Sunday Sessions: Saltwater
Saltwater.
Do you listen to sounds of the waters?
Hearing the swirl of salt waters at the coast of Brittany inspired Nuala Kennedy to write what became the first part of this set, which goes on to include the tune Flow and the song CuCuin.
Nuala is a player of flutes and whistles, a composer of tunes, and a singer of songs in English and Irish. You will find several of those gifts in this set.
The second piece is called Flow. It was also inspired by waters at the sea coast.
The third piece is a song from Irish tradition, which Nuala sings in Irish. Cucuin, it’s called. The lyrics imagine a conversation between a mother cuckoo and her chicks.
In Celtic tradition, it is often said that the cuckoo is able to travel between worlds.
This is a song, Nuala says, that she often sings to her own young children.
She mentions that in the sleeve notes of her album Shorelines, where you will find the set recorded.
Nuala comes from Louth, Ireland’s smallest county, which faces the loughs and coasts of the Irish Sea, in Ireland’s Ancient East.
Nuala’s music has taken her to many parts of the world, among those Spain, Scotland, the United States, and Canada.
These days she and her family are based in Clare, in the west of Ireland. The Atlantic facing coasts of Clare find their way into the music on Shorelines as well.
So does Canada. Nuala has been part of the Celtic Colours Festival on Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. In Covid times she was meant return to be an artist in residence /
She did that residence at a distance; a tune composed for that experience joins a Cape Breton inspired tune and a Scottish maritime reel in a set. There’s an excellent cover of a contemporary song drawn from a story from Newfoundland history also.
On the Saltwater set and through the album, Nuala is joined by frequent collaborators Tara Breen on fiddle and Tony Byrne on guitar. On backing vocals you may recognize the voices of Moira Smiley and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh. Caoimhin Vallely adds piano and Todd Sickafoose double bass.
The focus of that album is ways to tell stories of the resilience of women, set within ideas of sea coasts and waters.
Each of the songs and tunes on Shorelines will reward your exploration and repeated listenings, and perhaps add to your thoughts on sea coasts, and on resilience
If contemporary Irish music which draws on tradition intrigues you, you may want explore Sunday Sessions episodes featuring the work of Cathie Ryan and the work of Matt and Shannon Heaton (Shannon is a flute player too).
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