Ireland has seen more than its fair share of oícheanta na gaoithe móire this past few weeks but one blast of windy weather that the Irish is welcoming is Tempest, the eponymous debut album of traditional music by some of the north’s finest musicians - flute-player Brendan Mulholland, Luke Ward on the bazouki and piper Aaron O’Hagan, alongside south Armagh singer Bláithín Mhic Canna.
The band came together around two years ago but what is it that attracts musicians and singers to each other? There are so many elements to forming a band - you have to like each other personally, be on the same wavelength as far as the music is concerned so what was it that brought Tempest together?
Brendan Mulholland was the original instigator and he brought me back to a conversation we had five or six years ago when he and Micky McCluskey had just released an album.
“Back then, I was telling you that I wanted to go full-time playing music and that there were a couple of things I wanted to do,” he tells me.
“I wanted to do a solo album which ended up as Barton’s Bay which was released last year, but I also wanted to have a rock-solid traditional band.
“I’ve been lucky in that I’ve been a deputy in lots of bands and people have asked me to fill in and do this and do that like a super-sub but I wanted my own band, one in which the Irish language would be a prominent feature.”
Brendan’s wife, Aisling, is from Cullyhanna so he is related to south Armagh by marriage but also musically. He plays with Aisling’s brother, Terry, in a folk group called Raglan but years ago, he met sean-nos singer Bláithín Mhic Canna who was heavily involved in the local singing circle.
“Bláithín is very passionate about songs of Ulster, her whole life is Irish language and Irish songs, so when it came to forming a band I always had her in the back of my head.”
Brendan had already known the other two Tempest members for years: “Aaron O’Hagan happens to be one of my best friends. I taught Aaron when he was in short trousers. Now he teaches me.”
Aaron has toured, gigged and recorded with Réalta, so he was always going to feature.
I wanted a band in which the Irish language would be a prominent feature
— Brendan Mulholland
As for Luke Ward - he had done an album with Aaron called The Devil’s Punchbowl which showed he is “an amazing bazouki player”, says Brendan. “I think the chemistry is right,” he says.
The band have now released their debut album, containing songs, traditional tunes and tunes written by the band members.
“Because the four of us have enough respect for Irish traditional music, we are primarily a traditional band,” explains Brendan.
“Most of the tunes on the album are traditional tunes although each of us has a composition that’s in there and we are open to other influences coming into the music.”
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As for the songs, Brendan explains that “Bláthín is very passionate about songs from Ulster, especially from Oiriall”. “Bláithín is a very proud south Armagh woman and her mentor is Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin who has has been a big influence on her singing so the songs from the book, Hidden Ulster, was on the table at every rehearsal we had.”
Brendan has played in all kinds of bands, from rock to folk and trad, but he says never in his time has he seen traditional music so strong.
“In folk music, you have the Whistling Donkeys, The Tumbling Paddies, the Raparees and others and if you look at the age dynamic of the audiences they play to, they’re loving it. Okay, they’re maybe just not listening the way a traditional audience would listen, but they’re still there,” he says.
“On the traditional musical front, I think we’re sitting on the shoulders of giants.” Brendan points to “the great work that Francis McPeake, God rest him, did”, the Glengormley School of Traditional Music and the Armagh Pipers Club with Brian and Eithne Vallely. The standard of traditional music among young people has never been so high, he says.
Tempest are now ready to enter the scene, a new age band from Ulster, a meeting of similar minds, who have put an album together and are just looking to get out and play good music and enjoy it. “We have a five-year plan set out,” explains Brendan.
“It’s not just gonna be a one-off album. There’s a structure and a plan there.”
Tempest play a series of gigs in the coming weeks: the Spirit Store in Dundalk on February 8: An Coire in Carntogher on February 22; in the Market House in Armagh on March 9; and in the Townhall Arts Centre in Cavan on March 22.
Find the album on Bandcamp: tempestceol.bandcamp.com/album/tempest
