Having taken a few months off from writing, I was anxious to see what an older person with much life experience and social commentary thought of the new world we find ourselves in. Who better to ask than musician Roy Harper?

I caught up with him over the phone. When I initially made contact with Roy, he said that he was entirely obsessed with what he is writing and thinking at present. He afforded me a rare glimpse into the mind of an artist. He explains: “I’ve been eighteen months writing this one song. It’s a difficult song. It doesn’t sound like it should be because it’s right up my street, but it requires quite a bit of concert to stay on track with it, because of shifting social sands, you know?—the pivoting points of the moral compass sort of thing? You don’t know where you are. I mean every day I hear something that confirms or denies something that I thought I knew.

The song is a tentative emotional picture of attempted mass action, written in musical prose.”

“It’s difficult to nail this down. It’s a song called ‘Politically Correct’ (at least that’s the working title.) Where is society going to now? Where is it driving itself to in such clattering confusion? You can imagine what’s on my plate when I’m trying to write this song! There are just too many things to be thinking about and too many things to go into it, and no way at all to précis any of it. Every time I write a line, it’s likely to be changed the following day, or altered in even a minute way, which means that it’s out of date. I guess the song is a tentative emotional picture of attempted mass action, written in musical prose. It can’t ever be finished though, as finishing it turns it into a frozen snapshot and it’s ‘not that’. I’ve got to have the context of movement in there, because it moves every day. So I’ve got this serious problem all the time with it. And snapshot/movement are mutually exclusive; and it’s that conundrum has me on the run.”

“I have to have some redemption in it too. It’s got to have that balance: you can’t listen to a song that is entirely a rant, without turning to humanity and being honest with yourself. This is a long-standing argument I have with myself with no particularly good way out, but I know that I actually must write it! I’ve got to actually write it.” Phew! With this snapshot into the inner workings of his mind, I can appreciate what it is like to be an artist. 

It’s now more important than ever to consult our wise elders. “Division is rampant in society at the moment; old permissions, old morals, old ethics are gone. Everybody can see what’s going on – that’s the trouble: it’s a cacophony – no one is able to say anything that isn’t thrown into the witch’s cauldron of obverse junk. Five years ago there wasn’t this gap between the young and the old. What’s happening in the world now has almost completely divided the young from the old. There are so many young people that, for instance, are now not bothered about whether they go out or not. In those terms, one or two people perhaps think that I’ve gone off-course in the last few years. But it’s always been a duty for me to be off-course whenever I see fit. In these times, it’s not like that. It’s that the young can’t be contacted by the old anymore. It’s a failing, but I’m no longer really able to contact people under 20. They will not know where I am coming from…It’s a sign of social breakdown. And Ireland is a more integral society — certainly more than Britain is.” 

Roy is very interested in what’s happening across the pond, as it can point to where society can lead. “The way that Trump is handling his presidency is inane and criminal. He is actually a fraudulent criminal. Everything he does is fraudulent. But half of the USA can’t see that. They are determined to carry through the Rifle Association revolution. It’s complete poison. And the GOP [Republicans’] message around money, around finance, around big business — the perpetual lie. They horrify me! 

“The outrages in Wisconsin and Portland – and everywhere else – and he is stirring it up. It’s being done on his watch and he is blaming the Democrats for it! Now the Democrats aren’t much better – they are probably where Fine Gael is here. We can’t really recognise where the US is, but it is actually one of the, if not ‘the’ most influential countries on earth, and the direction it takes – and how it behaves – is very important to the rest of the world. And it continues to emerge – and this sounds like a conspiracy theory – that Trump has actually engaged the Russians in passing information to them, which will alert them as to how to be on Trump’s side in the previous election—and this one…Giving them, for instance, the information for all states, all counties where the vote is going, where not to touch, and where to undermine completely with all kinds of bot messages. There are people now with actual paper-trail evidence. If you’re a Trump voter, you’re going to carry that all the way through and say, yes, the Democrats are a bunch of troublemakers. How do you gainsay that? Those are my concerns. It’s a strange world. There are eight billion voices all in the mix and no way for anyone to make head nor tail of that.”

But there is hope. For we live in a very different place, with more freedom. “So what do we do in West Cork? West Cork is conservative, as well as having an artistic bent. It’s full of people who would naturally come to the edge of the universe. The far west has always been a place to run to. I did it! I ran here. The fact that I came to the far west is only indicative of how far people are ‘challenged’ to go, to actually experience some kind of personal freedom. So I’m thinking about who is like me, and who would have been of a like mind in the past, and I’m thinking that a lot of those guys who wanted solitary existence – men and women – would come to a place where they were less likely to be found. These kinds of areas are still inhabited by the same kind of people – that’s what I’m getting at. The farming community may be distantly related and not out of place. Who knows? But one of the touchstones of my life is to actually be in these places, and to be able to retreat. In terms of that I’ve always wanted a place like this to exist in. It is one of those places that my kind of person goes to. I’m not a foreigner in West Cork at all, I’m just one of many people who like to be left alone most of the time. Living here isn’t the worst thing that I could have done!”

He continues, “What is West Cork? It has this democracy about it of being able to communicate with its own, in its own particular way.” 

He is working on his next album, which he plans to have finished for this 80th birthday next year. Time is pressing; he fears that people don’t want to record together because of the virus, but as he says, “I can’t afford to be afraid of it to be honest.” He has eight songs written, including one. “There is one very good song, I think. It’s called, ‘I Loved My Life’. It’s one of those songs that’s going to travel a long way, I think.” I hope that he has loved his life so far and wish him all the best. 

My gig of the month is: any gig! As Roy said, “You have people being driven mad by not having pub life – or for that matter music life!” End the madness. It’s been so long since we have experienced live music, so just attend whatever you can. Pay the long-suffering musicians – for entry to the gig, by buying a CD/record, etc. Give some money to the venue – by buying a drink. Or, if you’re like many of us, and have saved money over the last six months, tip the staff if they provided you with an enjoyable experience. By responsibly attending events, we can show that there is a ‘need’ for many aspects of our lives to return: from day-care centres and events for the elderly and infirm, to music therapy, choirs, etc. Lastly, ditch the device (we’ve been on them enough in recent times!) and ‘be present’.

It was my pleasure to interview Damien Dempsey before he comes to play West Cork.

WCP: I was reading the liner notes to Ronnie Drew’s last album, ‘The Last Session A Fond Farewell’. The producer rang you up to ask you if you’d like to do a duet with Ronnie of The Pogues song, ‘A Rainy Night in Soho’. You had just recorded the song with Barney McKenna and John Sheehan (also of The Dubliners) that afternoon. That’s some coincidence!

