A Blast of Island Air

One of the wonderful things about my job is that I get to wake up every morning and do stuff I love doing and get paid for it. But another cool thing about the way my career has been panning out is that every gig seems to be completely different from the last - accompanying exams, directing choirs, playing gigs with bands - and this leads to very exciting musical opportunities, something I love and something which keeps my musical life consistently interesting.

I've just come home from a week on the road with a project called Island Air, an exciting show celebrating the musical heritage of Inisbofin, an island off the Connemara coast in County Galway. The brainchild of this show was a young singer-songwriter from the island, Peadar King, who I've started working with as keyboardist in his band. When I started rehearsing with him and the rest of his band in May, there was only one gig booked but promises of more. There was talk of a tour in August with this week earmarked for it. He was applying for a grant from Music Network and, as time went by, he was advised that to add some sort of a conceptual slant to the show would aid his chances in getting the grant and his mind turned to an idea for a show that had been percolating in his head for a while - a mixture of singers from the island of Inisbofin where he lives, maybe concentrating on his music but also bringing in the other singers - Andrew Murray, Dessie O'Halloran, Luke Murray and others - to sing at specific places in the show.

He didn't get the grant but by this time, the show and the plans for it had taken a different turn and an unstoppable momentum had begun. Peadar's band - myself, Cormac Dunne, Tom Portman and Fergal Gallagher - were hired to be less Peadar's band and more a house band while more islanders were drafted in to appear in the show. A small tour heading home towards the island - Galway, Clifden, Inisbofin - was lined up and people nominated songs to sing and trad tunes to play that they were already familiar with.

The itinerary had to be changed due to difficulties with schedules but it worked out very well in that we ended up starting at home - Inisboffin. The feel of the show was that of a session and tunes were alternated with songs to allow for variety throughout the evening. The ages went from 7-year old dancers to Dessie O'Halloran (69, I believe). Peadar, Andrew Murray and his son Luke performed songs with the band and Dessie closed the show with a rousing finale but now young and old performed together, sometimes in small ensembles, sometimes solo, sometimes as part of the Inisbofin Ceili Band. For this first night, everybody who plays music on the island - 25 musicians - was featured and it was incredible to be part of the spectacle, not as an audience member but as someone welcomed into the community to participate in the occasion. Although we had done some rehearsal with Peadar on Tuesday, new songs and tunes were introduced to the band at the soundcheck - chords feverishly scribbled down while the singers sang - and then performed on the night, something I'm able to do but also always adds an extra bump of adrenaline to the proceedings, great fun ensuing when you try to remember a song you've been sung for the first time 2 hours ago and draw a complete blank. However, everybody else was on home turf and so was very comfortable and relaxed with the occasion. The mood was so relaxed in fact that the concert took something over 3 hours to get through and left everyone exhausted. It was a hugely positive bonding experience for band and performers, community and visitors, organisers and audience. After two days of rehearsal, i was tired too but very pleased to be there.

On Thursday, we got the ferry to Cleggan and set up camp in the wonderful Crane Bar in Galway. Some lessons were learnt about the running order (particularly with regard to length) and the list of performers was shortened, partly due to availability, partly due to the size of the stage. The set was sized down to 2 hours !!! Usually a venue that holds sessions, The Crane was perfect for the occasion - up-close and personal for all concerned and everybody absolutely focused on putting everything they had into the music. Dessie, who had very carefully selected songs which Peadar had rehearsed with the band, decided to play a completely different song and everybody mucked in to give him the backing he deserved. The young trad ensemble played their socks off, particularly Liam King who was particularly exciting to watch playing the accordion. The band tipped along occasionally with this music too when we felt we weren't going to be stepping on any toes but everybody was open to musical ideas. I don't consider myself a trad player but I was able to busk the chords too and enjoyed it - John O'Halloran's small-box Dance Of The Honeybees was a particular favourite of mine. The addition of the interval to the proceedings was welcomed and gave everybody a chance to draw breath and grab another pint.

The final night in the Station House Theatre in Cliden had a different feel again - an enthusiastic audience but more of a theatre feel which can often deaden the interaction between the performers and the audience. This gig was good too nevertheless and the crowd came with us finally - everyone onstage comfortable by now with the music and each other's contributions to it. The stage, though not as big as Bofin was bigger than Galway and so some musicians omitted from the Galway list took the ferry to join us for this one too adding to the bonhomie on the stage. By the end, we were ready to sleep but more drinks were had first. The after-show sessions on the first two nights had run quite late - I have no reason to believe the last night was any different. Aware of ongoing commitments, I was in Galway and asleep within a few hours of coming off the stage.

New friendships - both convivial and musical - had been made and I look forward to playing with many of these musicians again. Luke Murray's concert debut as a singer and guitarist in this run of shows was extremely exciting as he bravely and convincingly tackled both Christy Moore's arrangement of As I Roved Out with the band and added his own tasteful and subtle characterisation to Paul Brady's arrangement of Arthur McBride solo. Being a city boy, I was thrilled to be hearing more traditional music in one week than I've probably heard in the last five years, and all magnificently played and sung by people who've been singing it all their lives. Peadar only ended up singing one song each night - I wish he'd sung more. He's an exceptional songwriting talent waiting to be discovered but I guess he felt it was about a lot more than just him by this point - a chance to really treasure the musical heritage of the island as a shared heritage, a community of people working and living together, and a chance to highlight lots of unsung talents alongside more well-known singers such as Dessie and Andrew, and in all that it certainly worked in a very moving way. It was a really beautiful experience for me. I've heard it may happen again. I hope it does. If it does, don't miss it.