supporting cast of musicians, dancers and singers in October and will be visiting Belfast, Enniscorthy, Dublin, Limerick and Galway.

“It’s only a tangent compared to how deep you could go” says Seán. “I think its going to be an ongoing project and it’s something I’d like to do again very soon.”

Concert venues in October

• October 18- Whitla Hall, Belfast
• October 19- Riverside, Enniscorthy.
• Oct 23- Helix, Dublin
• Oct 24- Helix, Dublin
• Oct 25- UCL, Limerick
• Oct 30- Town Hall, Galway
• Oct 31- Town Hall, Galway
• Nov 1- Town Hall, Galway

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Fergal Scahill is well known as a bodhrán and guitar player but on his new album ‘The Dusty Bridge’ he focuses on his first instrumental love, the fiddle. Often described as the most expressive instrument, it is also often referred to as the most difficult. “It certainly is the most difficult” Fergal says. “With every other instrument, piano, accordion, banjo, guitar – when you hit a note, that’s the way it sounds whereas when you drag a bow across the strings, that’s not the way a fiddle can sound – and it takes a long time to get the dragging of the bow across the strings to sound nice. It can sound several different ways. To get it to sound like a fiddle should, you have to get the pressure of the bow just right, and get the tuning on the left hand.”

Fergal is well past the stage of worrying about tuning and getting the sound right. In 2002 at the tender age of twenty he won the coveted senior All Ireland title – the pinnacle in a long list of achievements and one of which he is rightly proud and happy. The funny thing is that Fergal, given his way when he was a child would have stayed playing bodhrán. He only mastered the fiddle because he ‘had’ to.
“I remember in Milltown,” he relates, “I wanted to bring the bodhrán to the sessions when I was eight or nine. I was good at it and I played it well. I didn’t have to be thinking of the tunes – but no, I was given the fiddle going in and if I played the ten tunes I knew then I was given the bodhrán for the last half hour and without that, I would never have played the fiddle.”

Fergal is the youngest in a very musical family from Corofin, Co. Galway. He was born into a household where music was part of life, his father Pat (sadly no longer with us) and oldest brother Adrian started Comhaltas in Corofin and conducted sessions in their house. This was the environment that shaped Fergal’s music. He was fascinated by the bodhrán and was beating rhythms with his knuckle on a book before the age of three. On a trip to a Fleadh Ceoil his parents bought him his first bodhrán and that was his main instrument for a number of years. Alongside the very fertile musical home influence, Fergal also benefited from a series of excellent teachers starting in National School with his first teacher Teresa Conway, and moving onto lessons with Bernie Geraghty, herself a wonderful fiddle player and multi-instrumentalist. Later in Secondary school he came under the influence of Mairead Berril another excellent musician and teacher. At the age of five he began performing on stage with the traditional theatre group Siamsa led by another influential person, Cepta Byrne. What started as a once a week performance turned into five nights a week during the summer months and all the Scahills were involved. “I was put into bed at four in the afternoon so I’d be able to stay awake for the show” Fergal remembers. There’s a really cute picture of Fergal taken during those Siamsa years on the sleeve of ‘The Dusty Bridge’. He always sported a tweed cap and in those days had quite a serious face. “We were traditional Irish musicians we were meant to be serious!” he jokes.

Fergal’s main instrument in the show was the bodhrán, but one April he got a phone call from Cepta to tell him hat he would be playing guitar for the summer. His brother Adrian, who was the main accompanist in the show was leaving to go to college and Fergal was to become the new accompanist. He laughs about it now, there was no choice, just knuckle down and do it.
Sometimes that’s the best way and Fergal relishes the opportunity to do something new. Recently he spent a month on tour with Dave Munnelly and his band in America. Dave’s music has a huge jazz swing influence and Fergal, who plays DADGAD tuning on the guitar had to invent the jazz chords required to accompany Dave’s music. He thoroughly enjoyed the experience and the challenge of expanding his skills.

Although Fergal has featured on many recordings, most notably his 2002 recording with Paul Moran ‘Off to a Flying Start’, he had wanted to record his own album for a long time. The opportunity arose when a friend of his, Conal Early from Dublin who had just set up a studio of his own suggested to Fergal that he record with him. They worked out a deal and between Fergal’s house and Conal’s house recorded it in a day and a half. “I had Ryan Molloy for about six hours” says Fergal. “We sat down the two of us and recorded twelve tracks live in the front room – it’s the only way I would record anything.” Ryan is a stunning musician from Pomeroy in Co. Tyrone and Fergal classes him as the best piano player in the country. “No one comes within a mile of him” says Fergal. “He’s got such a different way of looking at the accompaniment. A lot of his influence comes from La Bottine Souriante, their piano player and brass section and the way they approach it. He’s a fantastic fiddle player as well.”

“It’s a good representation of me now. It’s live; it’s exactly what I wanted to do. There’s very little post production. I played guitar, obviously I didn’t do that live. I wanted to keep it as live and real as possible. I wanted it to be fun; I didn’t want it to be too serious. I’m not trying to be anything in it – I didn’t sit down and say ‘This is the way I want my album to sound’”
The tunes are mostly well known tunes – “I pick tunes that I like playing” says Fergal, “Whether or not they’ve been recorded a hundred times didn’t really matter. ‘Jenny’s Welcome to Charlie’ is a tune that has been played and played and played but I love that tune. I had recorded it and didn’t know what I was going to do with it. Then it popped into my head to get Paul Moran to come and dance on it. It’s lovely to hear him doing the few steps.”

