cultural crossings

FEB - MAR 2014
CULTURAL
CROSSINGS
Promoted by the Provost of the Coleraine
campus, University of Ulster, in partnership
with Causeway Coast Arts.
FEB - MAR 2014
CULTURAL
CROSSINGS
Cultural Crossings is the result of a
partnership between the Provost of the
Coleraine campus, University of Ulster,
and Causeway Coast Arts. They share a
commitment to supporting the arts and
engaging with local communities in the
Ballymoney, Coleraine, Limavady and
Moyle Council areas. In pursuit of this
common interest they are presenting a
programme of arts and cultural events
that reflects the musical and cultural
influence of emigrants from Ireland.
The Irish and Ulster-Scots traditions
enriched the music, dance and art
of their new homelands as emigrants
brought with them their instruments
and repertoire. Their influence had
a lasting impact on the music of the
regions in which they settled. The
fiddle, a distinctively Irish and Scottish
instrument, plays a huge role in all
kinds of music including bluegrass,
roots, folk and country. The accordion
and flute have also made their way
into music in many places throughout
the world. Traditional Celtic music
too has been influenced by migration
and cultural interchange. Cultural
Crossings celebrates traditional music
and its connections to cultures around
the globe with an eclectic fusion of
musical traditions.
Hamlets, E2 9PA
WHITHER THE
ULSTER-ENGLISH
W E D 1 2 F E B | 8p m
Ballymoney Town
Hall
FREE ADMISSION
interact-uk.org.uk/interact-art-exhibition
WHITHER THE
ULSTER-ENGLISH
THURS 6 FEB | 8 pm
Ballymoney Town Hall
THE DOWN AND OUT
BLUEGRASS BAND
In the last few years, the Down and Out
Bluegrass Band has established a reputation
as one of Ireland’s finest bluegrass bands,
and is also making its mark beyond these
shores. With Roy Brown on double bass, Mal
Duffin on fiddle, Richard Leeman on guitar,
Howard Walker on banjo, and John Denby on
mandolin the band plays traditional bluegrass
straight out of the foothills of Tennessee and
North Carolina. Their hard-driving banjo and
three-part vocal harmonies evoke the golden
age of bluegrass, and are heavily influenced
by classic artists such as Bill Munroe, Flat
and Scruggs and the Stanley Brothers. The
band has performed widely throughout the
UK and Ireland, including television and radio
appearances, and released their first album,
Talk by Paddy Fitzgerald
Since the Good Friday or Belfast Agreement
of 1998 a significant amount of energy has
been expended in promoting awareness of
an ‘Ulster-Scots’ cultural identity. Ulster
Protestants, of course, largely trace their family
roots here to the substantial inward migration
of the seventeenth century, which drew upon
Scotland, England and Wales.
Lowering the Tone, in 2013.
Dr Fitzgerald, Lecturer and Development
Officer at the Mellon Centre for Migration
Studies at the Ulster American Folk Park, will
explore more fully the heritage and cultural
identity of those who may deem themselves
in the early twenty-first century to be ‘UlsterEnglish’. A primary question to be considered
is why this ethnic identity remains so much
less prominent in our collective consciousness
today than either ‘Ulster-Scots’ or ‘Ulster-Irish’.
Looking towards the future, it will be argued
that much of the richness which characterises
the province’s cultural life derives from the
constant exchange and interplay between
these three ethnic groups and the sense of
‘throughotherness’ which resulted.
Admission: £9, conc. £7
Admission: £2
SAT 15 F EB | 8pm
Riverside Theatre, Coleraine
THE HENRY GIRLS
The Henry Girls, three sisters from Donegal,
are establishing a reputation as one of the finest
musical groups in Ireland. The group was formed
in 2002 and released its debut album, Between
Us, in 2003. Since then the trio has rapidly
gained critical acclaim at home and abroad.
