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BBC News
a day ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Celtic festival 'celebrates music, song and dance' on Isle of Man
An annual festival bringing the Celtic nations together on Manx shores for a week to celebrate traditional music, song and dance will get under way Chruinnaght, which means The Gathering in Manx Gaelic, will see artists from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Cornwall joined by local players for a series of back to 1977, organisers said the annual event remained true to its original aims of "promoting and celebrating the traditional culture of the Isle of Man in an appropriate way, amongst friends".Among the artists performing are Cornish folk quartet The Brim Ceilidh Band, eight members of young Welsh ensemble Avans and renowned Scottish folk band Rura. The week-long celebration will also see a special concert with harpist Rachel Hair and acoustic guitarist Ron Jappy performing The Deer's Cry, a piece written to celebrate the work of artist and designer Archibald well as formal concerts, the festival will include busking, traditional music sessions, displays, crafts and workshops, and food and folk sessions themed to highlight the Celtic nations. Monday 11:30 YC House Band busking outside Marks & Spencer, Douglas13:00 Scottish Food and Folk session at Noa Bakehouse, Douglas19:30 Rura concert, with support from Tree ny Kiare, at the Centenary Centre, Peel20:00 Festival Friends traditional music session at the George Hotel, Castletown21:30 Festival Friends late night session at the Whitehouse Pub, Peel Tuesday 11:00 Pop-up Gaeltaght (Manx conversation) at the House of Manannan, Peel13:00 Manx Food and Folk session at Noa Bakehouse, Douglas19:30 Song Night at the Masonic Hall, Peel Wednesday 12:00 Displays and Workshops at the House of Manannan, Peel13:00 Cornish Food and Folk session at Noa Bakehouse, Douglas19:00 Conference of the Gaels: Manx/Irish panel discussion hosted by Raidió Fáilte at the Centenary Centre, Peel19:30 Celtic Myths & Legends Celi at the Masonic Hall, Peel19:30 Summer Concert with Yn Chruinnaght collaboration at the Sailor's Shelter, Peel20:30 Festival Friends traditional music session at O'Donnell's Pub, Douglas Thursday 11:00 Pop-up Gaeltaght (Manx conversation) at House of Manannan, Peel13:00 Welsh Food and Folk session at Noa Bakehouse, Douglas17:00 Annual Ian O'Leary Lecture ("Ná habair é, déan é!" Don't say it! Do it! – an informal lecture on the development of Irish Gaelic in Belfast by members of Radió Fáilte) at the Atholl Room, Centenary Centre, Peel17:30 Celtic Myths & Legends Concert at the Centenary Centre, Peel21:30 Festival Friends late night session at the Whitehouse Pub, Peel Friday 10:00 Archibald Knox themed Mini Musicians workshop with Mannin Music at the Manx Museum, Douglas12:00 Displays at the House of Manannan, Peel13:00 Irish Food and Folk session at Noa Bakehouse, Douglas19:30 Mega Manx Ceili with music and dance for all the family at St German's Cathedral, Peel19:30 Rachael Hair & Ron Jappy Concert celebrating 160 years of Archibald Knox at the Royal Chapel, St John's Saturday 11:00 Music, song, drama and dance displays at St German's Cathedral, Corrin Hall & Grounds, Peel14:00 Workshops and masterclasses at the Atholl Room, Centenary Centre, Peel17:00 Live music from local and visiting artists at Peel Sailing Club19:30 Calum Stewart Trio Concert with Sophie Stephenson and Smooinaght Mie at the Centenary Centre, Peel21:00 Festival Friends Late night session at the Whitehouse Pub, Peel Sunday 13:00 Survivors' sessions and gigs to finish the week at the Black Dog Oven, Peel Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Poor Creature: All Smiles Tonight review
The latest gorgeous release from the fecund Irish folk scene doesn't begin with bassy dread in the Lankum mode, but a mood of gentle, haunting psychedelia. Adieu Lovely Erin starts by evoking Broadcast swirling around a maypole; then it's as if Cocteau Twins had been transported to a traditional music session. Its sweet, high female vocals also evoke the improvisations of sean-nós singing, while simmering, krautrock-like drums build drama. Poor Creature comprises three musicians expert in heightening and managing atmosphere: Landless's Ruth Clinton, Lankum's Cormac MacDiarmada plus live Lankum drummer John Dermody. Their debut album steeps cowboy songs, Irish ballads, bluegrass and other traditional songs in a misty, playful lightness that somehow also carries an eerie power. Bury Me Not is a 19th-century American song about a dying sailor desperate not to be buried at sea, and Clinton delivers its lamenting lyrics with a bright, shining innocence. MacDiarmada leads Lorene, a