BBC Music Magazine

6 min read

When the Irish composer Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest received its UK stage premiere in 2013, the Royal Opera House’s then director of opera Kasper Holten called it ‘the first great comic opera of the 21st century’. A certain degree

Discover Britain

3 min read

Music is an integral part of the culture of the Celtic nations – from mournful airs and ballads that seem to call to displaced people, to rousing jigs, reels, and strathspeys, that bring people together in lively dances. We don’t know much about the

NPR

2 min read

As the Irish band Dervish approaches its 30th anniversary, they musicians have released The Great Irish Songbook with guests including Steve Earle, Rhiannon Giddens, Vince Gill and more.

Prog

12 min read

Until the dawn of the 70s, live music in Ireland had been a vibrant but disorganised scene, hosted entirely in pubs, clubs and college halls that valiantly attempted to shake off the lingering post-war monochrome cloud. Though Rory Gallagher, Thin Li

Family Tree UK

9 min read

Our ancestors lived to the background noise of horses’ hooves and waggon wheels, hammers and scythes, windmills and water mills. Then came steam trains, factory whistles, klaxons, deafening cloth mills, steel works. More melodic were the coaching pos

The Oldie

3 min read

‘In summertime on Bredon/The bells they sound so clear,’ wrote A E Housman. There are other sounds, too, in the Cotswolds in high summer: choral and orchestral music at the Three Choirs Festival, masterworks ancient and modern at the traditionally en

Prog

1 min read

Gargantuan set chronicling pretty much everything they ever did. Often cited as the founding fathers of celtic rock, Dublin’s Horslips had talent to burn. Three of their five members were multi-instrumentalists who could turn their hands to just abou

Prog

31 min read

“E verything that is and was will cease to be.” So says the Connacht Irish proverb adapted by Moya Brennan in Theme From Harry’s Game, the unlikely 1982 Top Five hit. Its two-and-a-half minutes propelled Clannad from niche to known-by-all. Popularise

UNCUT

12 min read

IT’S a grey and dreary Dublin day and the rain falls hard on the Phibsborough Road. It’s the kind of Monday morning that Lankum occasionally sing about: “Too soon to be out of bed/Too soon to be back at this bus-queue caper/Or fumbling for change for

BBC Music Magazine

1 min read

In his Notes from the Emerald Isle (July) Terry Blain gives due credit to Ireland’s rich musical heritage, from Turlough O’Carolan in the 17th century to the likes of Seán Ó Riada in the 20th. But why in such a comprehensive four-page study is there

BBC Music Magazine

3 min read

Pick a theme… and name your seven favourite examples With regular appearances at the Royal Opera House and English National Opera, Nicky Spence has also sung in venues all over the world. Specialising in psychologically complex roles, he has a partic

UNCUT

2 min read

Celtic New Age legends’ career compiled DEEP in County Donegal, in the tiny village of Meenaleck by Ireland’s wild Atlantic coastline, sits a pub called Tabhairne Leo – Leo’s Tavern. Modest but welcoming, the walls of the bar are adorned with gold

BBC Countryfile Magazine

2 min read

Bellowhead A May roamer who stumbles upon the sweetest of birdsong, this song has all the elements of a spring classic. We have opted for this 2007 version by contemporary folk band Bellowhead, which itself was inspired by the legendary Copper Family

BBC Countryfile Magazine

7 min read

Like a cinema projectionist, the best music has the power to flick the switch that transports us to a different time or place. It also has the ability to either amplify our feelings or help us escape them. Songs are where we go to lose ourselves or t

UNCUT

2 min read

Chronicles: 60 Years Of The Chieftains CLADDAGH 8/10 PERHAPS it’s only now, with the passing of founder Paddy Moloney, that we can appreciate the enormity of The Chieftains’ achievement. Their longevity and profuse output (44 albums) are cause for ce

Coast

8 min read

1. Across the Western Ocean2. What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor?3. Haul Away Joe4. John Kanaka5. New York Girls/Can’t You Dance The Polka?6. South Australia You know shanties are having a moment when they feature as official entertainment for

The Big Issue

2 min read

The sound of gravel crunching underfoot split the silence. Dandelion heads were still tightly clenched, ensconced in dewy leaves. The sky was waking, edged in pink and orange. As we entered the cemetery the air was filled with bird calls and cries. A

BBC Music Magazine

1 min read

In St Finbarr’s Cemetery, Cork, lies the grave of Arnold Bax (1883-1953). The composer was not, in fact, from Ireland – he was born and raised in London – but became smitten with the island, adopting its culture as his own. It was as a student that B

UNCUT

3 min read

IT takes a certain nerve to sober up the most popular Irish drinking song of all time, especially for a band from Ireland. Dublin quartet Lankum have decided to do just that as an opener to their latest album, The Livelong Day, by giving “The Wild Ro

History Scotland

14 min read

Tis time to descend to the valleys, since the mountains are forbidding, and mist, enveloping the hill-tops, totally obscures our vision. We will live in hope unfailing, that matters will be better next day, and that wind and sun and terrain wi

UNCUT

2 min read

Rare and unreleased folk gems from Richard Dawson-approved pair THE American art of Sacred Harp singing has spread far and wide since its inception in New England two centuries ago. And as societies continue to sprout across Canada, Australia, mai

Classic Rock

7 min read

Scott Gorham flashed that famous California-sun smile as he recalled his audition for Thin Lizzy in 1974. “The whole thing was wild and raucous, with the guitars out front,” he said. “Phil asked me to join that night, and gave me their records, becau

The Oldie

2 min read

In The Penguin Book of Bird Poetry the nightingale rates most poems, followed by the skylark, robin, cuckoo, song thrush and wren. The finches, for all their beauty, are also-rans, the linnet (Carduelis cannabina) pipping the goldfinch for the longes

Classic Rock

7 min read

Scott Gorham flashed that famous California-sun smile as he recalled his audition for Thin Lizzy in 1974. “The whole thing was wild and raucous, with the guitars out front,” he said. “Phil asked me to join that night, and gave me their records, becau

BBC Music Magazine

6 min read

‘Youknow exactly what it is as soon as you hear the opening drum roll,’ says Major Stewart Halliday, director of music, Coldstream Guards. ‘It captures the imagination right from the start.’ And the melody that follows has been capturing imaginations

BBC Music Magazine

2 min read

Comorian’s We are an island, but we’re not alone is No. 8 in Glitterbeat’s ‘Hidden Musics’ series. It’s also the latest work of American producer Ian Brennan – celebrated for recording musicians in isolated, unlikely locations, often under difficult

Prog

1 min read

Folk rock stalwarts get phenomenally comprehensive session vault treatment. Lindisfarne snuck into many early 70s record collections alongside Charisma labelmates and early touring partners Genesis and Van der Graaf Generator. Usually at least semi-a

Guitar Techniques

2 min read

VIDEO & AUDIO https://bit.ly/3DEmTDq ON VIDEO Greensleeves is one of those ‘ear worm’ pieces that everyone is either already very familiar with, or totally unaware that they are already familiar with. A traditional English folk song first documented

New Zealand Listener

6 min read

In 1890, the northern New South Wales backblocks bush property of Wirra Warra was devastated by floods. The lessee, William Saunders, sought considerable loans but faced foreclosure and destitution, so he moved his family and furniture in a horse-dra

UNCUT

3 min read

FOR more than 20 years, Damon Albarn seems to have been desperate to escape the suffocatingly restrictive straitjacket of Britpop and engage with a wider world. There have been collaborations with musicians from Mali, Senegal, Nigeria, Syria, Japan,