Quartet Likes Its Irish Neat
Some purists cry foul when such bands as the Pogues and Young Dubliners bend the boundaries of Irish music with such noisy, modern-era instruments as the electric guitar, bass and keyboards.
The members of Craob Rua, a quartet from Belfast (pronounced Creev-roo-ah), would seem to be good boyos, rooting their jigs and reels firmly in the traditional style of the Chieftains. Their harmonious blend of tin whistle, Uilleann pipes, mandola, fiddle, bodhran, mandolin and voice is updated only gently with guitar and banjo embellishments.
But Craob Rua (mandolin-bodhran-banjo player Brian Connolly, piper Mark Donnelly, singer-guitarist Jim Byrne and fiddler Michael Cassidy, all in their 30s) say they appreciate the genre-benders, for revitalizing Celtic music and introducing it to a wider audience.
“As the newer music’s being played, it’s getting out to people who may never have heard Irish music before,” Connolly--who was taught to play by his grandfather--noted during a recent phone interview. “So if they take an Irish song and put their own stamp on it, and a new, young audience enjoys it, then it can only be good for the music, right? Everyone is doing their best for it.”
Formed in 1986, the group steadily has built a small but loyal following through touring and three albums (“Not a Word About It” from 1990, “The More That’s Said the Less the Better” from ’92 and the new “No Matter How Cold & Wet You Are As Long As You’re Warm & Dry,” on the Irish import BTB/Lochshore label).
The lads currently are on a 26-date U.S./European tour that includes their first California shows, at Shade Tree Stringed Instruments in Laguna Niguel Monday night. Their only problems so far have been over transportation:
“A while ago when we were touring Europe, we had to drive over the Alps from Austria to Italy,” fiddler Cassidy recalled as he took a turn on the phone. “After only 20 miles, the ’86 Ford we were driving blew a head gasket, and we didn’t think we were ever going to make it. After it finally was replaced, we wound up driving 12,000 miles in about six weeks!”
Along with the band’s arrangements of traditional songs, the latest release by Craob Rua (which means “Red Branch,” a reference from the Knights of Ulster in Celtic mythology) breaks new ground by including several compositions by Cassidy (“The Whin Bush,” “The Last Hairpin on Soller”), Byrne (“The Castleton Hornpipe”) and Connolly (“Haughey’s Fort,” “The Tullysarron Ambassador and His Wife.”)
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In selecting what music fits or feels right on each of its albums, the band takes a democratic approach.
“Each song has to be one that we all like, one that has a nice feel to it,” Connolly explained. “We look at ‘can you add a little bit of banjo there, or maybe some mandolin here’?” He said the key to any music, new or old, is in making it vital and fresh-sounding for oldtimers and for those with virgin ears as well.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re AC/DC and Guns N’ Roses or the Chieftains and the Dubliners. What really counts is the emotion and life that you breathe into your material. Each generation puts its own touches on a genre. You can add so much to the musical culture, the lineage, if your heart’s in it.”
* Craob Rua plays Monday night at Shade Tree Stringed Instruments, 28062 Forbes Road, Suite D, Laguna Niguel. $14. 7:30 (sold out) and 9:30 p.m. $14. (714) 364-5270.