Episode 1 Music Night at Brownlow

Welcome to Brownlow House. Right in the centre of Lurgan.

And we're delighted to invite you to a series of programmes

that capture the variety and scope of the music that is Ulster Scots.

And what variety that is as we welcome to our opening show...

The Kellswater Flute Band and Zara Montgomery.

Plus we have the very special reunion

of the Killycoogan Accordions.

So, let's get underway with two of those accordions, in the hands

of Emma Colgan frae Kells and Ballymoney's Valerie Quinn.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Well, what a fabulous to start our series, thanks, girls.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

Being an accordion player myself, I just wanted to get up

and dance and tap my feet and get along with you!

-You should have done!

-I should have done.

So, Valerie, when did you start playing the accordion?

I didn't start till I was 15.

My father had bought me one,

because it was an instrument we always loved,

so from learning the accordion,

I then moved into the English accordion band from Cloughmills

and then, from there, into Dunloy,

and from that, into Killycoogan, where I then met Emma.

So, it's always been marching bands you've been associated with?

Always marching bands I've been with

and that has, as I have left the marching bands themselves

and taken part in them, it's gone into the more administrative side

with the Confederation of Ulster Bands.

Emma, so, you play here at home, but you've also played abroad, as well?

I have, yeah. I've been lucky enough to travel to a lot of countries,

including Italy, places in America

and as far away as Hawaii, as well.

And I've been involved in a number of great projects,

for example, the musical On Eagle's Wing.

So it was fantastic to be involved with such great musicians.

Tell us more about how yous met.

Well, Emma was already in Killycoogan and then I joined it,

so we spent five very happy years together in Killycoogan,

travelling quite a bit with that, and then we started doing duets.

Playing duets, as well, yeah.

So, it just expanded from there

and we've been playing on and off ever since.

So, you talked about Killycoogan.

We're actually going to come back to that story later in the programme.

So, thanks very much, ladies, for a brilliant opener.

-We'll chat to you again later.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

So, Reuben, Tabitha and Benjamin,

otherwise known as the bluegrass band Cup O'Joe,

you're very welcome to Brownlow House.

-ALL:

-Thank you.

Tabitha, you are the rose among the thorns here,

-you're the only girl in this family band.

-Yeah, I keep them in order.

Well, I'm a big fan of bluegrass myself

and I've also sung with my family,

so I understand the drama, you know,

singing with the family band and what goes along with that.

Yeah, no, it's a bit of a strange thing, you know,

like, a family from Armagh playing bluegrass.

And basically, I got started because we're really competitive.

And they started to get better at me at something, I thought,

"I can't have that." So, I just thought I have to try stuff as well.

And obviously, your close harmonies are so sweet, and I know that

that only comes from singing with family members.

I think probably it was, kind of,

it's just a natural kind of thing, you kind of don't think about it,

didn't really try to work on it that much.

But then, whenever you need to sing together,

you, kind of, just have a go and see what happens.

That's kind of what we've done, especially in bluegrass,

because a lot of it's built on harmonies

and that's a really big part of the music.

So, it's just exciting to try new things.

# Well, I wish I was in London Or in some other seaport town

# I'd send myself on a steamboat and sail the ocean round

# Sailing round the ocean Sailing round the sea

# I'd think of handsome Molly Wherever she may be

# Well, I went to church last Sunday She passed me on by

# Could tell her love was changing By the roving of her eye

# Hair's black as raven Eyes as black as coal

# Cheeks sure like lilies Out in the morning cold

-ALL:

-# Sailing round the ocean Sailing round the sea

# Think of handsome Molly Wherever she may be

# Well, do you remember, Molly When you gave me your right hand?

# Said if we were to marry then I'd be your man

# Then you broke your promise Go marry who you please

# And my poor heart is saken You're living at your ease

# Sailing round the ocean Sailing round the sea

# Think of handsome Molly Wherever she may be

# Sailing round the ocean Sailing round the sea

# Think of handsome Molly Wherever she may be

# Sailing round the ocean Sailing round the sea

# Think of handsome Molly Wherever she may be. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

As we all know by now,

music from these parts has travelled around the world.

And sometimes, we even find it landing back

in our very own doorstep.

In 1982, Jay Unger wrote a fiddle piece

to mark the end of one of his fiddle and dance camps

in the Catskill Mountains of New York.

Now, he wrote it in the style of a Scottish lament and, indeed,

he had one tune very much in his heid for it. Lochaber Nae More.

"Farewell to Lochaber and farewell my Jean,

"Where heartsome with thee I hae monie days been

"For Lochaber no more Lochaber nae more,

"We'll maybe return to Lochaber nae more."

So, when Jay Ungar composed his tune,

this was the sentiment he had in his mind for it.

So, playing it for us tonight, in the ballroom,

here at Brownlow House, is Rachel Lutton frae Antrim,

along with the Kellswater Flute Band.

This is Ashoken Farewell.

What a fantastic performance.

David, tell me a wee bit more of the history of Kellswater Flute Band.

Well, the band was formed in 1947

and so, we're coming up to the big 70th anniversary.

