Irish Traditional Music Archive
Taisce Cheol Dúchais Éireann
Press Release: 22 October 2007
COME WEST ALONG THE ROAD 10
IRISH TRADITIONAL MUSIC FROM THE ARCHIVE
Come West along the Road, the archival series on Irish traditional music, begins its landmark 10th series at 7.30 pm on Friday 2 November 2007 on RTÉ 1. Presented and researched by Nicholas Carolan, director of the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin, it is produced and directed by Niamh White, and is the longest-running television series ever on Irish traditional music.
The series consists of 13 half-hour programmes drawn from the first three decades of RTÉ television (1961–1989), with additional material from other television stations, newsreels, feature films, and private film footage. Some material is being shown for the first time, and most of the material in the series has not been seen since its first transmission 20, 30 or 40 years ago, which effectively means that it is new to most viewers.
Leading exponents of traditional music, song and dance, some long-dead, some in their youth, mingle with wrenboys, set dancers and unknown performers captured in studio or at fleadh cheoil or festival, to present an entertaining and unique documentation of Irish traditional music in the last half-century. To date, over 2,000 performers have appeared on 130 programmes, and also on Siar an Bóthar, the Irish-language version of the series on TG4 (where a series, when current, is archived at Cartlann-Ceol on www.tg4.tv).
The primary focus of the series is on music, but there is also a fascinating dimension of social history to this early material: townscapes and country-side, dress and hairstyles, houses and furniture, and the development of the medium of television itself.
Well-known singers, pipers, fiddle, flute and accordion players, and dancers on this new series will include Frankie Gavin (Galway), Tommy Guihan (Roscommon), Gay McKeon (Dublin), James Byrne (Donegal), Tony Mac Mahon (Clare), Jimmy Crowley (Cork), Kevin Burke (London), the Camross Set Dancers (Laois), Len Graham (Antrim), Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin (Tipperary), Niall Vallely (Armagh), Noel Hill and Micho Russell (Clare), and the Wexford Ceili Band.
Special programmes are O’Donoghue’s Opera from 1965 (featuring The Dubliners and other musicians who frequented the famous music pub in Merrion Row), and specials on The Bothy Band in 1976 and on The Pure Drop, RTÉ’s flagship traditional music series of 1988. Some surprises will be revealed in the course of the series.
A new DVD Come West along the Road Volume 2 has been specially produced to mark the 10th series.
It presents 52 outstanding performances by more than 120 performers in two-and-a-half hours of highlights from the series, and is available from RTÉ Merchandising at www.buy4now.ie/rte. For further information contact Irish Traditional Music Archive T +353-1-661 9699 |
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September 2007: Dublin Culture Night
August 2007: Death of Tom Munnelly
June 2007: Honorary Degrees to Members of Irish Traditional Music Archive Board and Staff
November 2006: Official Opening of New Premises of the Irish Traditional Music Archive
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