The Collins Collection

RTÉ1, Sunday, 10-11am

The Rolling Wave 

RTÉ1, Sunday, 9-10pm

South Wind Blows

RTÉ1, Saturday, 10-11pm

 

Like so many things in Ireland at that time, it started in a flat in Rathmines. As Freddie White described it on The Collins Collection, he would spend time in the flat of a friend, one Phelim O’Leary, then the music reviewer with Hibernia magazine. And here for the first time, he would find albums which had been sent to O’Leary for review, by artists such as Randy Newman, Tom Waits, John Prine, Guy Clark, Leon Redbone, Warren Zevon.

Freddie himself lived in Rathmines at that time —   I think there was a law that all Irish people had to spend some part of their lives in that locality — and encountering this music, “feeling that honesty” gave him much of the repertoire for what would become one of the most admirable careers in Irish music.

He had already been to London, playing his guitar in the Underground without amplification — which had given him the idea that if he didn’t stand up and start singing, he would starve to death.

Ronan Collins, who is one of the few people in Irish show business whose career extends even beyond that of Freddie White’s, did well to add this to his Sunday morning Collection. Because White is a special case in many ways, one of the few in the “singer-songwriter” genre who is not himself a songwriter — but whose interpretations of the songs of others are so powerful, they constitute an original body of work in themselves.

As Collins suggested, the songwriters may be bringing the gift of their songs — but the gift that they themselves receive is from the likes of Freddie White who give their songs some new energy.

Which brings us to a deeply tragic part of the interview — well, mildly tragic at least.

White mentioned that he had never met Randy Newman, which is odd, as I have met Randy Newman twice. Indeed one of the more triumphant moments of my life was when I was interviewing him for the second time, and he recognised me from the first encounter.

But that is not the tragic bit to which I am referring — that came listening to The Collins Collection when I recalled that the second interview took place late in the evening in the lobby of a hotel in Dublin 4. And that on my way in, I am about 95pc certain that I spotted one Freddie White.

I had sort-of assumed that he and Randy knew one another, and were actually meeting later on, but it seems now that I was mistaken — that the legendary songwriter and one of his foremost interpreters were in the same building, without realising it.

But Freddie sounds pretty cool about most things, so he may eventually get over that — as for Ronan Collins, who actually played in showbands, here is a case of RTÉ drawing on the knowledge and expertise of one of its most experienced people, resulting in a fine programme on a Sunday morning.

Whatever will they think of next?

 

They also thought of The Rolling Wave on Sunday nights, presented by Aoife Nic Cormaic who probably has very few memories of the showband days or of flats in Rathmines — but who can take you back to the works of crucial contributors to traditional music such as Julia Clifford, who featured in last week’s episode.

Though I would not be fanatically devoted to great fiddlers in the Sliabh Luachra tradition, I did realise I was in the presence of superior public service broadcasting here, and that it was good.

Moreover, the previous night I felt I was in the presence of the late Ciarán MacMathúna — but in truth it was Philip King presenting South Wind Blows, from “the edge of Europe, the most westerly tip of the Dingle peninsula”.

The way I hear it, Philip is “channelling” Ciarán MacMathúna, presenting this programme of the finest music from a certain canon, in a tone of voice that is both deeply relaxed and deeply relaxing.

Perhaps broadcasters are like Hollywood actors — just as there’s a template for the “hellraiser” that stretched from Richard Harris to the young Colin Farrell, so King is filling that MacMathúna-shaped space.

He will play tracks such as Buzzing Fly by Tim Buckley, “a song I always associate with Kerry in summertime” —  music that has rich associations too, with the flats of Rathmines. And not just in summertime.