A successful celebration of the dedication and craft of eight Irish traditional musicians, the A Stór Mo Chroí collective's Musical Gathering was everything one could hope for an evening of folk music – inspiring, enriching, stirring, but, above all, heart-warming and genuine. The collective – four men and four women – came together to celebrate their love of story-telling with pipe, flute, string and vocal harmonies, and melodies of varying tone and tempo.
At times feeling like an Irish dance hall, at other times a reassuring living room fireside, the packed MAC alternately cracked and cooled with electric energy and effortless ease in an atmosphere rich in folky familiarity and familial unity.
All four female vocalists shone alongside the entertaining and affable John Spillane and the skilled instrumentalism of Dónal O’Connor, Donagh Hennessy and John McSherry: in particular, Mary Dillon's determined, regretful but unmistakeably sweet vocals worked superbly as a mellow counterpoint to the more dominant and booming, but no less impressive, vocals of Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh.
As the band played on and the singers changed tunes, confidence rose on and off stage: jocular chat and random Irish cultural references interspersed with melodious compositions and varyingly interpretative lyrics. It was all so easily accessible; one did not need to be a folk buff to find their spirits lifted, heads bobbing and feet tapping throughout.
(The original version of this review appeared in the Belfast Telegraph on Tuesday October 21 2014. It can be read here.)