Love Songs, Love Stories

Love: it is a source of endless reflection, conversation, story, at all times of the year. In the depths of winter love stories are often spun in form of song, shared and told and sung around and passed along again, as the lives and loves of those who handed them on to us join in from the shadows and as we add our own new love songs to the mix. Romantic love (it is near Valentine’s Day as I write) is an endless subject for musicians. They turn their thoughts to other aspects of love as well.

Mairead Ni Mhaoniagh grew up in Donegal, in the far northwest of the island of Ireland. One of her earliest music teachers there was her father Francie Mooney, himself an accomplished fiddler as well as a playwright and man who loved the sea. When her father died, two of Mairead’s friends wrote a song they hoped would help her. Named for a place on the far western edge of Donegal’s coast, it is called Far Beyond Carrickfinn. Mairead recorded it with Altan on their album called The Widening Gyre.

Eddi Reader is a native Scot. For many years though she lived and followed her career in music south of Hadrian’s Wall down in England. Her friend John Douglas -- now her husband -- thought she really belonged back in Scotland. One of the things he did to help her see this idea was write a song called Wild Mountainside. A love song to country and to woman both, you could say. Reader put the song on her album Songs of Robert Burns to show, she says, that great poetry and song are still flourishing in Scotland. It stands just fine in the company.

One snowy winter night, Carrie Newcomer was driving back to her home in Indiana after being away on tour. As she traveled she was taken by seeing lights in the windows of homes set back from the road, lights sent out by people she would never know and yet which lighted her path in more ways than one. She wrote a song drawing on where those thoughts led her called, unsurprisingly, A Light in the Window. Newcomer has recorded the song on her album called A Permeable Life.

Cathie Ryan gives a graceful and understated yet warm and welcoming voice to Rick Kemp's song of connection Somewhere Along the Road. She has recorded it on her album Somewhere Along the Road. A recognition of change and the continuing strength of connection.

Love songs for many situations and seasons....

Photographs by Kerry Dexter. Thank you for respecting copyright.

You may also wish to see
Cara Dillon: A Thousand Hearts
Cathie Ryan: Through Wind and Rain
Music and Mystery: Conversation with Carrie Newcomer

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Cathie Ryan: Through Wind and Rain

Hope, joy, sorrow, love, laughter, resilience, a sense of humor, a sense of history and a vivid musical imagination, along with a voice that invites listening and a way of singing that allows space for for each listener ot find a home in the music: all that together is what you will find in Cathie Ryan’s album Through Wind and Rain.

Ryan is both Irish and American, the daughter of parents who came from Ireland to Michigan and in summers took their children back to spend time with grandparents in Ireland. As an adult, Ryan has lived in both America and in Ireland. Her bone deep knowledge and love of the music and landscapes of both places is present in her music

Ryan chose the title of her recording from the song Walk the Road, written by Kate Rusby. Ryan sings

Think not of casting off your dreams
for all is not just as it seems
and we’ll walk the road together

all the way through and rain
I’ll never deceive my heart again
hand in hand across the land
we’ll walk the road together


Faith, friendship, courage, resilience, love , and joy in the words and in the singing, it’s a track well worth the listening many more times than once, a song which holds ideas that resonate through the music Ryan has chosen for Through Wind and Rain.

“I threw my heart in the wishing well....” Ryan sings on the first song on the recording. That image well suits the economically told and well imagined tale of love found, enjoyed, explored, and lost, and the courage to sort things out and go on again. The words of In the Wishing Well are Ryan’s own and the tune is from Irish tradition. It makes a natural connection to I’m a Beauty, a song from Laura Smith which holds both humility and self confidence in a thoughtfully sung reflection.

Mairéad Ni Mhaonaigh is best known for her fiery fiddle playing as a founder of the Irish traditional band Altan. She is also a gifted songwriter, a gift Ryan honors with Mo Nion O. Ni Mhaonaigh wrote the song, a reflection of wishes for a child framed in images of nature, in Irish. Ryan has made a graceful translation to English and includes some of the Irish as well. Through the song you will hear lanscapes of Donegal, in Ireland’s northwest, as well as as the heart of a mother’s wishes for her child.

Fare Thee Well is an Appalachian ballad through which Ryan gives voice to a quiet yet powerful story of sorrow. Liberty’s Sweet Shore, an emigration song, tells of the mixed sorrows, hope, and joys of people leaving Ireland and setting out to a new land.

