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11/06/2008 - HARBOURING Reviews

"Whisht! traditional singing group provided excellent tremelous vocals on Macquarie Harbour which is spooky and atomspheric ... Currach features excellent vocals from Helen Kirwan, with the male vocals equally strong. It is an intimate, genuinely moving performance, with hushed playing [from the Irish Chamber Orchestra] during which you could see a sudden tremor of life in the conductor's [Fergus Sheil's] hand as he went about his work ... The Harbour was written by Irish poet, Winifred Letts, and speaks of the Wexford coastline. It was an ideal finish to the musical event, including all of the choirs, with a paroxysm of emotion provided by Paddy Berry of Whisht!" David Looby - World premiere entrals - The Echo 11/06/2008

"If Safe Harbour is whimsical, it is followed by the memorable Currach by Tony Curtis, whose employment of a three to four syllable line in six verses mirrors the ebb and flow of the central theme, and was sung by Paddy Berry, Helen Kirwan, Paul O'Reilly and Niall Wall with delicate monochromes, and a vocal beauty at once as fleeting as wild tulips" Tom Mooney - Persuasive Voices - The Echo 11/06/2008

"The real scene stealer, however, was Helen Kirwan from the traditional singing group Whisht! Her collegues Paddy Berry, Niall Wall and the mellifluous Paul O'Reilly rarely strayed in tone from their balladeering roots, but Helen seized the oppurtunity to give full operatic vent with a gusto that matched the setting." David Medcalf - HARBOURING performance astounds by its sheer size - The Guardian 11/06/2008

RTÉ Radio One - The Arts Show 09/06/2008 Excerpt

05/06/2008 - Whisht! to perform in World Premiere of HARBOURING, composed by Ian Wilson

A new work for orchestra and chorus by Ian Wilson is to get its first public performance in Wexford in June.

Harbouring is a substantial 50-minute-long work in nine movements commissioned to mark a decade of investment in choral music by Wexford County Council and has been funded through the Per Cent For Art programme.

The performances, on Thursday 5 June and Friday 6 June, in Whites Hotel, Abbey Street, Wexford, will feature local and national performers and include the Irish Chamber Orchestra, accordion player Dermot Dunne and more than 100 vocalists from Wexford Festival Singers, Gorey Choral Group and Enniscorthy Musical Society as well as sean nós singers from the Whisht! Traditional Irish singing group. Conductor Fergus Sheil describes the work as 'ambitious by any standards'.

Harbouring uses poems by nine Irish and international writers all of which have the subject of harbour in common for each of its movements and Wilson says he has aimed in the piece 'to write choral music which is at the same time modern and accessible, challenging to a degree yet rewarding to sing'.

After the performance pics ...

07/03/2008 - Geoff Wallis, www.irishmusicreview.com

Full review here.

"As I’ve written before on this site, sometimes it’s not the albums which arrive with a blazing fanfare of PR material (backed by a full-scale pre-release campaign) which cause the greatest stir, but those which appear with a whisper rather than a scream.

Such is the case with The Cuckoo’s Note, the work of a sextet of six traditional singers from County Wexford, which provided not a simple breath of fresh air to this rural domain, but a full gale of warmth and intimacy whose memory will linger long.

The most familiar of the six singers is Paddy Berry from Wexford town, compiler of two excellent collections of his county’s ballads and releaser of three previous albums of traditional song (for more information see www.paddyberry.com). His three vocal outings here – and all the album’s songs are sung solo with one exception noted below – are deeply rooted in the county. The unrequited love song, The Maid of Ballygow, comes from the land of the Murphy family, the harmonica players from Carrick-on-Bannow, while The Nigglers of Ballyvaloo (has there ever been a better title for a song?) concerns the endeavours of a troupe of lads from said village to sweep the women of Blackwater off their feet, and, lastly, there’s the more familiar Come with Me over the Mountain penned by Antrim’s Hugh McWilliams.

The remainder of the album consists largely of more familiar material. Sixteen-year-old Darina Gleeson provides fetching versions of two northern songs, Edward on Lough Erne Shore and The Auld Grey Man, and her elder sister Elaine offers the only Irish-language songs on the album, A Spailpín, A Rúin and Sliabh na mBan (perhaps both have been over-recorded, but Elaine’s renditions do breathe life into the songs).

