The chord count is more than three and folk music is often
liberal with the truth, but let’s not allow such constraints to shackle us too
much. This blog once displayed the phrase ‘start with the cliché before
branching out where the music matters’, and the music certainly matters when
Mike McGoldrick, John McCusker and John Doyle re-convene for what has now
become a fairly frequent tour of collaboration. Post Transatlantic Sessions is
the usual time for this Englishman, Scotsman and Irishman to team up, and this
is not the intro to that well-worn joke, give or take the odd quip from John
McCusker. Right in the middle of a 25-date strong UK tour, the Midland Arts
Centre (MAC) in Birmingham is once again the Midlands port of call and a sell-out
audience is testimony to the trio’s standing in the folk world, alongside
frequent trips to the area in the past.
The format of these evenings varies very little, mainly due
to each performer honing in on their particular area of expertise. Splitting
the individual brilliance and the collaborative blend is a fine cut, with both
facets conspiring to make this a virtuoso performance of traditional music,
albeit sprinkled with a few new tunes to stoke the fire of the past.
For those unware of this trio’s long line of work, John
McCusker is a premium fiddle player, whilst adding harmonium, whistle and
various other strings to his repertoire. Mike McGoldrick is a Uileann pipe
specialist plus assorted whistles and flutes, while John Doyle adds the vocals
to the mix and a combination of acoustic and electric guitars. The set-up is
along the lines of each bringing their own tunes/songs to the table before giving
them a multi-instrumental makeover. This format did finally attain recorded
status with 2016’s THE WISHING TREE album, but this project retains a prime
focus of the live arena, or more aptly theatre.
It would take far more than a layman’s ear to absorb the
finer detail of the tunes presented, but this evening is best enjoyed by
letting the spellbinding sounds wash over you. Emotions, moods, vivid bouts of
imagination and a roller coaster of tempo and beats flow from the floor to fill
a venue and infiltrate the open senses of a tuned-in audience member.
In contrast to the avalanche of instrumentals, the
contribution of John Doyle lies in the folk storytelling tradition, and that
usually means death, more death and events that lead to a death. All told in a
non-morbid and tongue-in-cheek way. Eventually the songs conjure audience
contribution, climaxed in a usual way for folks previously attending these
events with a rousing version of ‘Billy O’Shea’.
After these collaborations, which do crop up at various
other times as noted by a Cambridge Folk Festival appearance lined up for this summer,
Mike McGoldrick, John McCusker and John Doyle slip back into their many other
projects. The one near certainty is that this trio will likely re-convene again
and this sell-out audience indicates a Birmingham return would be an opportunity
too good to miss.