DD: “A bit strange alright! [laughs] I was pinching myself. Dreams come true – that’s what I tell people!”

WCP: Have you any nice memories of working with The Dubliners, as I know they’re heroes of yours?

DD: “We organised to record with Barney and John for the following April after I played with them the October. Around March, we were trying to get hold of John to make sure he could still do it, you know? We couldn’t get a hold of him or Barney. We thought that it wasn’t going to go ahead, that they wouldn’t show up. So we went in to record the album, as we had the studio booked. And we went in and they were there before us – the two of them! [laughs] It was an old school way of doing things – no texting back and forth, no e-mails and all that. They said that they were gonna be there and they arrived. No messing around.

Sitting at the feet of masters

“They were just grafters, you know? They stayed there all hours every day. They wanted to make it good. They were knocking on a bit even then. Barney hadn’t that long to go. They put the work in, but it was great to hear the stories. Sitting at the feet of Masters! How they worked, how much enthusiasm – the love they still had for the music!”

WCP: Would you hope to be doing music when you’re in your final years?

DD: “Oh Jesus, yeah, absolutely! I’ll never stop. I never see myself retiring. I’ll be singing, as long as there is breath in me! I’d say if it’s my last few minutes I’ll sing my death song. I have a death song picked out and all! It’s called ‘The Streams of Bunclody’, A beautiful old Irish song; Luke Kelly recorded it. It’s not very well known. It’s about dying or emigrating or both, I don’t know”.

WCP: You seem to put everything into your performances. Is that it, or does it just seem that way?

DD: “I feel very lucky to be up there doing it at all. I come from a long line of sort of labourers. So, it was very rare for anybody in my line of people to be doing anything like I’m doing, you know? So to be doing art, I feel very privileged. So I can’t help but give it everything when I’m up there, you know?”

WCP: You’re successful – you’ve had a number one album. How hard is it to make a living from it?

DD: “Don’t let the number one fool you! You can sell a few hundred albums and be number one in this country and you may not make any money at all, you know? It’s tough financially. As I said before, I’d work in a low-income job with a bad boss just to be able to go out at night and do what I do. Absolutely! I used to have to do a bit of labouring and bar work, you know? That’s all learning – you realise how lucky you are when you have to do proper graft – physical work, especially in the winter”. 

WCP: Do you have favourite memories of performing?

DD: “I remember performing in a club called Water Rats in King’s Cross in London and Morrissey and Chrissie Hynde were in the audience. Morrissey came backstage afterwards. I think a Dublin cousin of his gave him my album and he loved it, he got into me and came to see me. The next thing was I’m on tour with him in America, playing Radio City Music Hall, the real Grand Ole Opry and all these places. It was really incredible!”

WCP: What do you like about West Cork?

DD: “I love the place! I love its history – of the chieftains – of the McCarthy’s and the O’Sullivan’s and the history of rebellion and the war of independence. I love the people. I have some great friends. And the sense of freedom down there. The food in West Cork is the best I’ve tasted in Ireland. I’ve never tasted food like it anywhere else. I love the Murphys too!

“The crowds are great. I’m playing for a lot of years in De Barra’s. It’s just a wonderful vibe. It’s one of the nicest rooms in the world I’ve played in! They’re finely tuned into music and the people that come to listen to the shows, they’re musical minds and musical spirits. And Ray and all the staff in De Barra’s. And the stay-ins afterwards, the craic, and you sing a few songs. It’s just a beautiful vibe. It’s like an extended family down there or something!”

WCP: Anything else you’d like to add?

DD: “No, It’s All Good”.

Damien Dempsey plays the Maritime Hotel, Bantry on April 3, tickets €30 from the Hotel or Ticketmaster, show at 8.30.

My gig of the month is Séamus Begley and Jim Murray in De Barra’s Friday, March 27, Tickets: €15.  

LS: “I came from a very poor family. My mother was a single mother. She was a barber, and she had disabilities — mostly mental trauma. We didn’t have much…so I didn’t get a lot of music lessons. I always sang since I was little. My father called me ‘The Bird’, as I always sang — I sang more than I talked. But I never wrote music — I always thought it was a thing that other people did. Then I had this cathartic experience one day and it was very intense; and then afterwards I had this song in my head. I started writing after that. 

“Grendel was the second song I ever wrote—a few years ago, when I was 31 or 32. It’s about an abusive relationship. I was thinking about the guy and how abusive he was and…he was just a monster! But I wanted to be empathetic towards him, you know – how did I contribute to this? I learnt in theatre school that if you’re portraying the villain, they never think that they’re the bad guy. It made me think that somebody who is wounded that deeply, and they’re that abusive, and they’re not that easy to love. But it’s not your fault; it’s not a straightforward thing. You can’t blame yourself and you can’t blame them. It’s like poetry, you know – you want to tell the truth – you don’t want to just dance around the issue. I personally don’t like that – I like when people get down into the nitty-gritty.

“I’ve had a lot of experiences up to now. I know about being different. I know about trauma and sexual violence and all that kind of stuff. That’s life, and I like to put it all out in the open, take away all that shame about what people feel about all those things, and just talk about it and ‘change it’, you know?”  

WCP: Is this is your first album?

LS: “This is my first album. I had an EP before this with the band Weird Dogs. The EP includes four of my songs about women who influenced me including one called ‘Tuam’ that is based on my mother’s experience of being put into a Catholic home for unwed mothers when she was fifteen and pregnant for my sister. You can hear it on youtube. It consistently elicits strong reactions from audiences.”

WCP: Breaded Crickets is the title of your album – what does the name refer to? 

LS: “When I was little I used to live in a basement apartment that had a lot of crickets in it. It was a small apartment – it had one room that we all lived in, the kitchen and the bed were all in one space. The crickets used to come in there all the time. I feel endearment towards crickets. I love them and their chirping – their sound is very homely for me. I think my songs are like my crickets. And Martin [Leahy, producer] has breaded them for me [laughs]. He’s made them into something a bit more edible, I suppose. Bread is not just about food, it’s about wholesomeness, sustenance and survival.”

WCP: Martin Leahy produced and played perhaps 15 instruments on the album?

LS: “Yeah, he’s amazing. I love working with Martin. I feel like he feels me—he really gets me.”

WCP: Mick Flannery also plays on two tracks on the album. 

LS: “Mick is such a good story-teller.  He can make up a story then tell it from the perspective of the characters. He co-wrote Sam’s Song, but the rest are all mine.”

