The chances are that many of you may not have heard of wooden flute player Michael Walsh (although we did feature his version of Tribute to Peadar O Donnel, with Liz Hanks on cello, as Tune of the Day a couple of years ago – here). That could be set to change thanks to his band Quare Hawk (an Irish slang term of an odd or weird person). The reasons will become evident if you take a peek at the video below of a genuinely quite different kind of concert which I was fortunate to see last March.
https://youtu.be/fbFkIncVMiE
The show was Quare Hawk’s debut as a band as well as some of music, songs and spoken word from Michael’s forthcoming album of the same name. The evening was part of @NotQuiteLight, an annual, weekend, multi-media festival in Salford ‘not just celebrating Salford, but creativity across cityscapes’. The first half was the premiere of Beneath These Tarmac Cracks, a wholly captivating new play specially commissioned for the festival about memory, place and ageing. It was also memory and place that shaped Quare Hawk’s performance, as Michael reflected on his Irish and Manchester roots, including his late dad who came from Co. Mayo. The concert featured a visual backdrop loop of photos showing a multiplicity of pertinent, personal locations in Manchester and Sheffield (where he now lives).
Free-ranging influences abound – you first see Michael playing a Hulusi (a Chinese gourd flute) with Bryony Griffith on fiddle and Hannah Miller (Moulettes) on cello, which segues into the beautiful traditional Irish song The Shores of Lough Bran. There are also Irish tune sets, including a flute duet with Paul Daly, The Visitor Poem by Mike Garry read by Jonathon Vidler and a few Asturian tunes thrown in. The latter helped by the presence of Scottish fiddler Simon Bradley who plays with Asturian band Llan de Cubel. Other musicians included Anna-Wendy Stevenson on fiddle; Will Hampson on melodeon and Angela Usher on whistles and banjo.
It was an enthralling and thought-provoking concert, with interesting and unusual musical arrangements, all adding to a warm, moving picture of Michael’s life and music offered unassumingly by him and fellow musicians. Quare Hawk are hoping to play more shows and festivals, so catch them if you get the chance. Their debut album, which many of the aforesaid musicians play on, should appear before too long and will be produced by leading Irish Mancunian multi-instrumentalist Mike McGoldrick and includes appearances from legendary Basque accordion player Kepa Junkera and the amazing Armagh born singer and flute player Rioghnach Connolly.
Michael Walsh: http://traddad.com