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Sligo Live

Venue: Various
Town: Sligo
Date: 23-28/10/13
Website: http://www.sligolive.ie/

The transition from a very warm Spain to an almost arctic west of Ireland was a little hard to take at first, but once I remembered why I was there, things began to look brighter immediately.

Sligo Live, now in its ninth year, has established itself as one of the leading Irish music festivals, with its mix of left-field headliners, an interesting Arrivals section, and tons of free and impromptu gigs.

Friday afternoon at the Café Victor proved to be one of the most interesting gigs of the weekend, as Fiach Moriarty took the stage in a very intimate setting-packed house, no PA, pin-drop territory. A mix of old and new songs followed-Letting Go, a song about saying goodbye, was spectacular, stripped as it was of its album sheen. His new material has a harder, more political edge-Raindrops, a piece about the US Civil Rights movement, will surely gain much wider currency when the new album is released in 2014, but the closer, Married To Music, is a hit if I ever heard one. When people hear this, it is going to be SO huge!What this gig proved, if anything, is that the byroads often serve up more interesting fare than the highways.

Later that evening, we headed to The Knocknarea Arena, for one of the most eagerly anticipated gigs of the weekend, the coupling of The Young Folk and Midlake. The Young Folk took the stage, and hit the ground running with Sherwood Anderson, a piano -led recent composition. A judicious balance of new and older material showcased a band in transition, whose fortunes are surely on the up, with an album and publishing deal in the offing. Comparisons are invidious, I know, but the likes of the Mumfords, Lumineers, and Noah and his compadres should begin to worry. Grat songs, wonderful harmonies shot through them, and a work ethic that would choke a horse, have this lot marked out as a band VERY likely to.

Though they have toured Ireland before, this was Midlake's first-and much anticipated- visit to Sligo. For 90 minutes, which included 3 encores, they took the place apart. A slide solo paved the way for Provider, from the new album, triple harmonies providing a backdrop for Eric Pulido's striking lead vocal, further reinforced by sweeping strings from the keyboards. Antiphon, the title track from the new album , was a wall of sound, and had the audience harmonising along-mostly in the same key , too. These new songs are proof positive of the band's intent to move on following Tim Smith's departure, but in a nod to their past , they did perform material from the previous albums , two of which, The Courage of Others, with a very acoustic feel, and Roscoe, replete with Beach Boys style harmonies, were among the night's standouts. This is a band with nothing to prove , and a lot to say, and I can't wait for their return come Spring.

A scheduling problem on Saturday saw the cancellation of one of the weekend's key events, but the performance of Tony De Marco and Junior Davey in Tricky McGarrigle's showed what a strength of style and repertoire we possess in my home county. De Marco took much of his afternoon's performance from the playing of Paddy Reynolds, ironically from the next county over!, but his mastery of the local style is without peer, rolls, grace notes, cranns peppering the tunes, to the accompaniment of Junior Davey's bodhran, always supportive, never intrusive. Lovely, lovely music, and part of my reason for being.

Calry parish Church is a fitting venue for the music served up later that evening, as The Locust Honey String Band, a trio of winsome wenches from North Carolina reinvented -for one time only- the bluegrass tradition as a female preserve. Fiddle , banjo and guitar, with a dollop of good humour, served up material like Whose Shoulder Will You Cry On?, and Willow Garden . Music of beauty and purity, the likes of which is not often heard in these parts. I'd travel a distance to hear its like again.

LAPD took the stage to tumultuous applause, and laid down their mission statement from the off, with a fluent set of jigs, bouzouki and mandocello gently grounding the rhythm for pipes and fiddle. From there, it was interesting to observe, as Andy Irvine took centre stage with a clutch of finely judged vocals, O'Donoghues, and Indiana being standouts among them, Paddy Glackin's fiddle adding melodic strength to the songs definitions. Though there is still a linkage with the Planxty repertoire, this is a band on top of their game who are now-to pick one of their tunes-well out of The Starting Gate. A superb performance!

Sunday afternoon, there was only one thing for it, which was to head for the unknown quantity which was the coupling of Dervish and The Sligo Youth Orchestra. Such things are often fraught with danger-where trad meets classical, but this was a successful exercise where generosity of spirit was the order of the day. Dervish did a 40 minute set on their own, much of the material taken from the recent album, and when the orchestra joined them it was absolutely magical, the perfect synergy really, as both genre's possibilities were explored to the max.

Later that evening , in the same venue, it was the turn of Chicago native Liz Carroll to bring down the lamp on the weekends formalities, in the company of fiddler/vocalist Niamh Dunne, and Goitse, one of the finest young bands around. Notetaking was abandoned at this stage-well, I mean, you can't hold a pen and notebook steady , if you are clapping all the time, can you?!, but suffice to say that no better coda to the weekend's magic could be wished for. This was 3 hours of original tunes, songs and humour that was hard to beat. Now that I'm partially recovered, just two things to say-well done everyone, and see yiz next year. !

Oliver P. Sweeney.