Most of the major touring traditional and folk acts would agree that 2005 was a tough year with increasingly cautious promoters offering little in the way of enthusiasm and even less in the way of cold, hard cash.
Acts whose musical calibre and artistic integrity should guarantee them a ready audience found it difficult to draw the crowds they deserve. To a certain extent we’ve been the architects of our own misfortune, as the rush to package traditional music in the aftermath of Riverdance overlooked the fact that that phenomenon was a theatrical one and not a musical one. Thanks to the tacit complicity of many Irish musicians in branding trad as a theatrical event, we’ve seen it go head to head on the international stages with other attractions with which it doesn’t necessarily bear comparison. The artists and groups who have eschewed the bolt-on theatrical elements in favour of a vibrant musicality have found audiences caught like a rabbit in the headlights, unprepared for the feast in front of them.
There’s an element, too, of ghetto-isation with Irish music. Whereas other roots music traditions around the world have embraced the conventional music industry, Irish music still seems, by and large, to have a rather gauche relationship with the mainstream industry. It is still a rarity for the trad community to show a clear sense that it understands the ties that bind it to the roots musics with which it shares a common heritage. For its part, the mainstream industry, at least in its Irish guise, seems resolutely resistant to the tender charms of anything remotely rootsy unless it can be shoehorned into the singer-songwriter idiom. While this has had some admirable successes, and I’m thinking principally of the inexorable rise and rise of the extraordinary talent that is Damien Dempsey, it has – even in his case – been a long time coming.
There is a peculiar tunnel vision implicit in the mentality that sees it as unproblematic to market a number of virtually indistinguishable operatic tenor acts, but sees it as impossible to develop a market for music from a traditional background. Even in the face of the huge success achieved by the reformed Planxty, it seems beyond belief that anyone would sign one of their natural successors to a conventional record deal.
I know that the chances of any rock band getting signed and sustaining a career is also slim, but the difference here is that even with acts with an established audience, a proven record of making quality recordings and a history of promoting their releases with tireless live work, there is no recognition that the marketing clout of a major label could translate this kind of passion, skill and determination into quantifiable financial comeback.
Only the major labels are going to be able to surmount the biggest obstacle to commercial viability for Irish acts, namely the capacity to get tracks played on mainstream radio. Radio is still the single most significant means of familiarising an audience with music - and for Irish trad, folk and roots music the door is pretty firmly closed.
The demise of The Music Board left a huge vacuum where there had been a beacon of hope that there would be a degree of support and understanding. In terms of the supports put in place since then, the appointment of the Arts Council’s traditional music officer is a very welcome development, and it will be interesting to see the practical benefit to artistes as the position beds in.
Culture Ireland’s remit is much broader, but with Micheal O’Suilleabhain at the helm, it is inevitable that expectations will be there that the organisation will engage in a wholehearted fashion with musicians in the folk and traditional arena. Obviously with Culture Ireland too, the initiative is very new and so far untested, but the indications are there that an intelligence has been brought to bear on how funding is being used. The decision to back the FMC’s excellent Music From Ireland programme financially shows an openness to channelling funds where they will be effectively deployed, and high up on my New Year’s wish list would be the extension of the Music From Ireland initiative to include artists and labels wishing to participate in Womex.
2005 saw Bertie Ahern bring Dervish to China and Mary McAleese take Altan to Japan, so there’s no doubt that official Ireland recognises the intrinsic cultural value of traditional music. But we shouldn’t succumb to the temptation to think that culture value is all this music brings to the party. We need to value it for what it is, just great sounding, joyous music played by some of the world’s most talented musicians.
So was it all doom and gloom and wasted opportunities, or did we manage to pack in some positives while we were at it?
One of the undoubted high points of the year was the Open House festival in Belfast. Programmed with vision and flair, it brought together music from Ireland and North America, all of which springs from the same well. Packing a huge range of events into a few days, it managed to draw an audience from right around the globe, including a smattering of American festival bookers.
In the face of the turmoil in East Belfast at the time, there were fears expressed beforehand about the safety of visitors, but after the fact there was nothing but praise for the warmth of the welcome and the high standard of the performances. Drawing on all the resources on offer in the Northern capital, the festival also included a cracking film festival and more than its fair share of masterclasses and workshops.
The establishment of a convincing festival in Sligo is also a cause for great optimism, although by its own admission the outing over the October bank holiday weekend was really little more than a trial run. Sligo certainly sees itself as the natural home of traditional music, and the local authority have made a definite commitment to the festival which bodes well for its continuing development. Modelling itself on some of the major international festivals, it too will supplement its core gigs with an extensive schedule of sessions and some more formal instrumental masterclasses.
Internationally as well as domestically, 2005 saw some fantastic records released and with Martin Goldschmidt of Cooking Vinyl branching out into licencing with his Essential Music imprint, it became a lot easier to get your hands on some of the best of the crop.
This will surely go down as the year of the old guy. Christy Moore made a fantastic album, returning again to his habitual associate Declan Sinnot. Internationally, both Neil Young and Buddy Miller produced devastatingly direct works which proved that the politics they professed in the ‘60s continue to resonate the guts of 40 years on.
Liam O Maonlai snuck in late in the year with an intensely personal take on what he clearly sees as ‘his’ music. Although he could probably have made this record at any time in the last 20 years (it has a timelessness at its heart), the wait has added an intensity. Joined on some tracks by sometime Robert Plant collaborator Justin Adams, the record throws North African instruments into the mix alongside tin whistle, with surprisingly little friction.
Lasairfhiona Ni Chonaola also proved that her debut was no one-off, returning with a fresh album drawn from the same churning Atlantic turmoil and distilled down into a focussed quiet.
Sadly, June saw the death of Frank Harte, whose life’s work in keeping the tradition of ballad singing alive marks him down as one of the most significant contributors to a tradition that looks forward as well as back.
He grew up listening to, and learning from, itinerant ballad singers and he was a living link to the likes of Zozimus. A fascinating conversationalist, riveting performer and great champion of young singers, he was also an idiosyncratic thinker, and his own obsessions invested his work, leading to an album on the theme of Napoleon as well as the traditional songs he collected and documented. His departure represents the end of an era.
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Top 20 folk & trad albums
1. CHRISTY MOORE: Burning Times [Sony]
2. BOB DYLAN: No Direction Home [Columbia]
3. ALTAN: Local Ground
[Vertical Records]
4. RONAN O’SNODAIGH: The Playdays [Kila Records]
5. PÁDRAIGÍN NÍ UALLACHÁIN: Áilleacht/Beauty [Gael Linn]
6. BUDDY MILLER: United Universal House Of Prayer [New West Records]
7. MARY BLACK: Full Tide [3U Records]
8. MARTHA WAINWRIGHT: Martha Wainwright [Rough Trade]
9. LIAM O MAONLAI: Rian [Rian Records]
10. HAZEL O’CONNOR: Hidden Heart [Invisible Hands]
11. JAMES RAYNARD: Strange Histories [Unearthed]
12. JOHN SPILLANE: Hey Dreamer [EMI]
13. CLANNAD: Live In Concert [Sony BMG]
14. PAUL BRADY: Say What You Feel [PB Records]
15. LASAIRFHÍONA NI CHONAOLA: Flame Of Wine [Own label]
16. LUKA BLOOM: Innocence [Big Sky]
17. MATT CRANITCH: Eistigh Seal [Gael Linn]
18. KATE RUSBY: The Girl Who Couldn’t Fly [Pure Records]
19. RONAN HARDIMAN: Celtic Tiger [Decca/Universal]
20. CAOIMHÍN VALLELY: Strayaway [Own label]