A coalition of Trad and Folk from Creggs musician

BORN into a large family of musicians outside Creggs in North-East Galway, Colm Naughton is a banjo and mandolin player who now lives near Cong and is married into a famous Folk and Trad family, as he is husband of singer Orlaith Keane from Caherlistrane. So it is no surprise that his debut album The Space Between the Notes contains mostly Trad tracks plus the song Shady Grove which is best described as an old Appalachian Folk song that could well be a first cousin of some Irish Traditional composition! Colm, who started playing music at an early age, currently plays with singer, and his father-in-law, Matt Keane and they can be seen regularly around the West of Ireland. While Colmâ€â„¢s siblings are all into music, neither of their parents played but both had a great love of the music, which rubbed off on Colm, and on other members of the family. â€Å“I must have been about five, Iâ€â„¢d say, and I remember sitting in the kitchen at home while some of the older ones were playing a tune. I had a whistle and was blowing into it for all I was worth and thinking, â€ËœI wish I could play this musicâ€â„¢,â€Â says Colm. At the age of seven he started attending whistle classes with the Roscommon fiddle player, Paddy Ryan, and moved from that onto the banjo at age 11. â€Å“It seemed like a natural progression. I had two older brothers who played the banjo already, Seamus and Finbarr, and there was one in the house. â€Å“I suppose I never really considered anything else. Maybe I should have. At least Finbarr had the sense to move from the banjo to the fiddle,â€Â he added. The Creggs area couldnâ€â„¢t really be called a hot-bed of traditional music, with very few local musicians. There were, however, opportunities to attend sessions in Roscommon town where young Colm got to meet some of the great Roscommon musicians such as Patsy Hanley, Frank Jordan, John Carlos, John Wynne, the Kelly family and more. There were also opportunities to attend fleadhs and festivals. Although he never took part in any of the competitions, the fleadhs were a great place to meet and play with other musicians. It wasnâ€â„¢t until Colm moved to Galway in 1994 that the world of traditional music really opened up for him. There was a very vibrant session scene in Galway at that time, helped by some of the great traditional music pubs there. In 1998 while playing at a session in The Crane Bar with bouzouki player Bill Wright, they were approached by an interesting-looking character who was wondering if they would be interested in playing with him in The Róisín Dubh for two nights. â€Å“We were playing away doing our usual thing when I looked up and saw these two unusual-looking characters looking down at the session. One had what looked like a train engineerâ€â„¢s dungarees and hat on and the other had a cowboy hat, full-length trench coat and cowboy boots. It turned out to be Steve Earle and Peter Rowan. I have to admit I didnâ€â„¢t know who they were but I soon found out,â€Â he says. Colm also became the resident banjo-mandolin tutor as well as treasurer and secretary for the Galway School of Irish Traditional music and in the late 1990s he was involved in tours in the U.S., Germany, Norway, Poland and spent a year as a resident musician in Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria. In 1999, he toured the East coast of the U.S. with the Galway-based band, String Company. The bandâ€â„¢s repertoire consisted mainly of Gypsy and Scandinavian music. More recently, in 2010, he toured Ireland with the show Fuaim Chonamara featuring the Cunningham sean-nós dancers. Colm has recorded as a guest musician with his wife Orlaith Keane, John Beag Ó Flatharta, String Company, Pat Coyne and on the charity CD From West to East. His debut solo album of 11 tunes and three songs should become a firm favourite with Traditional and Folk fans. He will officially launch it in Galway at the Town Hall Theatre with guests Sean, Matt and Orlaith Keane and Máirtin Oâ€â„¢Connor on Sunday June 9 and Colm says it has been â€Å“a labour of loveâ€Â recording it over the past year. â€â€ TG.