WCP: Can you tell me about another song on the album?

LS: “The song ‘Boy With Powers’ is a really hard one for me. That is a song I wrote in memory of a boy that I loved so much, with schizophrenia. He had mental health issues and he took his own life when he was 20. I will never forget that. I know that it’s so hard to exist in society with mental health issues. I know that from Cork Simon, I knew that from living with my mother and her mental health issues. People ostracise you, and you feel embarrassed and then you don’t know what to do. I think it stands out on the album.”  

WCP: “You’re playing the wonderful Levis’s in Ballydehob on Friday, February 28. Any other dates planned for West Cork?”

LS: “No, the album launch, and Levis’s the following night and that’s it for now.”

Breaded Crickets album launch is in Coughlan’s in the City on Thursday, February 27 at 9pm. Tickets €15 (including a CD copy of the album).

My gig of the month is: Sharon Shannon, in De Barra’s Wednesday, February 12, Tickets: €25. 

We need to reclaim Christmas! But how? I feel the answer is that basis for what our shared behaviour on Christmas Day should be – to be our best selves! Treat everyone well, (and if you can, continue like that for the rest of your year, your life!) Treat the Earth like it is our Mother, who supports us 100 per cent! Bear in mind that if it were New Year’s Eve in the year life of Mother Earth, humans would have only arrived the day before Christmas Eve! And yet, we would have poisoned her significantly in the most recent 30 minutes of her life (since the industrial revolution)!  

This positive change in our awareness of our actions would have knock-on effects on our behaviour in the run-up to Christmas. If you’re considering purchasing as a gift, always read the label of the item. If it states, ‘made in…a country outside of the EU’, then consider that it may have been made in a sweatshop, that the workers may not be paid a minimum living wage; that they may be children who should be in school. Then consider the carbon footprint of getting that product to you. If it seems too cheap, then it is ‘too cheap’! So don’t buy it. Instead consider buying something that was made locally, something handmade in West Cork. Even better, a present made by you or by one of the friends or family. (What relative says that they wouldn’t like something made by you?)

Some say that mindfulness is an overused word. However true mindfulness is a vastly ‘underused skill’! It brings all of life to ‘life’! Being mindful — being truly, fully present—when making decisions, will positively enhance your experiences: of Christmas Day, of event participation, of music playing and so on.

There is a practice in the Zen Buddhism tradition of Plum Village where they ring a mindfulness bell at intervals throughout the day. When hearing it, everyone stops what they’re doing, no matter what — even stopping half-way through a sentence – takes three slow, mindful breaths, and then continues what they were doing in a more mindful way. You don’t have to go to Plum Village in France to practice this, simply download the Mindfulness Bell app to your laptop/phone and every 15 minutes, a bell will sound/signal, reminding you to be present. Remember that anything can act as your mindfulness trigger: a red traffic light, a queue, the Angeles, every time you see an animal, and so on.

I’m getting off track! Back to music! So where does music come into this? You can use music to practice mindfulness. For example, listen to your favourite piece of music on headphones/a good stereo. (My favourite is the 15-minute live version of My Funny Valentine from the same-titled 1964 album by Miles Davis.) Close your eyes. Listen. Concentrate only on that. When you feel that you have discovered all that there is to the obvious/main part of the song, listen to it again, but this time ‘just listen’ to what, for example the pianist/drummer is doing throughout. You will hear it in a different way and the music will reveal itself more. This luxury is free – it only costs time. It’s something we actually can make plenty of over the holidays.

A large study to investigate what kids most want, found that the answer is simple: the presence of their parents (not ‘presents’ from their parents)! For a parent to be truly present with their kid is far more important that any material gift. So remember that this Christmas! Make experiences. Bring them to midnight mass, especially if they’ve never been. Go to the mass with the best choir and the most music. It really is a magical experience! Learn to play your favourite Christmas song — there has to be one — on an instrument. 

Other gift ideas, which can help our community, include: attend (or join) a choir; go to a trad session; visit your favourite venue; buy tickets for your favourite festival (West Cork Chamber Music Festival, Clonakilty International Guitar Festival, etc.); buy an instrument (in Jeffers); book music lessons for someone (maybe from Jim Murray or Justin Grounds); support a local musician by attending their gigs (Lauren Guillery, Brian Deady, Bill Shanley, Fintan McKahey, etc.); buy a vinyl album—they will outlive CDs by decades, if not centuries — (e.g. Man and Myth by Roy Harper). As a special gift to someone, book a session at a local recording studio (Lettercollum Studios). 

Finally, do some charity work – help out at a homeless charity, participate in some carol singing, or drop in toys to The Lodge in Clonakilty, or other Direct Provision centres in your area. And for those who feel that they already have enough, just ask for your loved ones to donate to SVDP/Simon or another charity of your choice on your behalf.

Have a Mindful Christmas!

My gig of the month: 

The Vespertine Quintet – This Place is a Shelter – w/ Paidraig O Tuama, DeBarras, Thursday, December 12. Doors 9pm. Tickets: €10.

WCP: “How would you describe your musical upbringing?”

JM: “My dad had a céilí band and I was just immersed in music. So my whole life at home was just music really. My Dad, he would just never stop singing. I remember when we were driving, he wouldn’t be saying too much in the car, he was just singing and whistling the whole time! But the thing is, it was never ‘ever’ forced on me in ‘any’ sense of the word.

“I still remember the first time I ever learnt to play my first tune on piano. The only memory I have when I was really young was going upstairs in the morning and just dragging both my parents out of bed to come listen to a tune that I could play. It was something simple, but I was ‘so’ delighted that I could do it! I always had that obsession with music as a youngster.

“I can’t read music. I developed almost a phobia of reading music. What happened to me was I started very young. I started playing piano when I was about three. When I was four, I started playing button accordion. I was quite good at it very young. I was meant to go into a school class system, where you do three or four years with a lady, and when you graduate from her you went in with the band (a recording band in Macroom). “I was put straight into the band, and missed the four years of theory. I always felt inferior to those who were reading music. I learnt by ear. But I’ve got along okay so far without it!

“I’ve been doing solely music professionally again since March. I’m saying yes to a lot of things that I never said yes to before, as I didn’t have the time. In January I’m doing an Irish Music Network Tour. And I’m just starting to do this: I’ve this thing called JimMurrayMusic.com – an online music tutorial so people can learn how to accompany Irish music. I’m gonna give it away so people can access it for free, and build up the Skype lessons. I have a lot of interest from all over the world really. So I can work from home. It’s great! I do all the Sharon Shannon work – I’m going off to Japan next month – but not as much touring as I used to do.”

