Tuning up for Shannonside Winter Music Weekend

MORE than 40 top-class music events will see musicians from the US, UK, Switzerland, Slovakia, Hungary and all across Ireland perform a wide-ranging line-up of gigs and concerts in the Sixmilebridge area for the twelfth Shannonside Winter Music Weekend, from this Thursday night.

The musical highlight of the year in South Clare has this year been re-branded as the Shannonside Winter Music Weekend, to recognise its appeal to the greater regional audience and the holding of some of the events in neighbouring Bunratty.
Festival director Brendan Walsh said a lot of work has gone into organising the event and they are hoping audiences will come out and support the performances.
“The festival has expanded considerably in recent years and we know it’s generated a lot of interest, both at home and abroad. It’s a welcome addition to the January calendar, which is usually a time of the year when people don’t have much to look forward to and are very keen for a boost. We hope that the Winter Music Weekend can be at least part of that boost,” Brendan commented.
Recently the festival, which takes place from this Thursday to Sunday, was the subject of a report presented to a public meeting in the local Courthouse in Sixmilebridge. Padraigh Cleary of Mayday Marketing described the festival as one of the great secrets of the Clare music scene and deserving of a higher profile and continued local support in terms of finance and voluntary effort. He reported great recognition for the festival as a boost to the local economy and community, attracting approximately 3,500 people to the village for the 2010 event. He also pointed out that while there are the obvious financial challenges as funding from all quarters is put under pressure, the weekend still has potential to become a bigger, more influential event, without losing its intimate atmosphere and that with suitable marketing effort, overseas visitors can be attracted to the area at one of the quietest times of the year.
The director explained the event began on a much smaller scale, as a Sunday afternoon and evening session, to mark the change of the millennium.
“We began the event to showcase a diverse range of acoustic music in small venues without the need of amplification but over the past 11 years it has grown and grown and now we are in a position to host an event from the Thursday to Sunday evenings, inclusive. This year we are in a position to bring around 40 gigs, sessions, concerts, recitals and dancing, which will be held in 10 venues, with something included to cover most musical genres.”
Brendan continued, “When the festival began, we could never have imagined how big the weekend would become. We never looked that far ahead. This festival started out being about the music and it still is, it’s never been about commercialism. We started small and we evolved and we got more serious as the years went on. Also, we have been very lucky with all of the local sponsorship we have got. We wouldn’t have kept going on if it wasn’t for that. There were a few teething problems in the early years and now we have a template for a very successful festival.”
One of the highlights of this year’s festival will be the performance by guitar orchestra, the Diversus Guitar Ensemble, who perform in St Finnachta’s Church in Sixmilebridge on Sunday at 1.30pm. The group is made up of over 20 guitarists from across the world and operates much like an orchestra, comprising different guitars, including classical, soprano, acoustic bass and steel-string guitars. At the group’s helm is the festival organiser’s son and namesake, Brendan Walsh, who is a classical guitarist, conductor, composer and folk musician.
The festival director said they are very lucky to have the guitar ensemble performing at the Winter Weekend Festival.
“The music they play is really something quite special. The guitar is very much a unifying instrument for musical performances and it is certainly the best cross-genre instrument,” he commented. Within the guitar ensemble, he explained, are a group from Slovakia and another from Hungary, who play music from their own country, as well as classical guitar.
“They [the group] selected the music that they will play here at the festival months ago and all of the members have been practising it separately until recently and will rehearse together once they get here. These are seriously accomplished musicians and I think their performance will be a real treat,” he commented.
He explained that the ensemble started on a smaller scale in NUI Maynooth almost 11 years ago. “My son, Brendan, was doing a degree in music there and he was one of the founding members. He spent the third year of his course in Louvain [Belgium] in college and while there he met up with international music students, who essentially joined the guitar ensemble with him.
