Most of you will be familiar with Ruth Clinton as a member of the Dublin/Belfast group Landless who perform unaccompanied traditional singing in four-part harmony (See Bleaching Bones review). Ruth is based in Sligo and, as well as being a multi-instrumentalist, she is also a painter and videographer. Multi-instrumentalist Cormac MacDiarmada is best known as a member of Lankum who is usually found playing the fiddle and has also worked on videos with Ruth (see below).
Ruth and Cormac have formed a duo project called Poor creature, and are to open Féile na Gréine this month, annual free music & arts trail around Limerick City, which takes place between 19-21 August 2022. While taking inspiration from tradition, their approach is experimental, edgy and refreshingly original.
Watch their video for We’ve Run Out of Tomorrows (excerpt), on which they are joined by guest musician Aoife Hammond (the video is by Ruth & Cormac). Edgy and drone-driven, this just fizzes with a sort of static energy.
Believed to be from the 17th or 18th centuries, there are apparently over 150 versions of An Draighneán Donn, thought to be one of the oldest and most widely spread songs now sung in the Irish language, but you’ve never heard it like this before.
Willie-O was filmed for the Dublin Book Festival: Departures series, 2021. While this one has a similar drone appeal, Ruth’s sublime vocals are brought more to the fore over Cormac’s gentle bowing, and their experimental approach is heightened by the use of the theremin, delicately mastered by Ruth.
Links:
https://ruthclinton.com/Poor-creature.html
Féile Na Gréine – https://www.facebook.com/feilenagreineLK