Crisis in Music: Where has Irish folk gone?

later12 · 05-09-2012 09:43PM #1

Tonight I was driving home and "As I leave behind Neidin" was on the radio, which with its references to dancehall waltzes and rhododendrons, is probably more relevant to a bygone time (never mind the fact that it was written in the 1980s).

In fact, up until the 1980s and perhaps early 1990s, with bands like the Dubliners & The Clancys & Sharon Shannon being very prominent in narrating our society's stories and folklore, Irish folk music had a strong contemporary relevance, even to young generations. It has been so for centuries, perhaps.

Today, in the midst of one of the biggest sovereign and economic crises since the foundations of the state, it seems there is no real enthusiasm for nor activity within the Irish folk music scene. Many Irish musicians just don't seem to sing about reality anymore. I'd just wonder why AHers might think that is the case. This is despite a massive folk revival on a more international scale, with plenty of contemporary folk artists emerging.

Note: I'm not necessarily nor specifically talking about rebel music here, but folk music, which is not something that has to be belligerent nor militant, as much as reflective or contemplative.

Sinfonia · 05-09-2012 09:46PM

Damien Dempsey seems to fit the description..

eth0 · 05-09-2012 09:48PM

Tis still there. Just stop listening to American/British tripe

omerin · 05-09-2012 09:49PM

how da folk do I know?

Mr Benevolent · 05-09-2012 09:50PM

Diddly dee must die. It's shite.

later12 · 05-09-2012 09:52PM

eth0 wrote: »

Tis still there. Just stop listening to American/British tripe

Perhaps someone is engaging this topic in a musical sense, but I don't know if anyone is doing it particularly well ; I'm not sure if that's a reflection on 'them' or 'us' of course.

The greatest musical & artistic attention I've seen given to the economic and social crisis has been Funny Friday on Liveline.

You know it;s bad when Joe is providing the main outlet to artistic expression.

1ZRed · 05-09-2012 09:53PM

All the better they go and never come back. Maybe it's Ireland finally moving into the 21st century?

starviewadams · 05-09-2012 09:55PM

Luka Bloom's latest album has a good few relevant songs about modern day Ireland,well worth a listen.

Mr Benevolent · 05-09-2012 09:59PM

starviewadams wrote: »

Luka Bloom's latest album has a good few relevant songs about modern day Ireland,well worth a listen.

'Diddly dee fiscal crisis, diddly eye HIQA'?

donegal_road · 05-09-2012 10:02PM

couldnt agree more. live folk is hard to find at the minute, you will find plenty of trad, but ballad singers are becoming scarce. I stumbled across this clip a few months ago. Paul Brady singing the Shamrock Shore when he was 31 back in 1978 in a hotel in Longford. You still get sessions like this up our way from time to time, in fact I was at a great one in the Spanish Arch hotel in Galway a few months ago. There were maybe 15 local women sat in a circle at the end of the night and each of them sang a tune.
The 70's was an exciting time for Irish folk with the emergence of Planxty, Clanad, Brady, the Bothy Band amongst others. Have a listen to the lyric in this clip and see how applicable they are to today's situation, even though the original lyrics are 200 years old (sorry for going off topic). btw, Damien Dempsey is as close as it gets for me too.. although I did hear some Duke Special lately and he certainly does have some folk influences in his arrangements

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZoqYZ2Hd9c

iverjohnston · 05-09-2012 10:04PM

I think the biggest problem with Irish music is the "country" scene. Overweight boyos apeing American country singers, but without the talant or originality. For an example of the stuff to avoid, get "The Farmers Journal "on a thursday and read the woefull rubbish in the music section! They think that if you live and work in the country, you are only interested in this sort of stuff.

For some better choice folk/country music you could try "Bob Harris country" on BBC radio 4 on a Thursday evening, he often trows in a bit of Richard Thompson and Elizabeth Cook for good measure. M in Cavan

im invisible · 05-09-2012 10:04PM

Where To · 05-09-2012 10:04PM

It's all been exported.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAjQrnImT_k

Mr Benevolent · 05-09-2012 10:05PM

'Marrying the Sea' by Declan O'Rourke is pretty good.

starviewadams · 05-09-2012 10:06PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLTSAcjrxMg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CTR2zwhJYU

johnmcdnl · 05-09-2012 10:07PM

Alive and well at the fleadh in Cavan a fortnight ago from what I seen

af_thefragile · 05-09-2012 10:08PM

More important question is what happened to Prog Rock?!

cena · 05-09-2012 10:10PM

Wo cares about the Irish folk music

cena · 05-09-2012 10:11PM

Who cares about the Irish folk music?

