Ireland's Music: Thar Toinn/ Seaborne from Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

The sea, especially the sea in the west of Ireland, has always been part of Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh’s life. So has Gaelic. Music has, as well. It is natural, then then that she should bring these things together in her six song project Thar Toinn/Seaborne.

Nic Amhlaoibh plays flutes and whistles, and sings. Those are talents she often put to use in her thirteen years as lead singer with the top traditional band Danu, and in collaboration with other artists as well. She has traveled the world with her music. but it is to west Kerry, to the Dingle peninsula, that she returned to build her own career as a solo artist, and to raise her family.

For all that it is somewhat shorter than a full album, Nic Amhlaoibh makes the most of that concentrated form. There are stories told in Irish and in English, as well as one in Scottish Gaelic, with narratives drawn from truth, legend, and maybe a bit of both. The arrangements serve to enhance Nic Amhlaoibh’s choices in how she presents the lyrics. She has one of the best voices around, and that’s illuminated with a musical and poetic intelligence which makes her performances last well beyond first hearing. All that is present as part of what’s going on here.

One of Nic Amhloaibh’s gifts is saying much by saying little, in both story and style. That holds true whether she is telling a story of a faithless lover in Blackwaterside, venturing into Scottish Gaelic to sing a Cape Breton song of a woman whose sweetheart is lost on the sea, offering a west Kerry song wishing good luck and safe home to fisher folk, or telling a story of looking back at a well loved place in Ireland which may have been written by a man who survived the sinking of the Titanic.

Nic Amhlaoibh bookends these pieces with a song written by a friend who was both poet and boatman, and a song which may have come across the water from the singing of fairies.

The opener to Thar Toinn is Faoiseamh Faoistine, with words written by Danny Sheehy and music from Gerry O’Beirne. The song urges and encourages the listener to connect with land and sea. As Nic Amhlaoibh writes in her sleeve notes, Sheehy’s words also encourage listener to seek solace there.

Many years ago, a fisherman from the Blasket Islands heard the music of Port Na Bpucai one night while out on the sea. Perhaps it was wind, perhaps whale song, but then again, those fairies... it is after all a story fo a woman taken across the sea by fairies. It is also the song from which the title of the album comes.

For this arrangement of Port Na Bpucai Nic Amhlaoibh is joined by Billy Mag Fhlionn, who plays the Yaybahar, an acoustic instrument with which adds an otherworldly sound fitting for the song’s story. Mag Fhlionn built the Yaybahar himself after a concept by Gorkem Sen.

Others join in to support Nic Amhlaoibh through the album, too. Scottish singer Julie Fowlis adds her voice to the Cape Breton song,. Among others who sit in are Donal O’Connor, Gerry O’Beirne, Niamh Varian-Berry, and Donogh Hennessy.

It is, however, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh’s voice, vision, and connection with the waters which center Thar Toinn/Seaborne. It is a gathering of songs which invite repeated listening to explore the many facets of that vision and connection.

You may also wish to see
Seeing Ireland: 3 Music videos
Foxglove and Fuschia, another album from Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh
About the album Buan from Danu
About the album Alterum from Julie Fowlis.

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Music of the waters

Water -- ocean, river, lake, waterfall, or rain -- is one of the earliest sorts of music people ever heard. The sounds made by waters have inspired musicians from classical composers to rock bands to bluegrass ensembles to Gaelic singers to those who make music in the languages of the First Peoples. Whether your experiences are landlocked or water borne, take a trip out on the waters with these songs.

Mairéad Ni Mhaonaigh is from Donegal in Ireland’s far northwest, a place where people are well acquainted with the many moods of the sea. Ni Mhaonaigh ‘s father, Francie, wrote a song celebrating the freedom of sailing out on the waters. Whether you understand Irish or not, still, the message of freedom and celebration come clear in Seolta Geala.

