Irish Music Magazine - June 1998

Frances Black

Singing for the Big Time. Alex Moffat discusses the challenges of moving to a major record label as Frances Black prepares to take on the world.

Jimmy McCarthy

A Spark of Genius. Cindy Reich goes in search of the real Jimmy MacCarthy, the Irish songwriter to whom the nations leading folk-singers turn when short of a meaningful melody. Jimmy lays his technique bare.

At the Racket

Ita Kelly discovers that many's the flute player from who has been a closet saxophonist, when she meets the boys of At the Racket.

The Lee Valley String Band

The regular house band from The Corner House on Coburg Street, Cork, met up with legendary Nashville producer Jim Rooney. The result is a joyous album which revisits the roots of bluegrass cut through with the Irish ancestry of American traditional music. Paul Dromey reports.

Orion

John O'Regan talks with Rudi Velghe of the Belgian Celtic band, their latest CD is a collaboration with one Mr. Donal Lunny and features the singing of ex Battlefield's bouzouki man Jamie McMenemy. John finds there's a lot more to Brussels than sprouts.

Laurence Nugent

Bill Williams meets the fluter from Fermanagh; he asks, has living in America changed his music? Read the answer......

Where you at the White Rock?

John Brophy in our second look at songs collected around the time of the 1798 Rebellion, takes a closer look at one of the great love songs of the period, he suggests that is all it is, and allusions to anything else are merely coincidental. Judge the evidence for yourself.