Irish trad and folk musicians are speaking out against the use of Shannon Airport by the US military as a refuelling base for its operations. Among the signers of an open letter on the subject to the Irish Times were Christy Moore, Mary Black, Frances Black, Jimmy McCarthy, John Spillane, Rónán Ó Snodaigh of Kila, Karan Casey, Niall Vallely, Cormac Breatnach, Moya Brennan of Clannad, Jimmy Crowley, The Dubliners, Ger Wolfe, Andy Irvine, Eddie Furey and Davey Arthur of The Fureys, Matt Cranitch and Jimmy MacCarthy. “Such a use of Shannon is in breach of Ireland’s commitment to neutrality,” the artists wrote, “and undermines Ireland’s status as a non-partisan voice in the international arena. In the event of war in the Middle East, the Irish people would be implicated in any unjustified civilian losses and humanitarian crisis that would ensue. Finally, it places Ireland unnecessarily at risk as a potential terrorist target, and therefore is contrary to the security interests of the public.”

Flute and accordion player Sarah Allen of Flook was a surprise special guest at the launch of Leo O’Kelly’s new album, Proto, at Whelans. “I bumped into her in the airport in Hong Kong a few years ago,” O’Kelly explained afterwards, “and we’ve been pally ever since. The Whelans gig came up at fairly short notice, and I thought, hang on – Flook are playing on the 6th, we’re on the 4th, so why not? I rang Sarah, and she just managed to change her ticket at the last minute.”

Flook are on a roll these days. Their appearance at the Edinburgh Folk Club last May was recently voted ‘Folk Performance of the Year’ in Scotland; and just before Christmas, their gig at the Open House Festival in Belfast was voted ‘Best Gig of the Festival’. The band’s recently released album Rubai was among the nominations for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in the ‘Album of the Year’ category (see below for more information on the awards).

Speaking of Flook, the band’s Brian Finnegan and John Joe Kelly joined vocalist Aine Whelan (whose solo album is due for imminent release), bass player Noel Barrett, and Deirdre, Donncha and Diarmaid Moynihan of the Cork-based trad group Calico onstage for two successive nights at the Lobby Bar in Cork, under the rubric of the Red Hat Band. Both concerts were recorded live for an album to be released on the Red Hat label in April 2003. “The gigs were great and we ended up turning people away, which was very encouraging,” says Diarmaid. “I think it should be a wonderful album.” Calico’s two CDs, Celanova Square and Songdogs, have both won awards from the international music press, and the band’s new video was recently screened on TG4.

Behind the Red Hat Band project is www.redhatmusic.com, a new website established by Diarmaid Moynihan and Joe Madigan. Officially launched in July 2002, the company aims to increase the sales of Irish music abroad through the Internet. “The market has failed miserably to supply those consumers who desire real quality traditional Irish music,” Diarmaid explains. “The campaign has concentrated on gathering together the countless Irish artists who produce and market their own albums independently into one central Internet site with one eCommerce package, one customer database, one warehouse store and one P&P system.”

The great and good of the folk, roots and acoustic music world were out in force at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in London on Monday, February 10. Big congrats to Altan, who received the Band of the Year Award and played at the ceremony, and to Christy Moore, who was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award. A letter from the Taoiseach describing Moore as “a chronicler of our times” was read out, following which the man once described as a “Storm in a T-shirt” sat alone in the spotlight to sing Jackson Browne’s anti-war song How Long.

Also appearing live on the night was John McCusker, who won the Musician of the Year Award and played what was reportedly a blistering set with an all-star backing band composed of Phil Cunningham, Ian Carr, Michael McGoldrick, Chris Drever, Iain MacDonald and the aforementioned John Joe Kelly. Eliza Carthy ran away with the Best Traditional Song, Best Album and Folk Singer Of The Year Awards, and Linda Thompson was presented with the award for Best Original Song by veteran actor Peter O’Toole. Later on in the evening, Thompson performed her winning track ‘No Telling’ against a backdrop of her son Teddy’s guitar and Kate Rusby’s harmony vocals.

Other winners included Nancy Kerr & James Fagan (Duo of the Year); Roy Bailey & Tony Benn (Best Live Act); the Oysterband (Good Tradition Award); and John Prine (Lifetime Contribution to Songwriting).

On a more local note, songwriters Paul McDonnell and Dave Molloy of The Cellar Club were the winners of a recent ‘Battle Of The Bands’ contest against pop outfit One True Voice during the Marian Finucane show on RTÉ Radio 1. The Cellar Club won with 92% of listeners’ votes in favour of their new single ‘Crazy For You’. The band’s debut album Scored For Life (ouch! Jaysus, lads, was that really necessary?) is due out in March 2003.

Kila are almost finished with the recording of their new album. “We’re putting the finishing touches to some of the big pieces,” says Colm Ó Snodaigh, “and some of the smaller pieces like ‘Wandering Fish’ or ‘Hebden Bridge’ could do with a little bit of weeding! We also have a string quartet, Clann Uí Chatháin, lined up for one track – ‘Glanfaidh Mé’.” It’s hoped that the album will be out by early May ... or rather, says, Colm, “that’s the plan, but a lot depends now on our mixer’s availability and also on studio time.”

And in case you were forgetting about it, Paddy’s Day is coming up, which means lots and lots of folk and trad gigs. The inaugural ESB/NCH St Patrick’s Festival takes place at the National Concert Hall from 13 through 17 March, with appearances by the cream of trad including Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Liam Ó Flynn, Arty McGlynn, Máirtín O’Connor and Cormac De Barra. O’Connor’s performance will include a rendition of ‘The Skyfest Suite’, composed for the St Patrick’s Festival fireworks display, plus support from Éamonn De Barra. For tickets, ring the NCH Box Office on (01) 417 0000 or book online at www.nch.ie.

This year’s official St Patrick’s Festival will include, for the first time, a ‘Festival Music Village’ in association with FM104, featuring gigs at various venues around town. The young trad band Gráda will play Whelans on Monday the 17th, and the Bank of Ireland Arts Centre will play host to America Meets Ireland (an evening of American chamber music and sean nós) as well as lunchtime concerts by Ceoltóir, Emer Maycock and Sean Garvey. Tickets can be bought in advance from www.centralticketbureau.com or at Road Records (Fade Street), Tower Records (Wicklow Street), Sound Cellar (Nassau Street) or Claddagh Records (Cecilia Street).

Musicians and singers with news to share can e-mail Sarah on [email protected]