liveIreland Awards 2007

January always brings The Livies, and this year is no exception. 2006 was a great year for the music, and you heard it all on LiveIreland. As usual, it is time to hand out the Awards for the best of the best. There are three really huge Awards in trad music, The TG4's, The Livies and The Irish Music Magazine Readers Poll. These are the only true worldwide, big- time Awards, bringing major world-wide recognition to these deserving winners. You should support each of these artists by purchasing their albums, going to their concerts, and generally rolling out the red carpet wherever you see them. They are special. They are a gift. So is their incredible music. The envelopes, please!

The Livies-2007


  Female Musician of the Year
Alison Hood is the great piano player of Ireland. Her solo album, Romantic Dreams and Celtic Themes is one for the ages, and should be declared an Irish National Treasure. Alison received her Ph.D from Trinity in Dublin, and her specialty and thesis were on Chopin. While doing it all, she became aware of Dublin's own John Field. Called, The Irish Romantic, Field was born in 1782, invented the nocturne!!, and was idolized by Chopin, among others. This album has been out a few years, and is actually out of print, believe it or not. Produced by Phil Coulter, it is surprisingly understated for him. Alison's playing is the deal. This is gorgeous music, played perfectly by a true musician of the highest caliber. We have played no album more since discovering it this past year. You can get on a wait list, or perhaps score a used cd on Amazon. Do what you have to. This is hauntingly beautiful music, all written by John Field. That genius meets Alison Hood, and we are all the better for it. Were I to get my hands on only one winner this year, this would be it. The more we listen, the more we are enchanted by the music and this musician. Good Lord, this is wonderful!

  Female Newcomer of the Year

A gorgeous, crystal-clear voice meets a deep understanding of the music. Kathleen MacInnes broke on the scene in a major way this year with a stunner of an album on Greentrax, Og Mhadainn Shamhraidh: Summer Dawn. She is from South Uist in Scotland's Western Isles. Kathleen is a well-known presenter on Scottish television, as well as an accomplished actress. What we care about here is her voice. Magic. Almost all the album is in Scots Gaelic. No matter. This voice is a treasure. She is a major artist, and will be around a very long time. Watch this star get brighter and brighter. This is truly world-class talent. Wow!

  Song of the Year

Dave Gunning is from Nova Scotia. His album, Two Bit World, is an incredible piece of music. How does one so young get such insight, never mind such talent? A great voice for his music, he is wonderful. We saw him twice in concert in 2006 and were moved to our socks each time. His magnum opus so far has to be this year's Song of the Year, New Highway. Written about Nova Scotia, this song is also perfect for Ireland, as well as anywhere else where tremendous economic development has changed everything. Folks in Ireland will tell you that the Celtic Tiger economy has been wonderful for the country, and that there has also been a tremendous loss of what it is that made Ireland so special for so long. The country is forever changed, and not all for the better. Swords do indeed have two sides. New Highway is all about what is lost, not gained. The song, and Gunning's genius, offer the knowledge that it is the same everywhere. We all want "the new highway". Then, we get it. "Be careful of that which you truly desire, for it will surely be yours." Last year's winner of this award, Wildflowers--performed by Cathie Ryan and written by John Spillane--joins this song in being two of the most moving musical moments we have experienced. New Highway is far more than a great song. It is an anthem of genius that has meaning for people in all countries where the economy is a rising tide lifting many boats, while also sinking others. Yup. We said it. We mean it. Genius.

  Male Musician of the Year

The last album Green Linnet ever released, we believe, was Fiddlewings by Manus McGuire. What a great way for that company to go out! This is the second solo album for the magical fiddler out of East Galway and Clare. Everything he has ever touched has been the best, from the well-remembered group, Buttons and Bows, through the iconic, Moving Cloud to today's internationally acclaimed, Brock-McGuire Band. Through it all, Manus' talent and taste have been hallmarks. There is no better fiddler in the tradition. Period. Fiddlewings is following the first solo gem, Saffron and Blue. Impeccable musicianship. A master. We honestly have used up our bag of adjectives for this man over the years. He is a treasure. And, all we gotta do is go, get the album and play it. Then, we get to share something very special, indeed. Very, very special.

