McCusker, McGoldrick & Doyle – go on, go, GO ON!!!

Venue:

Bury Met

Date: 13/02/2016

I got a late offer to take over a spare ticket for this which has been sold out for a while. I’ve seen John McCusker and Mike McGoldrick loads of times, starting when they were in Kate Rusby’s band. But I’ve only seen John Doyle in the Transatlantic Sessions band where he keeps a low profile, whilst quietly leading the back line. My goodness the boy can play! A rhythm monster on both guitar and guitar-shaped bouzouki, but the occasional unleashing of some blinding single note runs shows he has the full deck at his disposal. He sings well too, and his 6 or so songs broke up the instrumentals (or chuns as we folkies like to call them) nicely. I wasn’t familiar with the Dublin sea shanty tradition so had never heard “Fall down Billy O’Shea” before. For an encore he sang a “when first I came to this country” stylee ballad to the tune of “Be thou my vision”. On this, and on his opener he played an electric hollow body (possibly a Godin?) with sustain effects which sounded lovely. The three of them are fabulous players, all very modest in their demeanour, and they way they interweave, support, and give each other space to shine is an absolute joy to behold

The audience:

Full house. I go to The Met a lot and didn’t recognise many which suggest they’d come from far and wide. McCusker dedicated one to a lady who had traveled from Holland for this gig! The Met is closing soon for a 9 month refurb. It needs it badly in some respects, but as it stands, there are no bad seats and the sound is always good, and often like last night, excellent

It made me think..

God help any of these guys if they should break an arm or lose a finger in a culinary mishap. Mind you, they’d probably find a way round it. These kind of musicians were just born to play. I’m glad for the opportunity to watch and listen. They tour this line up every year and are on the load until the end of Feb. If they are near you, get in!!

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