Robert McMillen
Trad/Roots: Martin Hayes - Standing on common ground
Last Friday, I told my Spanish teacher – who is from Argentina – that I was interviewing the master fiddle player Martin Hayes that afternoon.
Trad/Roots: Jack Warnock's voice could entice the birds from the trees...
IN these days when we all seem to be working 24 hours a day there doesn't seem to be a lot of time for most of us to sit down and calmly listen to music so we do it while we are doing the hoovering, ironing shirts, driving to and from work.
Trad/Roots: Jason O'Rourke on forging new traditions
CAN a piece of music be traditional and newly-composed at the same time? It's an oft-asked question among people who have a lot of time on their hands but in the meantime, more and more musicians are getting on with creating what are now called "newly-composed tunes in the Irish tradition".
Travel: Out of the darkness, Kraków soars into the light
IT seemed a little incongruous to be packing suncream, shorts and sunnies for a trip that was going to include a trip to the site of one of the darkest atrocities in human history.
Trad/Roots: Autumn trad highlights for the 'hear and now'
WELL, the four-day summer has finally come to an end and people are returning from their foreign holidays on the Costas or their caravan in Millisle or their trip to the Gaeltacht ready to get stuck into the many activities which start up again in the autumn.
Trad/Roots: Jiggy dancing to their own tune
IF you're going to the Jiggy and Kíla gig in Áras Mhic Reachtain on July 23, bring an extra T-shirt because these two trad bands could borrow the old adage from the showband era – "send them home sweatin'.
Trad/Roots: Sharon Shannon and Belfast Tradfest are a perfect mix
WATCH out Belfast, you are in for a hell of a week at the end of July as Sharon Shannon and her big band returns to Belfast as part of Tradfest, the week-long summer school which features a full programme of concerts, workshops, talks, lectures, sessions, céilís and a festival club – all in Belfast city centre.
Trad/Roots: The Whileaways are keeping it honest
WHEN The Whileaways – Nicola Joyce, Noelie McDonnell, and Noriana Kennedy – first took to the stage together, they had arrived after a number of life events, personal and cultural, that mapped out the path to the microphones and the adoring audiences in front of them.
Trad/Roots: Traditional grooves as the olllam return with Irish gigs and new material
ONE of the main things that can keep a band on the go for over a decade has to be the amount of fun they have playing together.