The Session: Music and Crack
Travellers to Ireland will most likely come across traditional music in a pub setting and these quasi-impromptu musical get-togethers are known as " sessions ". These are the life-blood of traditional music, accompanied by the associated notion of craic (or crack) whereby music, conversation and drink combine to produce an evening of fun. A session is not strictly a performance, but more of a dynamic of entertainer and listener - a group of people enjoying the craic together. While sessions take place all year round in the major cities, summer is the optimal time for sessions in traditional music's heartland, the west of Ireland, and a few enquiries locally will point you to the best. The instrumental repertoire mainly consists of dance tunes, but there are also pieces known as Fonn Mall - "slow airs" - played without accompaniment and usually to hushed attention. Most are laments or the melodies of songs, some so old that the words have been lost. The uilleann pipes are particularly well suited to the performance of airs, as their plaintive tone and ability to produce complex ornamentation cleanly allows them to approach the style of sean nos singers . Playing in groups or with accompaniment is a prominent feature of traditional music performance today. One of the most exciting exponents of this style is the band De Dannan , which in its heyday featured three women singers who went on to have solo careers in commercial rock: Mary Black, Dolores Keane , and Maura O'Connell . Ireland's best-known traditional band, The Chieftains , carry on the virtuoso tradition, too. This group was the spearhead of the 1960s' revival of Irish traditional music, which itself was largely due to the efforts of the group's founder, composer and arranger, Sean O Riada . Living in the Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area) of Cuil Aodha, renowned for its singers and passionate devotion to music, O Riada hit on the idea of ensemble music-making using traditional instruments like the pipes, fiddle and whistle. It was a brilliantly obvious innovation and, over the past four decades, The Chieftains, led by whistler and piper Paddy Moloney , have developed the concept of ensemble playing to the point where it has become universally accepted and adopted. In addition, O Riada brought his genius for interpretation to bear on choral, liturgical and orchestral music. A widely known musician exploring the ensemble format is Sharon Shannon . Playing furiously energetic dance music, Shannon is a mesmerizing button accordion player who can also turn her hand to the fiddle and spent some time with The Waterboys before forming her own band. Her first solo album mixed well-known and much-played tunes like The Silver Spire and O'Keefes with cajun, Swedish, and new material in traditional style. Her profile was further enhanced by her involvement with the Woman's Heart album combining with Maura O'Connell, Frances and Mary Black, Dolores Keane and Eleanor McEvoy to produce one of the most successful traditional albums of all time, while her more recent albums, Each Little Thing and The Diamond Mountain Sessions , are less traditional but exude the ebullience that has become her trademark. Donegal-based Altan derive their energy from a twin fiddle attack led by Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh and Ciaran Tourish coupled with the phenomenal accordion work of Dermot Byrne , while their earlier recordings feature the exquisite flute playing of the late Frankie Kennedy - all can be appreciated on their stunning album Island Angel . Dervish , based in neighbouring Sligo, are another effervescent grouping and feature the extraordinary range of singer Cathy Jordan, a dab hand on bones and bodhran too. Other bands to look out for include Danu , from County Waterford, who create a mighty musical confection, enhanced by another remarkable sean nos singer, Ciaran O Geabhain , and the Cork-based Nomos , featuring the remarkable concertina player, Niall Vallely. Coolfin , led by traditional alumnus, Donal Lunny , brings together some staggering talent, including singer Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill and piper John McSherry , who himself was a one-time member of Lunasa , a band which harnesses the instrumental prowess of fiddler Sean Smyth and flute-player Kevin Crawford . The American band Solas represent a marvellous dynamic between aggression and tenderness, drawing on the skills of multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan , fiddler Winifred Horan and singer Deirdre Scanlan .
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