When I interviewed Michael McGoldrick recently about his seminal Fused album, he used the word ‘groove’ six times when talking about the tunes on the album. Celebrating the anniversary of both the album’s release and it’s first live outing in the same venue at Celtic Connections 20 years ago, Michael and band locked into the groove, and then stayed there like they’d never been away from the Old Fruit Market in Glasgow (they have only played together intermittently in the intervening period, at Celtic Connections or anywhere else). The audience, ranging from those who discovered the album, and maybe came to the original gig, 20 years ago, to those who were too young to be aware of it then or not even born, all had an absolute ball, dancing, cheering and singing along to every tune – quite literally.
Support act for the evening was Scottish band Dòchas, playing their first gig for over ten years (the two bands toured together in 2005, including a show at Celtic Connections). They delivered a mix of lively tunes and Gaelic songs, sung as beguilingly as ever by Julie Fowlis, to a warm and appreciative crowd.
At the end of this live review is a Track-by-Track guide to Fused. In Michael’s own words, he talks about the provenance of the tunes, the background to the setlist and more. The original album had no background information about the tracks, so this is a real bonus.
Watermans starts with just The Dhol Foundation’s Parvinder Bharat’s playing the tabla; the tune builds as other instruments join up until Michael’s low whistle plays a tune that’s unlike anything we’d usually associate with Irish traditional music. Even today, Watermans still surprises with the tabla, low whistle an unusual time signature, it was way ahead of time back in 2000, and it’s already carrying the audience along.
James Brown’s March begins with only a pulsing guitar rhythm from Ed Boyd (Flook, Lunasa) and echoey electronic drum-like sound. As soon as Mike leads off the tune itself, there’s a massive cheer from the crowd as they recognise probably the best-known track from the album. Dancing in some form became instinctively necessary for the audience as the band played possibly the funkiest, most uplifting tune in folk music, aided and abetted by a proper brass section – trombone, sax and led by trumpet player Neil Yates – playing full-on 1960s soul lines. The changeup to the next tune is a thrilling moment as Michael and accordion player Alan Kelly lock-in together on the traditional reel Noon Lassies.
The Otter’s Set, a set of three traditional reels comes next, but the introduction is anything but traditional with a slow reggae-ish bass and drums, with gentle, relaxed keyboard runs from Donald Shaw (Capercaillie and Celtic Connections Artistic Director). Once Mike starts playing the tunes, still on low whistle, the other instrumentation murmurs along in the background, with the feel of a slow-flowing river with the audience collectively swaying in time to the beat. An entirely different sound again for Goodbye Grant, the next set of tunes, on which Michael switched to flute. The first tune in the set, The Fisherman in the Wardrobe, had relatively straight forward instrumentation and rhythm, but with the second tune Goodbye Grant, the syncopation is upped a notch or two. All underpinned by a delightfully inventive bass line from Ewen Vernal and subtle interplay between Michael and fiddle player extraordinaire Dezi Donnelly towards the end of the tune.
We’re back to a reggae dub-like rhythm for Lucy’s, which, for no apparent reason, has the voice of a young woman at the start saying: “Hey baby, you wanna go out?”. The first tune, Sullys No.37, with Michael reverting to low whistle, is remarkably laid back: traditional type tunes never sounded so hypnotic. Things shift up all of half-a-gear on Lucy’s Reel and in the audience, our swaying gives way to shuffling of feet in time to the music. Next are a set of three reels, the first two, Lough Mountain and Paddy Finlay’s, sound, almost incongruously in his context, recognisably like reels. It doesn’t last though as the band jump into Dan Breen’s Reel, which had the feel of an extended dance record, with a bunch of flute and brass staccato stabs, that have the crowd punching along. There’s an opportunity for the brass section to take a short solo each and a further changeup into a short, firmly club-like section, before accordion and flute lock-in again to the end.
Teehan’s sounded almost like an interloper amongst the beats and bass lines. Just flute for a few bars on the first tune and then gentle, understated guitar and fiddle accompaniment, with equally unobtrusive keyboards added to the Her Long Black Hair, the second tune. Michael’s uninterrupted, gorgeous flute got due rapt attention from the audience – it was even quiet at the bar. Another set of contrasting paces, as Windbroke is taken slowly, bass and drums back in, with restrained electric guitar from Sorren MacLean adding nice shade. The Log takes off at what sounds, comparatively, like a frenetic pace, Michael’s strong playing verging on frantic towards the end of the tune. By this point, it’s impossible to do anything but marvel at the consistent and very high standard of playing from all involved, with everything sounding coherent and unforced.
