STEVE MORSE'S CORNER Steve Morse is a longtime Boston Globe reviewer and has contributed to Rolling Stone and Billboard, plus been the Critic At Large for WBOS-FM. He can be reached at spmorse@gmail.com.
ICONS 2008 Summary
Irish music and its many offshoots from folk-rock to pop to country were enjoyed to the hilt at this year's 2000 ICONS Festival. If you wanted legends, you had them in troubadours Liam Clancy and Luka Bloom. If you wanted younger blood, you had the boundary-breaking Crooked Still, the jazzy Alison Brown, and the ethereal Cara Dillon. If you liked all-female bands, you had the amazing Liadan and the mind-blowing Acadians, Gadelle. And if you hungered for a bit of storytelling, you found it in the unique Shay Duffin, who drew big crowds to his one-man show on Brendan Behan.
ICONS had a traditional bent this year, but there was room for everyone. The festival has indeed become a sort of Celtic Bonnaroo with its multiple-tent stages and eager audiences that love to soak up the various sounds, while traversing the grounds of the Irish Cultural Centre all day and night to catch them.
"I think this is the best festival in the world," Solas singer Mairead Phelan said very graciously. "I can't believe the lineup."
Suffice it to say my legs were hurting after a weekend of running around, but my ears offered no complaints. And how could they? The acts were invigorated by the lush, woodsy setting and they offered their very best. The event became a great "hang" for fans and artists alike. Many braved misty conditions on the last night to hear a spectacular concluding set by elder statesman Liam Clancy, who is still robust, vital & and funny - at 73 years old.
"One thing about turning 73 is that you can't die young," quipped Clancy, who opened in a trio format doing the classic anti-war song, "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda," before more musicians joined him for new songs by Paul Brady and the Pogues' Shane MacGowan, written especially for him. Look for a new album including these to come out by Christmas, said Liam, who coaxed crowd singalongs and praised the evening's mist as, of course, being an "Irish mist." Not enough can be said about how great he was - so great that many of the younger musicians, too, inched closer to the stage to glimpse the man who helped put Irish musical tradition on the map in America.
Clancy was the climax, but there was so much more to see over the three days. The large Compass stage on which Clancy played was particularly alive on Saturday afternoon when Cambridge radio station WGBH-FM (where ICONS director Brian O'Donovan also has a weekly program on Celtic music) broadcast many acts live on the air. If the sound was as pristine in radioland as it was in person, the listeners got a treat. Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill led off the broadcast, followed by the galvanizing Liadan and the high-energy Crooked Still, featuring charismatic singer Aoife ODonovan and banjo master Greg Liszt, who had been plucked by Bruce Springsteen to play on the latter's "Seeger Sessions" tour in 2007. The ICONS stars also did an excellent treatment of Gillian Welch's "Orphan Girl."
The broadcast peaked with the Alison Brown Quartet, anchored by Brown's own banjo skills. She had attended Harvard before moving to Nashville, where she has fashioned a strong career as an instrumentalist adept at so many different styles that she's like a soul sister to Bela Fleck.
On Saturday night at the Compass stage - following the radio broadcast but by no means secondary to it - was the astonishingly talented Lunasa. They're another instrumental outfit taking Irish music to new places. No group was better all weekend and member Trevor Hutchinson (formerly of the Waterboys) deserves a special nod for his nimble creativity on upright bass.
Solas headlined the Compass stage on Saturday with its usual fiery instensity (fiddler Winifred Horan is a force of nature), but it was a day to celebrate the other, smaller stages as well. The Point stage boasted the Scots-infused energy of the Tannahill Weavers, the locomotive tempos of the David Munnelly Band (& "wild and free" as they were aptly described in the ICONS event program), the kinetically charged Sean Keane, the history-steeped Clancy Legacy band (featuring three cousins focusing on sweet ballads), and the conscience-driven tunesmith, Luka Bloom. Luka opened with his mesmerizing, utopian "I'm Not at War With Anyone." It was a levitating performance and Luka repeated it the next day on this same Point stage, though he added more dance tunes in a sign of levity.
Other tents were busy, too. A steady stream of dancers enlivened the Comholtas Ceoltoiri Eireann stage and the WROL Marquee stage, where Fenian Sons and Erin's Melody induced parents and children to shake it on the dance floor.
The Burren stage, located in a clubby, hipster tent where the Guinness flowed liberally, was the scene of a dynamic set from the all-women Gadelle, plus various jam-session events anchored by the likes of Chulrua, Alison Brown (part of a banjo jam), and Liadan.
The more tranquil Harpapalooza stage touched hearts with the multi-member Next Generation and the solo beauty of Peter Macaulay. The Abbey stage cooked with Shay Duffin doing his Brendan Behan route (complete with a few pints by his side, though he later admitted they were a customized blend of Coca Cola with some Guinness on top!). The Cottage stage had an ensemble playing tunes for young children who were also given dance instruction. Other tents had activities ranging from the care and grooming of Irish wolfhounds and setters, to investigating one's geneaology. There were also Irish crafts on sale, an expanded amusement park with carnival rides, and a tent devoted to a headliner from last year - the Dropkick Murphys, where merchandise and CDs were on sale.
The big winner, though, was Irish culture in general. It's hard to imagine ICONS ever doing a better job of presenting Irish culture than it did this year. This is a rare festival that educates and entertains at the same time. I can't wait until next year.