On Going Solo
Dermot McLaughlin
Recording in traditional music, David Power's My Love is in America and Tim Collins' Dancing on Silver.
Looking through recent issues of JMI, I was struck by the insight we are getting into the extent of ‘commercial’ sound recording and production that is being instigated or led directly by musicians themselves. In particular, I’ve been keeping an eye on the stocktaking exercise that is carried out in every issue by the Contemporary Music Centre and Taisce Cheol Dúchais Éireann/Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA).
One thing that stands out for me is the ephemeral or at least casual nature of many of the entities that produce or publish CDs – these range from individual artists, groups, festivals or other events to small societies, large organisations, student bodies and national cultural institutions of various sorts. This generalisation applies especially to traditional music which is my main subject here but I think it stands scrutiny in contemporary music in Ireland as well.
From time to time I see the odd ‘real’ commercial record company listed among this fine company and in most cases I think immediately of the uninvited ‘guest’ at the party or the hitchhiker who farts in the car. Do you really want to get that close to one of those? And pay for it? You don’t have to these days.
Most of us are accustomed by now to the radically changed environment for making...
