Lately, Ivan McCutcheon of the Bandon Folk Club has been revisiting Van Morrisson.
‘There’s something about his confidence that pulls me in. Into the Mystic is close to perfect; the power and compulsion in his voice, the delicate acoustic guitar and the bass, soothing through movement.’
‘I remember teenage me lying flat, surrendering to the dizzy interweaving lines of music and meaning on Astral Weeks. I couldn’t understand it, but I believed it, and loved floating in the immersive flow. I mostly listen to new music and only sparingly revisit the tunes I felt intensely in the past. I save them for the moments they can hit.
Ivan McCutcheon.
‘I’ve been enjoying Joshua Burnside all summer, another Ulsterman. I was delighted we got to see him in De Barra’s this year. I love what he’s doing with instruments and melodies that sound close enough to embedded Irish folk songs to be accessible but once you’re in. it’s unexpected, personal and contemporary in theme. He’s part of a great reimagining of traditional music that’s going in the last few years. It’s respectful and values the ground our music lives in but it’s not clingy or stuck.’
Meanwhile, Emma Ryan, graphic designer with The Southern Star, is also keeping it contemporary with CMAT on her playlist, especially her latest release and third album, EURO-COUNTRY.
‘It’s really good! I like it, it’s like, reminiscent. Or not quite ‘reminiscent’ of the past, but it’s in the Irish psyche, built on the crash and the boom. I like her too because, we’re kind of a similar age and have grown up in the same Ireland, and her style, it’s country-pop.’
‘It’s not a genre I’d really have listened to, except maybe Orville Peck. I like the political element of her music, but it’s her sound too. I’ve never seen her live; I had free tickets once but it was on a Tuesday night and I didn’t have a car at the time and I was working the next day! I have tickets for next year though, and I’m glad she’s finally getting the recognition she deserves’.