WCP: “So it’s not that hard after twenty years of music to make a living now?”

JM: “I think so yeah. I’ll do some teaching in West Cork too; if people are interested they can contact me.”

WCP: “You’ve a new album coming out?”

JM: “Yeah, it’s called ‘Coilín Ó’, it’s the name of a little pet lamb. It’s by Fiona Kelleher and Jim Murray. It’s almost little nursery rhymes we’ve done. We’ll launch it next month and go into some national schools and Montessori’s.” 

WCP: “Is there anything special you like about West Cork?”

JM: “God I ‘love’ West Cork! You know, the longer that I’m here and the older that I get, the more I travel, the happier I am to be here! Isn’t it funny? It’s not just the beauty of the place, it’s the people really, the way of life. I can come in here any night and talk to these people. They’re great, lovely people. I think we’re lucky here. We have tourism, but not too much.”

WCP: “What are your favourite gigs to play?”

JM: “I love Japan, I love Australia. But De Barra’s is probably one of my favourite gigs I could do – with anyone! It’s a great crowd. And even all the bands that I play with, they all love De Barra’s. There’s something very special about Cork audiences. Playing with different people, they always say, ‘Jesus, the reaction you get in Cork is great!’ There is a huge appreciation.”

WCP: “What’s your favourite recording?”

JM:  “I’m really proud of an album we did in 2005, Sharon Shannon, Frankie Gavin, Michael McGoldrick and me, called ‘Tunes’. I produced all the accompaniment, with really great bass and percussion. It’s one of those records, when I meet people they talk about it.  Everywhere I go people reference it. I really like it.”

WCP: “What’s the key to accompanying?”

JM: “If you’re accompanying people there’s a real art to it. I’m not saying that I got it down or anything. You have to listen and it’s just really tuning in your ear to it. That’s kind of subtle, you know? I pride myself on that. Try to be tasteful of it. You need the ability, and a good sense of what’s right. I was told by the great Irish bassist, Tony Molloy, that 70 per cent of it is listening to what they’re doing. I really took that onboard.

“I played the accordion for years, which was really helpful. So when I started accompanying the music, I actually knew the melodies – I wasn’t just glossing over it. I’m not blowing my own trumpet, but I was in Denmark a couple of weeks ago and we played in a bar late at night. I played a tune for this guy and he started crying! That’s what music is, isn’t it? Those moments when the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. But I think to be hit with music like that it’s more the minority of people. Maybe I’m wrong.”

My gig of the month is: the best Irish music comic, David O Doherty in De Barra’s Friday November 8; Tickets: €18. 

Music Therapy is a form of therapy which is used by Music Therapists to treat clients of all ages, with a wide range of issues. Lisa McAuliffe is a qualified Music Therapist and I found out more about this interesting field.

WCP: “How would you explain Music Therapy?”

LM: “The client-therapist relationship is a big part of it, but it’s also goal-based. We work to achieve those through our interventions. They could be anything like singing, improvisation, music technology, and song-writing. Music Therapy is applicable to everyone.

“As Music Therapists we follow a specific plan: first is the assessment of our goals and objectives – ok, what do we want to achieve; then you design your intervention around that –  what am I going to do to achieve X, Y and Z; at the end, you’d be hoping that it works, but if it doesn’t you’d be looking at what you could do differently. The evaluation is the trickiest part, because for the most part it’s the therapist’s evaluation. It’s where you’re trying to prove the clinical effectiveness. A lot of other therapies have a tool to measure how they’re doing, but it’s hard to have a tool for that one.”

WCP:“Where did it originate?”

LM: “I think the first mention of it academically was around World War II. It was used on soldiers suffering from what was then called shell-shock – they used to play live classical music for them in hospitals and it used to calm them down.”

WCP: “Where did you qualify?” 

LM: “I went to University of Limerick for two years to do my Masters in Music Therapy. It’s very hard because we don’t have statutory recognition in Ireland, whereas you would in the UK and there’s a lot more advertised jobs, working in hospitals there, than there are here. Over there, it’s up there with Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and all these well-established therapies, well-grounded in research. You’re trying to compete with that, and prove that the evidence base is there. It’s hard, in Music Therapy there’s a lot of evidence there to support it when it’s happening, but there isn’t a lot of evidence for afterwards. It’s harder to prove afterwards that a person is less agitated. Everyone expects everything to be evidence based, but it’s very personal and it’s hard to turn it into quantitative data.

“Hopefully it’s on the way to being recognised. We have the Irish Association of Creative Arts Therapists (IACAT), they’re working to get us recognised, but Psychotherapy is in there ahead of us. The recession put a stop to everything. So a lot of the Music Therapists here are self-employed.” 

WCP: “Are you self-employed?”

LM:: “Mostly. I’m covering for a Music Therapist who is on leave now, but come January, I’ll be self-employed again. As there is a lot of overlap between singing and speaking, we work a lot with Speech and Language Therapists. We use Lámh, a simple sign language, and put music to it. 

“I’ve worked with a woman before who couldn’t speak after having a stroke. She couldn’t speak, but she could sing songs, because the part of the brain that controls singing is different to the part of the brain that controls speech!”

WCP: “Can you give me an example of a success story?” 

LM: “I have worked with deaf children, who have had cochlear implants. What these devices do is they reduce down the frequencies of sound to what is salient to speech. A little computer inside decodes them and turns them into speech. I think it sounds quite robotic. The girl I worked with, it was lovely! She had to learn how to hear, then she learnt how to sing!”

WCP: “Where can you find out about getting official Music Therapy?”

LM: “A good place to go is IACAT.ie. Their website is a good place to go because any serious Art Therapist is on there. They have a map you can click on to see where a Music Therapist is available is available near your location. Or contact their head office and they can put it out there that someone in West Cork is looking for a therapist. There are Music Therapists in a lot of hospitals in Dublin and limerick, but none in Cork as far as I know.

“It’s tricky, because since we don’t have statutory recognition, anybody can call themselves a Music Therapist! So you’d be just hoping that when you see ‘Music Therapy’ written down, that it is actually done by a qualified Music Therapist. Anyone who is serious about being a Music Therapist attends supervision. I attend supervision with a Senior Music Therapist and I am a paid-up affiliated member of IACAT. You have to protect the people that you’re working with because they are so vulnerable too! There are cowboys out there!

“It’s lovely work, it’s great work, it’s challenging work, it’s rewarding work. It’s humbling, because you’re working with very vulnerable people and for that person themselves and for their families to trust you, it’s lovely.” 

