MacD on Music: Moonlight Shadow

We Irish have been blessed with some of the best folk music in the world, with groups like the Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, The Dubliners and the Wolfe Tones spreading our songs and stories across the globe. In recent years, the Irish folk scene has been seeing a major revival, with artists like the Mary Wallopers and Lisa O’Neill making their mark at home and further afield.

Today, I’m talking to Saltaire, the rapidly rising folk trio made up of New York-born Kaitlin Cullen-Verhauz (vocal/cello), Conor Lyons (bódhrán/bouzouki) and Ian Kinsells (guitar). The group “brings together three distinct musical voices, shaped by years of performing in acclaimed Irish traditional and folk bands and as sought-after session musicians” and have just released their debut EP ‘Only Moonlight’ (out now).

I caught up with the group recently to discuss the EP and how they got to this point.

Kaitlin: “I came over in 2016. Conor and Ian had been on the music scene long before that. They were already friends and playing music together in various different set ups and operations. I wasn’t actually playing the cello when I moved over. I’d taken a break from playing and I was introduced to Irish music through Ian primarily, and then the ripple effect of who he introduced me to.

"Conor was one of them then for a while we lived in a house together in Glasnevin, Conor and Ian and myself and a few others, so there were lots of tunes in that gaff and that’s where I started cutting my teeth and came back to the cello after it had been collecting dust for a few years.”

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“It kind of happened organically. Ian was showing me songs that he was writing, as well as my introduction to traditional music. He was asking me to sing some of these songs he’d written, so I was doing that and it happened in tandem with me picking up my cello again. For a little while, Ian and I were operating as a duo for the original music, then it just happened really naturally. It was missing something, and what we realised it was missing was Conor’s bódhran.

"The trio came together because the three of us loved playing together. Obviously, COVID threw a wrench into developments, but once it started to wind down, we got some funding. We were awarded the Fingal County Council awards for recording so we said ‘Let’s do it. Let’s go into the studio’. We already had a number of ideas in terms of how we wanted to craft an EP, and there were arrangements that were coming about naturally in gigs and in sessions because all three of us also play in Eoghan O’Ceannabháin’s band, and Eoghan is great.

"When he has his own gigs he’s great about platforming us and getting us to play at least one or two, so certain choices were happening live as we were actually gigging. We were lucky to get the funding and we’re lucky to all be pals and want to play together all the time.”

Speaking of the actual recording process, Ian told me: “It was great! We got the funding so that gave us a lot more options. We chose Black Mountain Studios, which is just past Dundalk. We had recorded there before, and it’s such a lovely, lovely set-up. The accommodation is right beside the studio, so you stay there for a couple of days.

"You get up at whatever time and keep recording until whatever time. We also had Eoghan on the record as well, and Katherine McHugh, and Ryan McAuley on the five string banjo, and Laoise Fitzgerald, who we had just been there recording with the year prior. She did backing vocals. We did it over three days. We got everything done and it was a great process, just going back to the fact that the funding was there and we could just stay at the studio.”

Speaking of the feedback so far, Kaitlin said: “The most heartening feedback I’ve heard from other musicians is that it’s folk music that is respecting the tradition while also making something new out of it. It’s dark folk that’s still hopeful. There’s still some light and some bounce in it. Don’t get me wrong, I’m here for the doom and gloom, but that kind of happens via the storytelling, as opposed to anything else.”

And that’s it from Saltaire. Their EP ‘Only Moonlight’ is out now on all good streaming platforms. They can be found on Instagram @saltaire_.