CONCERT FOR APPALACHIA
Featuring
Rhiannon Giddens with Niwel Tsumbu • Mary Coughlan • I Draw Slow • Loah • Enda Scahill and Simon Crehan • Erin Fornoff
All funds go to mutual aid org Beloved Asheville leading Hurricane Helene recovery
Whelan’s Main Venue • Mon 16th December 2024
The Appalachian Mountains in the United States have long-standing ties with Ireland – Appalachian old-time and bluegrass music echoes the tones, ballads, and instruments of Irish trad. These areas share history, song and background in a trans-Atlantic connection.
The Appalachian region of North Carolina was destroyed by Hurricane Helene, a once in a thousand year weather event – a hurricane seven hours from the ocean. Rivers typically 20 ft. wide became 1000 ft., sweeping away homes, roads, schools and entire communities and leaving hundreds dead and thousands homeless.
On 16 December, Ireland is offering support for the Appalachian mountain region with a night of music and poetry benefitting BeLoved Asheville, a mutual aid social justice charity leading recovery efforts and creating housing for thousands of people displaced by the raging flood waters and landslides.
This event is headlined by Grammy, Pulitzer Prize, and MacArthur Genius Grant winner Rhiannon Giddens. Based in Limerick, Giddens is a visionary musician who co-founded the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and is a two-time GRAMMY winner, with nine additional nominations for her work as a soloist and collaborator. She will be performing with Ireland-renowned Congolese guitarist Niwel Tsumbu.
Other contributing artists include Irish soul vocal royalty Mary Coughlan; I Draw Slow, a Dublin-based group sitting squarely at the intersection of Irish and Appalachian music; Enda Scahill, four-time All-Ireland Champion in banjo with Simon Crehan; Loah, creator and queen of ‘Art Soul’ music which blends West African, soul, and Irish traditional music; and Erin Fornoff, Appalachian Irish poet.
Organizer Erin Fornoff said, “There are deeply held ties between Appalachia and Ireland. The thing both places have in their DNA is a passion for helping others, even across the pond.’’
Rhiannon Giddens
Rhiannon Giddens has made a singular, iconic career out of stretching her brand of folk music, with its miles-deep historical roots and contemporary sensibilities, into just about every field imaginable. A two-time GRAMMY Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning singer and instrumentalist, MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, and composer of opera, ballet, and film, Giddens has centered her work around the mission of lifting up people whose contributions to American musical history have previously been overlooked or erased, and advocating for a more accurate understanding of the country’s musical origins through art.
As Pitchfork once said, “few artists are so fearless and so ravenous in their exploration”—a journey that has led to NPR naming her one of its 25 Most Influential Women Musicians of the 21st Century and to American Songwriter calling her “one of the most important musical minds currently walking the planet.”
Mary Coughlan
Mary Coughlan is arguably the greatest female singer to have emerged from Ireland in recent times, the equivalent of Irish vocal royalty. The word ‘legend’ is not one to be used lightly, but in this case is entirely appropriate. Whether into folk, blues or jazz, no one can fail to be moved by the emotional depth, expression & power in her voice, forged from an extraordinary life.
Born in Galway in 1956, Mary has battled and overcome childhood trauma, near-death from alcoholism and drug addiction. After hitting rock-bottom and extensive periods in psychiatric hospitals and rehab centres, she literally pulled herself out of the dregs of a vodka bottle to confront the foundations of her problems head-on and sort out her life, and has been sober since 1993. Since her first album ‘Tired and Emotional’ rocketed her to overnight fame in 1985, she has recorded 15 further solo albums, most recently the searing song cycle ‘Scars on the Calendar’ with Erik Visser. Throughout 30 years of her quite extraordinary life and recording career Mary has drawn heavily from her legendary heroes: the grievous, teary outpourings of Billie Holiday (to whom she devoted a double album of her songs), the husky flirtations of Peggy Lee, Van Morrison’s soulful wails, the defiant chanteusery of Edith Piaf. All are present and correct in her delivery. Even so, Mary, with her naked honesty makes every song her own; they belong to her and nobody else.
I Draw Slow
I Draw Slow is one of the most unique bands on the Americana scene. Fronted by brother/sister songwriting team Dave Holden (guitar/vocals) and Louise Holden (vocals), this Dublin, Ireland-based group sits squarely at the crossroads of Irish and Appalachian music and has received critical praise for an original sound that bridges the gap between traditional Irish and American roots music. With the release of their new album, I Draw Slow further cements their reputation as one of the most interesting groups on the Americana/roots scene. Coaxing the past into the present, they have created a very personal sonic tapestry that has drawn fans on both sides of the pond and earned them slots on some of the most important festival stages across North America including MerleFest, Edmonton Folk Festival, Rocky Grass and Wintergrass. With the expansive musical platform of their newest release as a launching point, the possibilities for where I Draw Slow’s musical journey will take them next is limitless.
Enda Scahill
Enda Scahill is a four-time All Ireland Champion banjo player from Corofin, Co. Galway. He began playing music at the tender age of six, and has shown an unbridled enthusiasm for it ever since. He has guested with The Chieftains, recorded with Grammy winner Ricky Skaggs, toured with Frankie Gavin and Stockton’s Wing, was an original member for 10 years of Instrumental Band of the Decade The Brock McGuire Band and is a founding member of Billboard #1 mega band We Banjo 3.
LOAH
Loah is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of half-Irish, half-Sierra Leonean extraction. Across her solo career she has released 3 EPs of a hypermodern fusion genre she nicknamed “ArtSoul”.
Loah’s music spans a wide berth of great loves which include Irish folk music and literature, West African rhythms and guitar, the singer-songwriter balladeer tradition, US soul music and modern production, all woven with regular nods to her Kildare childhood playing fiddle and violin in Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and Youth Orchestras.
Being raised across Kildare and West Africa, Loah seeks to authentically marry all that she is with all that inspires her. “This Heart” (2017), “Sweet Sorrow”(2020) with Bantum and When I Rise Up (2021 – a work of 1920s poems she set to music) were all released to critical acclaim.
She is currently in the final stages of her debut album. Loah have co-written and performed with such artists as Hozier, the Wainwrights, Lisa Hannigan, Narolane, Kormac, Crash Ensemble, Paul Brady, Cassandra Wilson, the Wainwrights and Bas.
TICKETS
€27.50 available online from Whelan’s – 50c per ticket service charge applies.
Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required
AFTER THE GIG
Whelan’s Silent Disco from 10:30pm – 2 DJs, just pick the one you like best (€5 cover charge), plus Late Bar