Issue 22 06/2002

FolkWorld Features
Interviews, Articles, Live Reviews, Columns

English content:

Guy Roelofs, photo by The MollisTraditional music from the Netherlands Part I: CADANS DER GETOUWEN
Guy Roelofs is one of the few musicians that recorded a Dutch "modern" folk album during the past ten years. His project Cadans der getouwen was a small success and the project was recently brought to a close. At the moment he is playing with his group Grond and is focused on introducing traditional tunes and songs into our present time. In the first part of the series Traditional music from the Netherlands, Guy talks with Eelco Schilder about the project Cadans der Getouwen and gives his opinion on how to play traditional music.
Netherlands - folk music in the Netherlands, and a band portrait.

The rise and rise of Cara Dillon
Jennifer Byrne reports about an Irish singer leading the current English folk scene. The rise and rise of Cara Dillon has been well documented by now. A native of Dungiven, Co. Derry, Cara started singing at an early age, surrounded by songs passed down from her grandmother and learned around the sessions and workshops of Dungiven. She had an All Ireland Traditional Singing trophy under her belt by the age of 14 and at 15 had formed Oige...
England/Ireland - the young star in the Irish music scene Cara Dillon

Leo, photo by Sean LaffeyRhymers and Roots - Leo McCann & friends at Celtic Connections 2002
Seán Laffey attended a few nights of the 9th Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow and found it lived up to its subtitle, "from Shores near and Far". Picture the scene, it's a cold and very wet night, enough to prevent a crowd gathering, but the Strathclyde Suite at the Concert Hall is packed to near capacity for a concert with Leo McCann and Friends. Two years ago I saw Leo play a support act to Joe Burke at the Piping Centre, now he's fronting a show under his own name, a fact which rests on his tireless workload of performing (currently with Malinky) and a regime of teaching Irish music in Edinburgh.
Scotland - about one of the leading Irish musicians in Scotland

World's Out of Tune (2) - "Enduring Freedom" in Song and Poetry
When the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center crumbled on September 11, 2001, the world really fell out of tune. But quiet the minstrels? No, they were not. Great historical events have always been treated in ballads. Thus, hundreds of 911 songs and poems have been written since to get over the atrocities, to honour the victims and rescue workers, to raise money, to stir patriotic feelings, to criticize military actions, and to propagate the clash of cultures or mutual understanding. It is presented by means of folk, marching tunes, jazz, pop, rock, hip hop, techno, new age, and weird sound clips. Some are written with the deepest and most honest feelings, but there is also false pathos and the downright silly.
USA - Reactions to September 11 in songs and poetry - the second part

Oskorri, photo by Marcus MetzXVII Festival Internacional do Mundo Celta
One of the worst summers in the past 30 years turned the Northwest of Spain as well as the North of Portugal into a rough and wet landscape. Weather statistics proof that the rain fall of July 2001 exceeded the annual average by 200% while 50% of the holiday makers cancelled their bookings! Visitors to the annual Festival International do Mundo Celta in the nice fisher port of Ortigueira, situated at the eponymous "ria" (a beautiful estuary), have been welcomed by loads of heavy showers and highest temperatures of 22 Celsius - together with sandy beaches and tall cliffs the whole environment reminded strangers very much of the North-West of Ireland in the middle of a nice summer. Thin rain ponchos (for 100 Pesetas or 60 Euro-Cent only!) were available in the town to give some shelter - but still people enjoyed the atmosphere of Spain's largest folk festival, maybe the most important music festival in the whole autonomous region of Galicia.
Galicia / Northwestern Spain - a festival report

Sean Keane's Seansongs
Seansongs, surely the most appropriate title in a very long time for an album. These are songs that fall under the Sean Keane banner, a style of music difficult to pinpoint or generalise on, apart from the singular preference for beauty of melody and lyric. Seansongs is the latest album in a prolific line of output for, surely, one of Ireland's best-loved singers. It is actually a set of two CDs; the first concentrates on the type of material that fans know, love and connect with Sean; the second focuses on traditional music, the result of a life of playing and singing, but which a lot of people do not readily associate with Sean.
Ireland - a folk singer hero

suffolk & beyond III: English folk clubs - well hidden secrets
Michael Moll reports about the Fraser Sisters and Tweed/Cutting/vanEyken/Harbron. I know that it is already June, but nevertheless I want to go back in this article into the dark months of this year, to a time when I went on the adventurous search of one of Suffolk's best hidden secrets - as it is quite common in England, these are folk clubs and folk venues.
England - listening to the music

T:-)M's Night Shift - If You Feel Like Singing - Walkin' T:-)M does
"What the hell are you doing?" - "I'm singing, my dear." - "What?" - "I am singing." - "That's what I hear. It's two in the morning." - "Of course, darling. You know I'm always working around that time. That's my profession." - "Are you kidding? You were never singing before." - "Darling, this is a song book. You have to sing it to get the meaning completely." - "You're a bloody rattler." - "Just these couple of songs." - "Do it tomorrow. Shut up and turn off the light!" - "Some things are only done by night ..."
Another selection of reviews of books related to folk music

 

German content: (Use the 'BACK' button of your browser to return to here!)

Garmana, photo by The MollisMorgenland trifft Skandinavien Garmana in der Kulturbrauerei
Karsten Rube berichtet: Mein ägyptischer Freund Ahmed verschleppt mich regelmäßig auf Bauchtanzevents. "Ihr Nordländer seid einfach nicht in der Lage euch vernünftig zu amüsieren. Ausgelassene Fröhlichkeit kennt ihr einfach nicht." Ich finde das recht lustig. Zwar geht mir die muselmanische Musik ein bisschen auf den Sender, aber die Speisen, die an solchen Abenden serviert werden, würden einen Imam entzücken. Das wir Nordländer uns allerdings durchaus amüsieren können, musste ich Ahmed noch unter Beweis stellen. Ich schleppte ihn ins Konzert der Gruppe Garmana.
Germany - experiance to attend together with an egyptian a nordic concert in Germany
Von schrulligen Typen und wahrer Kunst - Mariza singt Fado im Tränenpalast
Vor dem Tränenpalast schreien die Punks. Innen schreit sich Mariza warm. Mariza, eine neue Ikone des Fadogesangs, jener wehmütigen, in Noten gebündelten suizidalen Grundstimmung der Portugiesen, besucht auf ihrer Deutschlandtournee auch den Berliner Tränenpalast.
Germany - live report of a great portugues singer
Carlotti, photo by Tom KellerTroubadours Lied - Jan-Màri Carlòtti auf dem Folkfestival Tilburg
Sänger und Gitarrist Jan-Màri Carlòtti erinnert daran, dass die Kunst der "Minne" ihren Ursprung im südfranzösischen Languedoc hat. Im 12. Jhd. gehört "Okzitanien" noch nicht zum Königreich Frankreich. Sprache, Kultur und Politik orientieren sich zum Mittelmeer hin.
Netherlands - festival report with focus on french singer
T:-)M's Nachtwache - Krieg und Frieden - Walkin' T:-)M (ent)rüstet sich
"Consider the term Celtic music, what does it mean? Has it any basis in musicological fact or sociological theory? There are two distinct linguistic groups within the Celtic world and there has been enough separation and diffusion of the Celts over time for both distinct and complex local traditions to develop. Lumping the traditional music of Ireland, Scotland, Britanny, Wales and Celto-Iberia under one catch-all label is at best misleading at worst insulting and exploitative." (Séan Laffey)
another selection of book reviews

 

To the content of FolkWorld No. 22

© The Mollis - Editors of FolkWorld; Published 06/2002

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