I’m pretty new to irish traditional music, but have fallen in love with it in a very short time (love at first pipe, i call it). Anyway, my wife hates and abhors it about equally so, and even when i try to play the “this is the music of part of your ancestry” card, she still doesnt buy it or tolerate it much. She even went so far as to say a few days ago, “I don’t know why you listen to that stuff. Even Irish people don’t listen to that stuff. THey’re not sitting over there listening to folk music, they’re listening to modern day music like everyone else.”
I honestly wonder how accurate her assessment is. I know in america there are some people who listen to folk music, but i would say the vast majority of people listen to modern music, pop, rock, country, hip hop, r&b, what not.
So here is the question: Are there a lot of people in ireland who actually listen to irish traditional music? What i mean is, if you went into the typical irish home, would you hear them blasting itm or would it most likely be modern music they listen to, or is there a good deal of both? I know there are no hard answers to the question, but i do wonder if the listeners to folk music in Ireland are about thesame as the listeners to folk music in america?
I’ve been in Ireland since July, firstly as a tourist, and now I’m working there until at least April next year.
There seem to be a remarkable number of people here who like “both types of music” - by which I mean both country AND western. I’ve been surprised by the number of pubs where C&W is played - even intersperced with what you might call “Irish pub songs” (Whiskey in the Jar, Black Velvet Band et al).
That said, there is the range of music here that you will find in any western country: there are local bands playing original pop-ish stuff or covers of other people’s pop/rock/R’nB/etc. There are inde bands doing their modern thing. There are orchestras playing Beethoven, Mozart etc. There are gospel choirs singing American gospel. There are radio stations playing “the hits of the 60’s,70’s, 80’s and today”. Etc. But there are also groups playing what you might call ITM (no, I’m not gonna define it!!!), and some people play it in their homes, cars and iPods. They’re a minority, to be sure, but a larger and more visible minority than in other countries.
What I have noticed is that people here are more open to a variety of styles, with less age-separation: I’ve talked to 20 year old guys in pub sessions who love coming along with their dad and listening to him play his box, but on another night of the week also love to going to clubs and listening to whatever electric/modern/head-banging stuff is going on there.
Mary C is on the ball, there, I’d say. (I’m an ex-pat.) There is a wide variety of music listened to, but if you go into a pub where there’s music playing, the odds are it will be Country & Western.
Ireland IS the country of “Deliverance”. They even had duelling banjoes on the very first episode of “Father Ted”. Now there is a straw in the wind.
Whitmores here (who was born in Dundalk, I think I remember him saying) has told me a couple of times that when he was growing up, he thought C&W was what they meant by “irish music”.
Oh, and when folks in the pubs found out we were from Kentucky … !
You wouldn’t believe how often we were asked if we knew all the words to “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” and, of course, “Kentucky Woman.” And from there usually ensued much discussion of Elvis’s relative merits – I don’t know why.
Put on my blue suede shoes
And I boarded the plane
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues
In the middle of the pouring rain
W.C. Handy, won’t you look down over me
Yeah I got a first class ticket
But I’m as blue as a boy can be
Then I’m walking in Memphis
Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel
Saw the ghost of Elvis
On Union Avenue
Followed him up to the gates of Graceland
Then I watched him walk right through
Now security they did not see him
They just hovered 'round his tomb
But there’s a pretty little thing
Waiting for the King
Down in the Jungle Room
When I was walking in Memphis
Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel
They’ve got catfish on the table
They’ve got gospel in the air
And Reverend Green be glad to see you
When you haven’t got a prayer
But boy you’ve got a prayer in Memphis
Now Muriel plays piano
Every Friday at the Hollywood
And they brought me down to see her
And they asked me if I would
Do a little number
And I sang with all my might
And she said
“Tell me are you a Christian child?”
And I said “Ma’am I am tonight”
Walking in Memphis
Was walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel
Walking in Memphis
I was walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel
Put on my blue suede shoes
And I boarded the plane
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues
In the middle of the pouring rain
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues
In the middle of the pouring rain
I’m from Co. Kerry. When I was growing up we would hear a kind of C&W/ Trad hybrid stuff on the local radio- all of my parents generation would listen to that, and when you went to the country pubs you would most likely encounter a fella wearing a stetson hat with a drum machine and accordion. My own generation was into mostly modern rock/ pop/ dance music. But traditional music is still at the root of it all and the Fleadh Ceol festivals as well as some smaller get-together’s would be a good indication of it’s popularity. Irish traditional music is not at home as recorded music; I always encountered it as a live medium when I was growing up; sometimes in pubs, buskers on the streets during marts and festivals and various other social occasions. Of course recordings of trad music were around, but personally I would only hear these in tourist pubs or gift shops.
A couple years ago we were staying in a B+B in a small village way out in the sticks in Co. Kerry. We asked the landlord if there was any “real trad” music anywhere that night. “Oh sure”, says he “Go to such-and-such pub. They start late, about 10, but the music is grand.”
So off we go, drinking with the very local characters. The band starts to set up about 10.30. We were somewhat suspicious of the speakers and associated gear. But what the heck. We’ve been to good sessions that were electrified. Not our preference, but… Finally, they strike it up, and out comes… “Ring of Fhar”. And so forth.
We look at each other, shrug, and Mrs. K. is asked to waltz with one of the locals.