Michael introduced the only song of the show by recollecting how he joined Capercaillie in 1997 which provided him with the opportunity to play all over the world with the band, which includes the guest vocalist on Buain A’ Choirce, Karen Matheson. Sung in Gaelic, needless to say brilliantly, with the substantial bonus of Julie Fowlis joining in on the chorus, the song’s scenic feel is very much enhanced by the playing, in particular on low whistle and tabla. Twenty years on Gaelic singing and tabla seem an utterly obvious fit.
The line-up playing with Michael McGoldrick is often billed as his ‘Big Band and’ what was striking for this show was that this was an even bigger band, with 14 musicians, most of whom were on stage most of the time. For Ridee, the next set of tunes, yet another musician was added to mix in the shape of a dhol drummer. Dezi Donnelly treated us to some magnificent fiddle playing on the first tune, and on Paperbird, dhol and bodhran combined to drive both the groove and again our feet. There’s barely time for band or audience to catch breath in between sets of tunes and we’re onto another anthemic set of reels, but of course, reels played not as you’d usually expect to hear them. Keeping with the uncluttered openings, piano, bodhran and, in a change, Michael playing the melody on uilleann pipes on Sean Reid’s, a fuller sound on An Bhean Tinceare, and then seriously driving stuff from the full band on The Bunny Hat, with just about everyone singing the tune (and I did I mention dancing).
The final set of the night from the album, Hip Agus Hop, starts with the jazziest work from the band, piano, bass and drums combining to sound for all the world like a top 1950s jazz behind by swinging flute. Then we’re into the glorious jig The Roaring Barmaid, the fastest tune of the night, the brass section in full sway and nothing for it but jumping up and down with the best of them.
Encores galore. First, The Dub Reel, stripped down to Michael on whistle and Ed Boyd’s guitar, John Joe Kelly’s bodhran and Parvinder Bharat’s tabla – the first two leaving the stage for John Joe and Parvinder to entertain us with a duelling bodhran and tabla session, trading rhythms across musical cultures. Favourite with the younger crowd Freefalling, followed – the jumping up and down wilder than ever from Frankie’s, the second tune in the set, onwards. Last but not least the popular Farewell to Whalley Range with Dòchas coming back on stage (20 musicians in total squashed together). There was rightly a clear sense of celebration and triumph on stage, and huge appreciation from an audience that knew what they had come for and loved every minute.
Recreating the final sound of an album like Fused which has been recorded incrementally, parts being added in at different times and where there is so much going on, requires attention to detail and that was one of Michael and the band’s highly creditable achievements. But more than that, the performance was the exact opposite of a mechanical reproduction; it was full of energy and spark, sounding amazingly fresh all the way through. Hearing Fused played live all the way through in 2020 still surprises; yes, it is undoubtedly traditional music, but it is so, so much more besides. There may have been plenty of reels, but most tunes were taken at a slower pace than is usually the case, and that didn’t stop the bulk of the audience feeling the groove, dancing to virtually every number – after all that is what traditional tunes were for originally. I’ve never been at an essentially instrumental gig where so many people knew the tunes inside out, knowing when every change was coming and literally singing along to every tune. I’ve also rarely seen a group of musicians on stage look so relaxed and so evidently enjoying themselves – hard to say who had the most fun. A truly memorable and unique musical occasion.
FUSED: Track by Track
Michael McGoldrick tells us about the influences and origins of the tunes on Fused.
Watermans
“The 7/8 meter for Watermans was influenced by a number of people: Paul Brady – I loved the tune at the end of Out the Door and Over the Wall the track on Welcome Here Kind Stranger, his first solo album, where he goes into a kind of Bulgarian dance tune; Planxty did a tune on Cold Blow and the Rainy Night and there was Andy Irvine and Davy Spillane’s East Wind. In 1999 I played with Hungarian kaval player Andras Monori as part of a tour titled Flutopia with Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen from Flook, Jean Michel Veillon from Brittany and Quique Almendros from Spain. I remember thinking that timing was so different, it wasn’t Irish, so I wanted to do something in that time signature. The title comes simply from the first time I played it which was in the Watermans Theatre in Brentford, London”.
James Brown’s March
“James Brown’s March was named after James Brown, the funky soul hero. I was watching a television programme, heard this drum groove during the band’s introduction and thought; I wonder if that drumbeat would work on a bodhran and it did. The sound you hear at the beginning is that beat played by drummer James Macintosh which I recorded on an old Walkman, played back through a small battered speaker, played back on a loop – the sound just worked. The whole tune was written around the rhythm, it falls on a beat, a lazy . I used to love an album that Noon Lassies was on by the band Skylark, with Gerry O’Connor on fiddle. It was one of my favourite tunes at the time we recorded the album”.
