When it comes to Ireland, the first city many people think of is Dublin. And that makes perfect sense. It’s the capital, after all, as well as the home of Guinness (another name that comes to many people’s minds where Ireland is concerned).
I’m not living there this semester. Instead, I’m three-and-a-half hours across the island in Cork. Known as one of the primary cultural centers of Ireland, it is colorful, beautiful and ““ more often than not ““ musical. That last attribute is what I’ll be writing about this semester in “Live from Cork.”
Almost every night, at some pub in the city (no, pubs are not just bars), a band is playing a free concert. The bands range from local musicians to traveling bands from other parts of the country.
This semester, I’ll be searching for great musical discoveries in the pubs of Cork while I spend the semester studying at University College Cork.
Don’t worry, I won’t tell you about a bunch of bands you can’t listen to. Every band I write about this fall will have music available for download on iTunes. With that, here’s discovery No. 1.
Roughly a week ago, an indie-folk band from Ireland called The Young Folk played at Crane Lane, a charming and always-energetic pub complex just a few minutes away from my apartment. It houses several bars, featuring all different varieties of international and local brews, as well as a wine bar and appetizer establishment across a little lane within the Crane Lane complex.
But the best part is the stage, where bands across all different genres play over the course of a week. And so, at midnight, The Young Folk took the stage.
Consisting of a guitarist/lead vocalist, a bassist/occasional mandolin player, a string player, a keyboardist and a drummer, it’s a folk band in the breed of Mumford & Sons, but without the fury and huge scale of its music.
That is not to say that The Young Folk is lacking passion in any way. It’s simply a more restrained passion, infused more with reminiscence and occasional melancholy than anger and defiance.
The Young Folk is an exercise in finesse, musical dexterity and amazing vocal harmonies. In fact, the only non-vocalist was the drummer; the other four members of the band frequently engaged in nearly flawless four-part harmonies. The members of the band are all young, but played with the maturity and skill of a band that has been touring for years.
Its sound can perhaps be described as resembling elements of Mumford & Sons, The Avett Brothers, The Civil Wars and Local Natives. Any fan of any of those four bands will find much to like in The Young Folk.
The band released a stellar five-song self-titled EP in November of 2011 (it’s available on iTunes), but that appears to have been the group’s only major release as of now. As a result, its catalogue of original music could not fill up its stage time (the band was on stage for more than two hours), so it played through a varied set of covers as well.
The best songs the band played were its own original work, as they showed off the instrumentation and harmonies the members have clearly worked so hard to cultivate. One highlight in particular is “Remember When,” an energetic yet melancholy song that features the line “Remember when we were young? / You were so kind / Oh, mother of mine.” The undercurrent of regret that courses through the song makes it one of the band’s most powerful.
“Way Down South” is another of the band’s best songs, and looks forward to the future with hope for love and redemption: “Way down south is where I know my love will be / I got dressed up in this suit, which was novelty / And I’ll stay waiting.” The picked melody that backs up the lead vocalist’s earnest voice grabs the listener at the beginning of the song and doesn’t let go for the remainder of the excellent track.
The Young Folk may be an unfamiliar name to most people living outside of Ireland. If all is right in the world of music, that won’t be true for long. The Young Folk is one of the best young folk outfits to come along since Mumford & Sons, and its music is not to be missed.
Email Bain at abain@media.ucla.edu if you have questions about the music scene in Cork, or if you have any feedback about the bands in this column.