For sheer entertainment value, Mick Moloney’s 2006 album McNally’s Row of Flats is hard to beat. The work of a consummate player, it bowls along at a cracking pace. Now he’s back with a fantastic new album, If It Wasn’t For The Irish And The Jews, a celebration of the joyous and creative era in American popular song from the early 1890s to the end of vaudeville and the start of the Great Depression.

Each of the LP’s 14 tracks is notable for being a collaboration between Irish and Jewish lyricists and composers. It’s not widely known that Irish/Jewish Tin Pan hook-ups were common in the heyday of Tin Pan Alley. The record functions as a rumination on race relations in early 20th century America. At the same time, it’s capable of being slapped onto the stereo and danced to when you’re drunk.
Jeff Tweedy’s erstwhile Uncle Tupelo bandmate Jay Farrar is to release the third Mermaid Avenue album, continuing the series launched by Billy Bragg and Tweedy's own Wilco, using unpublished lyrics by folk music legend Woody Guthrie. Farrar was invited by Guthrie’s daughter, Nora, to record original music for more of her father’s unreleased songs, ending the nine year hiatus since the previous Mermaid Avenue albums were released in 1998 and 2000.
Some of the lyrics have been circulated to co-conspirators such as Centro-matic/South San Gabriel mainman Will Johnson, who was moved by the words in the most immediate way imaginable. “Jay sent me a priority mail package full of the lyrics, and I opened it at 4:30 in the afternoon,” Johnson recounted to the Austin Chronicle. “Within 17 minutes, I had already documented this one called ‘Chorine My Sheba Queen’ to the recording machine. That speaks far more about the song than anything I did. The lyrics struck me in a way that the music sounded automatic. It made such sense to my soul and my spirit. It’s got an empty and regretful tone, but in a very beautiful way. I just latched onto it.”
The move away from the Wilco and Billy Bragg camps shouldn’t come as too much of a shock, as more of the lyrics have found their way to some unexpected places.
The Klezmatics have released two albums of songs from the Woody Guthrie archives, while native American trio Blackfire released an album of unreleased Guthrie songs in 2003. There are also rumours that some of Guthrie’s spoken word material, reportedly written as stream of consciousness, has been given by Nora Guthrie to Lou Reed and Andy Irvine, though the idea that they might be working together on it seems almost too tantalising to be true.
As music awards go, there are very few that cast their net as widely as the ‘Just Plain Folks Music Awards’, with the judges sifting through a mindbending 42,000 albums in 93 different genres.
Picking up the Best Celtic Instrumental Album award for 2009 is FireWire from Maire Ni Chathasaigh and Chris Newman, who will be in Ireland for some dates over the next few weeks.
The tour kicks off on Thursday October 29 in the Village Arts Centre in Kilworth with a show the following evening in the Drawing Room, Muckross House. Saturday October 31 sees them in Athlone’s Passionfruit Theatre. Continuing on Tuesday November 3 in the Town Hall Ballymoney the tour then heads back southwards for an evening at the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar the following evening.
Speaking of award winners, The Dartry Ceili Band emerged as world champions at Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann 2009 in Tullamore in August. The ensemble were first past the post in a thrilling Céilí Band battle, performing in the magnificent setting of the Church of the Assumption in Tullamore on August 23. The Dubliners beat out 13 qualifying bands from Ireland, Britain and the USA to take the crown.
The fiddle is an instrument gifted with the ability to transmit an almost human emotional charge and as such it is in its element when it is unadorned. Like rich food, it can handle only minimal embellishment and there is a degree of caution to be exercised around it. When Ciaran O Maoinaigh and Aidan O’Donnell released Fidil in 2008 there was a noted austerity in the playing that took note of the potential for over-egging the pudding.
The decision for the duo to become a trio with the addition, in late 2008, of Damien McGeehan was not taken to add any element of showmanship or bravado. Instead, it was motivated by respect for his playing. The newly enlarged ensemble makes its first outing on record with the release on Wednesday November 18 of 3 – their first album as a three piece. The album’s release sees them undertake a short Irish tour with dates in Tralee’s Siansa Tire on Thursday November 26, Baile Mhuirne’s Aonad Chulturtha on Friday November 27, Newbridge’s Riverbank Arts Centre on the following evening and a trip to Belmullet’s Áras Inis Gluaire on the evening of Sunday November 29.