Wednesday
The
program for Wednesday morning was a lecture by legendary singer and song
collector, David Hammond. David has been researching the life of
Donegal fiddler John Docherty, who passed away in 1981. He was a
very well-known fiddler within Ireland and taught many, many students in
his lifetime. He was also known as something of an icon as the last
of the breed of musicians who were truly the 'folk'
musicians.
David described for us the type of life that Docherty led, as well as described in detail his fiddling style and played many excerpts of rare recordings of the fiddler, both playing and talking. One of the most poignant descriptions to me was how he would live mainly by traveling from house to house, where ever he could get accommodation in exchange for giving lessons. For most of his life, he didn't even own his own fiddle; he would borrow one where ever he was staying, or make a fiddle out of available materials. At a pub in Donegal there is a collection of his fiddles made out of tin cans.
Wednesday
afternoon there was a bus tour of the west side of County Armagh, but a
few of us -- Dale, Jesika, Adi, Reagh and Kate -- decided we'd rather go
back to Carlingford on our own and spend a little more time in that
charming town. So that's just what we did. It was raining a bit when we
got there, so we had lunch at The Carlingford Arms pub. As we sat down to
order, a couple of gents at the bar struck up a song. After we ate, we
went over and introduced ourselves and asked for another song. When they
heard we were with the Song Festival, one lovely old gent proclaimed,
sticking out his right hand with great enthusiasm, "I met Tommy
Makem once! I shook his hand, in fact." He held up the evidence,
"This is the hand that shook Tommy Makem's hand!" 
You
can imagine our grins. We invited him to the concert that night in
Mullaghbawn, but he said it was too far to go. So, we sang "Farewell
to Carlingford" for them and went back out into the drizzle. We
did some shopping until the rain let up, then admired
the palm trees, explored more of Carlingford's
ruins, and before we left, we were seduced into taking a walk up the
mountain that overlooks the town. It was a beautiful
view and a beautiful couple hours.
Scrambling
back to Newry, we just had time to dry off and get ready for the evening
program and concert at Ti Chullain. It was a special night for the
community of South Armagh because the Song Festival dedicated the night to
remembering and honoring the many musicians and poets who have kept the
bardic tradition alive and thriving in the region, especially through the
last three decades of Troubles. The program was called "They Kept
the Fire Lit" and I was struck by just how many names there were to
be honored -- and it was clear those names were just the tip of the
iceberg. Throughout the week we'd been told again and again how rich
the folk tradition is in South Armagh, but for me at least, the point really
hit home that night as the names were read and Slieve Gullion loomed in
the background.
The families of deceased musicians and
poets were honored with scrolls, 
presented by Peter Makem and John
Campbell, commemorating their contributions to the bardic tradition in
South Armagh.
At the end of the presentations, Tommy Makem came forward and presented one more award to Peter Makem himself, for all his efforts as coordinator of the Song Festival. He even got a 6-color robe, making him a True Bard. A reward richly deserved.
The
program continued with Eugene Byrne, The Makem Brothers and Tommy Makem
raising the roof. Dub-in-residence,
Eugene sang "Dublin in the Rare 
Auld Times,"
"Finnegan's Wake" and a stirring
song called "Immigrant Eyes."
The Makem Brothers next
demonstrated their powerful singing and tightly-woven harmonies with "Brennan on the
Moor", "The Old Stone Wall" and "The Blue
Bonnets". Shane's humourous song "La Dee Da Dee Dum" had us
all giggling. (I'm still skeptical about the nose bit.) The Lads
also played a wonderful new, original song that is rumoured to be on their next album:
"I'll Neither Spin Nor Weave on Sunday."
Tommy
Makem took the stage then, backed up by Rory,
and capped off the night in fine style. I'm always amazed at his uncanny
ability to get an audience singing.
There are some songs that all he has to do is sing the first few words
and then he can hand it off to the
audience (be it an audience of 30 or 30,000!) -- "The Moonshiner" is one of those. Some might
say it's because we've heard those songs so many times over and over that we can't help but
know the words. Personally, I think there's
no greater testimony to his unparalleled bardsmanship than an audience
who sings along with such joy. If we have heard those songs enough
to know all the words by heart, they must be pretty damn good songs, and
Tommy is the one who endeared them to us -- and to at least two generations of Celtic
musicians and music-lovers. From "Red is the
Rose" to "Mary Mack" and all the wonderful stories
and poems in between, he delivers joy and inspiration.
|
 T. Sands visits with a family member of one of the honored musicians after the concert. |
After the concert,
a few of us ended up in
the hotel bar again -- those who could keep their eyes open. Shane,
Conor and Rory tiptoed stealthily by the doorway, heading for
well-deserved rest. We nabbed a guitar from them first,
though! A friend of Mary's from the Yahoo Irish Traditional Music
Forum, Chris Caldwell, was in for the concert and stayed to
exchange a few songs before leaving. "The Roaring Baby" (here's
a sound clip in MP3 format) is
one he sang that I particularly liked. Thanks for dropping in, Chris!
 |
Kate Akers, kakers@chivalry.com |