rolling, country ballad by Alabama duo the Louvin Brothers, with a similarly soft, brooding magic. Singing as a boy desperate for a letter from his beloved, despite clearly knowing he's being ghosted, the song's melancholy slowly rises as voice and guitar mesh together. Preprogrammed beats from a Hohner Organetta (a mid-century table-top organ), the wails of an Otamatone (a 21st-century Japanese synthesiser, shaped like a musical quaver) and a theremin add childlike, hauntological flavours to much of this music. Meat and muscle are also built into Hicks' Farewell, a Doc Watson song fed through a sturdy wall of shoegaze, and propulsive highlight, The Whole Town Knows. Within Clinton and MacDiarmada's dense harmonies, Dermody's drums and the track's cacophonous final minutes, you sense folk rocketing somewhere poppy, wild and new. A folk duo who also work in cabaret, performance, and installation art, Lunatraktors collect together six years of collaborative work on their new compilation, Quilting Points: Invitations and Open Calls 2019-2025 (self-released). A loud mix of salvaged songs, archival fragments, chaos and energetic ideas, its most intriguing tracks are the Korg-propelled 'Oss Girls, inspired by the Padstow May Day song, and The Truth of Eanswythe's Bones, a twisted choral epic inspired by the discovery of a skeleton of a 7th-century saint. Clàrsach (Celtic harp) player Grace Stewart-Skinner's Auchies Spikkin' Auchie (self-released) is a moving, textured exploration of the stories and dialect of her north-east Highlands harbour village, Avoch, mixing her playing with field-recorded conversations, fiddle, double bass and drums. Toby Hay's gorgeous New Music for the 6 String Guitar (The State51 Conspiracy) also further confirms him as a warm, 21st-century heir to the string-bending genius of John Fahey.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Poor Creature: All Smiles Tonight review
The latest gorgeous release from the fecund Irish folk scene doesn't begin with bassy dread in the Lankum mode, but a mood of gentle, haunting psychedelia. Adieu Lovely Erin starts by evoking Broadcast swirling around a maypole; then it's as if Cocteau Twins had been transported to a traditional music session. Its sweet, high female vocals also evoke the improvisations of sean-nós singing, while simmering, krautrock-like drums build drama. Poor Creature comprises three musicians expert in heightening and managing atmosphere: Landless's Ruth Clinton, Lankum's Cormac MacDiarmada plus live Lankum drummer John Dermody. Their debut album steeps cowboy songs, Irish ballads, bluegrass and other traditional songs in a misty, playful lightness that somehow also carries an eerie power. Bury Me Not is a 19th-century American song about a dying sailor desperate not to be buried at sea, and Clinton delivers its lamenting lyrics with a bright, shining innocence. MacDiarmada leads Lorene, a rolling, country ballad by Alabama duo the Louvin Brothers, with a similarly soft, brooding magic. Singing as a boy desperate for a letter from his beloved, despite clearly knowing he's being ghosted, the song's melancholy slowly rises as voice and guitar mesh together. Preprogrammed beats from a Hohner Organetta (a mid-century table-top organ), the wails of an Otamatone (a 21st-century Japanese synthesiser, shaped like a musical quaver) and a theremin add childlike, hauntological flavours to much of this music. Meat and muscle are also built into Hicks' Farewell, a Doc Watson song fed through a sturdy wall of shoegaze, and propulsive highlight, The Whole Town Knows. Within Clinton and MacDiarmada's dense harmonies, Dermody's drums and the track's cacophonous final minutes, you sense folk rocketing somewhere poppy, wild and new. A folk duo who also work in cabaret, performance, and installation art, Lunatraktors collect together six years of collaborative work on their new compilation, Quilting Points: Invitations and Open Calls 2019-2025 (self-released). A loud mix of salvaged songs, archival fragments, chaos and energetic ideas, its most intriguing tracks are the Korg-propelled 'Oss Girls, inspired by the Padstow May Day song, and The Truth of Eanswythe's Bones, a twisted choral epic inspired by the discovery of a skeleton of a 7th-century saint. Clàrsach (Celtic harp) player Grace Stewart-Skinner's Auchies Spikkin' Auchie (self-released) is a moving, textured exploration of the stories and dialect of her north-east Highlands harbour village, Avoch, mixing her playing with field-recorded conversations, fiddle, double bass and drums. Toby Hay's gorgeous New Music for the 6 String Guitar (The State51 Conspiracy) also further confirms him as a warm, 21st-century heir to the string-bending genius of John Fahey.
