A recent correspondent to our "Letters of Comment" page told us in no uncertain terms what he thought of us. Among his many vituperative outpourings, this one really caused my hackles to rise - "God save me from folksy, acoustic, pure, dull as ditchwater, up its arse and backwards looking real traditional music."
Well, it looks like the Lord truly moves in mysterious ways (his wonders to perform), as this CD arrived concurrently with that letter! Seamus Quinn and Gary Hastings are a formidable pairing by anyone's reckoning, both natives of Northern Ireland who claim to have "that most precious of possessions for our old age, an ill-spent youth." These days, Quinn is a Catholic priest in County Monaghan and Hastings is a Church of Ireland rector in Westport, County Mayo.
Unsurprisingly, these clerical gentlemen also hold strong views about traditional music, that they're expressed rather more eloquently than our correspondent's! For that reason I'm going to reprint Gary Hastings' observations in full here.
"Traditional music isn't about music at all, it's about people. People playing and people listening. Indeed, the most important bits of a session of traditional music are the bits in between the tunes. The crack and drivel and silence and chat that give the music shape and meaning and reason. Without that, the music is only another flurry of notes, one more kind of music amongst the hundreds available in the modern world. Where it came from, who made it, who left the track of their hand on it's passing, who gave it to you - all that is half the game. The personal associations which tunes gather round themselves, blurred memories and connections, are what give them their life and any meaning they have. To really get a hoult on this music, you need to be close enough to smell the musicians, to be part of the web of experience and toing and froing. This kind of stuff doesn't stick too well to shiny CD's and plastic tapes. People are people. Recordings are only recordings."
This may well be "only" a recording, but it's a very fine one nonetheless.
Hastings is a "one-instrument" man, his choice being the timber flute. If you've seen the Chieftains "Water from the Well" video, Hastings is the "other" flute player in the footage from Westport. If Matt Molloy rates his skills that highly, then any further recommendation from the likes of me is somewhat redundant. Quinn, by contrast, is a multi-instrumentalist, equally accomplished on fiddle and piano. On several of the tracks he plays both (presumably not simultaneously!), and also adds some fine, driving melodeon to the polka sets. His interest in classical music is evidenced by his occasional use of viola (particularly successful on his magnificent, solo slow air).
There's a remarkable breadth of music scattered throughout the fifteen instrumental tracks on this CD. There are plenty of jigs and reels (of course!) and every one of them is something far greater than "a flurry of notes." Quinn and Hastings demonstrate an uncannily intuitive understanding of what, exactly, makes this music "tick." They've somehow tapped directly into the "pulse" of these melodies in such a way that the listener is subtly and powerfully compelled to "a spring in the step" and "a smile on the face." The Northern provenance of Quinn and Hastings' musicianship can be found in that region's barn dances, an often-overlooked repertoire in this age of end to end reels. There's even a set of tunes from Ulster's uniquely distinctive fifing tradition, which scatter a few widely held preconceptions while providing great listening.
While each of the two musicians demonstrates their individual skills with a slow air apiece, they're joined on several tracks by Ciaran Curran, the master plectrum wielder from Altan. In addition to providing deft bouzouki accompaniment, Curran is credited as the CD's producer. He's continuing a long association with Quinn and Hastings that had it's genesis in their university days in Coleraine, described by Hastings as "as episode which was (un) fortunately more musical than academic." Charlie Lennon, a name that last appeared in one of my reviews for his outstanding contribution to The Waterboys Fisherman's Blues, guests on one track, a stunning fiddle duet with Quinn.
Seamus Quinn and Gary Hastings, like The Blues Brothers (another pair of rascals who dressed in black!) are "on a mission" to reassert the timeless, joyful values of "real" music. If our curmudgeonly letter writer ever gets to hear this CD, then who knows, even he may find himself unexpectedly dancing on the spot and declaring "I have seen the light!"
This is by no means the first time that I've been swept away by a release from Clo Iar-Chonnachta, as their entire output (or certainly everything that I've heard), is of consistently high quality. They've released a very strong contender for the best traditional CD of the year with this one.
Quinn, Curran and Lennon have previously recorded together on the CD Ben Lennon & Friends, The Natural Bridge Judith Gennett's review of that album is here.
If you're going to visit the Clo Iar-Chonnachta Web site make sure that you do so under the supervision of a responsible adult, to whom you must first hand your credit card. I'd hate to be held responsible for anyone going bankrupt as a result of a reckless CD buying spree!
