Folkies, recruits, respond to Irish music

Press, 16 August 1988, Page 21

Folkies, recruits, respond to Irish music

Although folk clubs have suffered declining interest, that is where the flame of traditional music has been kept alive — along with a flicker of protest songs from the 60s, and even the embers of what some disparagingly call “finger in the ear” music: unaccompanied renditions of English country songs. If the Christchurch Folk and Acoustic Music Club’s Sunday evening concerts at the Peterborough Centre are typical, their range of music is anything but narrow. Performances range from traditional Irish music to American jazz, with a multitude of other styles in between. Libby Garland, a club stalwart from its early days, says Christchurch at the moment has the largest number of outstandingly

talented musicians of anywhere in the country — “but it goes in cycles.” She quotes her ex-husband, the singer and collector of New Zealand songs, Phil Garland, as saying that although New Zealand does not have a tradition in music, it does have a musical heritage. The bush music of the ordinary people — shearers, gumdiggers, goldminers and loggers — came from the traditional music of England, Scotland and Ireland (even if it was played on makeshift instruments), while the more affluent settlers brought out the Victorian drawing room music of the day.

“What keeps traditional music alive here in Christchurch is the number of expatriate Brits and Irish who come here,” she says.

“That’s also very noticeable in Australia, where the top cream of their traditional musicians, people like Eric Bogle, Tony Miles, Bernard Bolan, and Danny Spooner are all from Britain. “At our club, a high proportion are expatriate Brits. Two notable exceptions are John and Paddy Harte who packed the club out when they performed their traditional Irish music one recent Sunday evening. It was an audience of devotees.”

Together, the Hartes have done a lot for Irish music in the folk world. Paddy is from a very musical family (her brother is the pianist Michael Houstoun) and played the fiddle in the University Folk Club. In Australia on holiday she discovered Irish traditional music, and that confirmed her musical direction.

She plays the music of the Shetlands and Brittany, and Bluegrass, too, but Irish music is her first love.

“A lot of people were drawn to the folk scenes in the mid-1970s because they were getting to know Irish music, through groups like the Chieftains,” she says. “That’s when the strong basis developed. We all got together and learned tunes from records and had a good time.” She met John Harte at the folk club, and they became involved in various dance band groups before forming their own traditional music group, Dalriada, in 1979. They played at clubs and festivals, did a North Island tour, and held public concerts — packing 400 into the State Trinity Centre, with about 60 turned away.

“We were more of a concert group,” John Harte says. “We played traditional tunes as played in Ireland, but with an arranged accompaniment, not just a three-chord backing.” Dalriada, named after an ancient Irish-Scottish kingdom, comprised an electric keyboard, a bodhran (traditional Irish drum), tenor banjo, mandolin, whistles, Irish and Northumbrian pipes, and two fiddles.

In 1983 the Hartes went to Ireland, and played everywhere they went. They did the same in Italy, finding ready acceptance in Italian trattoria.

On their return they formed a vocal group called Thunderhead with Lyn Clark (of “Send the Boats Away”) and toured both islands singing mostly songs that Lyn had written. Nowadays, the Hartes play mainly as a duo at Scottish and Irish society events, festivals and the folk club. Sometimes they get together for special events with other musicians — Kelvin Scott whom they describe as “an extraordinary whistle player” from the South American group Pachamama, Tim Barry and Barry McDonald.

People keen on playing traditional Irish music have found Paddy Harte a great help. She holds an informal elementary tuition session at her home in St Albans on Tuesday evening for those wanting to get started.

“Irish music tends to be fast and it’s hard to pick up at the speed that it’s played,” she says. “Anyone’s welcome to come along on Tuesday nights. I go through the tune slowly with them, and by the end of the night they’ve got the tune in their heads, and eventually they get up to speed.” While Paddy Harte is doing that, her husband is usually busy in his workshop at his occupation of luthier, repairing violins, violas and cellos from all over New Zealand, together with some from overseas and one or two from touring soloists. The Hartes deny being purists, but they do try hard to play traditional Irish music in a style that is appropriate to it. “We want to be as true to the traditional as we can be,” Paddy Harte says. “We are slightly progressive in the way we arrange the music, but we are true to the melody.” /