My gig of the month is: John Spillane October 3, De Barra’s Clonakilty tickets €15.

SM: “West Cork is an inspiring place to be and there are some fantastic people around. It has been a big change and no two days are the same. There is huge variety in it and it’s an adventure too! On a day-to-day basis, I teach piano lessons, and I work quite a lot with choirs. I’m working at the moment with Bantry Community Choir and Drimoleague Parish Choir as Choir Director.”

WCP: “What does that involve?”

SM: “That involves working with the singers—whether it’s warm-up or technique—and then to teach them the music, and finally to perform with them. So whether you’re playing for one or two, or conducting, keeping them all together.”

WCP: “Do you sing with them too?”

SM: “I do, not that you should really as a conductor. I mime a lot at them! [laughs] You’re a little bit like the conductor of an orchestra. You’re bringing in different parts and giving them a nod when they need to come in. If I’m honest, I’m not a great singer myself! I’m okay – I can hit a note. There’s something very special when people come together to sing! There’s a real energy and connection in it. When you’re in a choir it feels like a safe place.”

WCP: “Can you explain that?”

SM: “If people are nervous—a lot of people say, ‘I can’t sing’, or maybe that they’re not good singers. But you can be in a choir and still feel it. Some of it is the resonance and being in a group, all singing the same part. It’s been proven that singing is good for you, and you can’t sing and worry at the same time.” 

WCP: “You can only hold one emotion at a time.”

SM: “There you go! Singing too can allow you to express something that might be too difficult to put into words. There’s something very powerful in it, in terms of wellbeing and focussing on one thing at a time. Also, you’re in your body when you’re singing, not in your head.”

WCP: “What about when you get someone who can’t sing, who can’t hit a note, or hold it?”

SM: “I think it’s a really, really small percentage of people who might actually have that challenge! There’s an awful lot of people who think they can’t sing. But I think there is something that happens with the choir—if you can develop your listening and your ear—that you actually automatically tune in to other people around you. And if you get lost, you can always go back to the melody, that’s okay too. And the other thing is, if people have hearing difficulties it’s down to the ethos of the choir – is it an inclusive choir?”

WCP: “Do you find that there is a lack of men singing in choirs?”

SM: “Yeah, it’s a challenge! There are some men’s choirs, but it’s a challenge getting men to join mixed choirs. If men have never sang in a choir before they are 15 or 16, then they actually cannot compute what it would be like to, later in life. So because there is less singing in schools and churches, there are less men in choirs before they hit that age.”

WCP: “Are men only needed for the bass and tenor?

SM: “No, it depends on the choir. A lot of singing nowadays is not even split out by tenor and bass anymore. If you sing an octave higher it adds to it. I think that male and female voices are very different anyway. A good deal of what I do now is soprano and alto men. Choirs are always thrilled to have men!”

WCP: “So what if someone wants to join your choirs? They can just search online for example Bantry Community Choir and find out when you play?”

SM: “Absolutely! They’re open to anyone. In Bantry we sing on a Thursday evening in the Maritime Hotel. In Drimoleague we’re in the Community Hall on a Wednesday. There’s a huge number of choirs in set Cork! And it’s fantastic – there’s something for everyone—so you have the West Cork Choral Singers who sing form the classical repertoire, you have some choirs who use music, some who don’t. And they’re all over West Cork. Between Bantry, Glengarriff and Durrus I think there are eight or nine choirs!”

WCP:: “What other work do you do?”

SM: “MusicAlive was founded about a decade ago and the aim is to provide experience in the arts and mental health. And since then we have 49 North Street in Skibbereen. It is an innovative community-based hub for creativity, recovery and wellness. There are all sorts of projects running out of there – the Happiness Ensemble, Gamelan Spréacha Geala, the Claddagh Rogues, Open Door, and many others. It’s open to everyone.”

For more details on the various projects that Susan is involved with see:
www.musicalive.ie;
www.TheWellbeingNetwork.ie/about-49-North-Street 
(with a new season of events to be announced in September); www.DrimoleagueSingingFestival.ie (September 26-29). 

My gigs of the month are: Graham Pike Quartet in Scannel’s and O’Donovan’s, both in Clonakilty on September 8. Also, the Clonakilty International Guitar Festival from September 16-22 – too many great gigs to mention!

This worthy cause is an example of where artists come together for a cause that is bigger than themselves: when albums are not about selling the album but are about a greater, often a higher power: to help those less fortunate, or even to change history! It got me thinking about the origins and varieties of this.

Perhaps there have always been songs that were about more than just the melody, the rhyme and the rhythm. Much of the old folk music that is still known today has a political message. In this country, both hedge schools and Mass rocks, (where Irish Catholics came together illegally to be educated and to celebrate mass respectively), had songs which they sang. In these cases singing was a rebellious act, and keeping the songs alive was an act of defiance. 

Throughout history and throughout the world there has been much banned music or songs. In the second half of the 20th century as societies became less about censorship, the power of music to create positive change became apparent. This reached its zenith with the Flower Power movement of the 60s, which in turn led to the charity album. The first high profile charity album, was ‘The Concert for Bangladesh’, a live triple album credited to ‘George Harrison and Friends’ and released on Apple Records in 1971. The album followed the two concerts of the same name, held on August 1, 1971 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, featuring Harrison, Bob Dylan, Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, etc. The shows were in aid of the homeless Bengali refugees of the Bangladesh Liberation War, and set the model for future multi-artist rock benefits such as 1985’s Live Aid. Despite its poor sound quality it made if to number one around the world including the UK, and won the Grammy for best album!

For the album ‘Instant Karma’, the rights to John Lennon’s songs and music publishing royalties were donated by Yoko Ono to Amnesty International’s Campaign to Save Darfur. Ono said: “…in standing up for human rights, and selling more records, we really can make the world a better place.” 

Given the long history of this phenomenon, it begs the question, why has it persisted for so many centuries? I think the answer is that we love to see artists truly engage! If you love this too, please continue to support them.

My favourite songs for charity or for political causes are:

• Tom Waits singing ‘Silent Night’ (for SOS Children’s village, the largest independent NGO, non-profit international development organisation).

• Kate Bush’s rendition of the Irish rebel song, ‘Mná na hÉireann’, (an eighteenth-century poem which imagines Ireland as a generous, beautiful woman suffering the depredations of an English master on her land, her cattle, or her self).

• Eminem’s freestyle rap against Trump, ‘The Storm’, in which he goes so far as to tell any of his fans in uncertain terms, that if they’re fans of Trump then he does not want them as fans of his!

