Stevie Dunne – Live At The Crosskeys Inn
Self Released – 15 September 2018
Celebrated banjo player Stevie Dunne hails from Co. Louth (the small fishing port of Clogherhead), but he now resides just outside Belfast, where he’s been a pivotal member of the traditional music scene for the past 20 years. During this time, he’s released just two CDs – About Time (2010) and Banjo (2012) – both of which were studio productions. Live At The Crosskeys Inn forms a natural follow-up, not least because the Inn (the oldest thatched pub in Ireland and located just north of Lough Neagh, around 30 minutes from Belfast), is steeped in traditional music and has been a favourite performing venue of Stevie’s for many years.
This 13-track live album was recorded only just over six months ago, on 8th April 2018, and the warm and welcoming ambience of the pub transfers over into the recording very well indeed. As does the totally relaxed nature of the playing. But don’t be fooled – relaxed doesn’t mean laid-back to the extent of being laid-out, for this kind of relaxed is the easy “weaving and diving” type of virtuosity characteristic of a musician completely at home and confident in his art, where playing is as natural as breathing. Stevie does not have a heavy-handed banjo style: in fact some listeners will be pleasantly surprised at his lightness of touch. Stevie’s accompanists comprise Brian McGrath (piano keyboard), Gerdy Thompson (guitar), Cyril O’Donoghue (bouzouki) and John Joe Kelly (bodhrán), and we learn from the press release that the musicians had never played a note together with Stevie until the night before the recording! They’d been given basic advance notice of the selection of tunes, and all apart from Cyril came round to Stevie’s house that night for a run-through. Nothing short of amazing, you might think – but then again, that’s indicative of the ready and instant rapport the musicians were able to achieve. Although Stevie’s banjo work is both energetic and subtly shaded, an almost equal driving force comes from John Joe’s signature bodhrán playing, while none of the guitar, bouzouki or piano lines are anything but subtly responsive and entirely complementary to the melody as taken by the lead instrument.
Moments such as gear-changes between individual tunes come with occasional whoops and yells, and there’s bags of obvious enjoyment and involvement to be heard – I might single out the track 4 medley as a prime example of this vibe, with the restrained playfulness of The Broadway hornpipe accelerating into the final pair of reels as Brian and Stevie are joined by John Joe; the medley’s five minutes are over before you know it – and far too soon! The overall sound quality may at first seem a mite subdued, but the sense of presence does improve markedly during the course of the album, and gets into its stride by around two or three tracks in; it does, however, manage to convey the sense of restraint Stevie’s fellow-musicians exercise in their sympathetically involved accompaniment. Just occasionally other sounds filter through, such as Stevie’s young sons having gentle fun in the background on The Salley Gardens for instance, which is played here by Stevie on guitar, with Gerdy, as a tribute to Arty McGlynn – but this isn’t distracting in the scheme of things (and bearing in mind that Stevie specifically wanted his family and friends to be included on the album).
The repertoire trawled for this live album consists to a large extent of what might be termed latter-day session favourites, but I suspect not many will be especially well known even to aficionados of the Irish trad music scene. Stevie’s liner notes are helpful in this regard for his eager honesty in crediting his own sources (which may not be the “original traditional” if you get the drift, but at least it helps the tune researcher with one stage of the detective work). Mostly it’s sets of jigs or reels, with the occasional hornpipe, but everything’s played with an abundance of brio, like the musicians really mean it – from the delicious poise of the O’Flaherty’s/Off To California hornpipe set to the fuller-on steaming dash-to-the-finish of the closing Dog Among The Bushes/The Wisemaid medley. The album’s also sprinkled with Stevie’s own compositions, for instance, the sparkling pair of reels composed in tribute to his father, a former trawlerman, and the Crosskeys/Cahir’s Slippery Jig set (track 5) which balances lyricism of expression with a real affinity for the tradition.
One final point, then. OK, if you’re immune or allergic to the charms of the humble banjo, then this record, with its 55 minutes of almost unrelieved banjoism inevitably to the forefront, may not be for you, but having said that it’s all too easy to fall under the spell of Stevie’s playing, to the extent that you might almost forget you’re listening to a banjo – if you see what I mean… Which should be taken as much as anything else as a further hearty compliment to Stevie’s musicianship.
Order via Bandcamp: https://steviedunne.bandcamp.com/releases