I didn't recognize Billy McComiskey by sight and had missed his name during the introductions, so I didn't realize who he was at first. You can sample his songwriting at his web site. Three guitarists might seem like rather a lot for an ITM group, but the performance would not have been the same without Robbie O'Connell's excellent singing. According to her personal site she has a CD, produced by John Doyle, in the works. It was fun to watch her face as she played she seemed to react to the sounds coming from her instrument in much the same way as the audience did. Her fiddle playing was simply delightful, packed with lift and cheer.
Sunday's show seemed to be much better mixed overall.Īthena O'Lochlainn was a new name to me, but as soon as she started playing it became clear that she had more than enough talent to earn a place with such distinguished company. Even at the Irish festival I sometimes wonder if the mixers realize that the guitars are frequently playing accompaniment. The front of house mix was some better, but the guitars were way too high in the mix they frequently drowned out the other instruments. Mick's albums of song aren't bad at all, but in the end I decided that I like his dance tunes even more.įriday's performance started late due to problems with the monitor mix, which seemed not to be resolved for the whole show John Doyle left his chair several times during the show to have a word with the monitor mixer. But while that CD, and most of the other recordings I've heard from him, lean almost entirely towards song, the Green Fields of America performance had a roughly even mix of songs and dance tunes, and featured local, live dancers for two of the sets. I have heard some of Mick Moloney's recorded music before I just bought the CD which accompanies his book Far from the Shamrock Shore a couple of months ago.
This year the festival spanned several acres and attracted 80,000+ people, plus many well-known bands, and once again Green Fields of America played. The announcer noted that when the festival began 19 years ago and was held in a tennis court, there was only one band the first year: Green Fields of America. This past August I caught Mick Moloney's band Green Fields of America at the 2006 Dublin Irish Festival.