May 2006
Enterprising Irish
The TOM McLAUGHLIN TRIO went big time last week, playing before his
Excellency, Sean O Huiginn, Irish ambassador at the Sheridan Hotel,
Frankfurt. The event was organised by enterprise-ireland and my good friend,
Shane Mac invented an appropriate band for the occasion. The great thing
about Irish music is that, like the blues, ethnicity is helpful but not
required. The band was an international mix of Scottish, Irish, German and
American and it passed the litmus test of a mainly Irish crowd. This is
always cheering when rehersal time was limited to 'what are we playing
first, Shane?' Also cheering was the warm and friendly speech of the
Ambassador himself who took the trouble to share a drink with us at the end.
I was considering, at that moment, the last time I had played in Dublin. It
was on O'Connell St and I made enough to buy a cup of tea, but failed
narrowly to scrape the change together for a sandwich. Busking on the street
in Ireland is as ephemeral a sport as one could desire. The music then was
merely 'background'; like the music we played in the Sheridan Hotel. It is
enough sometimes for the musician to touch a few hearts, create a warm
atmosphere, get the occasional coin flipped into the box and bask in the odd
encouraging comment.