Altan,
one of Ireland’s foremost
traditional bands, is at long last here in the United States.
“We
started on the East Coast and creeped our way across America to the
West Coast,” says Máiréad Ni Mhaonaigh in her brogue. “Finally,
we’re coming. It’s happening.”
Altan,
four members strong, will perform Saturday, Nov. 19, at the Fox
Tucson Theatre.
Back
in March 2020, the band was ready to perform at the Fox near St.
Patrick’s Day — until COVID-19 came raging in.
The
concert was canceled, like most of the arts in Tucson and beyond. The
musicians fled back to Ireland before lockdowns were imposed on both
sides of the Atlantic.
Since
then, Celtic fans in Tucson were told that the band was returning,
but the pandemic spoiled plans time and again.
Thanks
to promoter, Don Gest, their Tucson audience will see them on their
first tour back in America. “We are delighted,” Ni Mhaonaigh
said. “Don had great faith in us.”
Ni
Mhaonaigh, a renowned fiddler and Gaelic singer, said Altan went to
London last St. Patrick’s Day for a few shows.
“The
band has not been performing until this tour started in mid-October,”
she said. “This is our first time around since the pandemic
started. Everybody’s been well, and we’ve seen old friends.”
Joining
Ni Mhaonaigh on stage are Ciarán Curran on bouzouki, Daíthí
Sproule on guitar, and Martin Tourish on accordion. Sproule and
Tourish are singers, too. And Tourish also is a celebrated composer.
She’s
really excited about “an amazing young musician,” their guest
artist, Clare Friel, who accompanies the group as a fiddler and
singer.
“She’s
a family friend. I’ve known her since she was a baby,” Ni
Mhaonaigh said.
In
2018, Friel was named Young Artist of the Year by TG4, the Irish
national public television station. She also plays in a trio with her
sisters, part of a new generation of Irish traditional musicians.
Although
the women grew up in Scotland, their parents were from County Donegal
and Friel plays in that tradition.
Ni
Mhaonaigh, born and bred in Donegal to a musical family, had Irish as
her first language and learned her songs and tunes from family and
neighbors.
In
the show, “Donegal to Tucson,” “you will see traditional tunes
as we are known for that. We have collected tunes from lots of the
old fiddle players, and we also compose our own.”
Ni
Mhaonaigh especially sings the praises of Tourish “as a great young
composer. He will be singing some beautiful songs.” And Irish step
dancers from Tucson’s Celtic Steps Irish Dance school will kick up
their heels on jigs and reels.
Altan’s
repertoire of songs celebrates the Irish language, Ni Mhaonaigh’s
native tongue. (“Altan” is Irish for “stream.)
“I
will sing lots of songs in Irish. I grew up with it, speaking with
neighbors and even using it shopping for groceries. But you’ll not
understand a word I say,” she said with a chuckle.
One
happy consequence of the pandemic was that it gave Ni Mhaonaigh and
her peripatetic bandmates time at their homes to work on new music
and some solo projects. She, for example, recorded online lessons of
some 32 tunes for aspiring fiddlers.
“When
we settled into COVID, it was quite nice to be at home for that
period of time.” She found peace amid the beautiful landscapes of
Donegal, where she was born. And, she joked, “I got to know my
daughter again.” Her daughter, Nia Byrne, is also a fiddler and
singer. (She was with the band when they fled Tucson in 2020.)
Altan’s final
show, right after Tucson, will be in Scottsdale. In her lilting
Irish, she tells me “On the 22nd, we are going straight back to
Ireland. It’s back to work to be honest, but it will be nice to be
back home.”
This article appears in Nov 17-23, 2022.