‘There’s just a little ocean between us. I think there’s more that connects us than not,’ suggests Tore Bruvoll, guitarist, composer, arranger, and one half of the duo behind the group Hekla Stålstrenga (which means ‘crochet-work steel-strings’). Bruvoll is referring to the relationship between Norwegian and Irish traditional music, and listening to the myriad of musical projects that Bruvoll and Ragnhild Furebotten – fiddle-player and co-founder of Continue reading
The Basque Irish Connection: Niamh Ní Charra/Ibon Koteron/Gavin Ralston
What does it take to connect with the music of another culture? At the tail end of a decade that has enthralled us with the ease with which we can now connect with the world, it would be natural to presume that connecting with another music culture has become rather straightforward. A click or two, a website or three, and suddenly we are Continue reading
When Parents Stop Singing to Their Kids
I have been watching, in amazement, the cartoon Wonder Pets on the children’s television channel, Nickelodeon. Demonstrating the benefits of teamwork, Linny the guinea pig, Tuck the turtle and Ming-Ming the duckling (Ming-Ming is everyone’s favourite, and mine too) save a pet in trouble in every episode; sometimes a dolphin, Continue reading
Traditional-music criticism
There are many issues involved in writing about music, some of which are addressed in this issue in articles by John McLachlan and Bob Gilmore, but traditional-music criticism has problems all of its own.
Dermy Diamond, Tara Diamond and Dáithí Sproule
The fiddle-playing of Dermy Diamond is the revelation on this trio recording. Although a familiar figure on the Irish traditional music scene, this is the first recording that carries his name. Spontaneous, inventive, sometimes almost carefree, his busyness in the corners of tunes brings the fiddle to the surface of the music again and again.
The Art of Money
How are arts organisations and artists going to get through this recession? This is hardly an ideal time to ask this; the right time was a couple of years before it happened. Nonetheless, as budgets continue to disintegrate, we have to start seriously discussing the funding of artists and arts organisations, and how we are going protect it – what’s Continue reading
The Long Note Tour: Tony MacMahon/Angelina Carberry/Allan MacDonald
Names of tunes are repeatedly forgotten by traditional musicians. There are just so many. Yet a small number of titles manage to affix themselves permanently, are always easily recalled, and for no obvious reason. ‘The Long Note’, a three-part single-jig of unknown authorship, which gives this unique Music Network tour its name, is one Continue reading
Irish Times Interview on the launch of The Journal of Music
Music That’s Good Value
What part have the values within Irish traditional music played in its ascent over the past forty years? How much of it has been about the music, and how much has been about the community? As the world turns on its side to get a better look at the way we’ve been living, economically and environmentally at least, it underlines how traditional Continue reading
Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part: Len Graham/Cormac Breatnach/Brian Fleming
If you are a Horslips fan, and can recall their 1972 black, concertina-shaped LP, often credited as the very first Celtic Rock album, you may suddenly find yourself wondering why this Music Network tour has the same title as Continue reading
Toner Quinn 