The Paul Brock Interview – Part 6: Collaboration with Frankie Gavin

Athlone Miscellany

By Gearoid O’Brien

The Paul Brock Interview – Part 6: Collaboration with Frankie Gavin

Paul Brock is a fount of knowledge about the history of Irish traditional music. He tells me “There was a period up to about 1930 where Irish music was being recorded in the States but not here at home, it wasn’t until people like Seamus Ennis and Ciaran MacMathuna and others went on the road in the late 40s and early 50s recording traditional music that we got to hear the music of our musicians at home. In the 1970s and later we got reissues of recordings by the Flanagan Brothers, Michael Coleman, James Morrison and many others and these recordings influenced a whole lot of Irish musicians of that time including myself”.

While still holding down his job at Shannon Development Paul continued to tour and to play. In the 1970s he met Frankie Gavin with whom he had a long musical relationship that culminated in a recording which they made in 1986. This album on the Gael Linn label is still regarded as one of the modern classics of Irish traditional music, called ‘Omos do Joe Cooley – A Tribute to Joe Cooley’ it is a very genuine tribute to the great Joe Cooley by two of our leading traditional musicians. Paul met Frankie when he came down from Galway to hear Joe Cooley in Gort in the early 70s. Frankie Gavin was a young lad at the time and they wound up playing a session together. There was a musical chemistry straight away and both shared a great admiration for the playing of Cooley. When I ask how he feels about that recording today Paul smiles and tells me that the “recording has stood the test of time. Whatever feeling we managed to capture in that recording was the culmination of a lot of work by Frankie and I. Musicians liked the recording and it’s still selling and I’ve met so many people in so many places who told me they liked the recording. It is really nice when that sort of thing happens”. Paul met the great Joe Cooley on many occasions down through the years, but when Cooley came back to Ireland from San Francisco he was an ill man. Paul continued to see him and indeed he later attended his funeral. A very close friend who they held in common was Kieran Collins the East-Galway whistle player from outside Gort. Paul reminds me that “there is an annual Cooley- Collins Weekend held in Gort to commemorate both men”.

Joe Cooley’s Watch

As we chat about Joe Cooley Paul tells me “Kieran Collins was a great friend of mine, he had emigrated and come back from London and worked in Shannon and later in Dublin”. When Kieran Collins died young, in 1983, Paul Brock played at his funeral Mass in Gort. When Joe Cooley had died, ten years earlier in 1973 his wife, Nancy, had given Kieran Collins a gold watch that had been given to Joe. The watch was inscribed and presented to Joe by his friends in San Francisco before he left to come home to Ireland. Then in 1983, after Kieran Collins was buried, Paul’s God-daughter, Sharon Collins, came up to him in Glynn’s Hotel in Gort and said “Mum said to give you this” and she produced Joe Cooley’s watch. Paul remarks casually “I must say I was bothered about what might happen ten years later but that milestone has long since passed and I am delighted to have the watch as a memento of two great musicians”.

‘Moving Cloud’

In the 1980s apart from playing with Frankie Gavin Paul Brock was also doing his own solo thing but from there he went on to form ‘Moving Cloud’ in 1989 with fiddle player Manus McGuire. Apart from Brock and McGuire the line-up also included: Maeve Donnelly, fiddle player; Kevin Crawford, flute player (who is now with Lunasa) and Carl Hession from Galway. The name for the quintet came from a classic Irish reel. They played together up to 2000 and toured quite a lot and recorded for the Green Linnet record label in the U.S. Their first album ‘Moving Cloud’ was voted traditional album of the year in 1994 by Earle Hitchner, music critic of the Wall Street Journal and The Irish Echo. Hitchner writing of their later album, ‘Foxglove’ described it as “instrumental music at its pinnacle by an Irish band ranking among the best today”.

‘Mo Chairdin’

In 1992 Paul recorded his own solo album ‘Mo Chairdin’ and it was described in The Rough Guide to Irish Music “as a modern masterpiece of accordion playing”. This album was released on the Gael Linn label and includes a variety of reels, jigs and hornpipes as well as the slow air ‘Cailin Deas Cruite na mBo’ and the famous set-dance tune ‘The Blackbird’. This really is an album to be savoured and enjoyed and like ‘Omos do Joe Cooley’ it is, I’m sure, destined to stand the test of time.

Over recent months I have spoken to a number of young musicians about Paul Brock’s solo album. One tells me that what makes the album special for him is the eclectic selection of tunes: “he seems to veer away from the real classic tunes and instead picks tunes which are particularly suited to the accordion”. In the sleeve notes for ‘Mo Chairdin’ Brock says “I have always felt a particular affinity with the Irish fiddle-playing tradition and especially enjoy the close compatibility which I believe is possible between box and fiddle”. And at a local session here in Athlone I spoke to a young box player from County Mayo and when I commented on the quality of his playing and asked him did he know of Paul Brock I quickly realised that he did “Oh my God, Brock is savage” he replied using a modern superlative to convey his great admiration for the box playing of Paul Brock who is a legend among Irish box players.

The American Experience

I have been aware for many years that Paul Brock is a regular visitor to the United States and I wondered what kind of audiences he plays to. “I’ve done a lot of work overseas, particularly in America where I have performed in concert halls, colleges, art centres and museums, at music festivals – you name it – I’ve played all over America and Canada and I’ve done all sorts of prestigious venues. They love Irish music everywhere and appreciate the fact that we have a living folk-music tradition and that so many of our young people are attracted to it. There is a real appreciation out there because they realise the great influence that Irish music has had on American music. Our music has worked its way in all over the place, it has strongly influenced for example: country music, bluegrass, French Canadian music and Cape Breton music. I have met all sorts of people, all over North America, and they know about and greatly appreciate the influence of Irish music, I’m sure you have read ‘Bringing it All Back Home” by Nuala O’Connor which deals with the journey of Irish music to and from America. Well no matter where you go in places such as Kentucky, Carolina or Tennessee the Irish music influence is huge. I have a great interest in the journey of the music and how it worked its way around North America”.

We have played to all sorts of audiences but generally it wouldn’t be just to the Irish diaspora. America is a fantastic place to perform because the Americans are musically very well educated. They were brought up with music, they know their music and they have a total focus on the appreciation of the music. So you might be playing in a nice arts centre and they might have a coffee or a glass of wine at the break but after the show they are ready to go home. It’s not like it is here – it’s a different scene – here there is an expectation a lot of the time that Irish music has to be played in an atmosphere of drink but I think that too is changing.