Paul O’Reilly offers a sparkling account of The Waterford Boys and another unrequited love song in the form of The Blooming Flower of Grange while Niall Wall, the 2007 All-Ireland Singing champion, provides one of the best known of the Napoleonic ballads, The Plains of Waterloo (a.k.a. Willie Reilly), and perhaps the album’s most outstanding track, Little Jimmy Murphy, backed by the rest of Whisht! and guest singer Caitriona Ní Chatháin.

Overall, lovers of Irish song will be enthralled by this album."

06/12/2007 - Liam Gaul, County Wexford Free Press

"If you like the 'Pure Drop' then a new CD entitled 'The Cuckoo's Note' featuring six county Wexford traditional singers is just the Christmas gift for you. The group, collectively known as Whisht!, is comprised of sisters Elaine and Darina Gleeson, Helen Kirwan, Paul O'Reilly, Niall Wall and Paddy Berry. The word Whisht or éist means to be silent, stop or listen, and listen you will to these six top exponents of the unaccompanied song in the traditional idiom. Ranging in areas from Ferns, Enniscorthy, Carrick-on-Bannow to Drinagh on the edge of Wexford town, the singers are brought together by their love and dedication to the songs and singing in both in English and Irish, ar an sean-nós. All of the performers have won numerous awards for their singing at Fleadhanna Cheoil and are known to a wide audience of singers and listeners alike both North and South.

Their songs are gleaned from the vast repertoire of ballads which serve to illustrate our mixed and varied Irish heritage. Love songs, songs of heroic deeds and emigration to the Napoleonic era and songs of rebellion, war and the terrible famine of Black '47 are to heard on 'The Cuckoo's Note.'

A song from Fermanagh opens the singing entitled 'Edward on Lough Erne Shore' sung by Darina Gleeson from which the opening line of verse three gives the title 'The Cuckoo's Note' to the album. The air is a variant of 'Youghal Harbour' taken down from the singing of Mick Hoy of Derrygonnelly by Cathal McConnell. Darina also sings another Northern song 'The Auld Grey Man' sung to the air 'Down Erin's Lovely Lee.'

Two of the 'big' sean-nós songs are sung by Elaine Gleeson in fine style with excellent phrasing and ornamentation. Her contributions are 'A Spailpín, A Rúin' and a 1798 song by the Munster poet Micheál Ó Longáin - 'Sliabh na mBan.' This is one of the airs used by Sean Ó Riada in his orchestral score for the Gael-Linn film 'Mise Éire.'

A jaunty song. 'The Waterford Boys', is sung by Paul Ó Reilly to a variant of the air 'Haste to the Wedding.' It tells the story of the Waterford man who stayed in a tavern infested with rats - which tormented him as he tried to get a night's sleep. The story has a twist to it in the final verse. Paul also gives a nice rendition of 'The Blooming Flower of Grange' telling the story of the young man who falls in love with the beautiful girl from Grange. She finally relents and agrees to marry him. "So come prepare and be my bride, near Wexford town I do reside, where the nuptial knot it will be tied, to the Blooming Flower of Grange." Sung to a haunting melody with great use of the flattened seventh note giving the air a very Irish traditional colour.

At this year's Fleadh Cheoil in Tullamore, the coveted All-Ireland award for men's English Ballad singing competition was claimed by Enniscorthy man, Niall Wall. Possessed of a strong ballad voice, Wall gives a powerful airing to a Napoleonic song 'The Plains of Waterloo.' It describes a young maiden lamenting the loss of her love, Willie, who has not returned from the Battle of Waterloo. All ends well when he does return and they are reunited. Another version of this song appears in Colm Ó Lochlainn's 'Irish Street Ballads' and is given as 'Her Mantle So Green.' Niall Wall sings a great version of the song 'Little Jimmy Murphy' where he is joined by the combined voices of the group for the chorus. Excellent!

Paddy Berry is the best known member of Whisht! and needs no introduction to the ballad singing/collecting fraternity all over this land and abroad. In his inimitable style and vocal tones he renders 'The Nigglers of Ballyvaloo, Come with me over the Mountain,' and a ballad which has become synonymous with him, 'The Maid from Ballygow.'

Helen Kirwan, daughter of Art Sinnott, hails from Meaugh, Ferns and sings 'The Irish Peasant Girl' or 'She Lived Beside the Anner,' and a splendid version of John Keegan Casey's 'Carroll Bán.' It is always exciting to make a new discovery, especially when the song is newly composed. Helen has written a song concerning the Irish Famine of the middle nineteenth century when half our population was wiped out. She sums up the terrible event in a line from the third verse, which goes: "They died from their wounds by the sword of starvation." The song is aptly named 'The Cold Hand of Greed.'