• ‘Not in our Name’ by Charlie Haden and the Liberation Music Orchestra—an album against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. 

• On that topic, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke solo song ‘Harrowdown Hill’. His “angriest song” is about the alleged killing of David Kelly by his own Ministry of Defence, because he gave evidence (off the record) that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, after Blair lied saying that Iraq did.

• The anti-war song, ‘One’ by Metallica. (At the time of the original release, a fan spat at them in the face for “selling out” by making a video). Check out their performance of it at Slane last month – they still have it!

• Bono’s favourite U2 song, ‘Miss Sarajevo’, featured on the album Pavarotti and Friends: Together for the Children of Bosnia.

• Stevie Wonder’s song, ‘appy Birthday’ did a lot to get Martin Luther King’s birthday as a holiday in the USA.

My gig of the month is: Wiggle, 20 Leaps July 22 in Connolly’s of Leap, tickets €10.

JG: “First of all I want anything that I do to be interesting to the ear. Secondly I want it to be for everyone. I have this nightmare that it’s for wealthy middleclass people. Or investors or bankers! I want it to be totally democratic, so that people can come and enjoy it. Whatever I put my hand to that’s been my over-riding statement. I really passionately believe that!”

WCP: What are you working on at the moment? 

JG: “August 3 is the premiere of my oratorio. It’s the biggest work that I’ve done yet. It’s for a choir and seven instruments, with readings. I’ve scored it so that it can be played by any instruments — I’d love to see it played on seven Casio keyboards! I just wanted the notes to stand for themselves. They have to interact in a certain way and it will work. One of the joys of creativity is when you turn everything on its head and you do what you were taught not to do. And you go in a whole new direction. I’ve really enjoyed writing it.

“It’s called The Embracing Universe, based on the writings of the philosopher and palaeontologist, Teilhard de Chardin. He wrote a lot about the evolution of human consciousness. He saw how life always finds its way and we have to follow where it goes. And what he wrote in the ’50s was very applicable and relevant to the social and environmental crisis that we face now. It’s about how do you find our place and look forward to the future. Hopefully people will come away feeling hopeful [laughs]!”

WCP: You’re on the Arts for Health, which provides a managed arts programme for older people in healthcare settings. You also lead the Youth Orchestra in Clon, which includes your three-year-old son Ari. 

JG: “It’s interesting working with the very young people and people at the end of their lives. The essence of life is in both. It’s like being in the moment, isn’t it? It sort of purifies the mind because the kids are constantly gaining and learning, bringing stuff into themselves. And the older folk have lost most of everything — their family, friends, their mobility. Both of them have something beneficial. I guess it’s like losing the ego.” 

WCP: What do you think classifies music?

JG: “For me, music is just classifiable by alphabetical order! Basically what we’re doing is we’re making the air vibrate in a certain way together. And when you get back to that it’s quite liberating. You don’t have to think, ‘Am I doing jazz music, or electronic music?’ No, I’m not doing any of that — and that’s not to simplify it, music is like architecture of sound — I’m just making the air vibrate in a way that is gonna make us all resonate. Certain music, you hear it and your body resonates. Not just your body — your soul! Something in you starts to go, ‘Yeah, I’m with this!’ And that’s what all composers are looking for.” 

WCP: How do you see the future of music?

JG: “Whatever the future of music is, it might not be replicating old genres, but it will be replicating in the sense that it will be people who want to resonate, however they make that resonance happen with their community. Because the community will be different and the problems that they’re facing, and the things that they love. All that stuff is bound up in how we make music. It’s not just one person sitting at a piano. It’s the state of mind of the whole.” 

WCP: How have you been able to survive as a musical artist? 

JG: “I’m lucky enough that I’ve always made a living out of it. I’ve always been able to do what I love and to provide for the needs of me and my family. I still do tonnes of stuff without getting paid for it because I want to do it. It works for me because I’ve got a varied skillset: I really like performing; but I’m also good with technology, so I do producing; but I’m also good with kids and teaching. I like all those things, and it keeps me interested. So that’s probably why it works for me.” 

WCP: What makes West Cork special for artists?

JG: “I was touring all around Australia, New Zealand, England and America playing gigs. And then I did a gig in De Barra’s and I’m like, ‘Oh s€€t! This is amazing!’ There’s all these people and they just want music, and they’re quiet. You feel like there’s something in the air here. It’s what kept me here for so long. You feel like what you’re doing is like food for people. And they’re really enjoying…eating it! [laughs] Which isn’t everywhere. Sadly it’s been lost in loads of places. And I don’t know why. It’s probably a cultural things. I think the culture here is more focused on things like soul food. So we’re lucky. We have to hold onto that so badly because it’s so necessary!”

PS. A big congratulations to Rosscarbery’s own Marcella O’Sullivan, whose video for her song, ‘Where Have All The Women Gone?’ was one of five videos from around the world chosen to compete at Hollywood’s Women’s Film Festival.  

My gig of the month is: Junior Brother, Thursday, June 27 at 9pm in De Barra’s, Clonakilty, tickets €10.

I recently heard Thin Lizzy’s 1979 song, Sarah. With the lyrics, “When you came in my life you changed my world”, I hear you Phil Lynott and Gary Moore! Another famous song on new fatherhood, Stevie Wonder’s, Isn’t She Lovely, contains the insightful lyrics, “Isn’t she lovely made from love … Life and love are the same.” I wholly agree with Stevie! And it’s my love for this new life which has afforded me a new outlook on the world.  

Luckily it’s not just from a father’s perspective that the lyrics can be further appreciated; in Björk’s paean to breastfeeding, which she refers to as a Mouth’s Cradle, she ends the song with, “I need a shelter to build an altar away / From all Osamas and Bushs.” Sitting here at home—on paternity leave—I can for the first time truly understand the feeling of caring ‘less’ about the woes of the far-off world and concentrating ‘more’ on what I can control.

I will continue to experience music through my new paradigm. As for you, dear reader, rather than seeing music as being written from a generic perspective for the ‘everyman’, try to enjoy and interpret it through your individual prism. Questioning what your individual perspective is should lead to greater, wider experiences. 

