Hornpipe Magazine Irish Music Reviews Vol. 1

Back in black
Ireland legend Mary Black performs at the One World Theater in Austin, Texas
Thomas Miner

"I've been around for donkey years," said Mary Black, introducing herself to the audience at the One World Theater (in Austin, Texas). Her self-depreciating humor woke the intimate crowd of 300 up with a cackle. A legend in her homeland of Ireland, Mary Black has long held the attention of the followers of Irish music as one of the finest vocalists in the world. The craft of the singer-performer is practiced and celebrated in contemporary music. But the old-fashioned art of song interpretation - taking a writer's work and reading its pulse, inhabiting it, putting your indelible stamp on it is a whole other skill. If you have an appreciation for traditional Irish music, then seeing Mary Black in concert is what seeing Willie Nelson is to country music fans: a must-see. She can take a song and make it hers and hers alone.

Her homespun humor and appreciation for writers' skill continues to bring some of Ireland's best contemporary writers into the spotlight, interpreting the songs of personal favorites such as Shane Howard, Noel Brazil and for the first time on Speaking With an Angel, two new songs from Steve Cooney. Her new album will not be available until January 18. A decision by the recording company not to release the album to coincide with her tour gives new meaning to an album release tour.

Read more: Subscribe

Volume 1, Issue 2

Instruments that weave magic
by Beth Ann Sikes

Have you ever wondered why Irish dancers don't step out to the French horn, or rally to the trumpet? Would the reels be as lively if they were played on the piano? So why are certain instruments, like the bodhran, the pipes, and harp instruments of choice? Does it have to do with tradition? Heritage? Or the Soul of the Celts?

Read more: Subscribe

Volume 1, Issue 2

Instruments that weave magic
Beth Ann Sikes

Have you ever wondered why Irish dancers don't step out to the French horn, or rally to the trumpet? Would the reels be as lively if they were played on a piano? So why are certain instruments, like the bodhran, the pipes, and harp instruments of choice? Does it have to do with tradition? Heritage? Or the Soul of the Celts?

The Celtic lands are ancient, claiming an ancient people with their songs, stories, and dances. The instruments played reflect the soulful mysteries that haunt the hills of standing stones and the Tuatha De Danann. The whistle is one example.

The tin whistle belongs to a large family of whistle flutes or fipple flutes. Flutes are wind instruments that use a fipple or block the wind-way to split the air stream, creating a tone. These feadans or feadogs (whistles) have been popular for centuries, the oldest surviving specimens being 12th century deer bone whistles discovered in an old Norman quarter of Dublin. Pipes grace stone high-crosses of the 9th, 10th, and 11th centuries and are frequently mentioned in ancient tales and in the Brehan Laws governing ancient Irish society. Legend says that in order to carry out his annual November Eve vengeance, Ailen, a chief of the Tuatha de Danann fairy tribe, uses the feadan to cast a sleep spell over the inhabitants of the High King's palace at Tara. Created with a hollowed out stalk of elder, oat straw or cane, and a sharp penknife to carve out lip and finger holes, feadans were easily make to pass the time.

Read more: Subscribe

Volume 1, Issue 2

The Hot Press Hall of Fame
Jennifer Kelly

The Hot Press Hall of Fame is an interactive Irish music extravaganza. Fairly new to Dublin is the Hall of Fame to beat all Hall's of Fame! Featuring all facets of Irish music from folk to club, this hall of fame has something for everyone. Admission is 6 Irish Punt (about $8.00 US), and it's worth every penny.

When you buy your ticket you'll receive a headset to use with the multimedia tools that await your every step along the tour. You will enjoy hearing, seeing, and interacting with "the state of the art interactive audiovisual technology ... is a feast for all the senses." And when I say interactive, I mean interactive. You get the opportunity to be the star, waiting backstage and then heading out before the crowd.

Some the the bands and musicians you will find there are Thin Lizzy, U2, The Cranberries, The Chieftains, Van Morrison, The Corrs, Sinead O'Connor, Planxty, Ash, and many, many more. From Ireland's folk roots to the punk explosion to U2s original 1980 Zoo TV stage set, there is something for all ages, no matter what the genre of music you prefer.

Read more: Subscribe

Volume 1, Issue 1

Hard Core

If you like traditional Irish music you will appreciate the country and western music tradition of the Southwest.

Anybody can put a CD together but the question is: which one to listen to? For an East Texas, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Louisiana flavor listen for Car wheels on a gravel road, by Lucinda Williams. Her kicked back, tell-it-like-it-is, been around, womanly style is southern music with haunting melodies. ...

Read more: Subscribe!

Volume 1, Issue 1

New York Top Ten Irish Music CD's

Chieftans - Tears of Stone (RCA)
Dagda - Celtic Trance (Paras Recording Co.)
Solas- Words that Remain (Shanachie)
Various - Celtic Twilight 5 (Hearts of Space)
Chieftans - Long Black Veil (RCA) ...

Read more: Subscribe!

Volume 1, Issue 1

Instruments of traditional Irish music

Whistles and Flutes - The most common and traditional Irish instrument is a basic whistle. Whistles started reaching a standard around the 17th century. Around the 1970's and '80's the low whistle was introduced. The low whistle is keyed one octave lower than a standard penny whistle. Riverdance's Davy Spillane plays the low whistle.

Pipes - (Uilleannn) - The history of piping in Ireland extends over a span of 13 centuries. Uilleannn pipes date back almost 300 years to the beginning of the 18th century and probably share some common ancestry with Scottish lowland pipes and other bellows-blown pipes of the region. The singular difference is that the air for Uilleannn pipes is pumped into the bag with an elbow bellow.

Harp - Gaelic harps date from the 15th century. By the 17th century Celtic harps developed (into) a taller instrument, producing a clearer and stronger tone. The harp was an aristocratic instrument, played in the courts of kings or a chief of a clan. Harps in use at this time were strung with bronze wire rather than gut or nylon. ...

Read more: Subscribe!

Volume 1, Issue 1

The Chieftains
by Jennifer Kelly

There is no question that The Chieftains' music is both traditional and innovative. The combination has reached millions upon millions of music lovers all over the world.

The Chieftains' blend of instruments, the expertise of musicianship and the sweet sound of improvisation have moved our souls and feet alike.

The Chieftains began in 1963 with what they thought would be their only recording, The Chieftains. They could not have had any idea how they would change the face of folk music forever and become a staple in album collections everywhere. As an instrumental band in the 1960's, when the folk music movement was centered on vocals, they began forging new ground. Receiving acclaim as an instrumental band started a trend of ground-breaking tradition for The Chieftains. At their start The Chieftains were Paddy Moloney, an Uilleann piper; Martin Fay, playing the fiddle and bones; the tin whistle player, Sean Potts; Michael Tubridy on the flute; and bodhan player David Fallon.

Director Stanley Kubrick caught wind of this fantastic band and helped blast their careers into what is now a twenty-six year stint for The Chieftains. In 1975 they worked with Kubrick on the film Barry Lyndon and received worldwide acclaim, finally playing a live set as a complete outfit. ...