Bill Staines is from another part of the world well acquainted with the ways of the sea and the people who live along it -- he’s from New England in the United States. His song, too suggests the connection with nature and freedom to be found at the ocean’s edge inSalt Air

The Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico are the waters Del Suggs navigates in his music. Saltwater music it is, and on Break in the Weather he speaks of finding a way on sometimes rough and uncharted waters, all the while seeking a safe passage home.

Cathie Ryan knows those rough passages, too. While walking by the sea in Ireland and seeing the things cast up on the strand she realized that there could be a lesson in this -- and a song, which became Be Like the Sea.

Ryan often chooses images from the waters in her work. Another song well worth you listening, and which also came from Ryan’s time living in Ireland, is the graceful story of grief, loss and resilience told inThe Farthest Wave.

Through all the ideas these songwriters offer there is a sense of lessons learned and hope renewed with the turning of the tides and the winds upon the waters. As Claire Lynch sings. when a good wind blows your way, Be Ready to Sail.

you may also wish to see
music, meditation, and weather
music, history, and Heisgeir
cathie ryan: the farthest wave

Photograph of the Irish Sea is by Kerry Dexter and is copyrighted -- which means you must ask and receive permission if you wish to use it. Thank you for respecting this.

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now playing: Souls of the Sea

Souls of the Sea




The sea has its own music, both the music of the waters themselves and of those who live and work along its borders. Gloucester, Massachusetts, is a town whose heart beats with the sea. Allen Estes and Frank Tedesco have heard that beat and transformed it into song (and more recently, a stage play as well). Those who work out on the waters, those who wait for them, those who face the sea's challenges and dangers and survive, those who don’t, and those who wait for them, love them, sometimes lose them, and survive, are all part of the music here. Not With Your Hands is hearty and optimistic, for example, while Anchor Blues is funny and sarcastic, and East of the Sunrise is graceful and thoughtful. Souls of the Sea comprises a dozen original songs which draw from country, folk, and blues sounds and always, the work, and the life, and the love of the sea. Part of the proceeds from the project go to organizations which assist fishermen and their families. If you are planning to go down to the seas this summer, this is one to listen to, before and after.


Another original and very different look at the sea through music
now playing: Jennifer Cutting & the Ocean Orchestra

now playing: Jennifer Cutting

Ocean

Voyages to love and away from it, into time and out of it, moved by the waters and on the waters, shown in words and melody, voice and the voices of instruments. It is indeed a voyage. Songs for the Night Sea Journey is the subtitle, so to speak, of Jennifer Cutting’s project Ocean, an endeavor which took the composer seven years and likely seven crossings of the seas to complete. Musically, she draws on elements of American folk, classical music, the music of Ireland, and even some sea green indefinable ground in between. There’s excitement in the journey starting out, and sensuality of the sea, turning to loss, and searching and time between, and reconciliations and recognition and return. Though it does not fit easily into any category except perhaps original music, there’s much here to please and intrigue those who like classical, new age, Celtic, and folk genres -- and the spaces between. It's also a recording which works well with the sometimes contemplaive nature of winter, though it's good for any season.

You may also wish see
Song of Solstice: Music for Changing Seasons, a story about another recording by Jennifer Cutting and the Ocean Orchestra here at Music Road
Music & the Power of Connection, a story at Wandering Educators which included music from The Ocean Orchestra's recent album Waves

now playing: Jennifer Cutting & the Ocean Orchestra

Ocean

Voyages to love and away from it, into time and out of it, moved by the waters and on the waters, shown in words and melody, voice and the voices of instruments. It is indeed a voyage. Songs for the Night Sea Journey is the subtitle, so to speak, of Jennifer Cutting’s project Ocean, an endeavor which took the composer seven years and likely seven crossings of the seas to complete. Musically, she draws on elements of American folk, classical music, the music of Ireland, and even some sea green indefinable ground in between. There’s excitement in the journey starting out, and sensuality of the sea, turning to loss, and searching and time between, and reconciliations and recognition and return. Though it does not fit easily into any category except perhaps original music, there’s much here to please and intrigue those who like classical, new age, Celtic, and folk genres -- and the spaces between.