Concert Review—

STIMS Brought Matt Cranitch – This Time

With Sliabh Notes – Back To The Meeting House

By Andrew Carey

The members of the band Sliabh Notes (pronounced “shleeve notes”) chose their name as a pun which may soon need explanation not for the pronunciation, but because young audiences will no longer understand that before CDs with booklets there were vinyl records with sleeves.

No matter, the music of Sliabh Notes — who performed at Newtown Meeting House on March 1 — and their homeplace, Sliabh Luchra (“Mountain of Rushes”), a region of Ireland on the juncture of Counties Cork, Kerry, and Limerick, is as strong and living as ever.

With Matt Cranitch of Cork on fiddle, Dónal Murphy of Limerick on button accordion, and Tommy O’Sullivan of Kerry on guitar and vocals, Sliabh Notes has been playing together since 1994 and last visited

Connecticut in 2000. That show, referenced by Mr Cranitch several times during the course of the evening, was held in Fairfield, but Mr O’Sullivan has played the meeting house once before, as a partner to uillean piper Paddy Keenan in another show sponsored by the Shamrock Traditional Irish Music Society (STIMS).

Thursday’s concert began with a set of polkas, the 2/4 dance tunes which southwestern Ireland has made its own. Although unnamed, the three polkas made an indelible impression on the ear, led by Mr Cranitch’s

fiddle, with Mr Murphy’s accordion smoothly blending in and Mr O’’ullivan’s guitar anchoring the whole.

Second came a set of slides: “Art O’Keefe’s,” “The Star Above the Garter” and “Taidhgín an Asail” (“Little Tadhg of the Donkey”). These 12/8 tunes, like polkas, are mostly lost amongst the jigs and reels in the music of other parts of Ireland, but make up half or more of any Sliabh Luchra dance-band’s repertory. Sliabh Notes played them with a solid rhythm and the indefinable twist that makes Sliabh Luchra music

distinctive, with such accuracy that the rapid pace sounds quite relaxed.

As well as being a fine backing guitarist for dance tunes with a great sense for the rhythmic subtleties of his region’s music, Mr O’Sullivan is a notable singer, whose work is spiced with influences from English and American folk music. His rendition of Galway songwriter Tony Small’s “The Welcome,” a plaintive yet hopeful song of homecoming, was a sweet contrast to the driving tunes.

The late fiddler Andy McGann was a great influence on Irish music in New York and Connecticut, so a set of hornpipes beginning with “Andy McGann’s” was much appreciated by the local musicians in the audience,

especially when paired with “Murphy’s Hornpipe,” which on Thursday evening, Mr Cranitch announced, they played for audience member and Monroe-based accordionist Loretta Murphy.

“As you see, we have this well-planned,” said Mr Cranitch, as the band paused to choose the next set, which proved to be three jigs learnt from the recordings of Leitrim flute-player John McKenna.

Afterward came Mr Cranitch’s stunning rendition of the slow air “Amhrán na Leabhar” (“Song of the Books”), a schoolmaster’s lament for his library lost in a boating accident. The entire ensemble came in slowly around the fiddle, showing a sense of space and melodic flow that few bands can match and none can better.

There aren’t many singing boxers, and of that select number only Jack Doyle of Cóbh, County Cork, made a fortune, married a Hollywood starlet, and then lost both wife and money. So it was only natural that Cork songwriter Jimmy McCarthy would write “The Contender,” which went on to be recorded by Christy Moore and many others. Mr O’Sullivan’s rendition was a treasure, clear and graceful, deep yet simple, well-sung and well-received.

It’s ironic, given that the music of Sliabh Luchra is characterized by slides and polkas, that the reels “Galtee Rangers,” “Glentown” and “O’Callahan’s” make up a set jocularly called “the national anthem of Sliabh Luchra.” Before playing this signature set, Mr Cranitch announced his regret that his host and longtime friend, fiddler Joe Gerhard of New Haven, had broken his wrist and would be unable to sit in.

Dónal Murphy’s father was also a notable musician, and wrote “Dan Murphy’s Slide” which Sliabh Notes matched up with “Danny Ab’s Slide” and “The Gullane Polka.” The transition from slide rhythm to polka would have baffled most amateur Irish session players and many bands, but Sliabh Notes made the tricky change seem effortless.

Mr O’Sullivan’s next song, “I Feel So Near,” by the Scottish songwriter Dougie MacLean, led smoothly into the ever popular reel “The Redhaired Lass.”

The final set of reels — “The Baltimore Salute,” “Craig’s Pipes” and “The Master’s Return” — brought the audience to their feet, demanding an encore, which was provided in the form of three polkas: “Many a Wild Night,” “John Walsh’s” and “Daly’s Mill.”