  Vocal/Instrumental Album of the Year

Many artists consider this Award the biggest of The Livies. Well, so be it. There could be no easier winner. McNally's Row of Flats by Mick Moloney is, indeed, what we called it the first time we heard it. A masterpiece. Any regular reader of this column knows how much we love Moloney's music. More than any other living artist, Mick has been critical in the development of the whole study of Irish-American music. He is a lovely banjo/guitar player with a terrific voice (more on this later). He is also a musical Doctorate with a deep grasp of the whole, vast subject of Irish music as it came to be played and recreated in America. He can sit in a trad session with the best of them. But, how many could go from that, and perform a brilliant version of "My Dad's Dinner Pail"? The whole album features music rooted in the turn of the 20th century from such seminal creative forces as Harrigan & Hart. Never heard of them? The liner notes to this album are worth the price alone. There is such a sense of joy at work here. This is no dry academic presentation of musical history. We cannot possibly imagine a better voice for these fully orchestrated songs. If you can listen to this album and not tap your foot and smile, we owe you a pint. There is no album we listened to more this year. God, how we hate pretentious writers who call albums, "important". Forgive us. This album is important---if you want to understand and enjoy the full range of truly Irish music. And to think, this tradition was almost lost! Don't just sit there. Go get this. Just the best. Easily.

  Male Vocalist of the Year

Mick Moloney. See, we figure if you put this album out, and it is perfect, a huge part of it has to be the singer. Now, we don't claim that Mick is a singer in the line of Tommy Fleming or Andrew Murray of The Munnelly Band. What we DO claim is that Mick has the perfect voice for the kind of material in McNally's Row of Flats. That is what Male Vocalist of the Year is all about. The voice meets the material. We honestly cannot think of any other singer who could have understood, loved and performed this music better. If you haven't heard it yet, get it. You'll see. Or, is it, "you'll listen"? Either way, the whole thing is fantastic. Good boyo, Mick!

  Instrumental Album of the Year

Humdinger. This album was released featuring the legend, Paul Brock on button box with the best banjo player in Irish music, Enda Scahill. Ryan Molloy on piano adds an unbelievable amount to the effort. It just can't be done better than this. The Awards are pouring in from LiveIreland adding to The Irish Times and several other venues. In our original review, we said, "we must not fear the word 'perfection' ". Still true. It is simply impossible to describe this. Imagine the real, pure trad music played to absolute perfection. Every note. 16 tunes. Every single note, perfect. And, the repertoire! An aural tour of the best tunes in the library, many seldom, if ever, heard. We were recently thinking of the most enjoyable moments we have had over the decades in and around the music. So many of those moments center around Paul Brock. Moving Cloud. The Brock-McGuire Group. And now, this. He is surely the best box player in the world now. This is a title that passes along, and if not Brock, who? There are incredible challengers. But, there stands Brock. So, Scahill is the best. Brock is the best. And, Molloy joins Newport's Denis Carey in giving the best piano accompaniment we have heard in trad. So, this is all the best----by the best. Tellin' ya. You want this. If you love traditional music, you want this. Buy. Tap your toes. Smile. Like we said, perfect.

  Male Newcomer of the Year

Now, realize that a lot of the people who win a "newcomer" Award are not newcomers! But---and this is the deal---they are newcomers to US. The whole Irish/Celtic/Scottish/Welch/World/Canadian/Irish-American thing has gotten so vast, we don't claim to be keeping up with it all. Impossible. No apologies. So, we are sure Kevin MacLeod is well known in Scotland, as he should be. His Greentrax album, Dorney Rock is phenomenal. All instrumental, we have the lad playing a lot of mandolin, guitar, and assorted other treats. This is a wondrous piece of work. All the guitar/banjo/tenor guitar/bouzouki/dobro/cittern/mandocello/ mandolin finger and flat picking players in the world can dazzle with technique. They can play real fast. Make a lot of notes in a short period of time. Big deal. What is rare is to find those musicians who also have soul and a real grasp of the heart of the music. Then, they have to be able to translate it all to us. Meet Kevin MacLeod. He is joined here by some great guest artists, but it is MacLeod who is the deal. There are literally thousands of wannabes out there who hope to play for a great company like Greentrax. How many get to do it? That tells you all about MacLeod. Dorney Rock is not his first solo album, but it is the first one we have heard. It is a great album by a terrific musician. Scotland knows him well. Now, so do we. Better late than never. A master.

