The Intangible

Well I suppose you could class our style as "Thrash Paddy meets Jed Clampit". Although primarily an Irish Band playing tunes and ballads made famous by the likes of The Chieftains, The Pogues, The Dubliners etc. there are many tunes that forge a link between the Irish and Blue Grass styles. For example the tune "Miss McLeod's Reel" is as popular in Irish as it is in Blue Grass.

A few of our 3 part sets tries to capture this spirit, such as :-

Botany Bay (Irish), Angeline the Baker (Blue Grass), Miss McLeod's Reel (Both)

Now listen... we don't do country music... , but we don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down'

The charm of Irish music lies in its ability to appeal to people of all ages, this is an essential part of its spirit and allure.

Popular music tends to be generational, connecting listeners in one generation, but dividing them from those in others. In Ireland, because traditional music has been respected and virtually unchanged for hundreds of years, you'll often find, as one Irish musician observed, "the tiny tot sitting down with the pensioner and the judge or lawyer and playing music with the common man of the street."

Simply put, it is music that somehow helps us cross the barriers of class, age and ethnicity and makes us feel that we are all in this together. Lord knows, there is not enough of that going on in the world today.

This, I believe, is the real magic of Irish Music.

I suppose you can define Irish Music into 3 categories. Traditional, popular and modern. Traditional tends to fall into the category of the reels, jigs, hornpipes etc. that everybody enjoys a dance to while popular can be classed as "the old favourites" such as The Irish Rover, Star of the County Down and Fields of Athenry.

In recent years modern Irish Music has become extremely popular. With bands such as Solas, Moving Hearts and The Pogues all helping to bring this type of music to the forefront of the music industry. I think it takes a strong willed man not to join in the chorus of " A fairytale in New York" There are so many new and inspiring artists and song writers around today such as Christy Moore, Mary Black and Jimmy McCarthy whose popular songs of today will be the classics of the future.

An example of this would be the song " Back home in Derry" Although I did not agree with the manner in which he promoted his politics, this was penned by Bobby Sands, while on hunger strike, shortly before he died. Superbly written this tells the graphic tale of Irish prisoners deported to Australia at the turn of the 17th century while under British rule and in part reflects Irelands strive for independance and to unite north & south.