Liberty's Sweet Shore was written by John Doyle, who adds his thoughtful guitar presence to many of the tracks on the album. Ryan produced Through Wind and Rain herself. Taking her time with the project, she was able to bring in the talents of musical friends from Ireland and America. These include Eilis Kennedy, Pauline Scanlon, Leslie Ritter, Aoife O’Donovan, and John Doyle on harmony singing, Matt Mancuso and John McCusker on fiddle, Michael McGoldrick on pipes and whistles, Joanie Madden on flute, Seamus Egan on bouzouki, Patsy O’Brien on guitar, and others whose names you’d recognize. They each help tell the musical story, from the dancing heart of In the Wishing Well to the blessing of May the Road Rise to Meet You to the laughter in the tale of Johnny Be Fair and the set of tunes which close the album.

Come walk the road with Cathie Ryan and her musical friends, with these songs and others equally engaging. Through wind and rain, sorrow and joy, song and tune, you will be well rewarded.

you may also wish to see
Cathie Ryan: teaching tradition
Road Trip Music: Michigan
Music for the Heart of Winter: Cathie Ryan

photographs of Cathie Ryan, and Cathie Ryan with Greg Anderson and Hanneke Cassel, by Kerry Dexter

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Music of Donegal: Altan: The Poison Glen -Gleann Nimhe

Land, sea, mountain, legend, history, solitude and community: Donegal, in Ireland's far northwest, is filled with these things. Altan, whose latest album is named after an area in Donegal called The Poison Glen, distill the essence of this land, both spirit and landscape, into their music.


As they have taken the music of Donegal across the globe for three decades now, Altan have collaborated with the artists ranging from Nashville’s country stars to Dublin’s classically trained musicians. Thinking about their latest project, they decided to focus on the energy and clarity that they bring to their live shows, just the six band members themselves, sparkling collaborations among fiddles, accordion, guitar, and bouzouki, deep energy of shared musical creativity, and Mairéad Ni Mhaonaigh’s thoughtful and thought provoking singing of songs in both English and Irish. These are what the band chose as the focus of how to present their music on The Poison Glen. “This is the core of our sound, what we do in our live shows, “ Ni Mhaonaigh says.

As they often do in performance, they open with a lively instrumental set, in this case pairing the traditional slip jig A Fig for a Kiss with the recently composed tune The Turf Cutter. This leads into the gentle song Seolta Geala,which invites you to seek the freedom of the ocean and forget the cares of with world,. Ni Mhaonaigh sings this in Irish. A set of reels which begins with The New Rigged Ship, a tune which traveled to Donegal from Shetland, well calls to mind that tunes in Irish music are most often made for dancers. “There’s a lot of emotion, a lot of life experience in these tunes. They're tunes for dances, but people pick up on the emotion in them,” Ni Mhaonaigh points out.

There is life experience in the songs, too, in both words and melody. Lily of the West is a tale involving love, jealousy, confrontation, murder, exile, and all sorts of other things, which has traveled back and forth across the ocean between the Americas and Ireland more than once. Ni Mhaonaigh and the band put their own stamp on the song, which Ni Mhaonaigh learned from a singer from Aranmore, who had a large store of songs in Irish -- this was one of the few songs in in English that she sang. There are thirteen tracks in all on the album, well balances between song and tune, between music from traditional sources and newly composed material.

A deep gift for finding and creating songs and tunes which honor and share the rugged landscape,strong community, and long legends of Donegal is what has marked Altan, since the early days in the 1980s when Ni Mhaonaigh and her late husband Frankie Kennedy began playing as the duo which evolved into the current band of six musicians. As they worked together on The Poison Glen, not only did they enjoy putting this project together, but “we saw there is a lot of creativity in the band, a lot of places for us to go. We all write, we all compose...an album of all original music might be something we’d look to do in future. We saw, too, how we could use the studio almost as another instrument in the band,” Ni Mhaonaigh says. “We’re very proud of this album, and we see there are more possibilities ahead for us to explore.”

Altan is:
Daithi Sproule, whose own compositions have been recorded by Liz Carroll, Aoife Clancy and others, on guitar, Ciaran Curran, whose subtle and original touch on bouzouki have brought him many chances to work with great traditional players, and Mark Kelly, who adds a rock and jazz as well as classical music knowledge to his work with the band on on guitar and backing vocals, Ciaran Tourish has added his talent on fiddle and whistles to the music of Paul Brady, Mary Black, Maura O'Connell, Dé Danann and Tim O'Brien among others, while Dermot Byrne, who plays accordion, has worked with Manus McGuire, Sharon Shannon, Frankie Gavin, and the late jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli. Mairéad Ni Mhaonaigh, on fiddle and vocals, has recorded with Enya, the Chieftains, Dolly Parton, T With the Maggies and others, and she is also in demand as a teacher and as a presenter of programs for broadcast . On Poison Glen, they are joined by Jim Higgins on percussion and Harry Bradley on flute.