Irish Times
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
The bodhrán: Ireland's oldest instrument – or its newest?
When Cathy Jordan went on stage at this year's TG4 Gradam Ceoil concert it was as amhránaí an bhliain – singer of the year. But she closed the event accompanying herself on the bodhrán, so putting the Irish frame drum centre stage at an event that's an Oscars of trad. This is significant, for the bodhrán is still viewed with a degree of scepticism within traditional music, despite its having for more than 50 years featured in practically all top-level ensembles, among them The Bothy Band , De Danann , The Chieftains , Dervish and Danú. It has also come to compete with the harp as a symbol of Ireland, appearing both on postage stamps and in our passports. But the idea of the bodhrán as the oldest instrument in Ireland couldn't be more wrong: it's the newest. No percussion was reported in Ireland at all until the English military introduced a drum at the end of the 16th century. Go back to a period as recent as the mid-20th century and there's little trace of the bodhrán as an instrument, and it was never played in any significant way as part of Irish dance music. READ MORE As with most northern European music, melody was key in Ireland. There were a couple of recordings with tambourine in the 1920s, but a formal percussion role was established only in the decade or so that followed, with the jazz-style drum kit. So it is surprising that the repopularisation of traditional music has come to be marked so visibly by the bodhrán: every class and ensemble, from the most casual to the most sophisticated, has a bodhrán player; professional soloists include Gino Lupari , Aimée Farrell Courtney, John Joe Kelly, Rónán Ó Snodaigh and Colm Murphy. As technical virtuosity is at the pinnacle of all instrumental playing, and because Irish music is defined by melody, it is hardly surprising that there would be a reticence about percussion. Even so, that is something of a paradox, for though it is fashionable to denigrate bodhrán players, any top instrumentalist appreciates that a good one gives music a tremendous lift. The ambiguity is best explained by a look at where this drum comes from, a complex story that until now has not been known. The name is certainly old. The word 'bodhrán' was originally used for a device created thousands of years ago as a tool for winnowing grain, or for a container or tray. But as a percussion instrument, with the sophistication we know today, the bodhrán's traceable history doesn't begin until the earlier 1800s – and then the instrument appears only sporadically until the mid-20th century. It had different names in each part of the country; bodhrán was the most common of those – with 25 spellings of the term in print from the late 19th century onwards. Pronunciation of 'bodhrán' varies by region, the first syllable rhyming with either 'cow' or 'go', the second with either 'rawn' or 'ran'; the earliest audio recording of the term, from 1927, uses the latter in each case. The first written record of the word 'bodhrán' – in a 16th-century medical manuscript that indicates its sound was hollow and resonant – was valuably explored in 2007 by Liam Ó Bharáin in Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann 's Treoir magazine. But it is how the bodhrán became a drum that is most interesting, a story that began with tambourines being played by commercial entertainers who toured Irish cities in the 1700s and 1800s. Their usage was continued by black-and-white minstrels. These were white American musicians who, in an intrinsically racist concept, masqueraded as blacks, playing instruments that were purportedly the cultural territory of African-Americans: tambourine, bones, concertina or accordion, and banjo (only the latter of which was actually African). Bands of these performers toured worldwide, coming to Ireland after the 1840s until the end of that century. Their music inspired widespread copycat performances in rural and urban parish halls around Ireland. [ Talos: Ólafur Arnalds on finishing Eoin French's final album – 'A lot of the time I could feel him next to me ' Opens in new window ] The tambourines – which differ from today's bodhráin in that they include jingles or rattles – are frequently mentioned in Irish press reports, as indeed is their sale by the music trade. The minstrel fashion outlived its originators, continuing until the 1930s; additionally, home-made tambourines came to be played as part of the marching format of the wren each December, but they were not a significant part of 'sit-down' music until after the 1950s. The tambourine that was adopted by the American minstrels had already been a feature of polite-society musicmaking among young women in the 1700s. The origin of that goes back at least several thousand years to women's use of tambourines in southern Europe to celebrate deities such as Cybele, Ariadne and Aphrodite. (The instrument came to the English military courtesy of its army's adoption of Turkish music practices learned during the Crusades.) A handful of historical references suggest that, from the 1800s onwards, Irish people used the utilitarian bodhrán as an improvised tambourine. As the modernisation of farming after the Famine rendered older tools and utensils obsolete, leading wits might have used the term 'bodhrán' to slag off home-made tambourines. In any case, the UCD folklorist Kevin Danaher