Tuesday
Tuesday morning Tommy Makem gave a talk about melody and
lyrics at the Cloverhill golf club, near Forkhill. He
discussed the origins of song, the mythologies of Ireland, and the sources
of his own inspiration. He told a delightful story about how one day
when he was home in Ireland, he heard a blackbird singing as he walked
along the road. The blackbird sang a particular phrase of notes and Tommy
echoed it back. The bird followed him all the way down the road and they
carried on the musical conversation.
| Ellen Reilly of Keady, a wise woman who could make a very fine cup of tea, asked Tommy one day, "What is music?" He thought about this and turned it around, asking, "What do you think it is, Ellen?" And she replied, "The soul of the world embedded in sound." |
On the way back home, again the blackbird flew from tree to tree, following Tommy home and bantering with him. Upon arriving, he wrote down the fragments the blackbird was singing, and some months later completed the tune.
Tommy also got us thinking about how melodies and lyrics travel the world. We brainstormed a list of songs whose tunes came from other places -- The Bard of Armagh, for instance, is the original tune for the American song, "The Streets of Loredo." Many such examples are found in America and Australia, too. Where ever the Irish went, they took their music with them and it became part of the local culture.
Tommy is an incomparable storyteller and teacher.
After
Tommy's talk, we had lunch there at the golf course and a few of us
escaped a little early to go for a short climb up the side of the mountain
behind the golf club. It was a magnificent view! Adi and
Jesika made it all the way to the top and went mountain-surfing
on the way down. Dale, Reagh
and Kate gawked from a lower plateau, and took pictures, of course.
Underfoot was plenty of heather and fiddle-head-shaped bracken, and of course little gifts left by the sheep... they thought it was their pasture, or something.
Meanwhile..... Ed
was conquering the golf course.
That
afternoon the bus took us down to Omeath then on to Carlingford, where we
had a chance to get out and poke around a little bit, checking out the
ruins of King John's Castle.
Of course,
the places we visited were only part of the fun of our bus trips -- we
sang lots of songs along the way, and the tour guides who narrated were
very knowledgeable and gave us loads of history and trivia about the
region.
After
a stop at the hotel and a bit of dinner, we headed back to the Cloverhill
Golf Club for the evening concert. We were treated to a singular
performance by the fabulous storytellers and singers, Len Graham and John
Campbell. They had us in stitches with their hilarious stories and
ditties! (Bio
of John Campbell)
Next up, a group of local traditional musicians played a few tunes for us, and a local group of set dancers gave us a brilliant demonstration. Their footwork was so smooth that it appeared like they were floating around the floor!
We
had some visitors to the concert for the evening who made our festival
truly international and diverse. There were about 15 Polish people who
joined up with the festival just for Tuesday evening. Their
spokesperson struggled a bit to tell us how happy his group was to be with
us, but as Tommy noted so tactfully, his English was much better than any
of our Polish! The contingent even gave us a rousing version of a Polish
folk song -- I don't know what it meant, but it sure was energetic!
Then
Tommy sang some songs, backed up by his son Rory in his usual exemplary
style. From "Redman O'Hanlon," the song about the gallant
highwayman of Slieve Gullion, to "Wee Willie Lost His Marlie,"
Tommy worked his magic and had us all singing along. Soon Shane and Conor
were on stage too and Tommy and The
Boys 'went to eleven.'
Finally, John, Len, Eugene and the lads from the band all came back up -- which made for a very crowded stage -- for a finale song and thanks to all the community members who attended.
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And would you believe that after all this in one day, we went back to the hotel and a good number of us die-hard festival goers, the Makem brothers, the lads from the trad band, and another blow-in, a lad named Dave Cunningham (who could sure spin a song!) took over the bar and played MORE tunes and sang MORE songs?!? No kidding! One song led to another and soon we knew it was Wednesday by the singing of the birds....
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Kate Akers, kakers@chivalry.com |