Entertainment
Innovative Lúnasa keep their trad sound fresh
Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell
Dynamic and intriguing in concert, Lúnasa will play Monroe’s Live on Thursday, June 18. This masterful traditional band are Kevin Crawford (flutes, low whistles and tin whistles), Trevor Hutchinson (double bass), Ed Boyd (guitar), Cillian Vallely (uilleann pipes and low whistles) and Seán Smyth (fiddle and low whistles).
Seán, a longtime resident of Galway, is taking a break from a hectic schedule that sees him combine being a GP in Ennis and a member of a successful touring and recording band. However, he will be taking part in this home-town show.
Has it been hard to juggle the two careers?
“I’ve grown up doing both, really,” says the graduate of NUIG. “Since college I’ve combined both, so to me it’s a very natural thing. Outside music and medicine, there wouldn’t be much that I have time for in the scheme of things. There wouldn’t be very much television or anything like that, I suppose.
“In Ireland, there are a lot of GPs who combine music and medicine very successfully,” he adds. “We’re told, on many different levels, that music and medicine are related. They’ve both got to do with communicating with people and expressing yourself. I think they’re very closely related there.”
Still, Seán is certainly kept on his toes by the paths he has chosen to take.
“The last tour I was on, we were in Alaska, Chicago, the West Coast of America, down to Australia and then we came back to DC,” he says. “After all that, I got off the plane on a Monday and I was back in on the Thursday to the GP’s surgery.”
Interestingly, Seán feels both jobs bring him peace of mind.
“Onstage, you’re completely free of medicine, and as a GP, you’re completely free of the world of Lúnasa. For me, it’s been very complementary. Breda and Cora, my sisters, are also doctors and musicians. Maybe it’s a genetic thing!”
Lúnasa formed in 1997 and, from the outset, aimed to stand apart from other emerging traditional bands in that they had no vocalist. Instead, they focused on the purity and energy of the music.
“We had to work very hard to make the whole concept interesting,” Seán says. “I grew up playing those tunes, from my father and grandfather. I wanted to play the music I was in love with. They were the tunes that were played at the sessions in Galway and up with my father in Mayo.
“That’s what’s given me the most satisfaction, standing on a stage in Tokyo and playing tunes from the West of Ireland that I grew up with,” he adds.
When Lúnasa started playing, word quickly spread about the quintet and they’ve been in demand at home and abroad ever since.
“Once people hooked into it, then the word spread. Things went very well for us. When we started we were lucky to be playing to audiences outside of Ireland. And then we were playing the heartland of Dublin and Galway, and other places. So were getting a good mix of reviews from people who were Irish and non-Irish.”
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Folk duo Niall Teague and Pádraic Joyce are launching their new album What Will We Be, a blend of folk, Americana and acoustic music, this Friday, May 19, at 8pm in An Taibhdhearc.
The success of their well-received 2020 release Taobh le Taobh, as well as recent successes at the Pan Celtic and Oireachtas Song Contests, spurred the duo on to record this new album which represents many years of collaboration and musical development.
It features Niall and Pádraic on vocals, harmonies, and acoustic guitars, Maidhc Ó hÉanaigh on double bass and Neil Fitzgibbon on fiddle. The catchy title track, What Will We Be, features contributions from percussionist Jim Higgins (The Stunning, Christy Moore, Paul Brady) and haunting, driving melodies on vocals, guitar, and fiddle.
Themes of love and hope are woven through Come Away with Me which features interplay between piano and fiddle as well as rich vocal harmonies.
People, places, and broken dreams are celebrated and lamented on Martin and Tom, Guitar Gold, Memories of You and Achill Island. The influence of David Henry Thoreau’s novel Walden features on the tracks Simple and Wise and Walden, with the beauty of nature, escape and simple pleasures at their core.
The album moves from minimalistic folk ballads such as Galway Ghost to swirling, string-laden arrangements on the song Neptune, both of which are influenced by maritime tales from Galway. Much of the work on this album was supported by the Arts Council, including work with musical arranger Eoin Corcoran and the string ensemble Treo.
The album will be launched this Friday, May 19, at 8pm in an Taibhdhearc. Tickets €22, plus booking fee at Eventbrite.ie.
Dunmore is the place to be this weekend for lovers of traditional music, as the Galway County Fleadh will take place there from this Friday, May 19, to Sunday, May 23.
It is 10 years since Dunmore last hosted a fleadh and the local Comhaltas branch, which has re-formed since Covid, is looking forward to facilitating this gathering of music, song, dance and craic.
The official Opening Concert will take place in Dunmore Town Hall this Friday at 8pm with the acclaimed Mulcahy family from Limerick. Mick, Louise and Michelle are well known throughout the country, thanks to their live performances, television appearances and numerous CDs. They were the winners of the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Grúpa Ceoil Award for 2023. Tickets for their concert can be purchased on the door and a great night of music is promised.
Two days of competitions will kick off this Saturday at the town’s Community School, with more than 1,500 competitors taking part. Participants will be hoping to qualify for the Connacht Fleadh 2023, which will be held in Ballina, County Mayo, from June 23 to July 2.
Competitions for those aged Under 10, Under 12 and Under 15 will be held in a large variety of instruments on Saturday, as well as in singing and Comhrá Gaeilge. Sunday’s competitions will be for the Under 18 and Over 18 ages groups, as well as in dancing.
On both days a large entry is expected for Grúpaí Cheoil and Céilí Band competitions across all age groups.
Seventeen Comhaltas branches from across Galway will have participants in this weekend’s competitions, which will result in a large number of visitors to the Dunmore area.
Members of the public are welcome to attend the competitions, which offer a great opportunity to hear and see the talent on display. There will be sessions in local pubs over the weekend as well and everybody is welcome to attend these.
For more information on the County Fleadh, go to www.galwaycomhaltas.ie.
Music for Galway’s concert with renowned Swiss pianist Cédric Pescia which had been due to take place on April 27 but which had to be deferred, will now take place next Tuesday, May 23, at 8pm, in the Emily Anderson Concert Hall at the University of Galway.
This concert of German classics with Bach at its core, will brings the Bach element of Music for Galway’s 41st season to an end.
This world-class pianist who won the famous Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition, has a repertoire that spans many eras from baroque to contemporary and he is widely known for his elaborate programmes. Cédric Pescia describes music as ‘language and movement at the same time’.
Audiences will have a chance to experience his soft, clear touch as he performs a programme for solo piano that will include classics such as Schumann’s popular Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), a suite of nine short pieces, and the penultimate of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, No. 31. These pieces will be interspersed with French Suites by Bach.
■ Ticket for Cédric Pescia’s concert are available at www.musicforgalway.ie, or by phone 091 705962 and on the door on the night. They cost €20/€18. The price for fulltime students of all ages is €6 while MfG Friends can avail of the friends’ rate of €16.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
