Traonach in Concert

Traonach

Spend Sunday afternoon, May 18th, enjoying the jigs, reels, polkas, tender and light hearted ballads and songs of Traonach. Born of the thriving session scene in Ithaca, New York, Traonach is dedicated to the traditional music of Ireland in all its gritty glory.

Anchored by elder statesman Ed McGowan on fiddle, the band also includes Joel Cowan (concertina), Harry Lawless (bouzouki), Cole Gruberth (flute, whistles), Scott Whitham (bodhrán), and Mark Bickford (accordion, concertina, guitar, and vocals). Mark is a veritable walking encyclopedia of Irish ballads. Dirty Linen (a magazine about folk and traditional music) says, "Their playing is very much old-school Irish music, very gently handled." Their motto is taken from the late New York accordionist Sean McGlynn, who once said: "There is nothing, nothing, you can do to improve this music."

Traonach (pronounced Tray-knock) is the Gaelic term for the corncrake, a reclusive and entirely inoffensive bird formerly common throughout Europe. The Traonach has been celebrated in Irish mythology, and shown intertwined with a heron in the sixth-century Book of Kells. The band says, "We all liked the name and the rural association (for this music is of a famously rural cast) but when we heard that Felix McGowan's nickname for his son Ed was "The Corncrake," the vote was unanimous."

Traonach will perform at 3:00 PM, May 18th in the Danby Town Hall. Fun for the entire family, the music is sure to get your toes tapping! This concert, free and open to everyone, is made possible through the efforts of the Danby Community Council concert series, and is supported by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts and Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County Decentralization Program.

(Pamela Goddard)

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