About the title:
“The Poison Glen is a very beautiful part of Donegal,” Ni Mhaonaigh says. There are many stories about how it got its name, from it being a map maker’s mistaken writing of the name to an event in a battle fought there to a legend involving a one eyed giant called Balor, his daughter who he locked in a tower, a man who came to free the daughter, and what happened next. “I like the story about Balor the best!” says Ni Mhaonaigh. “We had Poison Glen it as a working title for the album, and we thought it had bit of an edge to it, so we decided to keep it.”

photograph of members of Altan at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, made with permission of the artists and the festival, and is copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.

you may also wish to see

Music Road: Altan: 25th Anniversary Collection
Music Road: from Donegal: T with the Maggies
for another equally interesting version of Lily of the West, check out Lovers' Well: Matt & Shannon Heaton

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Song for an Advent weekend: Oíche Chiúin

In the midst holiday preparations, take a bit of time for quiet reflection on the season. Whether Irish is your language or not, I think you will recognize the song. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, and Eleanor Shanley sing Oíche Chiúin from Geantraí na Nollag, broadcast in Ireland on TG4 at Christmas 2010 you may also wish to see Music Road: music, autumn, and a cup of tea Music Road: listening to Christmas: Heidi Talbot, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Patty Larkin Music Road: holiday gift ideas: Irish music

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Celtic Connections 2011: images, part two

Listen to the music through the silence...












these photographs are from the Celtic Connections Festival 2011 in Glasgow. they were made with the kind permission of the artists, and are copyrighted. thank you for respecting this.

artists are from Scotland, Kathleen MacInnes, and from Ireland, John Doyle and Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh.

yuo may also wish to see
Music Road: Scott-Land at Celtic Connections
Music Road: Celtic Connections 2011: images
Music Road: harps and Celtic Connections


and

Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday. Music Road may receive a small commission if you make a purchase through links found here. Your cost does not increase. Thank you for supporting Music Road.

From Donegal: T with the Maggies

Donegal is in the far northwest of Ireland, a land of sea and mountain, much of it a place where Irish is spoken as often as English, all of it a place where music is respected and loved. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill, and Moya Brennan all spent time growing up in Donegal, and knew each other in those days. Each has made a top notch career in music, through work with bands, groups, and as solo artists. Over the years they have crossed paths at family gatherings and at festivals, and have thought that they really ought to do something together. Now they have.

From the first notes of the first song at the City Halls Grand Hall in Glasgow, the four women wove a tapestry that included intricate harmonies, soulful lead singing, fine playing, and more than that, connections of deep and long lasting friendship among the artists, and deep and long lasting love for the land, as well. The landscape, the people, and the history of Donegal were all present in the music they shared.

It was a sharing, too, rather like friends telling tales around the fireside. Notwithstanding the slightly formal setting at City Halls, listeners were immediately drawn in to become a part of things as well, enjoying the stories, both serious and funny, that the women told, and enjoying the gentle humor as during the course of the evening they joked with each other, as longtime friends do. Appreciating too not only the connection of voices but also the connection through fine playing. Tríona was on keyboards, Moya on harp and on djembe, Mairéad on fiddles, and in the background, Jim Higgins on percussion and Manus Lunny on guitar.

Calling themselves T with the Maggies, Mairéad, Tríona, Maighread, and Moya have made an album, also called T With the Maggies. Music they recorded for that, much of it music from the tradition sung in Irish, formed most of the program for the Glasgow evening. Ceol an Phíobaire, A Stór A Stór A Ghrá, and in English the lively song Wedding Dress were among the songs they offered.

Especially engaging were two songs the women wrote. Mother Song, inspired by the present situation which sees young people emigrating from Ireland again as they have in past days, showed passion in restraint in taking a mother’s view of those things. Domhnach na Fola, the most haunting song of the evening, is a response to the recent release of the findings of the Bloody Sunday enquiry in Derry.

Audience members were on their feet at the end of the concert, calling the artists back for three songs in encore. It was a lovely and lively evening, honoring tradition and carrying it forward, honoring friendship and carrying that forward as well. Chances are, once you’ve heard the album, you’ll want to be putting it on for encore spins, too.