The Otter’s Set
“I was listening to a lot dub, Trojan music at the time. That’s the feel I was trying for in this set, led by the bassline. I think Manchester guitarist Ian Fletcher taught me this version of the first tune The Ashplant; the version I knew was different. Hanley’s Reel, the second tune, I might have got it directly from Patsy Hanley the great flute player from Roscommon or maybe from Marcas O Murchu’s O Bheal Go Beal album. The tune in the set, The Otter’s Holt is a slower version of a tune from The Bothy Band’s Old Hag You Have Killed album.
Goodbye Grant
“These tunes are Breton influenced so that was the feel I was aiming for. I went to Brittany was I was in my late teens, fell in love with Breton music and was inspired in particular by the great flute player Jean Michel Veillon and also by fiddle player Jacky Molard and piper Patrick Molard. The title for The Fisherman in the Wardrobe comes from a cousin of mine who had some mental health problems. Every time I used to meet him, he would open an imaginary little box and then put his hand through it. I’d shake his hand and say hello who is it. He’d say it’s the fisherman in the wardrobe. Donald Shaw and I wrote Goodbye Grant for recording engineer Grant Milne who just disappeared in the middle of a recording session (not the Fused sessions). He went out for a sandwich and never came back.
Lucy’s
“My parents used to bring me to a pub called The White Lion in Withington in Manchester to hear banjo player Tony Sullivan play there every Sunday afternoon. I used to learn loads of tunes from Sully’s records and used to have a cassette tape of his Sully’s Fancy album which Sullys No.37 was on. I wrote Lucy’s Reel the birth of the daughter of a friend Laura, a fiddle player who I worked with on a play at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre”.
Lough Mountain
“Lough Mountain I got from a record by a great Irish band Fisherstreet. I think it was Peter Carberry who was an influence on all of us around Manchester at the time who told us about Fisherstreet. That’s one of my favourite tunes. It may have been Jean Michel Veillon who taught that me Paddy Finlay’s. We played Dan Breen’s Reel back when I was in Flook”.
Teehan’s
“I had recorded Terry Teehan’s with Lunasa on the first album. I first heard Sharon Shannon playing Her Long Black Hair, written by fiddle player Jnr Creehan and then I heard Mick O’Brien playing it on his May Morning Dew album.
Windbroke
“The title of the first tune comes from my dad when he’s out of breath and he stops playing a whistle tune half-way through and he’ll say ‘I’m windbroke, I can’t carry on with the tune’. The Log was written for two friends who were climbing the Himalayas and they met as one was on the way up and one was coming down. They hadn’t seen each other since they were at school and they caught up sitting on a log.”
Buain A’ Choirce
“Karen Matheson came in and sang as a guest on the album. She chose the song”.
Ridee
“Ridee is one of two types of Breton dance tunes. I’ve been to Brittany many times playing at the fes noz [night festival] and that was one of the tunes that I Iearnt. Paperbird is a magnificent tune composed by good friend, great uilleann piper and great composer Diarmaid Moynahim, from an album by the band Calico.”
Reid’s Reels
“Sean Reid’s I found on an old tape by flute player Paddy Carty and banjo player Mick O’Connor. I learned An Bhean Tinceare (The Tinkerman’s Wife) from Liam O’Flynn on the album he made with Seamus Ennis’s daughter playing the organ in a church, one of my dad’s records. The Bunny Hat was written by Manchester-based uilleann piper and maker Dave Lim. I first heard him playing it at the Band on the Wall in Manchester when he was in a group called Reed Riot with two Uilleann pipers, bass and guitar. I recorded it live on an old Walkman and went home and learnt it. ”
Hip Agus Hop
“Hip Agus Hop was composed by Donald Shaw who produced the album. The Roaring Barmaid is another off of Tony Sullivan’s Sully’s Fancy album.”
Donal Og (Trad)
“I was on tour in Ireland in 1999 with Alan Kelly on accordion, Frank Kilkelly and Ed Boyd splitting guitar duties, Cathal Hayden on fiddle and Karan Casey on vocals. Every night Karan sang this song unaccompanied. I fell in love with the song and with her voice, so I invited her to come over and sing it on the album.”
A subsequent feature will tell the story of the making of the album, together with the views of other musicians. We will have insights from Michael McGoldrick, Donald Shaw and other band members, and thoughts from Julie Fowlis, Duncan Chisholm, Damien O’Kane, Jarlath Henderson and others.