Altan's music for the body and soul

The east coast city is besieged by a massive blizzard and Ní Mhaonaigh is anxious that the band’s fans will be able to get to the sold-out venue that night. American audiences — and not just the diaspora — are particularly receptive to the band’s music.

“America has always been very good to us, as a band. It is the only reason we are able to remain professional performers,” she says. “There is such a large population, so many festivals and performing arts venues. We have a huge following, and they are discerning.

“It is not all paddywhackery; far from it. I wouldn’t insult American people by trying to explain anything to them. They know their music and are very sophisticated.”

Altan celebrated their 30th year in 2017, but fiddler and vocalist, Ní Mhaonaigh, says performing hasn’t lost its thrill.

The difficult side of touring is that she is away from her 14-year-old daughter, Nia, whom she co-parents with her former partner, musician, Dermot Byrne.

“I love playing music. It has been a part of me forever. If I wasn’t professional, I would still be playing it. As you get older, it gets more difficult, especially now I have Nia at home. I miss her terribly. Other than that, I find it very reassuring, playing on stage. You get so much energy from it and from playing with other musicians.”

Ní Mhaonaigh was a primary school teacher, before co-founding Altan, in 1987, with her first husband, Frankie Kennedy, who tragically died from cancer, in 1994, at the age of 38. Playing music was a means of dealing with the inexpressible pain of grief.

“I didn’t have the vocabulary to express myself, but it was there in the music.

“It reaches into the soul so much… I couldn’t but play music. I went into the depths of myself, in order to try and get this out, somehow. All of the arts is like that. Even when you read a book, prior to some trauma in your life and you read it again, afterwards, there are other, deeper elements there. It becomes a different book.”

Ní Mhaonaigh, a native Irish speaker, is based in her home place of Gweedore, in the Donegal Gaeltacht. Altan’s latest album, The Gap of Dreams, is inspired by the musical and cultural traditions of the county and was recorded there.

“It is a homage to the musicians we got our music from, one of them being my father [fiddle teacher, Francie Ó Maonaigh]. We called the album The Gap of Dreams, because a lot of the old fiddle-players we would go and listen to would say things like: ‘well, I got this tune one night, when I was walking up a dark road and I heard fairies singing’.

“There were all these gorgeous stories about the other world: the banshee, the leprechauns, and all that. There was always this magical idea about the beauty of music and how it was blowing in the wind. The fiddle-player was the bard who came to the door, lit the house up for the night, and people were able to forget their troubles.”

As well as playing in Altan, Ní Mhaonaigh has collaborated on many other musical projects, has presented on radio and television, and has played with Enya, The Chieftains, and Dolly Parton. She still can’t quite believe the trajectory of her career.

“It is the biggest surprise of my life, I never thought I would be travelling the world, playing my music, with my fiddle under my oxter, and making so many great friends. I was the shyest child you’ve ever met, but playing music helps to make you less self-conscious. When you are playing professionally, you have to entertain the people who actually paid money to see you,” Ní Mhaonaigh says.

As for the future of Irish traditional music, Ní Mhaonaigh says it is bright, at home and abroad.

“Traditional music has been up and down in waves, as regarding popularity. When we started, it was on the up wave; then it tapered-off. What I notice, here in the US and Canada, since we came here, last month, is that there is an upsurge in numbers and we are selling out all venues,” she says.

Altan also have a big fanbase in Japan and Asia; Ní Mhaonaigh says overseas audiences are important, because it is difficult to be a professional traditional musician in Ireland.

“It is so hard to make a living in Ireland, playing traditional music, because of the limited population and how small the country is. Then, you have free sessions in many pubs, which I love; I partake in them myself. That is the charm of the music, because the session is a social thing. No other country has that thing of getting together and playing music in the pub, bringing visitors in, and letting them play along.

“I prefer that to big concerts, but it means people like us, who play professionally, depend on the bigger festivals to make a living.”

However, Ní Mhaonaigh says the traditional music scene in Donegal is thriving, and she is delighted about that, given the toll emigration has taken on the county.

“It is amazing, the number of young people learning the music up there. We can’t get enough teachers to teach fiddle, flute, and pipes. I think, sometimes, with an economic downturn, that people start to look inward again — what do we have, what are our strengths?

“Our strength is our culture and our people. That is something no-one can take away from us. There is a great fiddle-player at home, called Danny Meehan, who says: ‘When I was growing up, all my heroes were older, but now I look around and all my heroes are younger.’ I love that and I have to agree,” Ní Mhaonaigh says.

The younger generation are well-represented on Altan’s new album, with Ní Mhaonaigh’s daughter, Nia, and guitarist Mark Kelly’s son, Sam, both contributing tracks.

“We thought ‘why not’? They had these gorgeous tunes and, as a band, we love to encourage younger performers,” she says.

However, Ní Mhaonaigh says she would never pressure her daughter, who is doing her Junior Cert this year, to follow in her footsteps.

“I just want her to have music as a companion. Music also makes you friends. It is a great passport to have; it is not very hard to carry — you can sing a song anywhere and make people happy.”

And with that, Ní Mhaonaigh heads off to battle her way through the blizzard, bringing happiness and warmth to a cold Boston audience.

- Altan’s ‘The Gap of Dreams’ is out now on Compass Records. altan.ie