Today, it's all about trad - that's traditional Irish music. Despite being 'traditional', the sound of trad is also very inventive. At a trad session, you're bound to feel emotional and - alive! So what exactly makes this genre of music so appealing to its listeners?
Find out more about trad - and how people describe it - with the help of our expert guest ('The Expert'), some fans ('The Scene') and Katrina Leskanich, best known as the front person of the Eurovision Song Contest winning act Katrina and The Waves ('The Words').
As you listen to the trad musician Michael McGoldrick, try and answer the following questions:
1. What instruments are used to play trad music?
2. What's the history behind trad 'sessions'?
3. What does Michael say about the future of trad?
Colin Babb talks to trad fans: 'Hi this is Colin Babb for the Music Directory in a Trad music session which happens every Thursday at the Jolly Angler bar in Manchester in the North of England. The bar is alive with trad Irish musicians and trad music fans and I'm going to speak to them now to find out a little bit more about the inventive and emotional side of trad music.'
Listen to Katrina Leskanich and three fans of trad music and try to spot the key words used to describe the genre:
session:
a gathering of a group of musicians who play music just for fun inventive:
you can do new things when you're playing it; you can put your own personality into it alive:
full of energy, lively emotional:
full of feelings and passion
Check if you got it right - read the interview transcript. Try to remember the words in bold.
