IrishMusicInfo
The Sunday Tribune Weekly Traditional Music Column by Fintan Vallely
990912
One of the most distinctive Traditional groups at the present time is Cran. Bearing a hallmark in Desi Wilkinson's plaintive, core flute sound, and with Irish and Scottish vocals, it generates an Eastern-ness with Sean Corcoran's bouzouki and Ronan Browne's uilleann pipes. With Music Network this week in Dublin they lead off a fortnight of touring Ireland, effectively a showcasing of their outstanding, 1998 'Black, Black Black' album. That title evokes Australian rock group AC/DC's album 'Black In Black', a band from a country that in Sydney struggles to hold its own path in Irish Traditional music. With an exotic concert-hall as unforgettable emblem, and different in each of its city focal points, this city has the music at both its most familiar and eclectic. Several years ago CCƒ branch was at the centre, until power disputes rendered it broke and moribund. And though step dance has a strong movement, the variety of standards and attitudes among musicians divide it among the city's several Irish bars. A regular at the Sunday sessions in the Trinity Inn, Dublin singer Christy Reynolds plays with locals - guitarist Luke O'Neill, harmonica player Anthony Harkin and fiddler Michael O'Connor. Playing also in singer Judy Pinder's session at the Carlisle Castle, like these, many of Sydney's players are 'revival' blood, often with Irish ancestry, some with earlier or other lives in Blues, Jazz or Rock. Tours by Irish bands, and artistes like Martin Hayes are valued; casual visits by others on holiday - such as flute player Maura O'Grady of Ratoath, Co. Meath - are needed to keep their faculty of Irishness on the rails. Many younger Irish players spend a year or so here working, most recently among them Sixmilebridge (Clare) flute player Paul Quinn. A young Dubliner five years 'out' says that "a few years ago being 'born-Irish' here was a novelty, now we are everywhere", and, reflecting it perhaps, Guinness products can now claim 1% of Aussie drinks sales. Among older expatriates, links with home are felt vital to the music. For accordionist Kevin Doyle at the Thurles Castle Hotel where he plays on Sundays it is the visits of such as Doolin fiddler Michael Queally that matter most. Fifty years out of Crusheen, Co. Clare, Doyle has photos of his brothers with the legendary Joe Cooley, and of the latter in his final months with Tony MacMahon. Clare is the home of music for him. He grew up with it, explaining simply, but perhaps remarkably: "my childhood years were full of house dances because my parents had lived in America for a time and had got used to going out. So they just started organising sets at home". Lamenting the lack of music organisation however, he sees a need "to get something going that would make it possible for the children to be taught".
©Fintan Vallely, IrishMusicInfo.com
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