Ron Kill gives us his review of McGoldrick, McCusker and Doyle’s recent performance at Theatre Severn…
From the opening moments of McCusker’s harmonium with McGoldrick’s Uilleann pipes, producing a haunting sound which filled the Walker Room, these three took us on a journey through upbeat jigs and reels, ballads and rousing songs. Their musicianship is peerless with McGoldrick’s array of pipes and whistles, McCusker’s virtuosity on fiddle and whistle and of course John Doyle’s dazzling mastery of the entire guitar fretboard.
John Doyle setting up.
John CcCusker and Michael McGoldrick.
But beyond that this band, who have been coming together for 15 years are just so tight and their interplay is just a joy. I liked the change of mood when John Doyle switched to a hollow-bodied electric guitar for some of the instrumentals (sorry I didn’t get the make!), but his technique on acoustic is also fabulous and at times blisteringly fast.
As usual we had plenty of community singing and stories including one about their van breaking down on the M6 and John Doyle being mistaken for The Edge!