“He then went and did his masters in music performance in DIT, where he recruited more for the ensemble. Then while he was doing another masters in music in Lucerne [Switzerland], he got to know more international musicians and brought them into the guitar ensemble, hence the international element to the group. At this stage, Diversus is half-Irish and half-international. They primarily play classical guitar music but they do other modern arrangements also. This is the first time they are playing at the Winter Music Weekend but they have played to full houses and standing ovations in the National Concert Hall and the LIT Theatre in Limerick, so they have been gathering considerable recognition,” Brendan said.
Brendan’s son will also have the job of performing the first concert of the festival, with fellow Clare musician, Christy McNamara. The pair will play in the Courthouse in Sixmilebridge at 8.30pm on Thursday. With Brendan on classical guitar and Christy on button accordion and concertina, the performance will be a meeting of classical and traditional music.
“We felt it was appropriate that two local musicians would open the festival. While the international element to the festival is always very strong, we also want to showcase the depth of talent there is within Clare in terms of music of all genres,” the festival director remarked.
Also within the Diversus Guitar Ensemble are the jazz duo Patrick Groenland and Georgia Cusack. Patrick is an accomplished jazz guitarist, while singer Georgia’s vocal ability mixes incredibly well with Patrick’s guitar playing. They studied music in Maynooth at the same time as Brendan and went on to further musical studies in Boston. They will perform on Friday at 10pm in the Bunratty Castle Hotel.
Another guitarist with the ensemble is French chanson singer Kamal Abdul Malak, who will perform a solo gig in the Courthouse, Sixmilebridge.
“The wealth of musical talent within the guitar ensemble is immense and it would almost be possible to hang a whole festival on the musicians within the group. As well as these concerts with the jazz duo and Kamal Abdul Malak, other members of the ensemble will perform at gigs and sessions throughout the weekend,” Brendan commented.
The festival director was also eager to flag one of his own favourite acts for the festival.
“The 11am mass in St Finnachta’s Church in Sixmilebridge will be a special gospel mass, with the music being led by bluegrass singers and a four-piece gospel harmony group. This will certainly be a mass with a difference and I expect that it will be packed. Bluegrass at a mass is quite different but a lot of bluegrass music would have stemmed and developed from gospel music. This will definitely be quite a special performance and it will be inspiring,” he said.
He is also particularly looking forward to the performance of Special Consensus on Sunday at 6pm in The Mill Bar. This is the bluegrass band’s fourth visit to the Winter Music Weekend. They began touring the US Midwest in 1975 and have bridged the gap between traditional and progressive bands at many diverse festivals and fairs.
For lovers of dancing, set dancing will be held in the Bunratty Castle Hotel, as will a host of sessions on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and on Sunday lunchtime.
The headline concert on Friday night is Eleanor Shanley, with Frankie Lane and Paul Kelly, in the Courthouse at 9pm. Eleanor has recorded seven solo albums and for the past few years, she has been touring around Europe with Lane and Kelly.
A three-hour concert featuring Sliabh Notes, Jimmy Crowley, Colum Sands, Matt Crannitch, Poit Dubh and a host of other musicians will take place in the Courthouse at 9pm on Saturday. Sliabh Notes features box player Dónal Murphy, fiddle player Matt Crannitch and Tommy O’Sullivan on guitar and vocals. The trio bring together the dance sound of Sliabh Luachra with songs and tunes that reflect the Irish contribution to the music of the American south.
“This concert will be a taster, a smaller version of the overall festival. For those who can’t make the entire weekend of the festival, this three-hour concert will give a great feeler and a sample of the different kinds of music that will be performed throughout the festival,” Brendan added.
Also on Saturday night in The Mill Bar, Cork-based folk rock band Loudest Whisper will be the main event. Brendan explained that the band first became known in the ’70s and have been touring ever since. They will be joined by Steve Lockwood on harmonica and will play elements of blues music, along with some Led Zeppelin. “It will be a great gig and a real crowd pleaser,” the festival director said.
For full details, visit the Sixmilebridge Winter Music Weekend website www.wmw.ie.