From Irish Music Magazine March 2010
Alex Monaghan shared a drink with the multi-national members of The Outside Track between their new album launch and their first Celtic Connections appearance.
A couple of years back, I received a recording from a young Limerick-based band combining Scottish, English, Canadian and Irish musicians. They called themselves The Outside Track, and their music was interesting: tunes and songs, strong arrangements, and some very nice playing. Trouble was, there was no sense of direction, no indication where their track would lead. I ended my review with these words: "I'll wait to see if The Outside Track develop their own style."
Many things have changed since then. The Celtic Tiger is now just another stray cat, many people are beginning to take climate change seriously, a painter has won the Turner Prize, and The Outside Track is touring its second album at the musical melting pot which is Glasgow's annual Celtic Connections festival. So what else has happened since that first recording? Ailie Robertson, innovative Edinburgh harpist and founder member of The Outside Track, was in talkative mood when I caught up with her and the rest of the band before their gig at the Oran Mor, in Glasgow's Celtic heartland.
"We were aware when we recorded the first album that we didn't really have a band identity. What were we - Irish, Scottish, English, Canadian? This album has a much clearer direction. We play Irish, Scottish and Canadian music. That's a pretty broad direction, but we don't stray outside it." There have been significant line-up changes since that debut recording. Derbyshire fiddler Tricia Clark has been replaced by Cape Breton's own Mairi Rankin, and guitarist Alan Jordan has given way to Cillian Ó Dálaigh. Now with two Scots, two Canadians and two Irish musicians in this five-piece, the band's direction makes good sense - but will it last? "This is our strongest line-up yet, and we're all really committed to it. We all have the same idea of how we want the music to be, and it works really well. This is the line-up we're sticking with."
It's not easy to run a band when the members are spread across Scotland, Ireland, and opposite coasts of Canada, but it turns out there are advantages too. Not only does The Outside Track have agents and loyal fans on both sides of the Atlantic, they also have a particularly organised approach to touring and recording. They have to! "This is the hardest-working band I've ever been in", reckons Mairi, veteran of several Cape Breton groups and currently juggling The Outside Track with her commitments to Beolach and an exciting duo project with Wendy MacIsaac (cousin of bad boy Ashley). "We have to plan ahead. You can't turn up late for rehearsals when you're flying in specially." So how does it work living in Canada and playing in a European band? "I'm based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, so I have to partition my life. Some months I'm touring or recording with The Outside Track, other months I'm not. We spend a lot of time on the Internet, on email or Skype."
Norah Rendell is also Canadian, from the sultry Pacific coast, a long way from Nova Scotia. As well as playing traditional Irish flute, Norah is now charged with all the lead vocals, another changed from the first CD. "I'm actually living in Minnesota." Sure, somebody has to. "I do duo work with my husband Brian Miller, he's a guitarist." (And a secret flautist: Harry Bradley watch out!) "We play the same style as Matt and Shannon Heaton: flute, vocals and guitar. The Outside Track is completely different, less traditional, much richer arrangements." Those arrangements are a feature of this band's music, layers of melody slipping over each other like silken sheets, or like tyres spinning on tarmac in the driving dance music sets. Are these rehearsed on Skype? "No, that doesn't work - too much delay," explains Fiona Black. "We just get together, we love touring and being together. We're very much a touring band."
Box-player Fiona, one of the babies of the band, is already a well-known name in Scotland. "I finished my studies in Limerick last year, with a bursary from the BBC for which I'm very grateful. I do a fair bit of teaching at home, but the BBC award made it possible to go to Cape Breton which was fantastic." Hence the connection with Mairi, bringing in the whole Canadian side of Scottish music which is a really powerful weapon in The Outside Track's armoury. "I don't think there are many bands combining Irish, Scottish and Cape Breton music", ventures Ailie: "Dàimh, of course, and a couple of Canadian ones, but none in Europe."
Talking of Europe, the other baby in the band is Mr Ó Dálaigh, out of Hamburg but a Limerick man now. "We moved back to Ireland when I was eight, and I've been into the music ever since. My Dad has a band which I play with when I'm at home, and I'm sharing a house with a couple of other Irish musicians and a Spanish lad who's just won the All-Ireland piping competition. We have house sessions, it's great." I didn't interview the neighbours. Cillian's guitar and Ailie's harp are mainly responsible for the rhythm line, and Ailie has been known to shock audiences with her powerful bass notes. "People still expect harps to be tinkly, staying in the background. My new harp has a really strong bass sound. We thought about getting a bass player in for the album, but with this harp we just didn't need it." As an accompanist, there isn't much Ailie can't provide behind a tune. She and Cillian complement each other brilliantly, trading chords and filling the space to perfection.
With their second Canadian tour scheduled for this summer, and plans for a US tour, The Outside Track are clearly hitting the spot outside Europe too, which is as it should be. It's high time we were exporting music to Canada, after the waves of Canadian fiddlers who've come the other way: - over-talented, over-friendly and over here! I told them my theory that the best musicians come from places where there's nothing to do for about six months of the year - Shetland, Atlantic Canada, Northern Scotland, Limerick ...None of them thumped me, and Mairi agreed heartily: "Except that in Cape Breton it's more like ten months!" I never said that, by the way.
I couldn't leave without asking about the band's name. When I arrived and told the bar staff I was looking for The Outside Track, I half expected them to direct me to the toilets: I wondered if that happened a lot. "We do get introduced by the wrong name quite often. The Outside Track was the first song we recorded, but we don't do it any more, and we never really recorded it." The name means different things to different members: the first track on an LP (and often the best one), a less direct approach to things, the route an underdog might take. All these fit their powerful, slightly edgy, distinctly Celtic music. And the new album? "It's called Curious Things Given Wings. It rhymes." Enough said. The band's gig list at www.theoutsidetrack.com looks a little empty after January, but I'm sure it will fill up once the new album gets around. With at least two tours this summer, they've plenty to work towards. Here's hoping The Outside Track will have time to tour in the UK and Ireland too - exports are all very well, but we don't want to lose them altogether!