A quick trawl through the gig archives revealed that this was the third occasion of seeing Mike McGoldrick, John McCusker and John Doyle at the Midlands Art Centre. It is hard to split the effect of each show such is the lofty consistency and high calibre of their musicianship. Taking each one as a stand alone exhibition of British Isles folk music in its finest and most exhilarating form is all that is required, and a latest visit to Birmingham produced no exception to the rule.
The MAC has been one of the more proactive multi arts venues getting back into performances, and checking their listings or perusing the promotional emails has thrown up a series of good events with folk becoming their preferred genre for staging live music. The venue was also praised by the trio for being hospitable hosts and this evening's show transpired to be the culmination of a 5-week run of getting back on the road after that enforced break.
Apart from the virtuoso playing which is akin to classical trimming down to meet the horizon of everyday folk, this long established trio, albeit part time in collaboration due to a multitude of other projects and residential divide, ooze affable camaraderie and spontaneous wit. It was a case of an Englishman, Irishman and Scot entering the stage and proving that traditional music has no barriers as we branched out from their homeland to places far and wide including northern Spain, north eastern US and down deep in the Bayou.
There was little structure to how two sets, packed with tunes and songs, and a commercial break spanned a couple of hours. John Doyle from the Emerald Isle, but now based in Asheville North Carolina, takes the vocal lead on his mesmerisingly mined old time folk songs with the other pair playing a lot more than an accompanying role on them. From his chosen mode of various pipes and whistles, Manchester's finest Mike McGoldrick also brings his own tunes to the table, some borrowed some designed. Likewise Glasgow-born, Edinburgh-based John McCusker is not only a world class fiddle player but also an accomplished composer and one of the faces of his homeland's folk scene. However the key component of the trio act is the chemistry concocted and the transfixed zone they lead you into when in full flow.
Adding further spice to a McGoldrick, McCusker and Doyle show is the Scot's numerous harmonium contributions and the single appearance of what was thought to be a mandola. While the tendency is to focus more on the playing of McCusker and McGoldrick, strip the vocals from Doyle and you are still left with a superb guitar player, bringing some southpaw grace to both acoustic and electric. You could argue that the sum is greater than the parts. That accolade is made even more superlative when you factor in the starting point of the parts.
The gig archive had 2016 and 2019 inked in as dates the MAC bowed to the talents of John Doyle, John McCusker and Mike McGoldrick. You can now add 2021 and odds are pretty short that that there will be another entry in the not-too-distant future. Alternatively they will surely pop up elsewhere in many other guises.
