Since its inception seven years ago, Sligo Live’s trajectory has, in the main, been an upward one. A combination of careful budgeting and some of the most imaginative programming around, combined with the fact that the town and its hinterland is a hotbed of artistic endeavour, makes festival and location feel like a natural fit. 2011 was no exception.
While the mix of events – more than 80% of which are free of charge – and the jugglers and street performers who vie with the headline acts for attention are crucial to the success of the festival, it’s vital that the big names deliver.
And so they did. At the Knocknarea Arena, KT Tunstall was an energetic revelation, holding a full house in the palm of her hand for nearly two hours. Kicking off with ‘Glamourpuss’, replete with human beatbox, she tore through it before telling the crowd, “I’m so gonna do a banging gig for you guys!” She fulfilled that promise in spades, with songs of love, separation (‘The Other Side Of The World’), and lots more, alternating between acoustic and electric guitar and, for one tune, piano. A writer of wit, substance and depth, she was thoroughly engaging.
Meanwhile, on Friday night in The Model Gallery, Tim Edey and Seamus Begley delivered an incendiary set, the familiar repertoire of slides and polkas beautifully balanced by songs from SB, including ‘Andy’s Gone To Cattle’, picked up on a tour of Australia. Maurice Lennon, his brother Brian, and father Ben, with Declan Courell on guitar, brought us back to the well for the source material and a myriad of young musicians proved that the tradition is in safe hands. Sometimes small really is beautiful.
Saturday night found us struggling to find seats in a packed main arena. Preceded by a beautiful set from the Rachel Sermanni Band, the hero of the hour, Elvis Costello, strolled out on stage with a purposeful, “How the devil are you then?”
He went on to deliver a jaw-droppingly brilliant set, beginning with ‘Oliver’s Army’ and finishing with a frantic ‘Pump it Up’. In between, there were digressions into material by Squeeze and The Beatles, eight guitars used, plus a bullhorn – the common threads being unfailing good humour (“Been here once. 1968 I think!”) and an extraordinary back catalogue that would stand up alongside the very best.
As with say, Richard Thompson, there’s an indefinable Englishness to what Costello does, though his ability to evoke a mood, so effectively drawn in songs like ‘A Drag With Josephine’, is certainly part of it. For me, though, it was his penultimate piece, the marvelously evocative ‘Shipbuilding’, which put the proverbial tin – or should that be steel? – hat on things. The gentleness of its delivery only served to reinforce its powerful message all the more tellingly.
The Hawkswell Theatre was the venue for the third major concert of the weekend, a feast of roots and trad, featuring The Unwanted and Matt Molloy, John Carty and Arty McGlynn. The former are a versatile trio featuring Dervish singer Cathy Jordan on vocals, who explore the common ground between Irish and American music, mining in the process material from the likes of Stephen Foster and Leadbelly, with diversions by way of Sweden and Finland.
Away from vocal duties with Dervish, Jordan is a revelation – a one woman joke machine, who played and sang her heart out alongside Rick Epping and Seamie O’Dowd.
Flute players don’t come any finer than Matt Molloy, who along with his two amigos, for more than an hour, gave testament to the melodic and rhythmic richness of the south Sligo and Roscommon traditions.
This was music of friendship, natural expression and superb craftsmanship, which held an enthralled audience in silence until the last notes of the set were drawn. Carty and Molloy are a most natural pairing, eye contact and smiles dictating next moves, while Arty McGlynn’s guitar work was inspired throughout. With The Unwanted – who joined them for a ferocious tilt at ‘Colonel Frazer’ – they brought the curtain down, and the house with it.
Roll on next year.