Reviews

Irish Times writers review the a concert by Kate Rusby a recital by Concorde at the National Gallery and an exhibition tracing the history of Celt Rock legends, Horslips

Kate Rusby

Vicar Street, Dublin

Kate Rusby loped on stage with the ease of a performer long practised in the art of audience control. Small wonder really, with a sparkling new album, The Girl Who Couldn't Fly, and the backing of a stunning quartet of musicians. John McCusker, fiddle and whistle player, composer and all-round mainstay of the band, is the rock against whom Rusby leans. Although his own compositions barely got a peep in, when they did, they shone a spotlight on a musician whose vision is matched by his talent. Goodnight Ginger was a pitch perfect snapshot of that trademark McCusker wit and musical wisdom, in gleeful concert.

Kate Rusby has cornered the market in mournful, elegiac tales of dragons, fair maidens and jilted lovers. Her voice is a gold standard, at once fiery and willowy, and at its best when tackling tales of medieval chivalry. Rusby's take on the old classic, You Belong To Me, was a reminder of just how readily she can make a song her own, despite its past life in the capable hands of singers of the calibre of Patsy Cline. The cocky wordplay of Mary Blaize floundered in the mix though, with Andy Cutting's accordion and Iain Carr's guitar at times overwhelming the vocals.

Still, it was Cutting's magnificent accordion that lured melody lines ever skywards. He has managed to singlehandedly reinvent his instrument, exploiting the full notational spectrum of the accordion, and engaging in glorious two-handers with double bassist, Andy Seward. Carr's guitar lines were equally formidable, intercutting those of both Rusby and McCusker with the agility of a musician who has truly merged with his instrument, a living monument to Flann O'Brien.

Rusby's back catalogue is an impressive one, and she sampled readily from it, airing Caanan's Land, Young James and Some Tyrant with a vigour that equalled the newer material. Her between-song banter was seductive, peppered with surreal titbits and observations, and yet somehow at times it grated, particularly when much of it was a repeat of her previous Dublin performance. One-liners rarely deliver the same punch second time round.

In spite of their collective talents, an overwhelming control governs Rusby's music. At times we yearned for just the slightest tincture of anarchy to creep in and toss it all in the air. Maybe next time.

Siobhán Long

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Concorde

National Gallery, Dublin

Tomi Räisänen - Follow the Circle . . . Ed Bennett - Monster. Philip Neil Martin - Inducing Darkness. James Wilson - Two Pieces for Bass Clarinet and Piano. Riikka Talvitie - Bit by Bit

The final note of James Wilson's Two Pieces seemed to take a long time to fade completely. It was the last note of the last completed work by Wilson who died aged 82 on August 6th, and it created a moment of special poignancy in Concorde's concert of new music.

Wilson wrote the two six-minute pieces - his Op 175 - for the two players who gave their première, clarinettist Paul Roe and pianist Jane O'Leary. The first piece presents a thoughtful melody and a quiet but rather mischievous rhythmic figure which the two players swap back and forth. In the second, gentle piano chords like the chiming of an antique drawing-room clock accompany a winding and tender melodic line on the bass clarinet.

The other works were also premières, either for Ireland or Dublin, and all were written in the past two years. Tomi Räisänen's Follow the Circle . . . for clarinet, violin, cello and piano begins with an eerie stasis coloured by long, clear notes and the occasional plucked piano string. It comes briefly to life with a flowing counterpoint before returning to quietude. In Ed Bennett's Monster for bass clarinet and tape, the taped component moves steadily from background into prominence, building recorded bass clarinet sounds and something like hailstones into a (monstrous?) frenzy which then peters out.

Philip Neil Martin's Inducing Darkness uses deep registers for a quite traditional evocation of darkness in response to the sentiments of Poe's poem The Raven. Riikka Talvitie explores the interesting colours produced by combinations of clarinet, cello and accordion in her trio Bit by Bit. Its 10 short movements are each headed with traditional dynamic markings to which Talvitie is utterly faithful, thereby providing the listener with easy sign-posts and a comfortable vantage point from which to consider her lithe and lively musical language. Throughout the programme, Concorde's committed playing was engaging and persuasive.

Michael Dungan

The History of Horslips

Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda

Of course, it isn't just the history of Horslips on display here. Aside from the visual content that chronologically specifies that Horslips were one of the most influential of Irish rock bands, there is an alternate history here of where-are-they- now support acts that didn't make the leap from obscurity to success to importance.

There is an alternate history, also, of an Ireland of more than 30 years ago, where rural and remote communities (as well as urban) were stirred and shaken by the arrival of a group of mustachioed men with amplified keyboards, satin flares, fiddles, shamrock-shaped guitars, flutes, concertinas, flashing lights and tricky time signatures.

It's all in the details captured in possibly the finest concentrated collection of pop/rock memorabilia to grace an Irish gallery. The central point of interest is a wall-to-wall running montage of band images culled from magazines and newspapers; it traces the history of Horslips ("not Horselips or Horseslips, but Horslips" states a poster) from early 1970s Irish venues in places as far apart as Athy, Muff and Youghal to reasonably major European and US venues.

There are posters advertising indoor Pop Festivals (at Alice's Restaurant, Wolfe Tone Street, featuring a support list that includes Harpos Hat Gang, Crypt, Wormwood and Cromwell) and outdoor Peace Parties (in Phoenix Park, with a support acts Rodeo, the Ronnie Paisley Band, and Trench Band). There are album covers (all designed by Horslips member Charles O'Connor) that fuse then cutting edge design with hippie influences and Celtic mythology. And there are superb monochrome photographs of a band never afraid to flaunt their fashion mistakes or tonsorial creativity. In brief, essential viewing for fans/students of Irish rock history and graphic design.

Runs until Oct 18

Tony Clayton-Lea