Music under the Mountains

Music under the Mountains 2011 photographs

Unfortunately I missed a lot of the concerts this year, so if anyone has some good shots of the weekend please do send them in via this email >>>

Saturday night's concert was held in the parlor of Tutty's house adjacent to the pub - a beautiful old-style room that was ideal for the music of Josephine Marsh & Mick Kinsella.

Happy birthday to CJ

2010 line up for Music under the Mountains festival of traditional music

Friday 24^th

9.00 pm Hollywood Inn

Alyth McCormack (vocal) & Triona Marshall (harp)

Saturday 25^th

10.30 am Hollywood Inn

Workshops with Michelle O’Brien (fiddle), Peter Browne (accordion) & Gavin Whelan (whistle)

2.00 pm Hollywood Inn

Gavin Whelan Band

3.00 pm Tutty’s

Session led by Steve Larkin (fiddle), Kevin Rowsome (pipes) & Mick Kinsella (harmonica)

9.00 pm Hollywood Inn

Josephine Marsh (accordion) & Mick Kinsella (harmonica)

Sunday 26^th

12.30 pm Tutty’s

Singing session hosted by Phil Callery

8.00 pm Tutty’s

Michelle O’Brien (fiddle), Peter Browne (accordion) & Eugene Quinn (guitar & banjo)

Michelle O’Brien, Peter Brown, and Paul Meehan

A full-house on Sunday night in Tutty's for the closing gig featuring Michelle O’Brien (on fiddle), Peter Brown (on accordian & guitar), and Paul Meehan (on guitar & banjo) made taking pictures difficult and necessitated snatching shots from between bodies & over shoulders, but the pace & intensity of the tunes and the impact they had on the audience would have been impossible to capture anyway.

(No tune called Maid at the swimming pool was played during this performance, despite the influence of Florida on Peter's mind)

Paul playing Liz Carrol's The Island of Woods

Alyth McCormack

Alyth McCormack, from the Isle of Lewis, led the Sunday afternoon singing session in Tutty's (seated beside Kevin Conneff, with whom she has performed with many times in the Chieftains). A superb communicator & story teller, as well as a delicate, honest & moving singer, Alyth held the room still with her voice while both talking and singing.

Buille

Buille - on a high of anticipation about Armagh's (since realised) chances of All Ireland victory the next day - polished off Saturday night at the Ardenode with their thrilling, precise, intense & always catchy layering of traditional music (most of which were composed by one Vallely or another, it seemed) with bluesy, jazzy and even pop-like licks.

Frankie Lane

Mr Frankie Lane (as well as doing the sound & lighting for the nigh) put on a great one-man show in the Ardenode. He intro's were full of his trademark dry humour (dobro with a fada!) and the singing and playing were totally satisfying, but what came across most strongly was his genuine respect and love for so many great Irish musicians whom he has played with down the years, his love of travel and cultural variety, and his intense relationship with the awesome American tradition.

Frankie putting on the voice of the slow-talking Gael Linn producer who would "have ... to ... come ... back ... to ... you ... in ... a ... week ... or ... so" about the idea of naming his album Resophonia.

Frankie playing his favourite instrument, the dobro.

Arc

In great form, as usual, Arc opened the Saturday night concert in the Ardenode Hotel, Ballymore Eustace (reflecting the difficulty with venues in Hollywood).

They put on a great performance, including some French, Swedish and American (a Robert Johnson number performed solo by Joe) tunes & songs among the Irish material (which included a tune composed by Eric-the-organiser called Mood Swings).