Review: Matt Molloy, John Carty & Arty McGlynn - Glasgow Strathclyde Suite

DO THEY really have to make it look so easy? One couldn’t help wondering as Matt Molloy, the flautist of Bothy Band, Planxty and Chieftains vintage, took the stage with two similarly seasoned Irish players, fiddler John Carty and guitarist Arty McGlynn, for a procession of tunes.

Many of them came from the Sligo and Roscommon areas, some of them, they told us, “from the bottom of the bag” but all of them rendered fresh and with masterly ease. Preceding the instrumentalists was the fine voice of Eilidh Grant, who demonstrated her ability to cover some well tried and tested material – Richard Thompson’s Dimming of the Day and Joni Mitchell’s Case of You with persuasive conviction as well as more traditional material, ably if a little formally accompanied by guitarist Pete Cooke and Maya Burman-Roy on cello.

From an older generation, the three Irishmen simply delivered tune after tune, jigs rolling from the Molloy flute, hornpipes and reels delivered in an unhurried yet inexorable flow. Individual showcases included Carty’s jig that started as a beautifully plaintive air, while Molloy brought new life to two old favourites, the reel Colonel Fraser and the lament A Stór Mo Chroí, lilting and keening.

McGlynn, quite apart from reducing the audience to fits with his salutary tale of the terminal consequences of composing tunes on a downhill bicycle, showed himself to be, as ever, a consummate player, taking the lead in a pair of solo jigs.

Rating: ****