To understand the musicians’ perspective read about the songs you love. There is so much information available online: from the incredible Discogs.com; to Wikipedia; to the various song meanings websites; as well as the original album liner notes, which are available from AlbumLinerNotes.com, etc. There are even websites showing you how to synchronise your MP3s to the liner notes, such as BlissHQ.com

I know that I can’t influence what will happen to the Kanye West’s (the Bushs) of this world, but I can draw your attention to some of those that will benefit from some cradling by their home community. Consider one of the new, less famous, West Cork musicians, Fintan McKahey, who contacted me about his lovely, new God Games EP. He is a modern singer-songwriter with a relaxed baritone voice, the song-writing is very mature and culturally-aware despite his youth. If you want to check out just one song, then listen to Cultural Trance, about the dangers of possibly the greatest scourge in modern Ireland, group-think; this song gives me faith in the next generation! After the failure of the Pledge Music site, he had to abandon his crowdfunding campaign, but still launched the EP at the end of April. Give the artist a listen, and if you like the sounds, go to see him live—he’s playing all over West Cork over the summer—and buy his music. Details are available at FintanMcKahey.com

PS. Sorry to jazz aficionados for the false hope that this article was going to be about the classic 1964 Blue Note spiritual jazz masterpiece, A New Perspective by the trumpeter Donald Byrd. And if you don’t know this album – 55 years old and yet timeless – do yourself a favour and give it a listen. If you have it, consider getting the 180g vinyl reissue – it’s incredible! Blue Note are currently re-released many of their classic jazz albums on audiophile vinyl, which make great purchases/presents!

My gigs of the month are: The Fiddle Case with Luka Bloom, Wednesday May 5 at 9pm in De Barra’s, Clonakilty, tickets €15 (+ booking); and Cian Finn & Flipside Selekta in Connolly’s of Leap on May 18, tickets €15.

WCP: Your upbringing of playing in Shanley’s with all those incredible musicians in your formative years must have influenced you greatly?

BS: “I think it was the volume of music played that set me up as a player. It was a magical time for me. It gave me an experience I wouldn’t have got anywhere else in this world! Moss, my father, was a brilliant piano player and he created and facilitated so many sessions and brought people in. Around Clonakilty there were always great characters, great musicians, and there was always great stuff happening. It’s a colourful town and people aren’t afraid to organise gigs and festivals.”

WCP: You play so many different styles of music on guitar and these can be heard on your latest album. What’s the key?

BS: “Once you have a grasp of the rules for each genre you can play in a lot of them. Back in the 90s I decided that, rather being just being a lead guitarist, I wanted to get into the engine room – to develop my acoustic playing and create my sound on that. That brought in work, or a demand for me to play in areas where that style of playing was wanted. It tied in with how records are produced. The most important part for me is movement. If the music doesn’t move properly, it doesn’t come across well. It’s the rhythm that creates the movement.”

WCP: How has the music industry changed over your professional lifetime?

BS: “It has changed a lot. Before, for bands it was about record companies and getting signed. There were a lot more record companies back then. Now you only have the three majors: Universal, Sony and Warner. Back then, there weren’t many artists self-releasing. Now, most people self-release. If you don’t get a deal, you can do it yourself or outsource it. You’re able to at least put it out there. But artists still need good business people behind them. 

“But it’s definitely settled a lot now compared with five or ten years ago. With streaming it has found its balance again. My view is: don’t ever underestimate the artist, because all it takes is for one great song to come out and people go, “Wow, that’s amazing!” and the currency of music has shifted up a few percent again, you know?”

WCP: Have you any advice for budding musicians?

BS: “For new people coming into the business you probably have to work harder and put more effort into it. You have to dedicate yourself and come up with bright new ideas to get your music across. You definitely have to work on your craft. If you have an attitude of ‘I’ll just do enough to get me by’, I don’t think that cuts it anymore. People will notice. It might have dropped off for a bit, but I think it’s back now where you have to be a good player. You hear it in pop music that the playing now is better. It’s not just about the image anymore, it’s about technique and the technical ability again. I think the standard has come up a bit.” 

WCP: Describe your performance at the Closing ceremony of the London Olympic Games with Ray Davies.

BS: “It was a very big billing and a very big event. The Olympics is a very humbling experience even to the biggest of stars, because in a way it’s bigger than them – than any band. You could see it – there was no egos – everyone was just delighted to be there. It’s the biggest event on planet earth, really, you know. It was all in a shroud of secrecy. Ray’s segment was particularly amazing because in modern music, that’s the most fitting song about London that you could have done there. It was just a beautiful moment never to happen again in their lifetime.”

WCP: I reckon you got more screen time than anybody else.

BS “Maybe, yeah. I remember getting e-mails from people all over the world for the next few days. It was amazing, it was a real moment! I have a great picture – I think it was my sister Emer that took it – of my family and some customers watching it in the bar. The expressions on people’s faces was fabulous!”

See my review of Bill’s new album, Midnight Mission below.

My gig of the month is the Kurt Cobain 25 Year Anniversary: with Paradox and Screenreader in De Barra’s on Friday April 12. Free entry.

If you have any comments or events, you can contact me by email
gary@westcorkpeople.ie

WCP: You’re often classified as a folk musician.  But to my ears you’re a singer-songwriter in the mould of many rock musicians. What do you classify yourself as?  

RH: “I never thought of myself as a folk singer. It did pass through my mind in ’64, ’65. Then in ’66 I was being thrown out of folk clubs because nobody could understand the things I was singing about. I quickly learnt in the mid 60s that I wasn’t a folk singer — I was something else — I was kind of a poet on wheels. Then I kind of gravitated to rock, where I was getting a lot of attention from those guys. I grew up with the same management as Pink Floyd for the first few years. And also Marc Bolan was one of my best friends and I knew David Bowie. There was a kind of school there that we all belonged to. We weren’t anything other than just what we were doing, you know? We loosely became attached to rock in a weird sort of way — all of us. We didn’t belong anywhere.” 

WCP: When you say that they didn’t understand you, was it the language, the context, or what?

RH: “It was the context really. I don’t think anyone understood I was on world-watch — I was always watching what people did, what humanity was doing. The problem with me was my songs weren’t ‘Boy meets girl.’  The majority were about the world-watch that I was making throughout my life. It’s very difficult to actually marry that with the pop medium. The records all needed notes, which they’ve now got. This last 20 years I’ve been adding the right sort of notes to the records just to actually allow them to be understood by people. Once you’ve thrown that light on them people can actually understand them. There wasn’t a hope of doing that in 1970 or 1975. Nobody wanted to read liner notes. It was Pop Idol — it was image and sound. There was no literature involved in it. Liner notes on a pop record was unheard of at that time. We were labelled by the papers, by the media because how else were they going to be able to understand us? You were going with a certain image, so you were lumped in with pop. You can de-select that nowadays, but you couldn’t then.” 

WCP: What about West Cork made you decide to first come here?  