reported in 1947 that in some areas the terms 'bodhrán' and 'tambourine' were used interchangeably. The bodhrán story for Irish music begins properly with John B Keane 's inclusion of a tambourine player in his play Sive, which was performed at the Abbey Theatre in 1959. Seán Ó Riada , who was music director there, reportedly saw that drum and decided to include it in his music ensemble Ceoltóirí Chualann, which played for Song of the Anvil, a drama by Bryan MacMahon, the following year. Using it without jingles, Ó Riada described the drum as a bodhrán, going on to popularise it hugely through his weekly Fleadh Cheoil an Radió show. So it was introduced island-wide, with interest sparked in the tambourine by Keane, then promoted nationally as the bodhrán by Ó Riada. It quickly became a popular instrument, and although all older players knew it as a tambourine, they gradually got rid of the hallmark jingles, and a new coterie of skilled artisans emerged to create today's sophisticated bodhrán. Keane and MacMahon strongly promoted the instrument as part of wren-boy competitions in west Limerick and north Kerry in the 1960s, and over that decade it became part of the fabric of national traditional-music revival, often criticised but nevertheless evolving a skills base that was serviced by new specialist makers such as Charlie Byrne of Tipperary. I was inspired to write Beating Time: The Story of the Irish Bodhrán by seeing an engraving of the original bodhrán – recorded as a 'borrane' – in a travelogue from the early 1840s titled Ireland: Its Scenery, Character &c, by Samuel and Anna Hall. [ 'Go to any reasonably sized town in Japan and you'll find an Irish pub': The Japanese fans of Irish culture Opens in new window ] Aspects of the bodhrán story have of course been explored before – the practical side by Ó Bharáin and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin , the spiritual dimension by Janet McCrickard and Layne Redmond. But none covers the vitally important 19th century. Of course, it may be that a subliminal Irish drum tradition just went unreported, but the facts suggest that the bodhrán as it has developed realistically dates only as far back as Keane's play, after which it was promoted by Ó Riada, and the country got to hear it for the first time courtesy of Radio Éireann. Beating Time: The Story of the Irish Bodhrán is published by Cork University Press
CBC
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
These First Nations kids played a song to attract grizzly bears — and it worked
Social Sharing A group of First Nations children played a traditional song with drums on Sunday at Metro Vancouver's Grouse Mountain, and ended up catching the attention of curious grizzly bears in the process. Six children from the Squamish Nation (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw) were on a trip to the popular Grouse Mountain resort, which includes a grizzly bear wilderness sanctuary where tourists can get a glimpse of the reclusive creatures. While there, the children played a tune called the Grizzly Bear Song, which comes from one of the nation's hereditary chiefs, Ian Campbell. And in a moment that was caught on video, bears came out of the bush and up to the sanctuary fence to curiously examine the six drummers, whose traditional song describes their connection to nature and to the bears themselves. WATCH | Squamish Nation kids' drumming attracts grizzlies: Young musicians go viral after coaxing grizzlies with their Grizzly Bear Song 2 days ago Duration 1:43 A group of young First Nations drummers from the Squamish Nation is in the spotlight after a video of them singing to a pair of grizzly bears, in the bears' habitat on Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver, went viral. The video has since gone viral, and both the children and the group's co-ordinator say they're proud that the nation's heritage is now being shown off to a global audience. "It felt, like, really amazing ... I felt so blessed when they came really close to us," said Jonah Nahanee, one of the kids. "It's fun to sing with my culture," he added. The kids in the group range from 10 to 11 years old, and all of them expressed joy at the fact the bears seemed to want to listen to their songs. In the video, a bear comes close to the fence where the boys are singing and looks at them all in turn as they continue to drum. One of the boys, Thomas Jacobs, says it's the closest he's ever been to a grizzly. "I think we've been doing this for three or two years, and I just love singing for my culture," he told CBC News. 'I shed a tear' Jennifer Nahanee, Jonah's mother and the group's co-ordinator, says the drummers are called the Proud Little Warriors, and they have regular practices at least once a month. She said the kids — who've been learning the Squamish language and music for years — know more about the songs' meaning than she does. "I don't always know what the words mean, but I can definitely feel it in my Sḵwálwen — in my heart," she said. "And, you know, I shed a tear when they were singing up at Grouse Mountain, just because you know how proud I am to see how far they've come." Nahanee said that her video has racked up more than a million views, and she's gotten messages of support from people who speak Spanish and other languages. "I'm happy, you know, to get our language and our culture out there, let people know that we're still here, you know?" Nahanee said.
