Susan Motherway speaks with Nollaig Casey, Niall McCabe and Mike McGoldrick ahead of their Music Network Tour.

This Music Network tour brings together some of traditional music's most gifted and versatile musicians to showcase not only their virtuosic performance skills but also their creativity in tune and song composition. These musicians need little introduction: Nollaig Casey’s work with Coolfin and Planxty, Niall McCabe’s association with Beoga, and Mike McGoldrick’s contributions to Capercaille and Lúnasa have earned them ‘superstar’ status within the tradition.

Surprisingly, they have not collaborated previously, except for one episode of the Transatlantic Sessions featuring Mike and Nollaig 12 years ago. Audiences need not worry, however; given their extensive history of collaborations, their intuitive ensemble playing is bound to flourish. Audiences can also look forward to the premiere of three new compositions commissioned by Music Network specifically for this tour.

This program blends contemporary and traditional music with depth, integrity, and mastery. Music Network has brought together artists with different experiences of Irishness—from Bandon, Clare Island, and Manchester—yet their deep knowledge and engagement with the tradition enable them to provide masterful performances while experimenting, composing, and reinterpreting material for a contemporary audience. For Mike, this may involve composing music that responds to the Irish landscape as much as to the rhythmic stimulus of Indian drumming.

For Nollaig, this is demonstrated in her compositional response to Irish history and mythology as well as her application of a classical bowing to Irish airs. For Niall this involves the telling or retelling of Irish folklife and lore. He explains how he collapses the distance of history by immersing himself in the characters situation, "I may have no experience of that situation, but I can understand or empathise with it. It’s not that you inhabit the person, but you plumb the depths of your own experiences in life and find parallels, and you kind of extrapolate from there emotionally."

All three musicians grew up in families where music formed a bond. Mike's grandfather was a great accordion player from Aughrim, and his father and siblings all played the whistle, while his mother sang. This bond is evident in the family’s recent recording, One for the Road. While Nollaig's mother’s singing was a key influence, her musical aptitude stems from both sides of her family. There are maternal links to the O’Dwyer brothers of Caolrua on the Beara Peninsula, who were prolific tune composers (Nollaig also cites John O’Dwyer as a major fiddle influence) and paternal links to the 18th and 19th poets of Muskerry and the celebrated singer Elizabeth Cronin. With their immersion in the Irish language, poetry and son, nurtured by both parents, perhaps it was inevitable that this family would produce fine musicians. This musical heritage is celebrated in the family recording Sibling Revelry featuring Nollaig, Máire, and Mairéad Ní Chathasaigh. Niall also recounts family gatherings where song and harmonies created a special bond, especially when doing the dishes! He credits this to his granny from Inishbofin, who played fiddle, concertina, and melodeon. Life in the family pub immersed him in the tradition, particularly accordion playing, but also broadened his musical tastes to include jazz, funk, rock, and soul.

Both Mike and Nollaig demonstrate immense energy, fluidity, and expressiveness in their playing. These performers complement each other not only in their enjoyment of challenging time signatures and Eastern European rhythms but also in their love of piping. Nollaig acknowledges her tutelage with the Cork Pipers Club and states, "Rather than the big fiddle tunes, I tend to play a lot of the old piping tunes. I listen to Seamus Ennis quite a lot. Arty McGlynn (my late husband) and I played a lot of piping music. His traditional music was influenced by Seamus Ennis’ piping as well." The influence of Paul Brady is observable in Niall’s vocal delivery and fingerpicking guitar style. On this tour, he has taken on the challenge of tune accompaniment, stating, "Playing with Mike and Nollaig feels like coming full circle, but it also feels like brand new territory, and terrifying as well." It is easy to understand how playing with "one of the greatest flute players in the world" (BBC Music) would initiate this reaction.

Ennis proved a fruitful rehearsal venue, with over 16 arrangements created in two days. In this new grouping, Mike and Nollaig enjoyed the chance to shift from instrumental pieces to work on songs. Niall’s open approach to new arrangements stood out. He stated, "I was playing them like it was the first time, not like they're already arranged and have been recorded, but at their most basic. They then reacted to them; it was so cool."

Differences in approach are inevitable. The group grappled with balancing Mike’s drive to push boundaries against Niall’s desire to simplify. Niall states, "I would steer away from anything weird and wonderful, you know, keep it simple and keep the focus on the story." The tour has also prompted the musicians to be more spontaneous. Mike noted how bands typically play the same material every night, but "here, every night will be a little different" as they bond musically.

In addition to the three pieces commissioned for the tour, Nollaig states, "We are all composers, so we'll be playing some of our previous compositions. The different lineup gives us a chance to add something fresh to them. Of course, this will be interspersed with older traditional music." Niall explained that in his compositional process, the melody, words, and chords come all at once, typically when walking in the hills at home. Nollaig noted that her process is melodically based. Tunes often come to her while she’s out walking, and after notating them, she sets about selecting chords. Mike noted various stimuli in his compositional process. Sometimes it takes a melodic form, where short melodic fragments captured on his phone start, in time, to take the shape of a tune. Alternatively, he states, "I've a knowledge of a couple of chords on the guitar. Sometimes I just strum away and get the shape of a few chords that I like the sound of, and sometimes I've approached it with a rhythm because I'm a percussionist."

In this dialogue with tradition, the story remains key. Nollaig states, "A lot of my compositions are informed by old stories, legends, mythology, and local history. I’m almost always trying to tell a story. Doing this without words is different, but I try to tell those stories through the music." In this respect, Nollaig notes the inclusion of Lios na  Banríona, about the fairy fort inhabited by Cliodhna, queen of the Munster fairies, and The Last Lord of Beara, which reflects on the defeat of Domhnall Cam Ó Súileabháin Bhéara and the fall of the Gaelic Order. Mike highlights his new composition Between Mountain and the Sea, written in response to the beauty, calm, and peace of the Cretan landscape, as one to watch out for. Niall announces two new songs: Promises, reflecting on the pledges we make in relationships but invariably cannot fulfill, and Cuan Mór, a darker historical murder ballad about a girl who reaches out to her lover when she becomes pregnant, but instead of fulfilling his promise to elope, he drowns her at sea.

This tour enables these musicians to share their creative processes and knowledge. Niall states, "We're all strangers. I think that's the unique thing about this. We're coming together as strangers with a common language and love for music. This tour opens not only opportunities but also doors in my imagination and creativity that I never would have explored otherwise. This is going to influence me for a long time to come." Nollaig affirms, "Music Network uses a different approach by bringing together artists who have not worked together previously. This different sound, different ensemble, and different blend of instruments provide opportunities to create something different that audiences will not have heard before." Niall, who is also recording his second album, has opened discussions with his producer to have Mike and Nollaig play on some tracks. It looks like this tour is only the beginning of a musical journey.

Nollaig Casey, Niall McCabe and Mike McGoldrick will begin their tour on the 24th of September at The Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire, visiting Dublin, Galway, Roscommon, Clare, Wicklow, Cork and London, finishing off their tour at St. Michael's Church, Waterville, Co. Kerry on Sunday the 6th of October. Click the link below to get your tickets.