Anyone that follows the folk scene will know that the Irish music scene is positively thriving with, to name just a few, the likes of Lankum, Lisa O’Neill and Ye Vagabonds at the forefront. Last year, filmmaker Myles O’Reilly (Arbutus Yarns) got together with Islander to make a documentary that offered a small snapshot of this creative surge. For me, the name of the documentary ‘Backwards to Go Forwards‘, called to mind a time when the musicians of the sixties folk scene began to look to the past for inspiration (something I touched on yesterday when talking about John Cohen’s new book Speed Bumps on a Dirt Road).
The documentary featured This is How we Fly, Cormac Begley, Radie Peat of Lankum, Cormac Mac Diarmada & Brian Flanagan of Rue, Ye Vagabonds, Slow Moving Clouds, The Bonny Men and Zoe Conway + John Mc Intyre. It also featured Saileog and Muireann Ní Cheannabháin (Muireann of Mongoose) who performed a beautiful Sean Nós song Uileacán Dubh Ó on Maghermore Beach in Co. Wicklow, which is also our Song of the Day.
Backwards To Go Forwards (2018) was directed by Myles O’Reilly, produced by Jonathan Pearson for Islander Presents, in collaboration with The Traditional Arts Council Ireland.
Watch the full documentary here: https://arbutusyarns.net/2018/12/25/backwards-to-go-forwards/
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