Altan

Tuesday , February 02, 1999
12:00 am
Location: Elderly Instruments
in-store performance (free)

"Altan is one of the preeminent Irish bands in the world today," wrote Earle Hitchner in The Wall Street Journal. The word "best" has often been applied to Altan, a "supergroup [that] has set new standards for Irish music," according to Billy Altman of The New Yorker. Altan will play a free, acoustic, in-store performance at Elderly Instruments, (1100 North Washington, Lansing), at 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, February 2. Altan is in Michigan for gigs in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids. Altan's commercial success has paralleled their critical success. In 1992-93, Harvest Storm remained on Billboard magazine's "Top World Music Albums" chart for 12 weeks. In 1993-94, the strong sales of Harvest Storm were surpassed by those of Island Angel. It stayed in the chart's top 15 for eight months, prompting Billboard to cite Island Angel as one of the "Top World Music Albums" for all of 1994. Over the past nine years, the appeal of the band on tour has similarly grown from being featured at festivals to headlining them, and from playing small folk clubs to performing mostly in large concert halls and theaters. The strength of Altan's appeal stems from their exceptional personnel and repertoire. In 1983, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh and her late husband, Belfast-born flutist Frankie Kennedy (1955-1994), both of whom were teaching primary school in Dublin, released the album Ceol Aduaidh (Gael-Linn), meaning "Music From the North". Featuring such studio guests as citternist Ciaran Curran and keyboardist Eithne Ni Bhraonain (later to be known as Enya), it was a dazzling duet album that sparked tremendous interest throughout Ireland in the rich musical tradition of its northern counties, especially Donegal. Four years later, the success of Mairead and Frankie's second duet album, Altan (Green Linnet), sowed the seeds of a full-time band, eventually allowing them to quit teaching and guide Altan to their present position as "traditional music superstars," asserted Luke Clancy in The Irish Times. The memory of founding member Frankie Kennedy, felled by cancer at age 38, continues to be a source of inspiration for Altan today. The name of the band comes from Loch Altan, a lake near Gweedore, an Irish-speaking area in northwest Donegal that is the birthplace of lead singer Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh. Blessed with a magnificently expressive voice, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh is widely recognized as one of the finest singers in Ireland, while her fiddling bears the stamp of her home county's celebrated style, forceful and fiery. The other two Donegal members of the band -- Ciaran Tourish on fiddle and tin whistle and Dermot Byrne on button accordion and melodeon -- rank among the most accomplished Irish instrumentalists anywhere in the world. And Altan can likewise boast of one of the best traditional rhythm sections in Irish music today: Fermanagh's Ciaran Curran on bouzouki and specially handcrafted bouzouki-guitar, and Derry's Daithi Sproule on guitar. The latter's outstanding talent as a singer, both lead and harmony, adds yet another dimension to Altan's irresistible musical mix. The traditional sounds of Donegal have a distinctive Scots flavor, the result of both Donegal and Scots workers historically migrating back and forth and intermingling musically. Much of Altan's repertoire flows from the amazing wellspring of tunes performed by celebrated Donegal musicians. The quick, single-stroke bowing and staccato triplets favored by Donegal fiddlers lie at the heart of the propulsive twin fiddling by Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh and Ciaran Tourish. That core Altan sound, in turn, is enhanced and fleshed out by the subtle, surefire accordion playing of Dermot Byrne and the highly dynamic rhythm accompaniment of Ciaran Curran and Daithi Sproule on bouzouki and guitar, respectively. Together, they embody the depth, strength, and beauty of the northern Irish tradition, taking it to new heights. Energy, passion, virtuosity, and impeccable taste: Altan has them all in abundance. Over the course of five band albums now, Altan has set the standard for commitment to -- and consistency of -- excellence in the Irish tradition. Respectful of the past, resistant to fads, and insistent on including fresh tunes and songs with every tour they undertake, Altan refuses to rest on their laurels as the most exciting Irish traditional group in the world today.

Check out recordings we carry featuring Altan