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OVERVIEW |
BOLD NEW WORLD
Scotland's Celine
Donoghue is an outstanding example of the new young breed of traditional
musician and here she tells Alan McIntosh Brown all about it.
Though
not yet out of her teens, Celine Donoghue has established herself on the
Scottish traditional music scene as a fine exponent of the fiddle. Unusually,
however, she has also reached the same successful heights playing tenor banjo.
And, what's more, she has recently brought out her debut album, very
appropriately named Something Else, in which she figures also as a
vocalist. Add to that her place in the line-up of one of Scotland's hottest
bands - Calasaig - and you won't be far wrong in your guess that this young
lady is going places, and in a hurry.
Celine was born in Glasgow and
grew up in the city's East End, but not in a musical family. "I'm the only one
who plays music, apart from my cousins next door," she says. Her parents,
however, had an obvious influence on her music as she grew up. "Mum and Dad
loved the Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers," she says, "in fact, all the Irish
bands, as well as the Corries." Both sides of Celine's family go back to
Ireland but the closest link is with her grandfather who hails from Manor
Hamilton in Leitrim, while the other side of her family go back to Donegal. "I
wouldn't say Mum and Dad were really into folk music, but they liked the
mainstream ones like the Dubliners," she says, adding with a mischievous smile,
"I don't really want to mention Daniel O'Donnell but Mum liked that kind of
thing because her father was Irish and she really liked anything
Irish."
So why did she choose to begin playing the fiddle? "I just
fancied playing it," she says. "Everybody else was playing the tin whistle."
Once again the influence of Comhltas Ceoltoiri Eireann comes into play. "I
started with Comhltas with Frank McCardle," she says. She and her cousins began
lessons at the same time, joining the Irish Minstrels Branch in Glasgow. "We
heard there were traditional music classess in Royston in St Roch's School. It
was Frank McCardle who basically started a music class." Celine began the study
of the fiddle at the age of nine. "The class grew and we used to go to the All
Ireland Fleadhs," she says, "but it was mainly for the music rather than the
competitions." Subsequently, she has been a finalist in the inaugural Young
Scottish Fleadh for tenor banjo in 2001. So, not content with mastering the
fiddle, why did this plucky young lady decide to branch out and learn the tenor
banjo? "It was something a wee bit different" she says. "There wasn't really
anyone playing the banjo and I suppose I'd heard Barney McKenna and I quite
fancied it." She laughs as she recalls one of her reasons. "The fingering is
similar to the fiddle," she says, "but it's a totally different instrument and
I didn't realise that until I'd started!".
And do the banjo players of
past and present influence her? "To tell you the truth, I prefer listening to
fiddle players," she says, almost apologetically. "I met Gerry O'Connor a few
years ago at Celtic Connections when he was playing in a session, but to be
honest I don't listen to too many banjo players. I know I should get a slap on
the wrist for that!" she chuckles. "I know I should listen to more banjo
players but I'm trying to do more Scottish stuff like pipe jigs because the
banjo is more heavily associated with Irish music rather than Scottish." I
rephrase the question to bring in the fiddle players. "I like listening to
Paddy Glackin," she says. "I think he's a great fiddle player, and also Tommy
Peoples. Then there's Mairead Mooney of Altan. There's a lot of Scottish fiddle
players as well, especially the folk band Ossian with John Martin. And I like
older stuff like the early Battlefield Band. Duncan Chisholm is one of my
favourite fiddle players too." She talks of her favourite styles. "It was Irish
fiddlers I listened to first and I like the Donegal fiddle." Celine has been an
enthusiastic student at the Frankie Kennedy Winter School over the past few
years. "The first year I went I had lessons from Paul O'Shaughnessy," she says.
"I like how the Donegal music is a kind of cross between Irish and Scottish."
And yet another talent has emerged in the Donoghue armoury - vocals. "It's a
new thing to me," she says, adding, "It's a wee bit of a trial on the album."
She quotes her singing influences as the late and much missed Tony Cuffe, as
well as female singers such as Dolores Keane, and her fellow member of
Calasaig, Kirsten Easdale. the singing began in an unusual way.
"I used
to enter because there was no one else going in for the competitions," she
says. She plays down this part of her talent. "I wouldn't say I was much of a
singer," she says. Listeners to the debut album Something Else might
wish to disagree with this last statement. "I would sing the odd song," she
says, "but it was more instrumental stuff that I would do."
Mention
of Calasaig leads to a question about the difference between playing solo and
in a band. "I love playing in a band," she says. "I've played with them since I
was 16 and it's very, very enjoyable. I think we all play well together and
it's fun when there's a crowd of us on tour. But I enjoy doing my own kind of
thing as well. I suppose it's easier trying to arrange pieces when there's just
two people rather that five; you've only two opinions!"
At present,
Celine is a Third-Year student at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
in Glasgow and she is hoping to be asked to return for her Honours year. "My
principal study is fiddle and my second study is tenor banjo," she says,
"though we have other classes like performance and all the rest of it." Her
banjo tutor is the multi-talented Keith Easdale, fellow member of Calasaig and
husband of Kirsten. "He's taught me since I was about eleven," she laughs.
"He's a real all round player and I've learned a lot from him." Celine's fiddle
tutor in the RSAMD is Perthshire virtuoso Pete Clark, ensuring that the young
lady from the West of Scotland will acquire a thorough knowledge of the skilful
compositions of Perthshire fiddlers such as Niel Gow and Robert
McIntosh.
The debut album has just been released on REL Records and is
receiving both critical and popular acclaim, partly due to the guest musicians
whom Celine has assembled, including Wendy Weatherby, Steve Lawrence, Mick West
and John Gahagan. "I just asked them nicely," she laughs. "I've known Mick and
John for years from the Glasgow folk scene. These guys would do anything for
you in the way of music and they're so knowledgeable. I think they were
delighted to play on the album" One of her other guests is ex-Battlefield Band
maestro Brian McNeill. "Brian is the Head of Scottish Music Department at the
Academy so he was really happy to play on it as well," she says. "I'm really
grateful to them because they're the guys who were basically doing it first.
They were there in the early 70's and they were the guys who were out playing;
the guys who took the risk and went out and did it."
And it's not only
in this part of the world that Celine's talents are being recognised, for this
year she picked up the Auleen Theriault Young Tradition Award at the Goderich
Celtic Festival in Ontario, Canada. She fills in the background. "The band have
been going over to Canada for three years now and Goderich has been one of the
festivals we've gone to every year. I think they must have just liked my
playing," says this most modest of musicians.
What are her ambitions?
"Hopefully to be a professional musician and tour the world," she says with s
smile. "I'd love to go over and play in Ireland, because my roots lie there. I
think they would quite like the Scottish aspect as well. I think they need to
hear a wee bit more Scottish stuff." And the writing side of music? "I've
written a couple of tunes," she says, "but I'd quite like to get into
composition. I'd love to do a piece with an orchestra, like the crossover thing
that Billy Jackson's done."
As an afterthought, Celine tells me of a
couple of dates in the near future. On 13 January 2004, along with her mentor
Keith Easdale, she'll be performing at the United Nations Building in New York
City at the Inaugural Robert Burns Lecture, to be delivered by a certain UN
Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan, before it's back to her home city and another
prestigious gig at Celtic Connections on the first day of February. The future
for Celine Donoghue looks exceedingly bright, and this most charming and
talented of musicians will have deserved all of it. |
TITLES AVAILABLE
Something Else
(CD)
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