  Female Vocalist of the Year

Niamh de Buraca is on the legendary Gael Linn label. Even better for her is that she has Alan O'Leary at Copperplate Distribution in London representing her. When a Copperplate package shows up, we know we are in for a treat. Nothing, however, could have prepared us for this voice. Stunning. Amazing. Get out all the best adjectives. This woman is a gift, as is her voice. The album is, An Ait A Bhfuil Do Chroi. Talk about out of nowhere! Alto. VERY rich, warm vocals. Produced perfectly. She has the gift from God in the voice. She deeply understands her music. Most importantly, she does not over reach her range. Everything is well within that range, and therefore she can focus on the meaning and the depth of the songs----which are wonderful, by the way. We are so tired of young Irish girls with quivery, weak, wobbly, nasal sopranos. We won't mention names. We would love to, but we won't. Some are getting to be VERY big names, God help us. On the other hand, we have DeBuraca. A full rich, adult voice. Beautiful. Stunning, really. This is no wimpy, whiny soprano. This is a real woman singing gorgeous music. Aren't we the fortunate ones to get to hear her? Long may she be around, singing and recording.. We want more! MORE!

  Instrumental Cut of the Year

Compass Records in Nashville put out a real winner this year in Tripswitch. Terrific album by John McSherry and Donal O'Connor, son of last year's Musician of the Year and legendary fiddler, Gerry O'Connor. It is an all-instrumental bit of brilliance. We loved the whole thing. The album was McSherry's follow-up to last year's Instrumental Album of the Year he put out with Michael McGoldrick, At First Light. Are we beginning to see a pattern here? It finally dawned on us why we kept going back and back again to listen to a set of four reels including "Johnny Going to Ceili/Sean McGuire's/John Doherty's/The First Month of Summer". It is because they are the ultimate realization of a terrific set of reels played with intuition, style, soul and real ability. This is a cut perhaps easily overlooked on this album. It is not a huge, ambitious set of reels full of sound and fury. It is just the archetype of the traditional set of reels. Instrumental Cut of the Year, for sure!! What it is all about.

  Concert of the Year

We were sitting at Irish Fest in Milwaukee, waiting to hear the legendary, J.P. Cormier. We had never seen him. We had never heard him solo. We HAD heard about him, all right. A successful Nashville studio musician, originally out of Cape Breton. He had left all that to return to his Cape Breton base, and pursue his own creative deal. Thank God he did. To say he is a stunning musician is to totally understate the fact. Uh, how about genius? You hear a Cormier album with all these unbelievable guitar players, mandolin pickers, bass accompanists, banjo players, keyboarders---then you learn the facts. They are ALL Cormier! One of the best bands we ever heard is J.P. Cormier. So, there we are, sitting and waiting for The Man. He strides out on stage and does a couple numbers that just blow us away. We are loving it. Then, he begins what can only be described as, "The Moment". He slowly and quietly starts a set of Irish tunes, solo on the guitar. The set keeps going. It is turning into this THING. The audience is captured. It keeps morphing into something else. All Irish, to be sure, but unlike any Irish set we have ever heard---or ever imagined. Around 10 minutes into "The Moment", we knew it was getting real serious. A couple times the audience had already started to applaud---couldn't help themselves, we suppose. Wait a minute, we were applauding, too! Well, the boy stays cool and keeps right on playing. It is getting more intricate, faster, deeper. What are we at now, 17 minutes? Well, we've never been at anything like this! At about 20 minutes, we were motionless. Having trouble breathing. We are WAY past stunned, and this thing is getting better by the moment, for Christ's sakes! Now, the audience has stopped applauding. There are the occasional whoops and hollers, but it is getting pretty quiet out there, and the reason is that we are gaining our collective strength. Somewhere (we calculate at about minute 23) he ends it with a single-note whack on the D string. The audience, as one, instantaneously, screamingly jumps to its feet and goes on and on. People literally dancing up and down with no music playing. We knew we had just seen something way, way beyond special. We had experienced, "The Moment". Wasn't it grand? Then it comes to us in a Gestalt flash. The reason it had gotten so quiet. We think the audience was actually waiting for him to end the exciting madness. We have never seen an audience truly impatient to give an artist a standing ovation. " Stop! We want to tell you how much we love you! How much we love THIS!! "



And, that is the concert of the year. And, that is The Moment.



Congrats to all! Well done, indeed!!
 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!