Is Irish Country getting All Folk’d Up?

As Folk favourites All Folk’d Up say they are celebrating their roots with their new latest The Long Haul. Co-written by lead singer Pauric Mohan and Irish country hit maker Derek Ryan, one needs to question if Irish Country is rapidly merging more than ever with Folk.

Marking the first time the band have collaborated with Derek, the new recording brings together two artists with a shared musical heritage and a deep connection to Irish traditional music.

Both All Folk’d Up and Derek Ryan have strong traditional music backgrounds, with years of performing, competing and winning on the Fleadh circuit helping to shape their musical journeys.

New trends in Irish country music

While Derek has written countless hits for himself and others, mostly in the Irish Country genre, including Just the Way I Am, a mega hit for The Tumbling Paddies, it is noticeable that trend among Irish Country singers seems to be more and more towards flutes, fiddles and accordions rather than steel guitars.

For singers lucky enough to also be good accordion players including Michael English, Patrick Feeney and Nathan Carter their subtle change of direction more towards Folk will work but what about some of the younger stars, and even the more seasoned ones who are not box players?

In recent times Robert Mizzell, one of the most authentic Country singers in Ireland no longer keeps a regular backing band but just does shows either with session musicians or else appears on concerts where there is usually a backing band employed to play support for all singers.

Most singers and musicians will say that dancing crowds for big bands and major singing stars never returned to anything like pre-Covid days. Also, there is no longer any worthwhile sales of merchandise CDs or DVDs with the demise of the recording industry and the closure of so many record shops plus people no longer having CD players in their vehicles.

Song writing skills

For Country stars such as Derek Ryan his ability to write songs for almost anyone in Folk or Country, as well as his willingness to do duets with many other artists, plus his consistent popularity on both the dance and concert scene is a big bonus for him.

Michael English is also enjoying a huge renaissance recently packing in big crowds everywhere and much of this is due to his original songs and his ability to belt out tunes on the accordion.

The subtle change is noticeable in how another young singer, who arguably came from Folk with his first hit Belfast Mills, Gavin Gribben now calls his show The Fresh Face of Folk & Country; he is so lucky to be good at both genres.

Other major stars such as Mike Denver, Jimmy Buckley, Declan Nerney and many more are fortunate enough to have built up a healthy concert schedule as well as hugely successful music holidays in the sun to augment a diminishing dancing scene for big bands.

While Effie Neill, Jack Keogh, David James, Gerry Guthrie, Claudia Buckley, Cliona Hagan, Ciaran Rosney and others are top tier performers, and have given new life to the scene, they may need to veer towards Folk in the future.

All Folk’d Up frontman Pauric Mohan says their new record mix of Folk and Country is working for them not just in Ireland but worldwide.

“Our current song The Long Haul really represents us as a band. At this stage we really are in it for the long haul. We absolutely love what we do and to have a song like this that reflects that journey and to have Derek Ryan involved has been really exciting for us,” he concluded.