I for one could care less about the irish folk music. It is the just the same thing over and over

ejmaztec · 05-09-2012 10:17PM

I took my American brother-in-law into a traditional music pub here, and at the end of the evening he wondered how people didn't get bored listening to the same tune for two hours.:(

Yamanoto · 05-09-2012 10:21PM

cena wrote: »

Who cares about the Irish folk music?

I for one could careless

So wait.....?

brummytom · 05-09-2012 10:27PM

Sinfonia wrote: »

Damien Dempsey seems to fit the description..

Yeah, that's who came to mind straight away for me too. 'I've No Alibi' is about the media's obsession with fame and 'celebrity', great song.

Confab wrote: »

Diddly dee must die. It's shite.

Some artists might overlap between the two, but folk and trad (diddly dee) aren't the same thing.

05-09-2012 10:32PM

Part of the problem is that traditional Irish music has become very precious and pure and has decided it dose not want to be contaminated by mer folk singers, where as in the late 1970th when I started going to see folk band there was much more of a mix of the two.

later12 · 05-09-2012 10:33PM

Confab wrote: »

Diddly dee must die. It's shite.

Diddly dee music; you call Jimmy McCarthy diddle dee, and (granted he's not Irish, but he's folk) maybe Johnny Flynn, too

johnmcdnl wrote: »

Alive and well at the fleadh in Cavan a fortnight ago from what I seen

Quite true I suspect, but I'm not really talking about centuries old jigs and reels. That stuff, along with rebel music and Dubliners/ Clancys classics will always have an audience.

But these pieces were written in times of great turmoil; my question is where's the artistic output for our turmoil.

Come back Paddy Reilly to Ballyjamesduff.
Or this time, did Paddy Reilly just take a gap year to Byron Bay:eek:

Alactric · 05-09-2012 10:35PM

iverjohnston wrote: »

I think the biggest problem with Irish music is the "country" scene. Overweight boyos apeing American country singers, but without the talant or originality. For an example of the stuff to avoid, get "The Farmers Journal "on a thursday and read the woefull rubbish in the music section! They think that if you live and work in the country, you are only interested in this sort of stuff.
For some better choice folk/country music you could try "Bob Harris country" on BBC radio 4 on a Thursday evening, he often trows in a bit of Richard Thompson and Elizabeth Cook for good measure. M in Cavan

This is your answer right here.

1ZRed · 05-09-2012 10:44PM

brummytom wrote: »

Some artists might overlap between the two, but folk and trad (diddly dee) aren't the same thing.

I think that's a fair point. I often just hear "folk" and just throw them together as one in my head. I think it's because I hate trad so much I don't bother differentiating them.

the_syco · 05-09-2012 11:13PM

It's still around. It's just that there's not as much demand for it on the radio, so you don't hear it on the radio. If there's no demand for it in the local, the local won't pay people money to play there.

Thus you'll have to look in the pubs that attract those who like trad to hear trad.

As for stories, listen to some Irish metal, and you'll hear some of the trad stories and the tin whistle :cool:

Micky Dolenz · 05-09-2012 11:21PM

Have you tried under the couch?

TAlderson · 05-09-2012 11:22PM

Folk has a problem whereby "authenticity" is prized, but "authenticity" really means "sound like you wrote the song 50 years ago." If you wrote a folk song now and talked about mobile phones, people would think it sounds ridiculous, but talk about sending a letter (which no one does nowadays), it's "authentic."

Folk music (and this goes for American folk/country as well) finds its roots in rural areas at times when those rural areas were much more isolated from the rest of the country, never mind the world. Now, not only are people gravitating away from rural lifestyles, but even those who live in the middle of nowhere can watch stations from big cities airing sitcoms from Hollywood on televisions made in Korea.

But people in the folk scene still think in terms of working on farms and dances in barns and getting on a boat for the long journey across the ocean. I guess it's more romantic to think of Paddy boarding his boat and heading off to Americay because the potatoes are all blighted than Sean going to the Dublin airport to board a plane to San Francisco because his programming skills are more in demand in Silicon Valley.

-Tyler

Gmol · 05-09-2012 11:23PM

It was sold off under the imf bailout

Sky King · 05-09-2012 11:24PM

I heart this SOOOO much:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50cDN3-t9dQ

Excellent craft and skill.

Crisis in Music: Where has Irish folk gone?

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