'CEITHRE CINN' AT THE SHIPWRIGHT
By Nicola McMahon


With the new smoking ban in place since March 29th, many pubs have been finding new ways to keep their punters happy. Live music is one of the ideas being reintroduced at the moment. Good news for musicians such as Eric Azpiro, Rob Carney, Denis O'Toole and Barry O'Grady who are the four members of 'Ceithre Cinn'.

'Ceithre Cinn' are a young trad band that has recently started playing sessions in The Shipwright on Thursday and Saturday nights. A session (seisiœn) is less formal and more relaxed than a stage performance, the musicians play amongst the crowd and on some occasions other Irish traditional musicians join in.
This spontaneity and informality can often make for an evening of lively entertainment and many a session has been known to rise over all levels of background noises.

Actually there has been a resurgence of interest in Irish traditional music despite the media coverage of 'You're A Star' and other similar pop shows. 'Kila' is one such example of this popularity and when 'Planxty' played in Vicar St, the 14,000 tickets were sold out in a few hours.

Although 'Ceithre Cinn' play session style in this venue, they have a more showcase style in their EP 'Na Laethanta Breaithe'. They recorded this in Eric and Rob's apartment in Alexandra Quay, Ringsend which they jokingly call the 'Alexandra Studios'. They do most of their practice here too.

Eric plays guitar (mainly), mandola, mandolin, percussion and sometimes sings; Rob plays bódhrán and is the main singer; Denis is the piper and Barry plays the flute.

Although they play Irish traditional music, there is a mix of musical and cultural backgrounds.

Denis and Barry come from a purist traditional training but Rob's previous experience was in rock and folk music. Eric is, in fact, originally from Biarritz, and was signed in France with a rock band called 'Krishna Korps' but when he discovered Irish trad music he thought it was 'really kicking'.

Aside from the sessions in The Shipwright, they have also been playing in The Vault, Blooms Hotel in Temple Bar on Sunday and Monday nights for some time.

At the moment they are recording a new album called 'Faoi Draíocht' which they are hoping to release soon. They have a great summer lined up with plenty of gigs, one in particular stands out- they will play to around 10,000 people in a Basque festival called Euskal Henria Zu Zenean (Haspanne). While they are touring, they intend to bring along Catherine Cherer who used to dance with Riverdance, so that they can do workshops for music and dancing.

If you are going for a pint I would highly recommend going to listen to them. As the saying goes- -catch it while it-s flying'- if their summer tour goes well, the chance may not arise so easily again.

 

Back to the Front Page