There were those who wondered, a year ago, if Seamie O’Dowd had fallen off the face of the earth , having left Dervish to pursue other projects.
Well, for the doubters, February sees the launch not only of his own debut solo album but also the first fruits of his work as a producer.
For it was he who oversaw Ceide’s album, ‘Out of Their Shell’ , which is about to hit the shops.
Having watched carefully as the last two Dervish albums were assembled in the studio, the Sligo guitarist and fiddler has absorbed a fair degree of Brian McDonagh’s production expertise. Not surprisingly, then, the Ceide record moves along at a cracking pace, keeping the band’s live energy intact.
With Dervish scaling back on the live front this year while work commences on their next studio album, expect to see Cathy Jordan joining her erstwhile colleague for the occasional foray on the road.
Ex-Pumpkinhead Rick Epping will also be joining the band. That’s a lot of fire power in a very compact unit.
Emerging from the studio, blinking in the bright light of day, Lunasa have finished their sixth album. It won’t be available in Ireland until April but enjoys a US release this month.
There has been a conscious decision to make it a truly studio-based affair, in contrast to the vibey live feel of The Kinnity Sessions.
Also hitting the streets running, Kila’s pipe master general Eoin Dillon releases The Third Twin which, I think, gets us to the half way mark in the Kila solo album stakes.
It’s a beautifully packaged affair and the same attention to detail is evident in the music as well. Eoin will be launching the record with a February 27th show in Whelan’s, Dublin.
Looking ahead, Whelan’s has just published a rough guide to what’s in the offing for the rest of the spring. There are a few great shows to look forward to.
On April 18th, the king of alt-just about everything Bonnie Prince Billy makes an appearance, blues legend Albert Lee is due on April 22nd and on April 27th. The Levellers will be taking the unplugged version of the band to the Wexford Street haven.
May sees a couple of cracking gigs on offer.
Heavily touted US outfit Okkervil River visit on May 7th. They found their way into quite a few end of year polls last year with their highly regarded Black Sheep Boy. There are shades of indie guitar band mixed with the group’s trademark Americana. Eliza Gilkinson hits the spot on May 8th and the granddaddy of them all Bert Jansch will be on hand on May 11th in case any whippersnappers out there need showing how it’s really done.
If your brain is capable of functioning far enough in advance you can also relish the thought of Eric Bogle in July, as he makes one of his very occasional perambulations around these islands.
Whelan’s just isn’t big enough anymore, though, for Cara Dillon, whose new Rough Trade album has been getting plays on Radio 2 in the UK with both Terry Wogan and Steve Wright strongly behind lead single, ‘Never In A Million Years’.
The incandescent Derry singer will be bringing the show to Vicar Street on April 8th. She’s still reveling in the potential of the band she’s put together to make the album, so you might get the occasional foray into bluegrass and with husband and musical mainstay Sam Lakeman.
Sharon Shannon is still getting a huge kick out of the success of her Shannon Collection album and is taking her raggle-taggle musical revue on the road in mid-April. The tour kicks off in Vicar Street April 13th and careers round the country winding up in Kilkenny on April 30th. Working off the assumption that you can’t have too much of a good thing, she’ll be bringing plenty of friends along for company. The show will feature Mundy and d’unbelievable (sorry, couldn’t resist it) Jon Kenny on accordion.
With Dessie O’Halloran also featuring and some nifty contributions from Richie Buckley on sax it promises to be quite a concoction. I weep to think what they’ll get up to on the tour bus!
Also coming to Vicar Street are Suzzy And Maggie Roche who, together with sister Terre, toured the world for the best part of two decades as The Roches. Their new Cooking Vinyl release Why The Long Face is released on March 20th and their Dublin date is March 31st. Suzzy describes the central theme of the new album as being the ever thinning line between opposites: comedy and tragedy, hope and despair, the political and the personal, the truth and the lie, success and failure, the simple and complex.
Many of the tracks on the album have been co-written with writers from outside of the normal songwriting fraternity and the record is a testament to how the Roches have found poetry in everyday life.
Fingers crossed that we’ll see Kris Kristofferson make a return to these shores at some point. His next release, This Old Road, will be appearing in Irish shops in mid-March. This beautifully sparse recording, produced by Don Was, keeps the focus on Kristofferson’s fine lyrics and distinctive voice.
Subtle accompaniment is added by Was (bass, piano, backing vocals), longtime sidekick Stephen Bruton (guitar, mandolin, backing vocals) and Jim Keltner (drums).
The album is so intimate it makes the listener feel as if they are sitting in Kristofferson’s living room while he picks and sings just for them.
Much of the album’s sparseness was born on the road as Kristofferson has been touring without a band of late – less fun he reckons but with a sense of immediacy that reminds him of the old bluesmen. So let’s cross those fingers and pray he brings it back on the road and that one of those roads leads here.
There’s no danger of Flook stepping back from life on the road any time soon as they continue to tour their Haven album heavily in the next few months with their most extensive foray to date into the US and Canada and another trip to the Balkans in the offing.
Even at the BBC Folk Awards, where the band recently won the accolade of best group, the gang had to mind the ps and qs as they had to climb onstage and perform halfway through the ceremony.
Not normally known for being at a loss for words, the band admitted to being both starstruck and dumbstruck on the night and reckon their acceptance speech must have been the shortest ever.
This year the tutors for the Meitheal Trad Summer School – five days of total immersion in masterclasses, sessions and concerts – will be Seamus Connolly and Maire O’Keefe (fiddles) Louise Mulcahy and Ivan Goff (flute and pipes), Sean Og Graham (box and guitar) Tony O’Connell (concertina) and Enda Scahill (banjo). Although it takes place from July 17th to 21st, you’ll need to get a wriggle on if you’re looking for a place, with booking closing imminently at www.tradweek.com.