Partial compensation for missing the Transatlantic Sessions for
the first time in five years has been catching up with three of the show’s
stalwarts, as John McCusker. Michael McGoldrick and John Doyle head out on
their own post-Sessions tour. Twelve months ago the trio made a pit stop to perform at
Birmingham’s Midlands Arts Centre and the MAC was delighted to host them again
this year. There was certainly a Celtic spirit in the air as a Scotsman, an
Irishman and an Englishman delivered a feast of tunes and songs to warm the
hearts of an audience taking a detour around any Valentine’s Day hype. For
close on two hours, the trio threw a style of guitars, fiddle, pipes, flute,
whistles and harmonium into the mix, with the output being a marvellous
collection of music steeped in the folk tradition from around these isles.
Despite a Manchester accent and base, Michael McGoldrick is
every inch the Celtic performer, majoring on Uillean pipes, whistles and flute
and being a significant performer on the traditional roots circuit including a
member of the acclaimed Scottish folk band Capercaillie. John McCusker is a
bonafide Scot, exceptional fiddle player and professional musician since
leaving school in his late teens. John Doyle adds the Emerald Isle spice and
particularly offers an Irish-American angle due to the many years he has spent
working in the States. John is the only one of the trio seen before in a solo
or small gathering setting when he played the Kitchen Garden Café last
September. While that event was successful in getting to really understand his
music, the songs he performed tonight took on a whole new profile when backed
by the skilled musicianship of his two colleagues.
This twin-set evening panned out as an even split between
the mixture of instrumental tunes led by McCusker and McGoldrick and the songs
of Doyle. Over the course of the near-two hours, seven of the latter were presented
some familiar and others not so, but all equally resounding in their impact. Headed
by the jolly drunken singalong ‘Fall Down
Billy O’Shea’ and closely matched by another chorus-friendly anthem in ‘Across the Western Ocean’, each song
provided a memorable focal point. Doyle introduced ‘Liberty’s Sweet Shore’ as an ode to his fellow countrymen who
braved the perils of nineteenth century emigration. In contrast ‘I Never Let You Know’ was given a light
hearted Valentine’s Day tinge and ‘I Know
My Love’ was the song which saw the vocals kick in after an instrumental led
start. Two traditional songs completed the vocal line up in ‘The Bonnie Light Horseman’ and ‘Banks of the Bann’. Doyle’s guitar
skills on a beautiful sounding electric one, usual acoustic instrument and a
guitar-bouzouki hybrid, all housed his considerable playing talent which also
supplemented the others on the rest of the instrumental set. 
As previously intimated, John McCusker is a highly talented
fiddle player and the composer of many original tunes which he led during the
evening. The most memorable of these from a story perspective was ‘Leaving Friday Harbour’ which John
composed on his first ever trip abroad as a teenage musician well over twenty
years ago. If anything John was the chatty member of the trio and assumed an
informal leader role. He started the evening with a short harmonium piece and
returned to this most traditional of instruments in the closing stages.
Michael McGoldrick held the central and the least animated
position on the stage, but proved the more versatile in sound offered. That
which emanated from the Uillean pipes was the most pleasing to the ear closely
followed by the flute and assorted whistles. Hailed as the world’s foremost whistle
player did slightly jinx Michael during one tune with a moment that became ‘what
happens on stage stays on stage’. However 99% of the musical craft on display
was exemplary and there must not have been a single dissatisfied customer in
the house.
With such busy professional lives, it should be treasured
when such fine individual exponents as McCusker. McGoldrick and Doyle get
together to tour the sum of their talents. They breathe the life of modernity
into the class of traditional Celtic music, presenting it in such a way that no
fan of roots music can fail to be impressed. It is unimaginable that this
arrangement will not continue in the future, so there should be plenty of
occasions to catch the live magic of John McCusker, Michael McGoldrick and John
Doyle at a venue near you soon.
www.johnmccusker.co.uk
www.johndoylemusic.com
