In The Court Of King Arthur

Once upon a time it was impossible to utter the name Davey Arthur without appending that of his musical cohorts the Furey Brothers, and vice versa. But since their somewhat acrimonious split in 1992 he has carved out a solid solo career for himself both in Ireland and abroad, with a new album Cut To The Chase just out, while his former partners have been far less ubiquitous than before.

Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter Arthur, originally from Donegal but now based in Cork, compares that split to a broken marriage.

“I thought the business end of it was taking over too much, to the extent that I was actually getting sick of both the business and the music, and you had all the wives and everybody involved and it all got very messy, so it was best for me to leave before things turned really nasty,” he told Hot Press.

He has spoken to a couple of his former playmates since, and also plans to drop in on them when they visit Cork in a couple of weeks, so it’s not quite choose your weapons time.

“Meeting them will probably be a bit awkward at first, but I’m sure we’ll all be able to handle it. When you spend that long with the same people, travelling the world, sharing the same experiences, there’s bound to be a bond between you that never goes away,” he says.

The affable Arthur now spends about 80 per cent of his time abroad, especially in central Europe, the Middle East and the Far East, where there seems to be an insatiable thirst for Irish music, probably much more than at home.

Not that he views the recent Riverdance/Celtic music phenomenon through green-coloured specs.

“Of course it’s great that Irish traditional and folk music has been put on the map like that. Twenty years ago nobody would have thought that it could happen. It’s really fantastic but it sometimes means that people come to my gigs expecting the same. They think Riverdance represents Irish trad in its entirety and it might be all some people have experienced of Irish music, so they expect me to do the same. It’s not just me. It happens to loads of Irish musicians abroad. You’d be surprised at the numbers abroad who think like that. It’s exactly like the days when you had to dress up like the Clancy Brothers and sing their songs, otherwise you weren’t Irish!”

But is Irish folk in a healthy state, generally speaking?

“I think it’s healthy enough, but I get worried by some of the people who’ve latched onto Irish music who really aren’t interested in the music itself but go to gigs because it’s the in thing. They come up to you after a gig and plamas you about how great you were and sometimes you wonder if they really mean it. Sometimes you’d nearly prefer them to tell you it was brutal and be honest about it.”

Since he started playing music when he was eight years old and has played and listened to anybody who matters on the folk scene, I asked Davey to name his ideal band.

“God, you have me there, “ he responds, but after some deliberation he comes up with a crack team consisting of Donal Lunny, Mairtin O’Connor, Frankie Gavin and Gerry Foy. The first three must be known to every serious music fan on the planet, but I confess ignorance about this Foy chap. “He’s an absolutely superb electric guitar player,” Arthur explains. “He’s played with the showbands and everybody and he’s absolutely brilliant. I’d love to hear Gerry with those other great players.”

For Cut To The Chase, his second solo album since leaving the Fureys, Davey is trading under the name Davey Arthur and Co. – during the fourteen months he spent recording the album he recruited a couple of star names as guests.

“Yeah, when I thought that an Irish harp would fit in I immediately thought of my dear friend Maire from Clannad and I was delighted when she agreed. That’s what I like about Irish musicians, they’ve always been willing to help each other out whenever they’re asked. It’s not a new thing, it was always there. For ‘A Small Drop On The Side’ I felt it could do with a sort of Pogues-ish feel to it, so I called up Terry Woods and he obliged as usual. Having guest players of that calibre on an album gives it a little extra spice and draws a little extra out of everybody.”

Cut To The Chase features some new songs as well as some trad tunes. One new song, the aforementioned ‘A Little Drop On The Side’, was written with Brian McNeill in less than four hours, apparently because McNeill had to catch a plane!

“I’ve been getting more into songwriting lately, but I’m not very prolific”, the self-effacing Arthur admits. “I write about three songs a year. Maybe a deadline would help me, but I usually have to wait for the inspiration before I can get down to it. It’s usually a real-life incident that sparks it off. For instance, there’s a song on the album called ‘When Another Domino Falls’ which is a response to the helplessness we often feel about all the problems of the modern world, whether its pointless violence or Aids, child abuse or whatever.”

Arthur is also excited about the Hot Press Hall Of Fame, soon planned for the centre of Dublin.

“Irish musicians have been acting as unpaid ambassadors for this country for decades now and it’ll be great to see some of those who have brought Irish music to the rest of the world honoured in this way.”

Indeed, and one could equally add that when it comes to honouring Irish artists, the name of Davey Arthur should be one of those at the top of the list.

• Davey Arthur And Co’s album Cut To The Chase is available now on the Blue Blow label.