This concert was part of Celtic Connections 2011. Photographs were made with permission of the artists, and are copyrighted. Thank you for respecting this.

you may also wish to see

Music Road: music and hope: Derry
Music Road: Altan: 25th Anniversary Collection
Music Road: Scott-Land at Celtic Connections
Music Road: Cathie Ryan: Songwriter

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Here is one way to offer that, through PayPal. Note that you do not have to have a PayPal account to do this. Thank you.

Celtic Connections 2011:first look

The Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow is in full swing, with artists and listeners from all over the world joining in for more than three hundred events that light up the January nights and days across eighteen days' time.


Whatever the numbers, it is a festival which honours and celebrates the immediacy and intimacy created through music...

this photograph is of Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh at the City Halls Grand Hall.

photograph made with permission of artist and festival, and is copyrighted. thank you for respecting this


you may also wish to see
Music Road: Altan: 25th Anniversary Collection
Music Road: Celtic Connections coming up

Delicious Baby's Photo Friday, where travelers offer new insights to the world each Friday.

Altan: 25th Anniversary Collection

Altan: 25th Anniversary Celebration


Lough Altan is what some would call a mysterious lake, near Mount Errigal in Donegal in the far northwest of Ireland. For twenty five years the members of the band Altan, who decided to take their name from the lake, have done their fair share of taking the mystery, joy, and individuality of the music of Donegal to the rest of the world. Fiddles. bouzouki, guitar, whistles, accordion, and the outstanding voice of Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh are elements of the band’s sound, elements which they turn and tumble and weave and twine through songs of the Donegal tradition, original compositions, music from other parts of Ireland, American folk music, and on occasion the music of Bob Dylan.

To mark their two and a half decade celebration, the group decided to pursue a project they’d been considering for some time: making a recording with an orchestra. Though they’d played live in orchestra settings before, they’d not recorded that way.

The result, a collaboration with the RTE Concert Orchestra, conducted by David Brophy, proves to be an engaging way to add new colors to the band’s work. The arrangements by Fiachra Trench respect both the orchestral side and the hills of Donegal side of things, so the musicians and encouraged and challenged each to do what they do best. It really works.

The fifteen tracks are favorites with the band (and listeners over the years). Cití na gCuman, A Tune for Frankie, Is The Big Man Within? / Tilly Finn's Reel, and Dún Do Shúil are especially worth noting, and the whole program works very well together from start to finish, too. It proves a fine celebration to start Altan into, perhaps, their next twenty five years.

Side note: I had the chance to see Altan play with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra while they were putting together this recording. The recording itself was not done before a live audience, but every bit of the beauty and excitement of live performance comes through. It was clear that night that conductor Brophy, the band members, and the orchestra players were all having fine time challenging themselves together with this collaboration, and that must have been true of these recording sessions also.


you may also want to see

Music Road: music of Donegal: Altan

Music Road: now playing: Athena Tergis

Music Road: Three Fiddle CDs for Fall

String Sisters: Live

String Sisters

Live

They really are sisters in music, the six inventive, creative fiddle players from related but different traditions in the Celtic and Nordic worlds who join up for this live recording, made at a gig they did in Norway. Emma Hardelin is from Sweden, Annbjorg Lien from Norway, Liz Carroll and Liz Knowles from the United States, Catriona Macdonald from Shetland and Mairéad ni Mhaonaigh from Ireland.

It’s a joyous and varied journey they offer, mainly sets of tunes, with many of the tunes being original ones from members of the group. Shetland, New York, and a trip to Japan meet in the back stories of the opening set, and later on there’s a Swedish traditional song [sung by Hardelin] paired with a jig Knowles wrote one year at Celtic Connections, inspired by the similarities she heard among Irish, Scottish, and Norwegian styles.

It was at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow that the String Sisters first got together, in fact, for what was thought to be a one off gig. They liked working together so well it turned into in tour. You’ll see why they decided to do that as you listen to Mairéad ni Mhaonaigh sing Ta Mo Chleamhnas A Dheanamh/The Matchmaking Song, and to the exuberant playing on Lien’s The April Child, matched up with Macdonald’s The Joy of It. Top notch players, and top notch collaborators as well, with music which offers more interest with each listening.

you may also want to see

Hanneke Cassel (video)

Liz Carroll & John Doyle: Double Play

Ellery Klein & Ryan Lacey: Kick into the Beat

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