Music in Northern Ireland suffered a deep loss with the death on the morning of September 4 of Geoff Harden.
Geoff had worked for years in the North, helping to run gigs and festivals as well as writing and broadcasting about folk music.
Many young musicians got their first play on his Homemade Jam radio show and he was a tireless champion of fresh sounds with a great love of acoustic music in all its forms.
But although chiefly known as a lover of folk, he was equally at home with jazz. It’s hoped that a commemorative concert will be held in Belfast to celebrate his lifelong commitment to music at some point in the near future.
The line up for this year’s Tain Festival has been unveiled. This year’s festival runs from Wednesday October 25 until Sunday October 29, which means the annual pumpkin blow-out will be a bit early for Halloween, but I doubt if that will dampen spirits in the town they call ‘Fundalk’.
The line-up features the usual blend of stellar names and quirky choices. The festival kicks off with a Spirit Store show for James Yorkston and The Athletes. Although he has built up a cultish following, Yorkston hasn’t yet found the widespread appeal of, for example, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and he must be hoping his third album, The Year Of The Leopard, will win a few converts.
The following evening the Spirit Store plays host to Ronnie Drew with Mike Hanrahan and although Ronnie’s laconic drawl is perfectly suited to the Spirit Store’s Weimar Republic vibe I have no idea how they’ll fit everyone in.
Friday 27 sees Kila taking over the Tain Theatre in the Town Hall, where they blew the audience out of the water at the Tain Festival a couple of years ago.
After getting marooned on the M1 in a motionless Ford Transit for most of the afternoon and some of the band having to hitch to Dundalk, they worked out all the tension and stress in the course of one of the most flamboyant and electrifying performances of their career, with more instrument swaps than you would ever have thought possible.
They even managed to pull a photographer on stage to play drums during the encore. To top it all off they headed for the Spirit Store and got fired up for a session afterwards.
Your columnist got so tired and emotional he had to sleep in his car that night. If they can do that again, and I wouldn’t doubt them for a moment, that by itself will make the trip to Dundalk worthwhile. To make things even more vibrant Steve Wickham’s new band No Crows will also be on the bill.
Beforehand you’ll be able to catch the MacTeo Drummers out in the Market Square. Elsewhere that night there are going to be difficult choices to be made as local ace Stewart Agnew, Cork’s finest The Frank and Walters and Martin Stephenson are all performing at roughly the same time.
On Saturday night the Tain Theatre hosts an indie mini-festival within the festival while over at the Spirit Store David Kitt will be pulling in the punters,
Before Mr. Kitt assumes the position there’ll be a free screening of Wim Wenders’ classic movie Wings of Desire featuring Nick Cave. Across town in Corbetts Johnny Fean and Steven Travers will be laying down their trademark blend of blues and folk inflected rock.
For many people the high point of the festival is going to be the visit, on the evening of Sunday October 29, of the Harlem Gospel Choir to the Tain Theatre. The world famous choir, who sang 'I Still Haven't Found What I’m Looking For” on U2’s Rattle And Hum album, will be bringing their thrilling, foot-stomping, hand clapping show of blues, jazz and gospel spirituals to town, with support on the night from Harmonic Sound. Alongside the headline gigs there will also be sessions in a number of pubs across the town throughout the four days of the festival.
It would seem that Craobh Rua are fast becoming another one of those Irish acts who don’t see much of their own beds. Currently in the USA, they’ll be visiting Europe during the course of October with dates in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, while November brings them slightly closer to home as they play a string of English dates at the beginning of the month with visits to Winchester on November 3, Hengoed near Oswestry on November 4, Hitchin on Guy Fawkes night and the poetically named Nettlebed on November 6.
Started in 1994 to celebrate the memory of the blind 18th-century pipe maker from Tandragee, Co. Armagh, the William Kennedy Piping Festival, which is now in its 13th year, has grown to become one of the most famous and prestigious festivals of its kind in the world.
Running in Armagh from November 15 to 19, highlights this year include the World Piping Concert on November 17 which features Liam O’Flynn and the Pipers Call band, Michael McGoldrick with Ed Boyd and John Joe Kelly from Flook, Ensemble Shanbehzadeh from Iran and the Anxo Lorenzo Band from Galicia.
On November 18 there will be a special concert marking 40 years of the Armagh Pipers Club with Lunasa, Flook, Buille, Jarlath Henderson and Tiarnan O Duinnchinn. Bringing a touch of variety to the proceedings there will also be performances from Dermot McLaughlin, Robbie Hannan, Sean McKeon and Liam O’Connor and bands from Scotland, Sardinia and the Czech Republic.
The Cobblestone’s usual roster of Irish folk stalwarts is punctuated this month by a couple of visitors with Mojakka introducing the denizens of Smithfield to traditional Finnish Humpa music on September 24 while in a somewhat more conventional mode Preston Reed lands on Irish shores for a Cobblestone date on Friday September 29.
Fionn Regan’s perseverance seems set to pay off as his debut album The End Of History gets an Irish release on the Heffa label on October 6. Already pulling in some very tasty reviews in the British glossies, the record will be launched here with a Crawdaddy gig on October 15. Following on from 2004’s Hotel Room EP, the new album’s 12 tracks show the same honesty and simplicity.
Drawing comparisons in his native UK to Damien Rice and David Gray, Paul Wilkes doesn’t really in point of fact, sound like either. He’ll be visiting Dublin with his band The Drunken Boat to play a Ruby Sessions on October 31 so you’ll have a chance to judge for yourself. His fellow Liverpudlian Paul McCartney is already a convert and reckons he’ll go far.