Martin Longley enveloped himself in ‘the land of the young’, up in Kings Heath on Monday night.
Tir Na Nóg
Kitchen Garden Café
Tir Na Nóg should be applauded for their longevity. This Irish duo should also be applauded for their ability to keep the music vital, exuding an aura of in-the-moment spontaneity. The wonderfully intimate Kitchen Garden Café, in the Birmingham suburb of Kings Heath, was the ideal venue for the pair’s relaxed, mood-bathed explorations. This was apparently their fifth appearance here, in this home of global roots music.
Singer-guitarists Sonny Condell and Leo O’Kelly first began collaborating in 1969, so their individual form of folksong was infused with subtle suggestions of psychedelic and progressive rock elements. They were concerned with penning original material, developing a very personal style. Their first wave of classic albums on the Chrysalis label arrived in the early 1970s, when they were also being recorded for session broadcasts on BBC radio, with dj John Peel being a crucial supporter. The duo divided in 1974, but resumed playing together a decade later. Their name is taken from Irish mythology, meaning ‘land of the young’, another name for the Otherworld.
Turns were taken with handling lead vocals, harmonies shifting in ascendancy. The twosome both played acoustic guitars, but these were gently amplified and fed through a small clump of effects pedals. Both players caught samples for repetition, but O’Kelly was particularly involved in crafting layers and adding carefully restrained electronic beats to some of the songs. Venezuela was a notable beneficiary of this build-up. O’Kelly also took up the fiddle for around a quarter of the tunes, positioning it in the crook of his arm. Condell regularly slapped a North African goblet drum, then twanged a jaw harp on one ditty.
The rapport between the duo took on the feel of an after-hours jam session, but tightly organised in its looseness. Their own songs possessed a unique tone, but there were a trio of impressive cover versions: Nick Drake’s Free Ride, which appeared on their third album, an incongruously acidic Bob Dylan number, and a tune from the Silver Apples, that old alternative electronic duo. This last song,I Have Known Love, was a representative from Tir Na Nóg’s latest vinyl EP, which they proceeded to play in its entirety, making the complete collectors item sound well worth grabbing. Contents include Picking Up Birds At Funerals and The Angelus. The always-included Daisy Lady ended up being one of the encore numbers, because they’d forgotten to play it earlier. Tir Na Nóg captivated their select audience, entrancing them with a special kind of warping and wefting of folklore, the open tradition woven into the inner personal.
Tir Na Nóg will be playing at the Lunar Festival in Tanworth-in-Arden on Sunday 8th June, heading deep into the homeland of Nick Drake…
Photograph by Niall Reddy.