The band is very much based on family

and a number of generations in the band.

We're just from outside Ballymena, just near Kellswater River.

And we've been on the go doing different things - contests,

concerts and a lot of work on the road, as well.

Rachel, David mentioned about the generation of the band,

so how did you become a member with Kellswater?

My great-granda Joe was in the band

and my granda and my daddy,

and then my brother's in it, as well, so it's quite a family thing.

So, I started when I was in P1 or P2,

when I was five or six, playing the triangle,

and then I moved on to the concert flute.

So, we welcome back Valerie and Emma

and now we're joined with Willie Hill

and we're here to talk about Killycoogan, is that right?

We're here to talk about Killycoogan, that's right, Nicola.

The famous Killycoogan Band,

who we are all part of

at a different period

through what we'd call the glory years

from the middle '80s until the late '90s,

when Killycoogan were probably the best band, accordion band,

not only at home, but also across the water.

And when was the band originally formed?

The band was formed 1947,

originally connected with Killycoogan village,

and basically, that was their function. They made...

they did radio various parades across the province.

The marching bands obviously just playing marches,

but the competition band will have been playing

a slightly higher standard of music.

They'd be playing originally orchestral transcriptions.

Same as most bands, like the flute bands would have done,

even the brass band would have done.

But the time we got to the first competition in England,

in 1984 in Buxton in Derbyshire,

they were playing music which was written specifically

for accordion bands, or as they called in those days,

the accordion orchestra.

And it was just the dedication the players had, in those days,

but they wanted to go to rehearsal. Emma will tell you.

-She looked forward to a Wednesday night.

-I really loved it, yeah.

Well, I was there when they were still winning

British championship titles,

and I was there for about eight years in total, from about 1992.

So, I really did enjoy my part in the orchestra, yes.

You're going to play for us tonight. What are yous going to play?

Well, we've chosen a piece that we probably would all associate

with Killycoogan and it's a Hungarian piece called Czardas.

And after that we're going to go straight into a polka.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

We're not leaving the Killycoogan story there just yet.

I'm joined by former member, Kara Bowman, who is going to tell us

a fascinating story of when she was just a wee schoolgirl.

Yes, well, when I was in P7,

I had a wonderful opportunity

to star in a TV drama

done by the BBC called Henry.

-And that was in the 1990s, wasn't it?

-It was, yes.

Basically, it was just after I had done the 11 Plus

and they wanted a young country girl.

I was from the country, at that stage,

I lived in the Grange. I was taught the accordion in Culleybackey.

And they wanted to see if somebody could play the accordion first.

But then I was asked if I wanted to try out to see if I could act.

So, they decided to give me the role.

How's it work?

That there's the lungs, and that's the heart.

'Well, basically, I had to go for a competition,

'I had to live with a family in Belfast,

'coming from the country, to living in this high-rise flat.

'It was six weeks filming,'

and they came and picked me up every morning with my mum

and took me down for filming for the whole two months,

so we were driven down every day to Belfast and driven home.

-You got proper A-star treatment, didn't you?

-Oh, it was fantastic.

Fantastic.

Everybody was very nice and they all looked after me very well.

Zara Montgomery, all the way from Donegal,

you're very welcome to Brownlow House.

Thank you very much for having me. It's a pleasure.

So, tonight, you're singing The Parting Glass for us?

I will be, yes.

It's known as an Irish song,

but in fact,

it's only known as an Irish song since the 1950s. Before that,

it was... It dates back to the 1600s, to an Ulster Scots song.

It would have been used instead of the Burns Auld Lang Syne.

It would have come before that, it would have been used as a toast,

a farewell, a goodbye song,

as the words are so appropriate in the actual song,

for saying goodbye to loved ones, The Parting Glass.

And I believe the opening stanza dates back to a poem

about the Border Reivers?

It's taken from a poem called Armstrong's Goodnight,

that dates back to the 1600s.

And it's about the execution of a very famous Border Reiver.

# Of all the money

# That I e'er I had

# I spent it in

# Good company

# And all the harm

# That e'er I done

# Alas it was

# To none but me

# And all I've done

# For want of wit

# To memory now

# I can't recall

# So fill to me

# A parting glass

# Good night and joy

# Be with you all

# Of all the comrades

# That I e'er I had

# They're sorry for

# My going away

# And all the sweethearts

# That e'er I had

# They wish me one more day to stay

# But since it falls

# Unto my lot

# That I should rise

# And you should not

# I'll gently rise

# I'll softly call

# Good night and joy

# Be with you all

# A man may drink

# And may not be drunk

# A man may fight

# And not be slain

# A man may court

# A pretty girl

# And perhaps be welcomed back again

# But since it has

# So ought it be

# As a time to rise

# And a time to fall

# Come fill to me

# A parting glass

# Good night and joy

# Be with you all

# Come fill to me

# A parting glass

# Good night and joy

# Be with you all. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Performing next week on Music Night At Brownlow...

Sontas are joined by members of the Churchill Flute Band.

And we have a spine-tingling performance

from Brunswick Accordion Band.

Haste ye back.