THERE is something uasal or noble about Corca Dhuibhne aka the Dingle Peninsula in west Kerry. From the haughty heights of Mount Brandon down to its rolling hills and from its craggy cliffs to its sandy beaches, it is landscape royalty.
It is little wonder then, that its musical traditions and especially its song tradition should reflect the majesty of the land that is home to so many of the country’s great music makers. That is certainly true of singer and flautist Muireann Nic Amhlaidh who has returned home to her roots in the Kerry Gaeltacht to raise her young family with husband Billy Mag Fhloinn.
Over the past number of years, Muireann has been a model of time management with various careers as a solo singer, being the lead vocalist with Danú for 13 years, touring with Scottish singer Julie Fowlis, teaching music and working on various television programmes.
She was winner of the 2011 Gradaim Ceoil TG4 Singer of the Year and has an MA in Traditional Music Performance from the University of Limerick but today, Muireann feels she is a very different person thanks to her return home.
“I’d been stressing about my voice and this, that and the other, but staying at home and resting for a while, coming off the road and returning back to this place where there’s so much music,” she explains.
“For me it’s not so much about performance and touring, it’s about having that rich network of friends and musicians. It’s what I love about music and what inspired me to begin with. It’s been a nice full circle to come back here, start the family. And the little ones now are starting to sing the songs that I sang when I was their age so I think it’s time for me to go again.
“It’s part of my kids' life and I see them in the little school and how rich and exciting it is. It’s very exciting to return to that. It has just completely reinvigorated me.”
That’s why Muireann has started a Kickstarter campaign to fund her new album. A lot has happened for her in the last few years but luckily her head remains full of songs, be they from her own neck of the woods or from the other side of the world.
“What tends to happen with me is that an idea kind of builds and builds inside me until I have to record it or I’d go mad. I have to empty it all out and put it on a CD or my head will explode!”
Preventing a real-life reenactment of that famous scene from Scanners is a close-knit community of friends who live to share their music and who Muireann would like to invite on to the new album – the likes of Gerry O’Beirne, Séamus Begley, Donogh Hennessey, Dónal O’Connor, Donnchadh Gough from Danú and singers Síle Denver and Pauline Scanlon, people from around the Dingle Peninsula as well as musical friends she has met along the way.
There will also be tunes on the album too, because as Muireann says: “That’s part of who I am as well and, as Pauline Scanlon said to me, when you have an album you are really happy with and people ask you ‘What do you do?’ you can hand them the album and say ‘This is an exact representation of what I do.’”
While so far I’ve been speaking to Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, the traditional singer, there is also Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, the electronica diva. Recently the signer teamed up with Pádraig Rynne and others to form Aeons, a mixture of songs in Irish, rap and electronica. Believe me folks, it really works.
“Oh, that was great fun,” laughs Muireann. “I keep that and my traditonal work separate because I don’t want to be a fusion artist or do trad with a jazzy or a bluesy tinge. Each has to stand on their own which is why Aeons was so different to what I normally do. It was fully out there electronica.
“The only connection with what I normally do is that the songs are in Irish,” she says and the language is a vital part of who Muireann is. When growing up, she was raised in three different Gaeltacht areas so the language is an integral part of her being. It also is a big part of her music.
“Yes, it’s difficult for me to talk all about that,” she says. "Even though I sing in English as well, to have the Irish has helped me have an understanding of the music. I’m not saying that you can’t have an understanding without the language, but they’re so helpful to each other and the language is so musical, anyway. It’s a shared experience here – the language, the song, and I suppose it’s about identity, it’s way of looking back at what was here before and the sharing of what we have now.
“I’m positive of where we are right now in terms of the Gaeltacht; it's got its challenges and everything but I’m surrounded by some great like-minded families and young people raising kids. It’s a good time right now. So for me making an album is a way of making a place in your life and I’d like to do that now.”
You can see Muireann’s Kickstarter page at http://url.ie/11q1i
DO CAIM ALONG
NEWTOWNBREDA Presbyterian Church is celebrating its 175th anniversary and to celebrate, there will be a concert in the church building next Friday, featuring Caim, a Celtic harmony trio, combining Scottish and Irish traditional and contemporary songs, story and dance.
Bringing together voice, harp, flute and bodhran, Belfast’s Jacynth Hamill with Heather Innes and Pauline Vallance, both from Scotland, share songs of personal and spiritual relevance that will make you laugh, set your toes a-tapping and lift the spirit.
Caim will perform at Newtownbreda (St John’s) Presbyterian Church on Belfast’s Ormeau Road on Friday, April 7th at 7:30pm. Admission is by donation with all proceeds going towards the work of Christian Aid. Refreshments included.
