Am I the only one who doesn’t like Lúnasa and all the other trendy trad types?
Am I the only one out there who doesn’t like Lúnasa? I mean i respect them all as musicians, there is no doubting they are a talented bunch, but their sound just doesn’t do it for me. Whenever I say to people I don’t like Lúnasa I’m almost always greeted with a look of shock.
Has the Lúnasa sound so penetrated ITM that it is now the new standard for ITM, so therefore to criticise them is heresy?
They’re often called the successors to the Bothy Band, but is it just me or are they not worlds apart.
The Bothy Band were full of soul, aggression, direct rhythm, counterpoint, darkness and power whereas Lúnasa are all ‘sophisticated’ rhythmic syncopation, cool chords, happy lightweight melodies, they even manage to turn great dark tunes into happy tunes! They are taking the darkness, soul, melancholy and aggression out of the tunes, ITM isn’t simply jolly, lovely music.
In the words of Tommy Peoples.. ‘The music expresses joy, terrible loss, hope, love and defiance. It has stayed with us when we had our own people crushed by oppression, our language killed by force and intimidation… Irish music was a joy to me…it spoke to me of the people who bore all this hardship and came through singing."
Do Lúnasa and their numerous imitators express these feelings? Not to my ears. Is it not high time some new groups appeared to take ITM by the scruff of its neck and take it out of the trendy trenches it is in at the moment. Lets get back into the depth of what it is all about and maybe then we can look at it afresh and create a new interpretation of it that won’t take away from the real emotions the music expresses.
All those in favour say I and please feel free to email me. All those against please don’t take any personal offence, I don’t really mind trendy trad, some of the tunes are nice enough, I just think that it is dominating too much these days and that dominance needs to be reassessed.
Right that’s me off my soapbox for now.
Dave