.....The Pluckin Squeezers

13th February 2008

New CD features local piper Willie Garrett continued....

More info:
Laura is well known on the local music scene, running the popular Singers Circle at Down Arts Centre for the past 4 years and more recently with the formation of the Co Down folk choir ‘Voices of Lecale’. A regular on Tuesday nights at the Singers’ Sessions in Paddy’s Barn, she was involved in Downpatrick Folk Club in the nineties and has good memories of the Sunday night ‘Open Mic’ sessions and the craic of committee meetings.

She says that making the CD has been a dream come true.
‘I was always involved in music in one way or another since my school days but when I took a career break – a sort of mid-life gap year a few years back - I got the time to start writing songs and instrumental music. Then I got the chance of early retirement and was able to immerse myself in what has really become my second career. Writing and arranging these songs and tunes and then recording them with the Squeezers and our musical buddies has been the most wonderful experience.’

Her inspiration comes from the history and landscape of the Lecale area.
‘We moved here from Belfast in1989 when our two sons were quite young really to get them out of an environment that was full of conflict. But it was really more like coming home for me as my mother had grown up in Killough and I always felt a pull towards this part of Down. We used to bring our boys down to the Quoile River for walks on Sundays and now one of the songs on the CD is about the river. There’s not a day I don’t give thanks for being lucky enough to live here – it is one of the loveliest and most interesting parts of Ireland and we need to celebrate it more.’

The 12 tracks on the CD are a blend of the traditional tunes mixed with contemporary songs and instrumental music with titles referencing some of the place-names and history of St Patrick’s country. Track 4 comprises a slow air, ‘Patrick’s arrival’, linked to a lively jig entitled ‘Dichu’s Barn’, named after the local chieftain who, it is said, gave St Patrick his barn (‘sabhal’) to use as a church (the anglicized version, Saul, is preserved in the place-name to this day). The drumlin landscape of the area is affectionately conjured up in another song ‘The little hills of Saul’ while English, Scotch and Irish Street along with Market Street crop up on track 6, ‘The streets of Downpatrick’. The final track has the feel of a session and in fact is named ‘The seaside session’ comprising a jig, ‘Ardglass herrings’, followed by a lively slide, ‘The boys of Killough’. The Irish harp comes to the fore in a slow air entitled ‘The holy well’ and more recent history is also reflected on track 2 ‘Queen of the Sea’ – a haunting song which is dedicated to families of Ardglass fishermen and in particular those who died or who were bereaved in the tragic accident of January 2006. Track 3, ‘For Jimmy (Cryin’ in the wind) is a particularly personal song:

‘A while back I read and thoroughly enjoyed Maurice Hayes’ excellent memoir of his childhood days ‘Sweet Killough, let go your anchor’. His book mentioned some of my relatives who were living there at the time and it was from the book I learned about a relative I hadn’t heard of before who spent a long part of his life in the Downshire hospital. He probably would have been diagnosed as having ‘special needs’ today but back in the 30’s people were often institutionalised for all sorts of reasons and taken out of their communities. Jimmy used to abscond from The Mental as it was called and run home the 6 miles or so to see his mother. The sound of the siren meant he was on the loose and he would be rounded up and taken back to the hospital. I was thinking a lot about him last year when I was missing our eldest son who had gone off to Australia and the feeling of separation just came out in words and music. It also was the inspiration behind the last song on the CD, ‘Winter Snows’. Willie Garrett, our piper in the Pluckin’ Squeezers had written a beautiful air which he played for us one night and I asked if he’d mind if I put lyrics to it. So again, what came was all about separation but how distance doesn’t matter when you love someone – they are always with you.

Another Plummer, son Declan, features on the CD, playing uilleann pipes, whistles, keyboard and bodhran.
‘Declan in fact became the producer of the CD – he has inherited the musical gene and is currently in his first year of a music PhD at Queen’s University. Originally he was just going to play a tune or two on the pipes but he got sucked into the project and I owe him a lot and have learned a lot from him.’ The CD was recorded at Komodo Studios outside Hillsborough and the cover design is by David Hampton of Hampton Designs, who is originally from Saul.

The CD cover features photos of the area with an introduction to Lecale by Patrick Devlin of the Lecale Historical Society and includes some websites aimed at visitors to the area.

At the Singers’ Sessions at Paddy’s Barn we’ve entertained visitors from America, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and even on a couple of occasions from New Zealand. We were actually able to do the Maori song Po Kare Kare Ana for a lady from New Zealand – much to her amazement! So it will be great to be able to have a CD on hand as people enjoy the music so much when they are here on holiday.’

So what is next in the pipe-line?
‘Well The Pluckin’ Squeezers are becoming quite busy now with regular appearances around Co Down venues including a new resident monthly spot in The Ivy in Newtownards starting in May and we hope to be working on another CD soon which will be more of a collaboration between Adele, Willie and me – maybe with a Scottish theme as we all love the songs of Robbie Burns and the traditional tunes of both Scotland and Ireland. But Adele really loves her bluegrass too so it may turn out to be more of a pick n’ mix. Before that plans are afoot for a CD of Christmas carols and music with ‘Voices of Lecale’. It’s going to be a very busy year one way or another but I have never been happier or felt more fulfilled – I just feel thankful every day.’