Something For The Weekend: Steve Cooney's Cultural Picks

Music legend Steve Cooney will be awarded with a Gradam Ceoil award from TG4 at their annual Gradam Ceoil flagship concert, to be broadcast this October.

The Gradam Ceoil Awards pay homage to musicians who have advanced, strengthened, and preserved traditional music in Ireland - making Cooney a most worthy recipient indeed.

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Best known for his development of an influential style of guitar accompaniment to traditional Irish dance music which he developed in West Kerry, and for his collaborations with Séamus Begley, Steve came to Ireland from his native Australia in 1980 and maintains his connections with the Aboriginal culture there, into which he was initiated. He has ancestral links with Tipperary, Cavan and Galway.

Cooney has participated in making more than 250 albums, either as a guitar or bass player or as producer and engineer. Also a poet and songwriter, his primary focus remains Irish traditional music, and fusions of that genre. He recently released a CD of solo guitar interpretations of ancient harp tunes, Ceol Ársa Cláirsí: Tunes of the Irish Harpers for Solo Guitar, and is also recording fusion music with his band Éiníní.

Steve completed a Ph.D. in 2018 at NCAD on an intuitive musical notation system that he developed for early learners and those who experience difficulties with staff notation, and he lectures in tertiary institutions on the calculation of harmony and syncopation. He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the RTE Radio One Folk Awards in 2020.

We asked the great man himself for his choice cultural picks...

FILM

I'm a great admirer of the Coen brothers, I love their quirky dark humour... I suppose No Country For Old Men and O Brother, Where Art Thou? would be among my favourites of theirs, although there's touches of genius in everything they do. In terms of an all-time favourite film there are a few classics I love, but I think Cinema Paradiso would be my choice... it succeeds on a multitude of philosophical and emotional levels, with a great score by Ennio Morricone.

MUSIC

Although I work in the field of Irish traditional music, I have a great love of music from Mali and the 'desert blues' genre, such as Tinariwen. I would recommend the great duo records by Ali Farka Touré on guitar and Toumani Diabate on kora, the African harp. Their tradition goes back many hundreds of years, there are easy-going grooves that are both relaxing and stimulating... The playing is a mixture of deceptively simple syncopated interplays and dazzling technique.

BOOK

I'm currently reading Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, the son of Rupert Sheldrake the biologist. It's a detailed look at the world of fungi and how important and fascinating they are. Among other things, I believe they hold great potential for healing, e.g. Lion's Mane for treatment of dementia, chaga for prevention of certain cancers, supervised psilocybin treatment for depression etc. I'm also reading some poetry: Dairéna Ní Chinnéide's Tairseach, Moya Cannon's latest collection and a newly released epic poem by the beautiful Donegal poet Eithne Ní Ghallchobhair, An Craiceann agus a Luach.

THEATRE

Plays aren't a regular feature of life where I live in rural Donegal - to be honest, the last play I attended was the Christmas nativity play in Bunacurry National School in Achill island many years ago to see my son. The one before that was Aisteóirí Bhréanainn's An Baile Seo Againne Innniú in West Kerry in 1992, where I composed the music... Yes, I must up my game in the culture stakes!

Strangely enough, I get more emotional about sport on the telly than I do about dramas. Historical documentaries hold more interest for me than fiction. TG4 are running a very interesting series at the minute called Mná Díbeartha which is about Irish women who were transported to the penal colonies in Australia for such 'crimes' as stealing food during the famine to feed their children. Very well researched and informative.

GIG

I was a 'prog-rocker' in the early '70s, and Genesis were due to be playing here this month, I was looking forward to that, but like most gigs it's been cancelled... I hope their tour will be back on course before too long - they were very innovative. Many venues here are struggling to come to terms with a policy that can work within the uncertain guidelines to put on shows that can make money for all concerned. Connolly's of Leap in Cork have been proactive in constructing an outdoor venue so they can continue putting on gigs - they seem to have a very successful model and it should be supported. For many musicians in the trad scene, over the last year the majority of gigs have been filmed and streamed. Everyone will be delighted to be playing for live audiences again!

ART

I'm an admirer of Dr Éimear O'Connor's research and curation of Seán Keating's work, it gives great focus on the realities of life during those historic times in Ireland a century ago. He was uniquely gifted and insightful.

Séan Keating painting the Shannon Scheme excavations at Ardnacrusha in County Clare.

RADIO

A Sunday wouldn't be complete for me without Vox Nostra on lyric FM to ease into the day with a sense of the sacred - 7.00 is often a wee bit early to face the day, so I may listen on playback. Also on lyric is Ellen Cranitch's late night Vespertine - her edits are immaculate! Sunday is a good day for lyric. RnaG would be my default station of choice: I listen to Tobar an Cheoil and Cuireadh Chun Ceoil to keep abreast of the best of new music and Saol Ó Dheas (gach lá gan teip) to keep in touch with the goings on 'back wesht'. An Taobh Tuathuaill is great for the late-night long drive home after gigs (I also like to hear Pat Kenny and Seán Moncreiff).

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TECH

It's hard to go past Pro-Tools - it's made the recording process for musicians so much easier. There are a variety of digital recording platforms, each with their own specialities, but Pro Tools is particularly good for editing, which I love. There is a romantic attachment to the idea of the old days of analogue recording, but the practicality and low cost of digital is brilliant. An app I love is Shazam, it listens to tracks on the radio and tells you what they are. Very handy altogether, particularly as DJs don't always back-announce what they've just played!

THE NEXT BIG THING...

I'm looking forward to a time (hopefully soon) when musicians will have a decent and strong union to represent their interests in the face of strong and growing bureaucracies that erode their natural rights... and when musicians can realise that they need to put aside personal and professional differences and band together in solidarity in order to create a strong ethical community that can make the working life of musicians easier and more positive for the coming younger generations.

Gradam Ceoil TG4 is the premier annual traditional music awards scheme and academy. An independent panel of adjudicators selects recipients each year. It is not a competition.

This year's Gradam Ceoil awards will be broadcast from Whitla Hall in Queens University Belfast on Halloween night at 21:30 to celebrate TG4's 25th Birthday and will be available online for international viewers on TG4's player.

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