The sparks that fly from personal encounters, the ideas that spring unbidden from what starts as a mundane conversation, the adrenaline rush that comes from in person live performance: these are just a few of the things that singer Inni-K is savouring anew as she returns, albeit tentatively, to the career she had before the pandemic.
“Creatively, I’ve noticed over the last few months, as we’ve had the chance to meet up and chat with different artists, the spark that happens from just meeting someone for coffee and talking about something”, she says, with a broad smile. “It felt like such a big effort during lockdown to email somebody about something, whereas it all happens really naturally over a cup of coffee.”
Clearly though, sparks did fly for Inni-K during the pandemic, as she released her third album, Iníon, now nominated in the Best Folk Album category in this year’s RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards. A return to her sean-nós roots, Iníon is a sparkling collection of songs that shimmer in the heat of Inni-K’s warm, unforced voice. As someone who’s collaborated with everyone from Liam Ó Maonlaí and Cormac Begley (in their band, Ré) to Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, and shared a stage with Malian kora master, Toumani Diabaté, Inni-K (aka Eithne Ní Catháin) is an artist who’s forged her own path on a foundation of sean-nós song, but with a clear sense of exploration of its outer reaches.
It’s getting continuously harder to make a living as a musician
“I definitely wanted to make an album of sean-nós songs and it felt like the right time in my own life”, she says. “Having turned 40 just before the pandemic, I wanted to honour the place where I’d come from. It was very much a lockdown project, so it was really lovely to get stuck into that in 2020.”
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Hearing her take on some of the big songs of the tradition (Eamonn an chnoic, nominated in the best traditional folk track category) alongside some of the more intimate, domestic songs (Cuc-a-neaindí, a dandling song) sets the scene for a collection with a wide horizon.
“It was actually a lovely project to be involved with”, Inni-K offers, clearly comfortable enough in her own musical skin to acknowledge the eclectic influences which have shaped her.
“I’ve always loved a lot of different music, from very rhythmic stuff to a lot of vocal solo singing to some jazz and learning from musicians I’ve been playing with. So to come to this body of work, I felt that if I wasn’t going to do something bold, what was the point, in a way? I love singing these songs anyway, but to put out something new, it would be fun and creative and adventurous to see what would happen if I had a broad palette of sounds to play with.”
Counting among her many influences Joni Mitchell, Sandy Denny, Beth Orton, Nina Simone, Bob Marley, Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambaso, but also thel Cúl Aodha singer, Elizabeth Cronin, the iconic Joe Heaney and Sorcha Ní Ghuairim, Inni-K brings a distinct freshness of perspective to her work.
“I think I grappled with it for a while”, she admits, referring to her shaping of her own musical identity over time. “Would audiences be confused if I did my own songs and then did a sean-nós album? But I don’t think it’s just me that’s become more comfortable with that. I think in general people have a lot more interest in sean-nós singing than when I was growing up. I think it’s really healthy. The integrity is there in its purest form, but it can be stretched. That’s what I love about these songs: they’re not fragile. They can be expressed in different ways.”
This year marks the fifth year of the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards, and they’re fast becoming a mainstay of the folk scene: a welcome recognition of musicians whose work may go unrecognised otherwise.
“It is a great opportunity to further platform this music”, says Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, whose groundbreaking album, Róisín Reimagined, with the Irish Concert Orchestra is nominated in the best folk album category and who herself is nominated in the best folk singer category. “To pay tribute and homage to certain people who have been there long before us and people who we owe a lot to.”
Muireann is now presenting Folk on One on Radio 1 every Saturday night. She knows the value of recognising artists, from the inside out, so to speak.
“It’s getting continuously harder to make a living as a musician”, she says, “so everyone does it because they really love it, and I feel very privileged whenever I get the opportunity to celebrate these people, to elevate their music and their art, and to bring it to as many audiences as possible, because at the end of the day what’s left for us is performance, and what it’s all about is community and communication.”
We’re experiencing a golden age in folk and traditional music, Muireann believes.
“The quality and the amount of stuff that’s landing into me”, she declares, “and the freedom and the joy that seems to be out there in the folk scene at the moment. We’re feeling released after that awful couple of years when we all did a lot of creating, a lot of contemplating. I think now it’s just to hell with self-doubt about limitations we might have set for ourselves, and everybody is just making beautiful art for the sheer joy of it. I find it really dóchasach (hopeful), and positive, despite how difficult I know it is to be a musician. But so many artists are bringing so much joy to people with their music.”
Anna Mieke is nominated in the best original folk track (for Twin) and best folk singer categories this year. Her second album, Theatre will be released tomorrow (November 18th), and she’s excited at the prospect of touring a whole new swathe of material born out of lockdown.
“On the one side, it’s got quite a joyous and summery feeling, very much rooted in memories of family and youth and heat”, she says of Theatre, “but there’s also a darkness to it. Death, age and decay often come into my writing, particularly on this album. And memory, related to age and having a grandmother with dementia for a long time.”
Looking back on the last few years, Mieke realises that they gave her much of what she didn’t realise she needed.
“I really enjoyed the time off”, she admits with a sheepish smile. “Just time at home, rooted to one place. That was really something I needed, and it’s made me realise that being at home is really important to me. I think the time was also important as a chance to rethink the sort of music I want to create. I did a huge amount of listening to music, so I think what I was doing was gathering.
“I go through periods of not creating a lot, and then I write quite a lot. Sometimes I beat myself up that I should be writing every day. But you need to be living and doing things and taking things in, in order to have something to write about. It was a really good time to realise that.”
The Irish Folk Awards will be presented in front of a live audience at Vicar Street tonight and broadcast live on RTÉ Radio 1 from 8 pm. Highlights from the ceremony will be broadcast on on RTÉ One on Saturday, November 19th at 10.25pm.
And the folk award goes to ...
Best emerging artist
- Aisling Lyons
- Alannah Thornburgh
- Cathal Ó Curráin
- Ciara O’Neill
- Les SalAmandas
Best folk instrumentalist
- Aidan Connolly
- Aisling Lyons
- Alannah Thornburgh
- Bríd Harper
- Cormac Begley
Best original folk track
- Déanamh Gaineamh / Making Sand – Pádraig Jack
- Footnotes On The Map – Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler
- Now You See It – Susan O’Neill
- Spéir Rua – Síomha
- To War – Cormac Begley
- Twin – Anna Mieke
Best traditional folk track
- An Caoineadh – Ceara Conway
- Éamonn an Chnoic – Inni-K
- Róisín Dubh – Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh & the Irish Chamber Orchestra
- Rolling in the Barrel / O’Neill’s March / Tralee Jail – Cormac Begley
- The Bird in the Bush – Pauline Scanlon
- The Bonnie Bunch of Roses – Séamus McGuire & Steve Cooney
- Úrchnoc Chéin Mhic Cainte – Cathal Ó Curráin
Best folk group
- Navá
- Téada
- The Alt
- the olllam
- The Whileaways
- We Banjo 3
Best folk singer
- Anna Mieke
- Cathal Ó Curráin
- Clare Sands
- Junior Brother
- Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh
- Pauline Scanlon
Best folk album
- B – Cormac Begley
- Iníon – Inni-K
- Nine Waves – Ye Vagabonds
- Róisín Reimagined – Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh & the ICO
- The Great Irish Famine – Junior Brother
Lifetime Achievement Award
Mary Black
Hall of Fame award
Paddy Molony
