Feature by Northings
Dòchas
10 Apr 2005 in Music
High flyers on the traditional music scene
The Arts Journal takes a look at the latest developments for DÒCHAS, one of the top young bands on the Scottish folk scene.
The Facts:
Dòchas are a six-piece band with roots in Scotland, Shetland and Ireland. The band released their debut album, Dòchas (SKYECD 23), on the Macmeanmna label in 2002, and have just issued the follow-up, An Dàrna Umhail (SKYECD 34), ahead of a Scottish Arts Council Tune-Up tour with the Michael McGoldrick Band. The players are:
Kathleen Boyle (piano, accordion, guitar)
Julie Fowlis (Gaelic song, pipes, whistles, oboe)
Carol-Anne MacKay (pipes, accordion, whistle)
Eilidh MacLeod (clàrsach, piano)
Jenna Reid (fiddle, piano)
Martin O’Neill (bodhrán)
Kathleen is from Donegal, Julie Fowlis from North Uist, Carol-Anne from Strathy, Eilidh from Skye, and Jenna is from Shetland. The band originally formed in Glasgow, where they were all studying traditional music at the RSAMD or, in the case of Julie Fowlis, Strathclyde University.
Dòchas have added fellow RSAMD alumni Martin O’Neill to their line-up since we originally profiled the band in February 2004, thus changing the all-girl status of the band. This is actually a reversion to the very first incarnation of Dòchas, as Carol-Anne explained.
“We had [piper] Findlay MacDonald in the band on our very first gig, but he was busy with lots of other things, and we invited Julie to join us, and later Jenna. So we became a girl band, and that’s the way it developed. There was never any real question about whether we would carry on after we finished our courses. We were all quite ambitious to try to make the band do well.”
The girls all have strong roots in traditional music at a family level, as Carol-Anne explained.
“I started on pipes when I was nine. My big sister played pipes, so naturally I wanted to play pipes too. My mum’s brother and her father were pipers as well, so that was always around. I think something similar was true for all us. Eilidh’s father and brothers play pipes and accordions, there are singers in Julie’s family, and Kathleen has a big Irish tradition behind her in Donegal — all her family play, and it’s the same for Jenna, too. Her mum plays, and she performs with her sister in Filska.”
The band have built a substantial reputation in their live appearances, and won the award for Best Up and Coming Band at the Scots Trad Music Awards in December. Their new album marks a further step forward, and Julie Fowlis described the new directions they have incorporated.
“It’s along the same lines as the first one, but with a couple of new things as well. The influences behind the tune sets are broadly the same – there is a big piping influence from Carol-Anne, Highland tunes, a Shetland set from Jenna, and Irish tunes that Kathleen brings in, so the influences remain pretty much the same in that sense.
“We have done a couple of things a wee bit differently on the songs. We talked last time about doing a duet on a song that had both Gaelic and English words, with Jenna singing the English version. We didn’t do it then, but we have on this album with ‘I Ho Ro ‘S Na Hug Oro Eile and Ae Fond Kiss’ – Robert Burns borrowed the tune for ‘Ae Fond Kiss’ from ‘I Ho Ro’.
“The other wee different thing is a duet with Maighread and Triona Ni Dhomhnaill from Donegal on ‘Tiarna Mhaigh Eo’. It was a great honour for me to sing with them. The song was one that was in Kathleen’s family for many generations, and we did a lot of research into it and as far as we can tell it’s not really sung at all now. We got a translation from the Irish Gaelic into Scottish Gaelic, and I sing it in the Scottish version and they do it in the Irish.”
The album is out in time for the group’s Tune Up tour with the Michael McGoldrick Band (1-9 April).
© HI~Arts, 2004