'The Cuckoo's Note' was recorded in Liam Clancy's Studios in Ring earlier this year, and in all contains 14 track totalling almost sixty minutes of wonderful ballad singing. It is not only a listening CD for it also has a beautifully produced accompanying booklet containing all of the song lyrics which makes the CD a learning tool. The Arts Council funded the very worthwhile and informative booklet.

A wonderful gift for Christmas, or anytime." - Liam Gaul, County Wexford Free Press

20/11/2007 - South East Voice

"It is wonderful to see the best singers in the county coming together to pool their talents for our enjoyment. Each song and singer is a delight." - Sean Ó Dubhghaill, South East Voice

18/11/2007 - Interview with Paddy Ryan on South East Radio

"Beautifully produced." - Paddy Ryan, South East Radio

Download the full interview in MP3 format (LARGE FILE: 17M).

04/11/2007 - Interview with Áine Hensey on The Late Session, RTÉ Radio One

"I was driving to Clare and when I put in the CD I was absolutely taken by what I heard. And I was surprised, because when you hear somebody talking about a group, you presume they're all going to be singing, or playing, together. But what I heard was a fantastic hour of solo traditional singing. And alot of people, I think, when they hear of an album of unaccompanied traditional singing, they think: that mightn't be too easy to listen to, or I might just listen to a few songs now, and a few songs later. But let me tell you that when you listen to The Cuckoo's Note, and just listen to the variety in the singing styles, and in the types of songs - it's an absolutely lovely, lovely production.

It's a lovely way, and it's a very unusual way, I think, to present traditional singing.

Also, when we hear songs put together by local singers, there is often a tendency to stick very rigidly with local songs, for example, or maybe with songs that have been recorded by other people. But what you have on the Whisht! album, The Cuckoo's Note, is a great mixture of some songs that we've all heard before, some songs that Wexford people maybe have heard before, and also some songs that none of us have probably heard before. So it's a great mixture in that respect, and there are also a couple of Irish language songs in there as well, which was really nice to hear.

Recorded in Liam Clancy Studios, when you listen to the CD, you can really hear the result of the work and the care that went into the recording, and the post-production of the CD. And also into the sleeve-notes, which are really beautifully done." - Áine Hensey

Download the full interview in MP3 format (LARGE FILE: 20M).

31/10/2007 - Interview with Dan Walsh on Midweek Voices, South East Radio

"... [The Cuckoo's Note is] a lovely album, well worth having ..." - Dan Walsh

Download the full interview in MP3 format (LARGE FILE: 50M).

30/10/2007 - 'The Cuckoo's Note' Launched

In this photo taken by Paddy Murphy, Whisht! are pictured with Áine Hensey at the launch of their album, The Cuckoo's Note.

23/10/2007 - Press Release | Press Release | Press Release | Press Release

Co. Wexford Traditional Singers to launch CD on October 30th

Whisht! is a group of traditional singers who live in County Wexford. United by a love of songs and singing they are driven by a desire to share their passion with a wider audience.

On Tuesday October 30th at 8pm, RTE presenter Áine Hensey will launch the groups’ first album in The Riverside Park Hotel, Enniscorthy.

This album will feature approximately sixty minutes of unaccompanied singing, in Irish and English, including slow and lively songs, all in traditional Irish style.

Whisht! members are all traditional singers of the highest calibre with a freshness and infectious joy that will provoke a reaction in any audience. With a vast and varied repertoire, the group features a mixture of young and old.

Some songs have not been previously recorded and the CD will be a “must have” addition to any collection. Also including a substantially detailed 20 page booklet the album is a valuable addition to the understanding of traditional singing, and will also be a tremendous help to teachers and students of the genre.

The CD features such songs as the plaintive “Edward on Lough Erne Shore”, the humorous “Waterford Boys” and “The Nigglers of Ballyvaloo”, the sombre “Carroll Bán”, the beautiful Munster song “Spailpín a Rúin” and a brand new ensemble arrangement of the quirky “Little Jimmy Murphy”.

Whisht are; Paddy Berry, Elaine Gleeson, Darina Gleeson, Helen Kirwan, Paul O'Reilly and newly crowned All-Ireland Traditional Singing Champion Niall Wall.

More information:
Mobile 087 260 7010
E-Mail whisht@eircom.net
Website www.whisht.info

Supported by the Arts Council of Ireland