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Traditional Irish music like all true traditions has been handed down from one generation to the next for hundreds of years. With the emergence of Radio, television, CDs and now the net music has found a new way to travel the world and inspire more people.
The earliest popular music to become international came from people like John MacCormack whose fine tenor voice sang the Irish favourites of the time and though not traditional like the pipers and fiddlers all over the country he at least brought a sense of Irishness to a bigger audience.
A more traditional feel came especially to an American audience with The Clancys who moved to the US in 1948 and started a career, which spanned more than 50 albums. Again some would say they were not true traditional musicians and merely sang bawdy pub songs but again they brought an Irish sound to a new audience.
In Ireland traditional music was increasingly popular from the 20's and 30's onwards with the emergence of Ceili Bands and the increasing popularity of the dancehall. In the 1950's Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Eireann was formed and the first of the now hugely popular All Ireland Fleadhs took place. In the 1960's The Chieftains were formed, originally to record just one album for the Claddagh Label . They had formed from playing together with Sean O Riada's group Ceoltoiri Cualann . Today the Chieftans are undoubtedly the most popular and successful traditional Irish music group in the world with millions of record sales spanning over 30 albums.
The sixties also saw the rise, mainly in the UK of The Dubliners a raucous ballad group with the legendary Luke Kelly singing songs of Dublin and struggle and capturing the imagination of all of Europe at that time.
The
Seventies and Beyond
The 70's saw the emergence of two of the most influential traditional bands
in Planxty and The
Bothy Band . The former
featured musicians such as Andy Irvine Liam O Flynn,
Christy Moore and Donal
Lunny and over the years had in its line up Paul
Brady, Matt Molloy and Bill Whelan now
most famous for being the composer of Riverdance.
The
Bothy Band also
featured Donal Lunny who with fellow members Paddy
Keenan, Matt Molloy, Triona Ni Dhomhnaill, Micheal O Dhomhnaill and
originally Tommy Peoples on fiddle before Kevin Burke joined
the band, carved a new driving sound that took Ireland and Europe by storm.
Their live album After Hours recorded in Paris remains a milestone
in traditional music recordings.
The former Planxty members all went
on to find huge solo success Paul
Brady released an excellent traditional album Welcome
here kind Stranger before embarking on a career writing songs
for many of the worlds top pop and rock musicians, including Tina
Turner and Eric
Clapton. Christy Moore continues to be one
of the great heroes of Irish traditional and contemporary song. Donal
Lunny has
inherited the unofficial title of grand master of Irish music with many projects
and collaborations. One of his most recent is Coolfin which features many of
the great players of today's Irish music scene.
Other notable names from the last few years have been Sharon Shannon
who came to fame from her work with The Waterboys and continues
to be an inspiration to young accordion players everywhere.
In London Shane McGowan took
his Pogues and
made a lifestyle from the myth of the hard drinking Irish and proved to be
one of the great modern Irish poets. His duet with the late Kirsty
McColl, Fairy Tale of New York remains
an annual worldwide Christmas hit.
Back home the West was well represented with the emergence of Stocktons
Wing one of the finest live traditional bands who have come
full circle and after some years dabbling in contemporary sounds are now
back to their more traditional roots. The Galway based band DeDanann are
another one of the most influential groups to emerge in recent years. Noted
not only for their wonderful musicianship and style but also for highlighting
some of the countries finest vocalists with appearances on their albums by
Mary
Black, Dolores Keane and Maura
O' Connell among
others. Up in the North West Clannad, Enya and Altan have
all achieved worldwide success with greatly different traditional styles,
Clannad with their haunting vocals, Enya with her soundtrack style Celtic
moods and Altan who have brought the real traditional to a new global audience.
Altan were formed in Donegal by Mairéad
Ní Mhaonaigh and
her late husband Frankie Kennedy. He
would be very proud to see what they have achieved at this stage of their
career.
There is so much more to this amazing music than I have given you here
but I hope this will at least serve as a little guide to who's who and
how things have developed over the years.
Coming very soon a list of
recommended albums for newbies to the traditional music scene and previews
of all the best new recordings as they get to us.
Related links
Altan's own Site http://www.altan.ie
Paul Brady http://www.paulbrady.com
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