Strong Donegal connection to unique Kinlough Church of Ireland concert

Next Friday May 27 at 8pm, the Kinlough Church of Ireland will host a highly anticipated and unique concert setting.

‘Leitrim Calling: Music from the Ridge County’ features songs and tunes from three diverse Leitrim-based and connected artists in this unique and intimate venue, but with a strong Donegal vibe and input through Modal Citizen Records, the ubiquitous Marc Geagan and a host of fellow talented Donegal musicians.

The line-up is headlined by The Richard Nelson Sextet (Jazz) with support from Leitrim’s hardcore troubadour Ronan Gallagher (Singer-Songwriter) and Meitheal (Trad) plus special guests Steve Cooney, Rosie Stewart and Mohammad Syfkhan.

Meitheal
From the Irish word for ‘working collaboratively.’ Meitheal is Bundoran based Modal Citizen Records’ in-house trad project band. The band can range from a duo to an entire 12-piece depending on the circumstances.

It features some of the finest performers of traditional music from South Donegal, North Leitrim, and West Fermanagh.

Their first album 'Songs of Erne Volume 1: Traditional Music from South Donegal and West Fermanagh' was released in 2017 and features guest performances from Steve Cooney and Junior Davey.

Steve Cooney one of Ireland's most talented musicians 

Their follow-up album ‘Songs of Erne Volume 2: Border Music’ has been recorded and is due for release in 2022.

Tonight’s line-up includes Seanan Brennan (multi-instrumentalist with Kila), Fiona Fitzpatrick (Seamus O’Rourke), Ulster Fleadh-winner Farrah Bogle on fiddle and vocals and Marc Geagan (Ronan Gallagher Band) on guitar and dobro. They will be joined by their friend and special guest, Kinlough’s own Shane Rooney on piano accordion. 

Marc Geagan and Farrah Bogle Mullaney from Meitheal

Ronan Gallagher

After a film script on which he had worked on for six impoverished years was rejected by the film board, broke, dejected, and finished with the film business, Leitrim native Ronan Gallagher bought his first guitar for €45 and decided he would be a songwriter. He was barely able to play, had never stood on a stage, never sang publicly, or had any history of music.

Oh! And did we mention that he was also in his mid-fifties, an age when some are thinking ahead to retirement. Six months after buying his guitar Gallagher had written over ten songs, one of which, ‘Long Gone’ was written in his local train station after a chance meeting with a young emigrant leaving Ireland for Australia.

A few months later he formed his first band and took to the stage for the first time, and as Gallagher puts it himself, "Though there wasn’t many people at the gig, I felt absolutely at home on the stage from the minute I got on it, and when we finished the gig I knew that this is what I’d be doing for the rest of my life, crowd or no crowd".

After many gigs locally he honed his songs and learned his trade and things were looking up, but, as anyone who knows the music business, break ups are inevitable, and soon he found himself band-less after three years of graft.

A chance phone call changed everything again when someone mentioned the vibrant music scene that was happening in north Leitrim and Donegal.

As Ronan describes it; “A fair wind took me to Kinlough, Kiltyclogher and Bundoran where I met an amazing group of musicians who not only believed in my songs but brought their own unique talent to them, not least my producer, double bassist, and dobro player Marc Geagan (ex Mirenda Rosenberg Band, Erdini) who opened up a whole new landscape for my music and songs.”

Other members in this stellar line-up include Donal McGuinness and Matt Jennings (Basork, Henry Girls) on trombone and tenor sax, Sean McCarron (Henry McCullough) on alto sax and Zac Drummond (Riverdance and Mirenda Rosenberg Band) on guitar.

The result of that meeting and the years that led up to it are encapsulated in his debut album ‘Always Broke Never Broken’ which will was released soon on Modal Citizen Records in 2019 and contains ten of those first songs including the aforementioned ‘Long Gone’. In 2021, Ronan finished recording his second album 'Time Waits for No One', which was launched in May of that year.

The highly talented Ronan Gallagher 

Richard Nelson three decades and still going strong 

If you have heard any pedal steel guitar swells on any Irish country tracks over the past 30 years, chances are it was Richard Nelson’s skilfully crafted lines that permeated the generic sound of that genre. Richard is the guy that everyone has heard but no one has heard of (outside of the top-tier level of Irish musicians).

His credits include Van Morrison and Paul Brady, but his discography is even more impressive. When asked how many albums he has played on, he smirked ‘I gave up counting after it got past 1,200.’ A typical answer from a modest, yet quietly confident Ulsterman with an exceptionally droll sense of humour. It is on this album, his 3rd foray into jazz, that Nelson’s jazz credentials are codified.

The dexterity with which he tackles ‘Giant Steps’ is truly remarkable.

This tune with its frantic tempo and alternating modulations is not to be attempted (if you have any respect for Coltrane) until one has truly spent a considerable amount of time studying jazz, but Nelson’s version displays his impeccable timing, tuning and acuity.

Kenny Burrell’s ‘Midnight Blue’ sounds as smooth and slick as Rudy Van Gelder’s original recording. The title track, Jobim’s classic Chega De Saudade (No More Blues), highlights the musicians’ seamless transition to a classic bossa nova groove. Charlie Parker’s ‘Donna Lee’ is given its due respect and Bob Berg’s ‘Friday Night at the Cadillac Club’ bounces along with a consistency that Whiplash’s Fletcher would find to be “…quite my tempo.”

Richard Nelson and his wonderful talents can be heard at the Kinlough Church of Ireland

Featuring an all-star cast of top Irish and international session musicians from Scotland to the US, and recorded, mixed, and mastered by the legendary Philip ‘The Beg’ Begley (Riverdance, Planxty, Christy Moore), Nelson has delivered a stunning sounding album.

Crisp yet gritty and the selection of tunes demonstrates just how far he has brought a ‘country’ instrument into the jazz mainstream.

Pedal Steel Guitar is here to stay as a jazz instrument and on this island, it is due to the Herculean efforts of Richard Nelson’s patience, practice, persistence, precision, and vision.

Tickets are available online at Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.ie/d/ireland--athenry/kinlough/?q=kinlough&lc=1. This concert has been made possible by Leitrim County Council’s Local Live Performance Scheme.