The Paul Brock Interview – Part 7: Irish Music on the World Stage

Athlone Miscellany

By Gearoid O’Brien

The Paul Brock Interview – Part 7: Irish Music on the World Stage.

In the course of our on-going discussion on Paul Brock’s career it was inevitable that we would touch on the new ‘Irish World Academy of Music and Dance’ in the University of Limerick, because Paul has been there both as student and lecturer. This Academy, which has a range of programmes including ethnic musicology; chant; classical string; Irish music performance and Irish dance, has already spawned many very talented musicians. “When you go into the University of Limerick and see what Michael O Suilleabhain has done for Irish music there and how it has become such a pivotal part of the University it gives you a great sense of pride. For someone like me to see that great acceptance of the importance of Irish music having had people laugh at me in the 50s for my interest in it and to see how young people are coming through the system there is wonderful”.

Bringing Irish Music to the World Stage

“In the places I have gone to play, and I have played all over the place – Central America, South America, all over Europe – there is a real hunger for Irish traditional music. Recently the Brock McGuire Band played in Colombia, you don’t associate Colombia with an appreciation of Irish music, and yet we did two concerts in the National Concert Hall in Bogota and both of them sold out. There was a phenomenal reaction from the people there to our music and a recognition that Ireland has a living folk-culture and that young people are very much engaged by it and attracted to it. We are invited back next year to Columbia so here you see the globalisation of Irish music and who would have thought that possible? This has come about thanks to groups such as The Chieftains and other bands who have brought Irish music to venues worldwide”.

“The sky is the limit today. China, you name it – this year for the first time there was a festival of Irish music in Cuba, called CeltFest Cuba and the artistic director is a chap called Cillin O Cinneide (Killian Kennedy) who is a teacher in Fairfield, Connecticut – and where is he from? Athlone! We hope to perform at this festival at a future date”.

A Recent Trip to America

Paul tells me that he sometimes finds the actual travelling tough but in more recent times they hand-pick their venues and take care not to put themselves under too much pressure. “We were away from October 16^th for two weeks appearing in Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina – we didn’t work to crazy schedules we’re too long in the business for that”. Together with his fellow band-leader, Manus McGuire, they work out the tour itineraries and as they record with a company called Compass Records in Nashville they leave time for recording sessions also. Paul is very happy with the recording company which is run by two musicians: “Alison Brown who is a very famous banjo player and a former banker and Harvard graduate and her husband Garry West who is a great bass player”. Compass Records took over The Green Linnet label in 2006 and the Mulligan Records label in 2008. “We get great support from Compass, for example on our recent tour they were publicising the tour through their wide network of media and other music industry contacts. The tour included concerts in Donelson, Chattanooga, Knoxville Tennessee, Asheville, North Carolina, Lexington and Louisville Kentucky the home of Cassius Clay”.

The Brock Maguire Band

When Paul tells me about the evolution of The Brock McGuire Band which has been on the go since 2000 I am amazed by the fact that Paul Brock and Manus McGuire have known each other for so long. Paul explains: “Manus McGuire was born in Tullamore, his father Paddy McGuire was a friend of Frank Dolphin’s and Frank introduced Manus’s father and mother at a ceili in the Mansion House, Dublin in June 1947. I remember as a young boy that Paddy McGuire brought his sons, Manus and Seamus, to meet me and hear me playing at my home in O’Connell Street ”.

Of course many years elapsed between that first meeting and their collaboration as musicians. When Manus McGuire went down to Clare to work in June 1985 they became close friends. The other members of the band include Enda Scahill from Corofin, Co Galway who now lives in Galway city. Enda plays the banjo and mandolin. The fourth member is Denis Carey, the piano player and Irish music composer, from Newport in Tipperary. Denis now owns the Peter Dee Academy of Music in Limerick where he has about 700 students and also runs Steamboat Music also in Limerick.

Right now the Brock McGuire Band is working on a new album. “We have half of that recorded and it will be released in the first quarter of 2011” Paul tells me. “We tour as regularly as time allows, our recent tour included some time recording in Nashville. Our next tour will be to Texas and the US East Coast in late February early March – it is not connected with St Patrick’s Day or anything like that – we will be doing a series of concert performances.

At home we do as much as we can. One of the features of the scene around Ireland is that there is a lot of free traditional Irish music being played in pubs but we are more interested in playing in concert settings”. This year the band’s Irish concerts included: “Riches of Clare” concert series in May, the “Gathering Festival” in Killarney and the “Feakle Folk Festival” as well as a recent concert as part of the Ennis Trad Festival.

Paul Brock’s Ideal Show

I asked Paul “If you could bring your ideal music show to the Dean Crowe Theatre in Athlone what would it be?” and he tells me “I was in Boston late last year there was a John McCormack weekend because Boston College has a great John McCormack connection – they were the beneficiaries of some important McCormack collections including the Fred Manning Collection of McCormack memorabilia. So they have a huge collection in Boston College including one of his ‘black books’ which he carried on stage with him. I was fortunate to be invited out to that weekend and I gave my talk ‘Impressions of the Great Irish Tenor’ and that evening there was a concert in Boston College and it included a fantastic cross section of music. There was not just Irish music and not just McCormack – they had a wonderful tenor called Bryan Griffin who has an Irish background but has never been to Ireland. He trained as an opera singer in Chicago and he was superb. They also had a chap from Dublin who went to College in Limerick, Ciaran Sheehan, who has worked on Broadway most notably in “The Phantom of the Opera” where he has done over 1,000 lead performances. He was a young guy, very personable and very engaging with the audience and he performed some Broadway hits. They also had a violinist, Bonnie Bewick Brown, who plays with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and she did some Fritz Kreisler material and some Classical and Irish material. I played with Mick Moloney from Limerick, a former member of ‘The Johnstons’ and ‘Emmet Spiceland’ and a great musician and academic, a great lover of McCormack. Mick had given a talk earlier on ‘Tenors in early 20^th Century America’ including John McCormack. Also playing with us was Seamus Connolly who is the Director of Irish Studies at Boston College. Originally from Killaloe, Co Clare, Seamus is a great fiddle player who won the All Ireland title no fewer that ten times. The concert that evening showed me that you can match the traditional with the classical and with the popular and still get a great response – a number of us remarked afterwards that the audience had got a great cross-section of music on the night. I think it would be great to see that type of show in Athlone”.