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songs. “People would say that a song was composed by a local person, and we would see the housewhere they lived. So there was a lot more involved than just learning tunes; we learned the socialhistory, too.”Ni Mhaonaigh remembers one particularly brilliant and otherworldly local composer: “There was theman who was said to be the best fiddle player around. He would go to the forest and listen to theblackbirds and tape their sounds. Maybe because he was so good, he wasn‟t a part of the normalsociety. People revered musicians like him so much they were put into a magical sphere,” she smiles.“We come from Donegal and when the mist falls over the heather here, you can imagine that otherworld being very close.”The work of traditional musicians and this sense of history, mystery, and place—the group is namedfor a deep lake in Donegal—Altan carried with them into smoky Dublin and Belfast clubs to theSydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl. Over the course of two and a halfdecades, the music project Ni Mhaonaigh and her late husband and longtime musical partner FrankieKennedy began for the sheer love it grew into an ensemble that crystallizes the beauty and power ofIrish tradition.This beauty and power impressed Irish president Mary McAleese, who took the band with her onstate visits, and President Bill Clinton, among many other of the world‟s movers and shakers. It turnedstaid Japanese folk fans into frenzied dancers and mad collectors of bootlegs and rare vinyl that NiMhaonaigh and Kennedy barely remembered recording.It wowed American country idols like Ricky Scaggs and Dolly Parton, whose producer approachedAltan with a collaboration idea while they were passing through Nashville. “We thought some of ourfriends were having one over on us. We took the whole thing very lightly until he got halfway throughhis proposal,” Ni Mhaonaigh laughs. “It was wonderful working with her.”The beauty and power of tradition run through the songs, jigs, and reels on Altan: 25 th AnniversaryCelebration (Compass Records), in a fitting tribute to the band‟s methodical research, stunningmusicianship, and profound passion for Celtic music and poetry from Cape Breton (“Bog an Lochain”)or Ulster (“I Wish My Love was a Red Red Rose”) and beyond.Archives yielded gems such as “Mo Ghaoil,” a sorrowful love song in Scottish Gaelic that a localsinger learned phonetically from a Scottish lighthouse keeper on Arranmore Island, off of Ireland‟snorthwest coast. Or “Donal agus Morag” from Rathlin Island, a rollicking account of the humorousmerrymaking at a Scottish-Irish wedding, with several additional verses penned by Ni Mhaonaigh‟sfather and first teacher, Francie.Francie and other musicians dear to Altan were the source of songs like “Cití na gCumann,” a song ofunrequited love Ni Mhaonaigh learned from her father. Or “Is the Big Man Within?,” a tune the groupgot from a County Clare native living in Florida that showcases the changing time signature of adouble or slip jig: “it changes abruptly in the middle. The women danced the softer one, and the menwould dance the harder one,” Ni Mhaonaigh explains.Yet Altan‟s innate creativity goes beyond its impeccable treatment of traditional tunes, and can be feltin the band‟s originals—songs like “The Roseville,” recalling guitarist Daíthí Sproule‟s time in the TwinCities, or Ni Mhaonaigh‟s touching tribute to her late husband, “A Tune for Frankie.”It also shines in the delicate yet rich orchestration crafted by Fiachra Trench and performed by theRTE Concert Orchestra. Though Altan had worked with a string quartet on past projects, this was thefirst time the group had recorded with the “luxury” of a full orchestra, as Ni Mhaonaigh puts it.
“We liked the lushness of it and the way it showed the colors of the harmonies better than, say, aguitar would. We asked Fiachra to expand the quartet arrangements he‟d done for us into orchestralarrangements, and it just fit like a glove,” Ni Mhaonaigh reflects.After two concerts, one in Belfast‟s Waterfront Hall and another in Dublin‟s National Hall, Altan andRTE felt they had to record the seamless yet intriguing blend, and the innovative results honor bothAltan‟s achievements and its musicians‟ ongoing vision for Irish music.Finding new paths for old ways is a particularly fitting role for Altan, with the great changes that haveswept across Ireland as it turned from European backwater into a Celtic Tiger roaring with newfoundprosperity and global culture. “I‟ve seen Ireland in my lifespan go from being nearly a „Third World‟country to one of the top economies of Europe. It‟s nice for people to not be at poverty‟s door all thetime, but perhaps money won‟t do us a lot of good in the long run,” Ni Mhaonaigh muses. “Now withthe recession, I see people being more reflective, and more in touch with who we are in this world,and asking what can we give the world that is different.“Ireland isn‟t known for its opera or classical music. What we are known for is our traditional music,our language, our culture. That‟s what we can give the world.”http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/index.cfm/fuseaction/current.press_release/project_id/478.cfm
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