In 2010 they were nominated for an Irish
Film and Television Award for Best Original
Score for the film A Shine of Rainbows, which
featured songs from their third album, Dawn.
Since the 2011 release of their muchacclaimed December Moon, the sisters have
brought their music to numerous international
audiences, and are about to deliver their finest
work to date in their forthcoming album,
Louder than Words.
Admission: £12, senior citizens £10, students £6
The three are multi-instrumentalists who
perform an eclectic mix of traditional Irish
music, folk and blues, with spine-tingling
three-part vocal harmonies, to produce a
musical fusion of the Donegal coastline and
the Appalachian Mountains that combines
something of our Irish heritage with a more
contemporary backdrop.
...their music is a compelling combination
that finely blends traditional Irish folk music
with American bluegrass and soulful roots
music… a band not to be missed…
Irish American Post
THE
PLANTER
AND
THE GAEL
Together In
Ulster Speech
THU RS 20 FEB | 8 pm
Ballymoney Town Hall
THE PLANTER AND
THE GAEL: TOGETHER
IN
ULSTER SPEECH
Talk by S Alex Blair
The Gaelic language still exerts a big influence
on the sound and colour, rhythm and texture
of our Ulster speech. However, the speech is
basically the English which the Planters brought
to our northern province. It mingles with the
Gaelic in an interesting and colourful harmony
which is recognised beyond our shores.
This talk, by popular local historian Alex
Blair, will deal with the Gaelic and the Planter
contributions to our speech, and he will discuss
words and phrases from both sources. It is a
talk full of humour which will give us a better
understanding of the way we speak and help us
to appreciate the united heritage we have in the
words we use each day.
Admission: £2
&
ROCK 'N'ROLL
T H UR S 27 F E B | 8p m
Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart
BLUEGRASS, COUNTRY
AND ROCK ‘N’ ROLL:
A SCOTCH-IRISH
CULTURAL CROSSING
Talk by Alister McReynolds
Author Alister McReynolds draws on his
research and his new book, Kith and Kin,
to present a lively look at how popular music
genres emerged in America and how ScotchIrish immigrants contributed to this fusion of
culture and geography.
He will explore how Scottish and Irish tunes
mixing with black plantation rhythms, and the
emergence of African instruments such as the
banjo playing alongside fiddles and guitars,
helped to create bluegrass. There will be some
surprising discoveries as he uncovers the Ulster
roots of many of the major travellers in this
musical odyssey, including those of Clayton
McMichen, fiddle player, Moon Mullican, boogie
woogie piano player, and Elvis Presley, the King
of Rock ‘n’ Roll himself.
Alister McReynolds is an Honorary Research
Fellow at the Centre for Irish and Scottish
Studies with the University of Ulster. He has
lectured extensively in the United States on
Scotch-Irish history and culture.
Admission: £2
T H UR S 6 M A R | 8p m
Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart
SAT 1 M AR | 8pm
Roe Valley Arts & Cultural Centre,
Limavady
SARAH SAVOY
The musical force that is Sarah Savoy and
a top Cajun dance band with one foot in the
honky-tonk and the other in the juke joint deliver
a magnetic performance. Louisiana-born Sarah
Savoy is the eldest daughter of the legendary
Marc and Ann Savoy and sister of Wilson Savoy
of the Pine Leaf Boys. She plays both guitar
and washboard and, with an engaging line in
humorous chat, she wins over the audience
with her easy Southern charm.
Keeping the music traditional, with a nod
to Cajun’s Irish and Scots musical origins and
a little raunchiness and a lot of rock’n’roll
thrown into the mix, this performance promises
to be an unforgettable musical experience,
complemented by candlelit cabaret style
seating, ‘bring your own’ and room to dance the
night away!
A rocker’s voice and a solid guitar scratch...
and what stage presence!
TRAD Magazine
Admission: £12, conc. £10
BAP KENNEDY
IN CONCERT
Belfast born singer and songwriter, Bab
Kennedy, has won a global audience for his
music, which fuses elements of folk and rock
with Celtic soul.