Fergal doesn’t have a permanent musical partner and plays with a number of different musicians. He has done a lot of work with Fergal O Murchú’s ‘Ragus’ and ‘Celtic Legends’ based in France. He’s much in demand as an accompanist but the fiddle and his self confessed need to be at the driving force in the music he plays means he prefers to steer clear of commitments in that direction. He loves travelling and loves meeting people and hopes to do as much work as he can with this album starting with an Irish tour in the autumn.

Fergal’s music reflects his personality; it’s full of innovation, enthusiasm and fun. It is intense, fiery and frenetic and at the same time playful. He chose ‘Port na bPucaí’ as the last piece on his album, packing it full of emotion and passion. Jigs, reels hornpipes and barndances make up the rest of the tunes with compositions from Máirtín O’Connor, Charlie Lennon, Josephine Keegan, Paddy Fahey and one tune of his own ‘The Dusty Bridge’ after which he named the album. It’s a very honest recording full of swing and virtuosity – a stunning debut!

Click here to buy Fergal Scahill’s “A Dusty Bridge” from .tradnet e-store on Amazon.

‘The Story So Far’ is a collection from the vast repertoire of the prolific band Lúnasa. Re-visited and re-mixed, it comes as a timely milestone, marking the whirlwind journey the band has travelled over the last eleven years recording and performing the most innovative, energetic and driving instrumental traditional music. This album, the band’s seventh, is a cross section of their output since those heady days in 1997 when their first live recording appeared. They have no intention of letting the pace slip. “I never thought I’d be here ten years later” laughs Seán Smyth as he talks about the first tour to Australia as ‘Lúnasa’ before they had decided on a name and before there was such a thing as a band photo!

The liner notes of ‘The Story So Far’ are extensive, a volume in itself, charting the band’s history in detail to date along with lots of photographs.

Things happened very quickly for Lúnasa and they were signed early to the American label Green Linnet which gave them access to the American market. They got stuck into playing there and received an immediate response from audiences.

“I remember before being signed with Green Linnet the excitement there was out there about the band. Playing in New York City and just seeing the queues down the street for Lúnasa. It was very exciting. Then we were approached and then signed and it took off from there and it didn’t stop. It snowballed and it was a very good experience for the band.”

Their love affair with America has never ended and each year Lúnasa tour there a number of times. They have expanded their horizons too and have made music in the farthest corners of the earth. “Lúnasa is as well known in Osaka and Melbourne, as in Madrid, Italy or Brittany” adds Seán. “It’s exciting and it’s great to get the response. We were in Japan last year and we went to a session afterwards and there you had about thirty musicians, all Japanese, playing Lúnasa sets of tunes. We meet people all over the world who play music because of picking up a Lúnasa record.”

The fans and followers of Lúnasa are the most important and indeed influential aspect of the bands life. Seán Smyth cites the interaction and communication with the audience at their live performances as the biggest connection he experiences.

The tunes and sets of tunes Lúnasa perform are all tried and tested on their audience before they are recorded or included in the set. “The audience are never wrong” says Seán. “If it works as a piece of music and if the band is working and it’s coming across with the energy and the focus, the audience will get it. They don’t have to be told. And we’ve always gone with pieces of music we’ve tried out in front of the audience. If they work, they work. If nobody understands it except yourself it’s no good. If the people get it, they get it and you work on that.”

It’s like running any good business really. It’s all about keeping the customer satisfied. In the case of music, the audience is the customer. Music is certainly a pleasure to be shared and the care and attention Lúnasa bring to their brand of music shines through in their careful arrangements and meticulous performances.

The Lúnasa sound has often been compared to The Bothy Band and that’s no accident. “When I was involved in putting the band together” explains Seán, “it was definitely a vision of mine to follow that route. I had learnt a lot of my music from pipers like Paddy Keenan and I had learnt a lot from Matt Molloy’s flute playing. It was very much flute and piping music I had grown up on, so it was fiddle, flute and pipes that I had dreamed of.”

Seán’s dream materialised when he was touring as ‘Seán Smyth and Friends’ in 1996 with Donagh Hennessey and Trevor Hutchinson. He had also been playing with John McSherry who with Mike McGoldrick was in the earliest line-up of the band.

Seán and Trevor are still at the core of the group, Kevin Crawford joined the band for its first tour, and Cillian Vallely joined them in 1999. Paul Meehan is the newest addition having joined when Donagh Hennessey left the band just three years ago.

The energy and rhythm of Lúnasa’s music is what sets the band apart. “Momentum was a huge thing in Lúnasa” says Seán. “It was definitely a driving thing. It just seemed to be like a whirlwind when we started and to me that was the high, being part of that.” Lúnasa’s music is totally instrumental and that’s another defining aspect. “It hadn’t to be explained to anyone in the band what Lúnasa was about” says Seán, “and what the band understand and is recognised for is this, we don’t have a singer in the band. We understand what the music is about and it was a common goal we all worked towards. That is the cohesiveness we have. We were all focussed on the project, where the music brought us and what we had to do to make a concert work. The more we figured that out, the better we got at it.”

‘The Story So Far’ features tracks from all six of the band’s albums featuring all the musicians’ contributions. Trevor did the work resurrecting the old material and putting it together in a shape that would work as an album. There’s an even spread from each of the albums, sixteen tracks in all, two of which are newly recorded versions (‘Morning Nightcap’ and ‘Aibreann’). “This is a tribute to the fans and the people who have been part of the Lúnasa team through the years” says Seán. “All the people who have been good to us, encouraging us. It’s a thank you in a way to everyone who introduced me to music and who introduced the band to the territories and worked so hard for the band. When people see Lúnasa, they have no idea about the hard work that goes on day by day behind the scenes to get the band on stage and have it perform the way it does.”

A well oiled machine, Lúnasa continue on their way, sure they’re only starting!

Click here to buy Lúnasa’s album “The Story So Far” from .tradnet e-store on Amazon.