WHEN it first came out, I was spellbound by the Shaun Davey album Béal Tuinne, the poems of the Kerry poet Caoimhín Ó Cinnéide set to music. When the first Lumiere album came out, I played it until the CD wore out. I loved the albums Time To Sail from 2001 and One Sweet Kiss from 2005.
What unites these great pieces of work is the voice of Éilís Ní Chinnéide On one level she's a former secondary school science and maths teacher and bar-owner with her husband John, but on another, Éilís is one of the finest voices ever to come out of Ireland.
The second youngest of eight children but having hugely supportive family including a father who was a poet – as is her sister Dareina – Éilis was immersed in the type of cultural life that wasn’t contrived as it can be in urban settings, but which was as natural as breathing.
As the notes to Béal Tuinne point out: “Growing up in the Ó Cinnéide family was a great preparation for life, in the nurturing atmosphere of her parents and with the added advantage for Eilís of the love and encouragement of her sisters and brothers. At every turn, songs would feature along the way. There was a sense of music which was never forced but was as natural as the familiar ease of a great homely house.”
Added to that, having a pub where music was an integral part of the offering, the weekly folk concerts in St James' Church in Dingle – famous of course as the venue for the Other Voices concerts – and you have the nuturing musical environment that Éilis grew up in.
Baile an Mhúraigh is at the edge of Europe, the most westerly tip of the Dingle Peninsula in Co Kerry. It’s a place that lies between the wild grandeur of Mount Brandon and the booming Atlantic Ocean.
At home, both music and the Irish language were part of everyday life, a happy fact reflected on this beautiful new recording, Westward. Éilís has been fortunate to have had the opportunity to listen to many of the finest exponents of song in her locality and she has absorbed all that resonates within that vibrant Gaeltacht tradition, yet it is the emotions and stories associated with singing that have informed her love of song.
John Benny’s pub in Dingle, famed for its all-night singing sessions, just so happens to have Éilís as its Bean a’ Tí or Woman of the House and Éilís and her husband John Benny are renowned for inviting Ireland’s finest artists to perform here.
It is through immersion with this melting pot of musicians and singers that have passed through Dingle and settled in the area that Éilís was first encouraged to record.
Time to Sail and One Sweet Kiss were both released to great critical acclaim. Then in 2007, alongside Rita Connolly, Seamus Begley, Jim Murray, Eoin Ó Beaglaoich and Dáithí Ó Sé, she was part of the aforementioned Béal Tuinne, a 15-song cycle, based on her own father’s poems and set to original music by world-renowned composer Shaun Davey (who also composed The Brendan Voyage and The Relief of Derry Symphony).
In 2009 she formed Lumiere with Pauline Scanlon, on discovering a shared interest in and love of song and on enjoying the new experience of duo singing. They released two albums, Lumiere and My Dearest Dear, and have toured Ireland, Australia, the USA and Europe.
The duo have done much to bring the songs of Ireland to a wider audience and have received huge praise for their spirited performances worldwide in places such as Carnegie Hall in New York and The Barbican in London.
However, for her latest solo record Éilís has taken to the pen for the first time.
The Flannel Red tells a personal tale of superstition from the Great Blasket Islands while Highway Mack references the currently relevant issue of homelessness. These new songs sit alongside fresh interpretations of classics such as John O’Dreams and perhaps less well-known gems such as An tÚll and Pé in Eirinn Í.
“This CD reflects some of my musical travels in the last 20 years and, for the first time, some original songs of my own,” she says. “Now that I am older, with more time, I have the freedom to spend time writing as well as learning new songs. The people with whom I have developed my music over the years also feature here, and I recorded it outside Ireland to bring that perspective that being away from the familiar can bring. For me there is a sense of the past from my own family, and also a glimpse of the new.
“I had strong ideas of sound and also the look of the booklet and photographs which years of recording and performing have given me in a sense an independence.”
HOMEPLACE CONCERT
Last week, this column featured Liam O’Flynn who was to play at the Seamus Heaney HomePlace in Bellaghy tonight. Liam was kind enough to get out of his sick bed to take my call but unfortunately he won’t be well enough to play the gig. However, his place will be taken by Paddy Glackin, one of Ireland's greatest fiddle players.
Paddy was a founding member of the legendary Bothy Band, touring and recording with the group as they led the surge in popularity for traditional music in the mid-70s. He has continued to energise Irish music, while working with a wide range of musicians and composers including Van Morrison, Paul Brady, John Cage and Kate Bush.
Paddy has enjoyed a long working relationship and friendship with Liam O'Flynn and was happy to fill the piper’s boots for this speciail gig. He will be joined on stage at HomePlace with acclaimed keyboard player Rod McVey.
That’s Paddy Glackin in a 45-minute concert tonight at the Homeplace in Bellaghy, starting at 9.45pm.