His new CD, Let’s Start Again, is the muchanticipated follow-up to his five-star album The
Sailor’s Revenge, which was produced by and
featured Mark Knopfler. The Sailor’s Revenge hit
number five in the American Folk Roots Chart
and with Let’s Start Again, Bap’s music looks
set to continue making waves internationally.
Over the last twelve months, he has toured
with his band in America, Italy, Germany,
Holland, France, Norway and Switzerland as
well as throughout the UK and Ireland.
Now, with a collection of classic new songs,
Bap Kennedy is at the top of his game – with
a back catalogue that includes collaborations
with Van Morrison, Steve Earle and Shane
MacGowan, this is a show not to be missed.
Kennedy’s approach blends country, folk and
Irish traditional textures with seamless skill.
Hot Press
Admission: £15
AMERICAN
TUNES
Caledonian &
Hibernian Soul
TU E S 11 MAR | 8pm
Marine Hotel, North Street, Ballycastle
AMERICAN TUNES:
CALEDONIAN AND
HIBERNIAN SOUL
Talk by Frank Ferguson
The Atlantic has proved a valuable gateway
for centuries for the peoples and cultures
of Scotland and Ireland to find new homes
and expression in America. Prominent in this
interchange has been the ballad and song
tradition which has found exciting and radical
transformations in the New World.
In this talk, Frank Ferguson will explore
how Irish and Scottish song has proved
influential in the work of a variety of American
songwriters from Stephen Foster to Bob Dylan
and how Ulster-Scottish connections are found
everywhere in the music of the United States
from country to rap.
FR I 1 4 M A R | 7. 30p m
Marine Hotel, North Street, Ballycastle
INTERNATIONAL MUSIC
FROM GUADELOUPE
AND IRELAND
Traditional instruments and songs from
Guadeloupe combine with traditional Celtic
music for an exploration of musical influences.
The music troupe Pitak, which includes
musicians from Guadeloupe who are now
mainly based in Ireland, are part of the shifting
musical dynamic in Ireland which contributes
to expanding cultural horizons here. Their
performance offers an authentic experience of
music from Guadeloupe and demonstrates how
it fuses with other musical influences.
Pitak will be joined by the well-known folk
and traditional musicians Michael and Catherine
Sands and Aodan Jeffries, multi-instrumentalists
who between them play banjo, whistle, flute,
accordion, pipes, bouzouki and more.
Dr Frank Ferguson is Director of the University
of Ulster’s Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies
and project manager of the Ulster-Scots Poetry
Project, which is based at the University and was
funded by the Ministerial Advisory Group for the
Ulster-Scots Academy. He has written extensively
on Ulster-Scots literature and its influences.
There will also be a short performance by
Ballycastle Comhaltas which promotes Irish
music in the area.
Admission: £2
Admission: £6, conc. £5
In this exploration of the different musical
traditions in Ireland and Guadeloupe traditional
musicians from both cultures find meeting
points through the power of music.
a n d
Tickets
Information
for events in:
TEL:
Ballycastle, Marine Hotel 028 2076 2024
Ballymoney Town Hall 028 2766 0230
Flowerfield Arts Centre 028 7083 1400
Riverside Theatre 028 7012 3123
Roe Valley Arts & Cultural Centre –
Ionad Ealaíon agus Cultúir Ghleann na Ró
028 7776 0650
Bookings can be made in person or by phone. Payment accepted by
cash, cheque or debit/credit card. (Payment for talks by cash only.)
F o r g e n e r a l i n f o r m at i o n a b o u t a l l C u lt u r a l C r o s s i n g s e v e n t s c o n ta c t:
Development and Alumni Relations
University of Ulster, Coleraine campus
028 7012 4683
This brochure is also available on the University’s website at:
www.culture.ulster.ac.uk/CulturalCrossings2014.pdf
It can also be made available on request as a Word document.