Counties Derry and Antrim, Northern Ireland

We are coming to the end of our musical journey around Ireland as we re-enter Northern Ireland.  Above a picture of Castlerock Beach in county Derry, that I took last summer.  Now the politically correct name for the city these days is Derry/Londonderry so as not to offend anybody, but it's way too much of a mouthful for me and I shall stick to simply Derry.  

We will feature only one young artist from this troubled city, Soak, or Bridie Monds-Watson to give her full name.  She has a powerful voice for someone so young.  Her genre is described as indie folk or Dream Pop. Here is a performance of her for the npr Tiny Desk Concert series from when she was only 19 years old and includes 3 songs from her debut album Before We Forgot How to Dream:

County Antrim is mostly famous for it's northern coastline and the Giant's Causeway.  It gets pretty busy with tourists these days, even on a miserable New Year's Day such as this one in 2014 

But of course the western half of Belfast is also in County Antrim.  Rooted in the traditional music of County Antrim are the trio Brendan Mulholland on flute (from Glenavy near Belfast International Airport), Conor Lamb on Uilleann pipes and Deirdre Galway on Guitar.  This a tue, The Antrim Barndances, off their 2018 debut album Music in the Glen.

McPeake is a Belfast family band that is now run by the 4th generation of Francis McPeake.  During the peak (excuse the pun) of their popularity they were recorded by Pete Seegar playing their most famous song written by Francis I around 1948, The Wild Mountain Thyme:

Here are a couple of airs I recorded at a concert in Portaferry in 2015 in their present line up:

Gráinne Holland is a Gaelic singer born and bred in Belfast.  Here she is performing a haunting County Antrim song called Airde Cuain from her 2015 album Gaelré:

Joshua Burnside is from Lisburn just south of Belfast and his style of music is described as indie folk or folktronica.  His 2017 debut album Ephrata was actually written in Colombia and incorporates some influences of Cumbia.  This is a song from this album, Blood Drive:

I first met Belfast singer/songwriter Andy White about 14 years ago in a small bar in the village of Arcola near La Spezia, Italy.  He was performing in the Pegaso Bar, which was run by friends of ours at the time and just across the valley from where we lived, as part of his annual tour of Europe.  My wife being from Belfast we had an immediate connection and we chatted away after the gig.  The next few years he kept returning to the same venue until alas the bar changed ownership.  Nowadays we go and see him every year on the Belfast leg of his tour, and in fact we have tickets to see him at the end of the month (29th November 19) at the American Bar in Belfast, fancy coming along?

Andy rose to fame in the mid-80's particularly with his song about the Troubles, Religious Persuasion.

He now lives in Melbourne, Australia with his son Sebastian and has just released what I believe is his 14th studio album.

This concludes our tour of the 32 counties of Ireland, next we will head for brief sojourn to the Isle of Man, before hitting Scotland.  To follow my virtual journey check the tripline map. 

County Kerry, Ireland

We arrive in the very southwest of Ireland in the spectacularly beautiful county of Kerry, famed for the Ring of Kerry, the Skellig Rocks and the Dingle Peninsula.  I spent a couple of weeks down there a couple of years ago.  This was the view from our accommodation:

Whilst the members of the band Beoga hail from Antrim, Derry and Limerick, they did form up as a group at the All-Ireland Fleadh in County Kerry in 2002. Their influences combine traditional with more contemporary sounds with unorthodox instrumentation (piano and 2 accordions) , and in fact they recently sold out to pop as they combined with the abominable Ed Sheeran.    However they do churn out some pleasant and lively tunes such as this one, Eochaid, which apparently means escaped from their 2016 album Before We Change Our Mind:

We move on to the beautiful Dingle Peninsula, where Irish is still spoken as the first language.  Here a shot of Dingle harbour:

Here we meet Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, who used to be the lead singer of Danú, whom we met in County Waterford.  She was born near the tip of Dingle and grew up between here and County Clare speaking Irish. Here is a song from her 2017 album Foxglove & Fuschia entitled Bean Dubh A' Ghleanna, which roughly translates as black woman of the glen I believe.

Also from Dingle is Pauline Scanlon who has been collaborating extensively with Sharon Shannon of Co. Clare.  She also blends contemporary sounds with traditional Irish music.  This song is from her 2004 solo debut album Red Colour Sun and is entitled What Put The Blood, a story of a tragic infanticide.

Pauline Scanlon is also part of the duo Lumiere together with Éllís Kennedy, also from Dingle.  This haunting song is from their self-titled 2010 debut album, entitled Ca Rabhais Ar Feadh an Lae Uaim.  Not sure what the song is about.

That's it for today.  Remember you can follow my virtual trip on tripline.  Next stop Limerick.

County Kildare, Ireland

From Dublin we are headed inland a bit to County Kildare.  The county's most famous son is undoubtedly Christy Moore, born in Newbridge, whose career spans several decades from its beginnings with Planxty.  Here he sings about where he came from, describing the Bog of Allen covering the northern part of Co. Kildare.

Laura Quirke and Claire Kinsella met at Maynooth University in County Kildare, where they got together to form the duo Lemoncello playing on cello and guitar.  This a track from their 2018 debut EP Stuck Upon the Staircase, Morning.  Here's a pic of Maynooth Castle, just outside the university:

Here is Christy Moore again singing about a funeral in the town of Athy which has gone a bit out of hand... Lanigan's Ball

Finally, while we are in the sweet town of Athy, here's an anti-war song of a soldier returning there with horrific injuries.  This is performed by Canadian based band the Irish Rovers, whose original members were mostly from Co. Antrim: Johhny I Hardly Knew Ye.

As usual you can follow my journey on this link.  Next stop Co. Wicklow.