RH “In 1973 I ran away from the music business. I was fed up the back teeth of it! I just got in my car in London and drove west. And I didn’t think of anything till I got to the west of Wales. I began to see signs for ‘Ferry’, and I thought, ‘Ferry? Where to?’ I ended up in Wexford and driving west again and I ended up a day later on a beach down in Baltimore. I realised that there were mackerel in the water by the jetty as soon as I got there, and I thought, ‘That’s my breakfast’. So I went into Skibbereen and I got myself a line and a spinner, a pan and some margarine. I slept in my car and I was there for 10 days. And it was a really beautiful – it hardly rained. That was my first experience of West Cork.” 

WCP: What made you decide to stay here?  

RH: “So when it came to it, about 30 years ago, it was gonna be either New Zealand or West Cork. And we chose West Cork. Clonakilty is one of a kind — it’s an original. There’s a lot of people in Clon who’ve taken care of it. When I first came here 30 years ago it was a grey little town. But it’s grown into something that is really attractive. On a sunny day in the summer there is nowhere else where you’d rather be — here is perfect!”

WCP: You once said, “I am the exile…it’s my most serene default position.” I think you’re still in that position?

RH: “I’ve never grown out of that position! Unfortunately, I grew up with a step-mother who just didn’t like me. And it was mutual! So I spent a lot of my childhood alone. I never had a mother and that’s weird! It turned out really well because what I ‘did’ have is an inner strength. It’s the kind of strength where you don’t mind being an exile and you find out that’s what you are eventually. That’s what you become. It started very early—it started at about four. So it’s a default positon, yeah.”

WCP: You’re embarking on a tour of Clonakilty and Britain. Will this be your final tour?

RH: “I don’t really like touring. Get me onstage and that’s perfect. Touring — I grew out of that right at the beginning. I wasn’t really attracted by that life at all. When I’m on a stage then I’m in my element. But it’s getting me there. 

“It’s been in the air for some years now. I can’t do this again. So long as I keep an hour’s worth of songs loosely rehearsed, then I can go anywhere and do a gig. So it won’t be the last gig, but it’s definitely the last tour. Absolutely for sure! It’s incredibly expensive all the way round – mostly on the body and mind.”  

WCP: How hard is it to make a living in music nowadays compared with years ago?

RH: “When I first started in ’64, ’65, when I decided to dedicate myself to music as a life, it was really, really difficult to get on the ladder. You had to have a number of things: a really good image, really good voice and a really good presentation. You had to pass the audition, so to speak. The audition was very, very testing – always. You either did that or you climbed slowly, like I did. The average record companies would have interviewed me and immediately recognised how eccentric I was and that wouldn’t have worked. I would have been sacked straight away. It was very difficult to start with, but then when I jumped those first few hurdles, in 1969 it became a whole lot easier. I had three albums behind me, which had all been made in roughly a day – they were all a list of first takes. So they knew that I could make a record. So the fourth record [Flat Baroque and Berserk] was made under very different circumstances and it became a minor hit. It got to about number five in the charts for about a week. They expected the same again but they got Stormcock and they ‘absolutely hated’ it! They rejected it before they even heard it. They heard the rumours coming from Abbey Road and that was enough.”

WCP: “I think it’s a masterpiece!”

RH: “Thank you. I agree. It’s now got to the stage where there are so many people recording that it’s really difficult again now because the pot is too deep. To actually emerge from the pot into stardom, as it were, is more or less a fluke. Don’t forget Adele failed three or four times. It’s like the Lotto. It is that deep now — there are hundreds of thousands of people recording stuff at home or otherwise now. The people with oomph, with something about them are going to break through, but they’re often not the best people. Often the genius is left in the bedroom. You have to have been doing something special for quite some time to get through—it’s not easy anymore. There’s many things that come into the mix: what state is society in right now?

“Society is poorer than it was 10 or 20 years ago. It was a much wealthier world than it is now. It’s not a good time because of the number of people on the planet now. Everything is under pressure. The welfare system isn’t fit for purpose or anything like what it was designed to be when it was first invented. It turns life into a huge search for health. Health systems are very often the biggest institutes, organisations or corporations in any given country. And that’s a pressure that didn’t exist even 20 years ago. All people want a better lifestyle and it’s not really equating. Well, what it equates to is that the bottom 10 percent have fallen out of the bottom — are living in poverty again — and that’s not good. 

“And there are young people trying to get out of that using what they’ve got, and some of them are very good — with instruments and voice or whatever — but there are so many of them. It’s the same the world over. We’ve got all the schemes in the world that we want to accomplish, but we can’t because the finances, the resources aren’t there. The power to earn the money isn’t there. It’s the wrong way to live. It’s resulting in boom and bust. We should be living more evenly. We should find a way where greed isn’t what we subscribe to. We can actually exist for each other in a much better sense than we are doing at the moment — we’re all in a kind of freefall. You can talk about freedom in one sentence, but then you have to talk about the curtailment of that in the next sentence. You have a dilemma there with freedom.

“I heard last night that 40 percent of the invertebrate life on the planet is in danger of dying off; at which point food becomes scarce. Where do we draw these lines? When do we finally accept that we cannot carry on the way we’re doing? How on earth do we address that? These questions have always occurred to and I’ve written about them, but no one’s taken a blind bit of notice. It’s something we can all think about.”

WCP: To coincide with your upcoming gig in De Barra’s Folk Club, you said previously that it reminds you of the folk clubs that you grew up with in the 60s. 

RH: “It’s got the same kind of ethic that I knew in the 60s: turn up, bring your guitar or whatever, set yourself up and sing. The town is the right size to incorporate that. If it was a big city it would suffer the usual slings and arrows of the marketplace. But in Clon it’s sort of hermetically sealed from that — it’s like going back to into the last age and having a little taste of what it used to be like. I know that, I enjoy that. It’s a freak that it’s there, and we lose it at our peril! It’s a great venue!”  

WCP: An old article claimed, “That he won’t be famous until after his death is a Harper fixation.” Is this true? 

RH: “There’s likely to be some re-visitation after I’ve gone. I’m aware of the fact that I’m too much of an obstruction. If I’m dead the canon stands alone, then it’ll be better off. In any case, most of what I’ve written is a storyboard for everyone. People after me can use it — on which they can plant their own music or stylisation of it. I’m in the way of myself.”

Roy Harper plays De Barra’s on Sunday March 3, (This is my gig of the month). Tickets €28 from debarra.ie

If you have any comments or events, you can contact me by email gary@westcorkpeople.ie.

PHOTO ABOVE: Roy Harper.
by Tracy Harper