The Examiner Newspaper 1998

The best of Irish, from the Hearth.

Tralee musician Benny O'Carroll says it was frustration that made him do it. The 36-year old guitarist was leaving a local pub last summer with a group of Italian traditional music fans who had just sat through anIrish ballad session. They were, O'Carroll says, surprised that the session had provided a standard of musicianship that was actually lower than what they could experience back home in Italy. It was a moment that stuck in O'Carroll's mind. "Having played Irish traditional music in Italy and all across Europe, I understood the level of expectation tourists have when they come to Ireland to hear music is very high", he says. "But unless they're in the know as to where a good traditional session can be found, they don't find music at the level they expect. If ballads are all they hear, there's a danger that Irish music is misrepresented."

O'Carroll decided to do something about it.

Drawing on over 20 years experience playing around the country with the cream of Ireland's traditional players, the classically-trained musician began planing a series of performances that would offer tourists and traditional fans the opportunity to hear high-quality, authentic Irish music in a setting that recalled sessions from an era before music relied on amplification and electronic trickery. The immediate result was a series of concerts at Tralee's Siarnsa Tire in January. Featuring what amounted to a supergroup of young trad players, the concerts were recorded, and have been released by O'Carroll on a self-produced new album, Sessions From The Hearth. Traditional music, O'Carroll says, is best experienced in a live setting, where the audience and musicians feed off each other, and this album is as close as you can get to the essence of a real session without actually being there. The CD's 14 pieces attempt to trace the thread of a session from start to root, which means that alongside a strong selection of reels and jigs are examples of sean nos singing and often humorous introductions by the musicians themselves. Given that the musicians just met as a group minutes before they were to go on stage, the performances are remarkably coherent and fluid.

According to O'Carroll, his intention with Sessions from the Hearth was to replicate as closely as possible the sort of well rounded traditional entertainment that would have been common a generation or two ago. "We've lost a lot over the years in terms of entertainment in general, and in terms of music in particular," he says. But the Sessions from the Hearth CD is only the first step in O'Carroll's long-term plan to raise and maintain standards of Irish music so that Irish and foreign fans - of which there are many, he says - can experience the real thing. He is currently researching the establishment of a Centre Of Excellence for traditional musicians from Ireland and abroad, to be housed at Collis Sandes House in Tralee, and further recordings and sessions are planed, including a concert in May 1998 in Killarney. There are also plans to take the show on the road in America and mainland Europe.

But can a traditional music session of the level of authenticity O'Carroll is attempting to achieve really succeed as a moveable feast? ."You do walk a very thin line between presenting a fireside session and a taking on a stage performance," O'Carroll says. "It can be a challenge to retain the integrity of what you're trying to do. But the sessions really work and as you can hear on the album, there's an audience out there who certainly feel the same way.

Review by: Colin Lacey