44 to the floor for ever-popular Cork Folk Festival 

The 44th Cork Folk Festival starts this week, and as ever it is a mix of regular annual events, first-time collaborations, and unique performances.

Beloved regular elements of the calendar include An Céilí Mór (Thursday, September 28, Douglas GAA Club, 8.30pm) led by Ger Murphy on accordion and Ken Cotter on keyboards, which promises to be a great night of set dancing with the added bonus of free tea and biscuits for all, and the Gals At Play concert (Saturday, September 30, Spailpín Fánach 5pm) featuring five musicians, songwriters and singers: Mary Greene, Brigid O’Neill, Molly O’Mahony, Siobhán O’Brien and Neo Gilson.

A less familiar aspect of this year’s Cork Folk Festival is a new a stage show, which is the brainchild of the highly esteemed singer Karan Casey.

The Women, We Will Rise, which features songs from her highly acclaimed 12th album, Nine Apples of Gold, is not so much a free-flowing concert as a scripted piece.

As Karan explained, this has been a stimulating challenge.

“Our director Tom Creed has been just fabulous,” she says, “he is just brilliant and I love the scaffolding of a theatre piece and the magic that can be created in the room through theatre. It has been really exceptional to have had the opportunity. The Everyman have also been brilliant.”

Karan is joined by Niamh Dunne, who plays violin and sings, and Seán Óg Graham, who plays both guitar and accordion, with composition from Niall Vallely.

She is clear it is more than just performing the songs.

“It is much more structured and we have to remember the lines!

“The project started with me being invited to Doon in Co Limerick to sing at an unveiling of a plaque for my great Grandfather Pakie Ryan of the Hotel.

“And we began discussing what life must have been like for them at the time, especially Agnes Ryan my great grandmother who had 12 children and ran the pub while Pakie was away on the run or on hunger strike in Wormwood Scrubs.

“Essentially I started uncovering, like a lot of people in Ireland, the history of this time period. I became fascinated and wanted to write songs for the women of the era and sing them into being. They were extraordinary women.”

She also notes that performing The Women, We Will Rise within a Folk Festival Programme gives it a compelling angle.

“It gives it a very different flavour, I think, and the Cork Folk Festival are great to row in behind this ambitious project. I really appreciate it.”

Another performer who is pleased to be part of the festival is musician Jason Turk, who is doing a performance (Friday, September 29, Cork Civic Trust House, 1pm) with his Seaboard RISE 2. While known as an accordion player in bands such as Torcán, Jason has also been exploring what can be done with traditional music with his synthesiser.

While it has the basic layout of a keyboard, many will be surprised with how much can be done with its polyphonic, MIDI, and technical potential.

“People are like, ‘what is that?’” says Jason, “and ‘why are you trying to get it out in the middle of a session?’ But as soon as they hear it, they’re like, oh, wow, that sounds amazing.”

While it has been primarily used as a piece of studio equipment, Jason is really pushing the use of it public settings.

“I feel it’s like it’s an instrument that should be played in a real-life setting rather than just doing a little bit of noodling for something that you’re producing.

“I’ve been able to use it right from the start to play for three hours for a gig and play 50 tunes on it, play 10,000 notes, just to be able to do that and to treat it and expect it to be a real instrument and to be able to perform like that.

“I think it has sat better probably in the Traditional music circles than I expected.”

His performance in Civic Trust House will be a solo performance where he will demonstrate the potential of the instrument while playing his own original pieces and traditional music.

Another new venue to be used at this year’s edition will be the new stage at Elizabeth Fort, (Sunday, October 1, 2pm), where a Community Trad Event will take place with a combination of performances featuring Club Ceoil Ballyphehane, Douglas Comhaltas Adult (who were medal winners at this year’s Munster Fleadh), Douglas Comhaltas Youth Groups (who performed in New York at this year’s St Patricks Day festivities), Cork Singers Club (who have run a singing session every Sunday in An Spailpín Fánach for over 30 years), Kalyna Ukrainian Choir and Knocknaheeny Music Generation.

The best-selling album in Ireland by Irish artists remains the ‘Woman’s Heart’ album, and three of its main performers, Mary Black, France Black, and Mary Coughlan, will be on stage (Sunday, October 1, Cork Opera House, 8pm) in a concert which features them all performing solo and then together with a night of entertaining and moving songs and stories.

An interesting event that catches the eye is ‘Young Timey Do Old Timey’ (Sunday, October 1, The Corner House, 8pm), featuring a collection of ‘less senior’ musicians who take part in the many sessions that The Corner House hosts.

Truly a lynchpin of Cork’s music scene, The Corner House hosts myriad regular sessions from Traditional, to Bluegrass (The Lee Valley String Band have a session every Monday throughout the year, but will be playing a special Sunday afternoon set there for the festival at 4pm) as well as the Lee Delta Blues Club (who tonight host the Dizzy Blues Band)

• The Women, We Will Rise runs in The Everyman from Wednesday, September 27, to Saturday September 30. Tickets available from the box office or www.everymancork.comtarget="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">
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• The Cork Folk Festival runs from September 27 to October 1. Full programme details and ticket information can be found at www.corkfolkfestival.com