Tell a story
Joe Heaney in the Pacific Northwest
CAMSCO-701
Disc 1: The Children of Lir; Stories about Fionn MacCumhaill; Fionn MacCumhaill and the Giant; Oisin's Journey to Tir na n'Og; Fionn MacCumhaill and the Lamb; Deirdre of the Sorrows; Stories from the Tain Bo Cuailange.
Disk2: The Man Who Married a Seal Woman; The Man Who Pulled a Thorn from the Seal's Fin; Wren Stories; The Fairies Who Spun the Wool; How Cerabhaill O Dalaigh Got the Gift (includes Song Eilanoir a Run); The Three Good Advices (includes the song Peigin agus Peadar); I'm a Catholic, Not a Protestant; Stories about Boats (includes the songs Oro mo Bhaidin and The Queen of Connemara); The Woman Who Fooled the Peelers; The Fairy Greyhound; The Two Hunchbacks (includes the song De Luain, De Mairt); Did the Rum Do?
The late Joe Heaney has certainly been well served by commercial issues of, initially vinyl and now CD, and will be a familiar name to many readers. Acknowledged primarily as one of the great Irish song stylists, until now his considerable skills as a storyteller have been largely hidden from general view. How many companies during the vinyl era would have had the bottle to release an entire album of spoken traditional material? Only today, at a time when production of CDs in relatively small quantities is so cheap, and distribution facilitated by a presence on the World Wide Web, can what is essentially esoteria standing a good distance outside the commercial mainstream be a viable proposition. At that, I doubt that the total sales figures for this release will exceed more than a few hundred copies. Which is a pity. Top marks, then, to Camsco, out of New Jersey, for affording us this rare opportunity.
Almost four decades ago, when (rather ambitiously) I felt the urge to absorb as much of the mythological culture of the world as was humanly possible, I read various adaptions of The Tain. This, the epic Irish cycle relating the history and exploits of the Knights of the Red Branch, was available in a number of translations from the original Gaelic, although these were chiefly aimed at younger readers. There were subsequent editions, and some proved to be not only eminently readable, but acceptably academic. It was common knowledge even then that versions of these tales were still current in the oral tradition of the Gaeltachts, and that the Irish Folklore Commission had a good number of such field recordings in its archive. As far as access was concerned, however, that archive might as well have been located on the moon. But Joe Heaney, a native Gaelic speaker, learned and transmitted versions of much of the cycle, and on the first disc of this double CD we consumers are able to reap the benefit of his actions. The rather terse sleeve notes stress the 'authenticity' of Heaney's performances, but that concept is a purely subjective one. The context in which these recordings were made replicate in part the old one of seanchai unfolding each tale to an appreciative audience. The recipients heard interacting with the tale teller here have made an effort to attend the sessions and are predisposed towards being positively receptive. But he is in Seattle, at the University of Washington, and the audience (presumably) consists of Americans (albeit some may have Irish roots). That Heaney himself was shaped and moulded by the expectations and demands both of his employers - in this instance the University's Ethnomuciology Department - and his audience is inevitable and plainly evident. Stylistically, Heaney's recounting of the stories are measured and largely unemotional, though told with omnipresent conviction. Occasionally he will throw in a quip or topical aside to the audience, which jars a little. If the context is at variance with the tradition at home we ought not to carp. This is probably the closest that most of us will ever get.
The older stories on disc one are populated with mighty heroes such as Finn McCool and Cuchulan, tragic heroines (including Deirdre of the Sorrows), the Lamb of Life, the Salmon of Knowledge, the Children of Lir, invading giants. Actions include mass slaughter, bewitchment, transmogrification, deception both fatal and comic. Locations include Tara of the Kings, Tir Na Nog, Scotland (!). Everything a Neil Gaiman afficianado could ask for, in fact. The second disc showcases more recent tales and historical anecdotes. These inevitably lack the epic qualities of the older stories, but are still at a far remove from the merely prosaic. Fairies (both benign and vindictive), seal women, and sentient birds abound. And very welcome they are too. There are, of course, tales which contain no magical elements. I'm a Catholic, not a Protestant, for example, is a rarity here. A rather charmless shaggy dog story in which all hinges on the final punch line. Much better is that of the woman who sells potín and fills a bottle with urine upon learning of an impending raid. The bottle is only uncorked in the middle of her trial, much to the embarrassment of the peelers. You wouldn't see that on CSI. Did the rum do? is a tale familiar from a recording by Seamus Ennis, on Leader LEA 2003, although the resultant lilted tune is different here; and Heaney includes another lilting song in this sequence which was also recorded by Ennis, What would you do if you married a soldier? Some of these stories of more recent vintage contain songs and snatches of songs sung in Gaelic, and the disc usefully contains a PDF file which gives both the original text and a translation.
I have to confess that I approached this release - featuring more than two hours of speech - with a little trepidation, but found myself completely enchanted by the whole affair, and never bored. The scarcity of spoken tales on CD is such that anyone with even the slightest interest needs to support this release with some hard-earned cash.
Keith Chandler - 24.5.08
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