15 February 2020

'Bringing old-time music back to Clare' on X-PO Folk Radio (update)

Thanks to Andrew Lambert (right), co-organiser of Irish Old Time and the annual Irish Appalachian Old Time Music Gathering, for sending this link to 'Bringing old-time music back to Clare', a broadcast on X-PO Folk Radio in Kilnaboy, north Co. Clare, last Sunday (9 Feb.), available as a free download podcast from Mixcloud. To download the podcast, google Mixcloud Downloader and paste in this url.

In an eighty-minute interview with Tom Flanagan, Andrew traces the development of old-time music in the USA, its connections with Irish traditional music, and its distinctness from bluegrass, with an outline of the old-time scene in Ireland, and how he and Bob Denton, after visiting the Clifftop string band festival in West Virginia, were inspired to set up the Gathering as a meeting place for the many scattered enthusiasts over here.

More than a dozen recordings are played to illustrate the sounds of old-time music from Charlie Poole, the New Lost City Ramblers, Dan Levenson, Bruce Molsky, Erynn Marshall & Carl Jones, the Red Clay Ramblers, the Transatlantic Sessions, and members of the old-time scene in Ireland, including of course participants in the Gathering. Andrew gives full details of this year's Irish Appalachian Old Time Music Gathering at Lidoonvarna, which will be in full swing a week from now. This year's programme includes an introduction to Sacred Harp singing (there are two examples on the broadcast of Sacred Harp ensembles in full voice, one of which is from a Cork convention - see the BIB for 13 Feb.).

Andrew adds about the X-PO Folk Radio presenter, Tom Flanagan:

He was the man who heroically has done most things to make the station happen. It’s a time-limited project, and a team of locals will now assess it and see how and what can be done to join the small roster of local radio stations round Ireland. The podcasts will stay up there meantime. Deirdre O’Mahony is also a driving force re content, and founded the X-PO in the first place.

BIB editor's note (16 Feb.): Corrections have been made to this post since it was first published.

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