Funny how fate can sometimes deal a blow at absolutely the worst time.
When Mary McPartlan released her debut album, The Holland Handkerchief, back in 2004, it was greeted with rapturous reviews and earned her the ‘folk album of the year’ slot in Mojo and a nomination for the BBC World Music Awards. Then she was stricken with illness and disappeared from the scene completely. It’s good, then, to see her fighting-fit again and setting out on the road for some Irish dates and a few shows in the UK.
Accompanied by Eddie Lynch on piano and ex-Dervish Seamie O’Dowd on his usual panoply of guitars, fiddles, harmonicas and the rest, she kicks off a mini-tour in Ballaghaderreen on September 8, before slotting in a hometown show at the Roisin Dubh, Galway on the evening of September 12. There are also dates lined up in Molloy's of Westport and the Cobblestone in Dublin.
Michael Holmes from Dervish must be considering having his bouzouki chained to him after a week in which his beloved instrument bowed down to the great god of lost luggage, not once but twice.
Having arrived home from an extensive US tour to find himself bouzouki-less, he was relieved to get it back in time for a festival trip to Switzerland, only to find it had been lost again on the way back.
With a gig the next day as part of the Celtic Fusion festival in Castlewellan there were frantic phonecalls aplenty in the effort to locate a replacement at short notice.
Offers of help came from Tommy and Ben Sands and fellow Rostrevor resident Fil Campbell before Mark Mohan turned up an instrument on site.
Eight hundred and twenty pounds sterling. That’s a big number, especially when it’s written out longhand like that. A big price to pay for a record as well, except when that record is one of only 500 copies of Christy Moore’s debut album Paddy On The Road, recorded in London in 1969 under the mindful eye of Dominic Behan.
I know a lot of interested observers watched the eBay auction’s progress with lower jaws dragging on the keyboard as the price got progressively higher. It was a big price for a record, but maybe a fair enough one for a piece of history.
Music Network’s forthcoming Celtic Connections Traditional Music Tour will feature an intriguing clash of Celtic titans as Welsh duo Toreth swap riffs with the award-winning Irish accordionist Josephine Marsh and mandolin/bouzouki maestro Declan Corey.
The 26th Beamish Cork Folk Festival kicks off on Friday September 9 with Eddi Reader, Carlos Nunez, La Bottine Souriante, Altan, Freddie White, North Cregg and Niamh Parsons among the huge array of Irish and international acts playing.
Always a cracking affair, you can find the complete line-up at www.corkfolkfestival.com
Following the demise of Mother Redcaps, Dublin Paul Lee has thrown himself wholeheartedly into the promotion of gigs at the nearby Cobblestone and has come up with a packed programme next month. The line-up mixes visitors of the ilk of Chuck Brodsky, playing September 2nd, with hometown favourites like Sonny Condell, taking to the stage at the Smithfield venue September 16.
Also there over the course of the month are the aforementioned Mary McPartlan, Beoga, the Foghorn String Band and others.
For some more exotic international flavours it’s going to be hard to beat the Festival of World Cultures in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin with some cracking gigs on the cards.
Kila have been keeping a low profile this year (low, at least, for Kila – their work-rate might kill a lesser band) and apparently after sneaking out to Dun Laoghaire they’re going to submerge themselves in the studio again, so get it while it’s hot, dudes.
Their August 26th show at the festival will re-unite them with Japanese-Ainu musician Oki who helped them re-work their live favourite ‘Tog E Go Bog E’ and they are hoping to release this as a single in time for the gig. Oki’s weapon of choice is the tonkori, a long thin five stringed instrument which looks like a cross between a viola and a stick bass.
He likes to mash his musical influences up a bit, much as the gang from Kila do, and, although he is an acknowledged master of the traditional style, you’re just as likely to hear blasts of reggae and funk.
If they keep the set short, you may be able to catch DJ Dolores mixing up Brazilian rhythms at the Purty Kitchen later in the evening.
Sunday 28th throws up another such dilemna with Iarla O Lionaird onstage in the Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire, at 8pm accompanied by the band he worked with for his new ‘Invisible Fields’ album.
The sound promises to be atmospheric and complex, with Iarla’s voice and the band’s music complimented by specially commissioned visuals. Meanwhile, in the Purty Kitchen at 9pm Turkish born, Montreal-raised musician, DJ and producer Mercan Dede will be taking over the stage with his Secret Tribe. Raised in the Sufi tradition, which holds that all existence is taken from a counterpoint between opposing forces, Dede mixes electronica with Turkish folk music played on a traditional low whistle. Sometimes being spoilt for choice isn’t such a good thing.
Of course, you may not have any energy left by then. A few hours beforehand, you’ll have been dancing around Dun Laoghaire. At 5pm Fun ’Da’ Mental and the Mighty Zulu Nation get together. This has got to be the most high-octane combination of musical expressions you’re going to get anywhere. Spontaneous combustion may well occur!
In case you’re wondering whether you can have the evening off on Saturday 27th, don’t even think about it. Ojos de Brujo, a rule-breaking flamenco hip-hop collective invade Dun Laoghaire to play the main open air stage at Newtownsmith.
Described as a funked-up Gypsy Kings, they have won a BBC World Music award and are eminently danceable.
Should that prove too overwhelming and you want to skip town and head to the West, the Magnetic Music Café in Doolin is currently running its series of ‘Best for the West’ concerts.
Having already had the likes of Emer Mayock, Luka Bloom and John Spillane in session, the season is drawing to a close with spots from the Garry Walsh Quartet on August 27th, Beoga on August 30th and Nuada on September 3rd.
The venue is ‘bijou’ as they say in estate agent circles and booking in advance is a good idea if you don’t want to miss a show.