Reservoir Songdogs

Two albums under their belts and they're galloping. Calico have wasted little time in establishing themselves in the trad firmament, cutting a swathe of light through the often dour landscape with their quirky take on the tradition, inhaling the essence of what they've played since childhood, and reshaping it in shiny new ways for the 'noughties.

Diarmaid Moynihan is Calico's impish spokesman, piper, flautist, whistler and writer of fine tunes. Joined by siblings Deirdre on fiddle and vocals, Donncha on guitar, as well as the genius fiddle-meister Tola Custy and Pat Marsh on bouzouki, Calico have been quietly ploughing their own furrow for a few years now, garnering critical plaudits here, punter recognition there, and all the while bolstering the legwork with two fine studio offerings, Celanova Square (1998) and Songdogs (2000).
With the line-up proper, just established in time for their last album, Calico have been building their reputation by stealth, clocking up more road miles abroad than at home. We meet on the eve of their departure for Tel Aviv, these Corkonians evidently well-used to negotiating the hottest of terrains in pursuit of a tune.
But the tune is a combination of both chords and melody, Diarmaid insists, and both deserve due attention when listening to the music.
"I often felt that when albums are being reviewed or live gigs were talked about, that there'd be a line like: 'oh, and by the way, lovely guitar playing from...' And I felt that was kind of unfair in that the whole interaction between the musicians is the thing. So I think that people might come to Calico to hear what Pat or Donncha are doing as much as to hear either the songs or the tunes. So we arrange tunes with that in mind. The chords and melodies have to go together. Even the use of the word 'backing' is wrong. One of my favourite albums of all time is Portland, which is as much about what Micheál Ó Domhnaill does as what Kevin Burke is playing. I can't listen to one without the other."
There is a healthy mix of tunes (the bulk of them original) and songs on Calico's latest album, Deirdre's vocals interspersing coolly with the instruments. Grafting the songs on as an afterthought was never the agenda in introducing songs to their repertoire.
"A song you might know really well might not work well in the band", Deirdre explains, "so you really need to play it for a while to see if it knits together. Listening to how it goes down when we play live is important too."
Diarmaid is adamant that whatever decisions are made, are made for musical and not commercial reasons.
"The worse thing we could have done was to decide that 'right, we need two songs to break up the tunes' or to get extra airplay", he avers. "I've seen people attempting to sell albums and a band like that and it just interferes with the music. I mean, if you threw a singer into, say, Lunasa, in the morning, it wouldn't work at all."
Breton music has had more than a passing influence on Calico, but despite their allegiance to it, they've had limited opportunities to bask in the French homeland of the music. Diarmaid smiles at the irony of their groupie-like fidelity to Brittany.
"We've all played there individually, but not as Calico - yet anyway! It's our spiritual homeland, or something. We've all played at the L'Orient festival with different bands, and there seems to be a common love of the music among all of us. I mean, Dan Ar Braz would be one of my favourite musicians of all time. He's a phenomenal musician, I think."
Galicia has also made its presence felt in Calico's soundscape. So much so that they christened their debut album, Celanova Square after a small town in Galicia that captured their imagination a number of years ago.
"Celanova is a tiny little village, where they have a big piper's festival", Diarmaid explains. "There's a huge square where 5 or 6,000 people were there - just to hear pipes - and I just thought it was incredible, nuts! So it captured a great moment for me."
Now that they've established themselves as a quintet, Calico are ready to really make their mark, at home as well as away.
"We know each other's way of playing so well now", Diarmaid says, "that four of us have tracks on Songdogs. We could stick to the tried and trusted formulas, but at the end of the day, you're not going to get better versions of tunes that have been recorded by James Morrison or The Bothy Band, or whoever. You can't improve on that, can you? And I guarantee you if you listen to any of the so-called innovative bands, you'll hear the influence of everyone from Sean Potts to Morrison. It's a kind of reverse acknowledgement of respect too, in that if you think something is that good that you won't even try to improve on it. You'll take a parallel route instead."

Calico appear on TG4's show Flosc on Sunday March 11th with a repeat on the following Thursday March 15th. Nationwide dates: March 29 Glens Theatre in Manorhamilton, Leitrim; March 30 Spirit Store, Dundalk; March 31 Culturlann, Belfast