Irish Music Magazine - April 2002

Ireland

The Rare Old Times

Can you name the ten Dubliners? John Brophy meets John Sheehan and Barney McKenna, a couple of Dublin originals who talk about those rare old times forty years ago.

No Idle Jest

Altan's new album The Blue Idol has been on sale in the US for over two months and it will shortly be available here in Ireland. Aidan O'Hara brings us a background report on the making of the CD, a work that includes guest appearances by Paul Brady and Dolly Parton.

Stormy Brew with Rig the Jig

John O'Regan meets the boys from Roscommon and finds that they now have a three-album deal with CMR, which includes their latest album Stormy Brew.

North America

Connecticut Connections

John Whelan discusses life in America and his new album Celtic Roots-Spirit Of Dance on the Narada label with Bill Marggeson.

Johnny on the Box

Accordion player Johnny Connolly talks to Helene Northway about his new album Bridgetown and his love affair with the fiddle, the curious Danu connection and the fiddling of Kevin Burke.

Europe

Milestones on the Road

Our musical connection this month is between the North of Ireland and Eastern France and it comes in the shape of Rodney Cordner and Jean Pierre Rudolph. John O'Regan reports.

Will Ye go to Flanders?

Folk music in Flanders is alive and kicking! Thanks in no small way to Wild Boar Music; a label founded at the "right time" as Erwin Libbrecht tells John O'Regan.

United Kingdom

SCOTTISH SPECIAL

• Karen Matherson
• Pat Kilbride
• Celtic Connections
• Deaf Shepherd
• Simon Thoumire
• Slainte Math
  

Regulars

Tuition

Another session of tuition brought to you in association with Waltons Music.

Story Behind the Tune - Josie McDermott's Compositions

Josie died 10 years ago in May 1992 and Ballyfarnon near Boyle in Roscommon will celebrate his memory with a concert on Sunday evening 5th May and competitions on the afternoon of May Monday 6th. Marcas O Murchu introduces us to a collection of Josie's most famous tunes.

The Music Makers

Mance Grady has a long, distinguished pedigree as a percussionist, bodhran player and a top class builder. He tells John Harvey he became enchanted by the bodhran when he was still playing a full drum kit. "I'd look at these guitar players who would just plug in and play while I was still wrestling with wing nuts".

Up & Coming - Eilish O'Connon's 'Sugrú'

"Mum taught us all the fiddle, we were her guinea pigs," jokes Eilish, that family thing, "knowing each others's music or passion for music, there's an absolute undrestanding," she tells Ita Kelly.

Live Reviews

We take a trip to the big Apple this month as we hear of the Northern Fiddler exhibition and the re-opening of the Blarney Star.

CD Reviews

Another selection of CD reviews brought to you in association with HMV

Book Review

It's been a big trip from the wooded slopes of the Kilmaganny Mountains to the stages of the world; now Liam Clancy has documented it in the first instalment of his autobiography. Tom Clancy slips inside the covers