De Dannan performs on stage live at the Ardhowen Theatre at the end of this month
Traditional Irish music fans are in for a treat later this month when De Dannan performs on stage live at the Ardhowen Theatre at the end of this month.
Brookeborough born musician Brian McGrath will be amidst the world renowned line up as the band celebrates its 40th anniversary.
Brian has played with De Dannan since the mid 1990’s. Five decades of hard work honing his skills have rewarded Brian with golden opportunities touring at home and internationally with the cream of the crop such as Dervish, Sean Keane, and Four Men and a Dog as well as De Dannan.
Looking back, Brian said he could never have imagined where life’s journey would take him as he embraced his passion for traditional music. Music and melody seeped slowly into his life from early childhood taking piano lessons at home where his parents Attracta and the late Bernard McGrath ran Healy’s pub on Main Street Brookeborough.
“My first lesson was with my mother who used to hum and sing the song Lovely Leitrim by Larry Cunningham and I would try to figure out the notes. I was aged only five or six years at the time . And the piano came from Ivan Kee’s furniture shop.”
Brian then had music lessons from John James McDermott from Garrison. Growing up he also played music alongside his sister, the late Collette McGovern (nee McGrath). As a pupil at St Michael’s College he was taught music by Rev Fr Connolly.
“Fr Connolly started a band in the school at the time and I played in it with others including Ignatius Tierney, Seamus Quinn, John Kelly and the late Paul ‘squid’ Fee who played drums. After that I had lessons with Pat McCabe and went to many fleadhs. In those days I would have thought nothing of driving for two hours to hear a session. If you heard a good tune, you had to remember it, there was no way to record it, no mobile phones and no Internet to look things up.
“A good musician has to know the history and background of the music and listen to different styles of playing and listen to different musical Instruments. It is a tradition and you have to hand down that tradition and keep passing the music on, otherwise it dies out,” he said.
Mostly as a teenage apprentice he learned tunes, jigs, reels, polkas, songs, and all about keeping time, and rhythm, from men aged in their 50s and 60s eclectic masters of their craft.
Brian remembers listening to old records at home on a record player or gramophone with his uncle Rev Canon Fr Brendan Healy absorbing every thing from jazz to blues, to country to hip hop to Tex Ritter and even the Cashel Ceili Band.
“I started playing piano, then accordion, and progressed to the banjo in my early teens.These days it’s mostly recording work with piano and the live work is with the banjo.”
Inspiration also came from listening to very old 78s records of Sligo fiddlers Michael Coleman, James Morrison, Paddy Killoran, John McKenna flute player from Leitrim, as well as music and stories from the Flanagan brothers McNally brothers (Geraldo) and in more recent years listened to music from John-Joe Maguire flute player from Kinawley -Swanlinbar and Jim McGrath Monea, Seamus Quinn, Rev Gary Hastings and many other local influences the likes of Ciaran Kelly from Donagh and Brian Breslin from the Knocks and his contemporary and friend Cathal Hayden from Tyrone.
“I became more interested in traditional music as I progressed and then met other musicians.”
“There is a huge appreciation in a very small world and not everyone in Ireland listens to traditional music, but people who have appreciation – you always see them at concerts.
“Growing up in a pub was a huge influence -local and visiting musicians played like Sean Maguires, Joe Burke, Seamus Tansey. It was a real melting pot for any young musician who wanted to steep themselves in music . And all of them were travelling taking their music to the people.” he said
Inspired by Brian Rooney, fiddle player from Kiltyclogher, Brian recalls his words of wisdom suming it all up: “Anybody who can listen to music is blessed. Anybody who can play music is gifted.”
Today, on world tour with De Dannan Brian thoroughly enjoys that creative chemistry and blend of harmonies which evolves between musicians who know and appreciate each other. No conductor leads and no sheet music is needed, what the audience hears is an organic outpouring of time travelled music, produced from memory, and from the heart.