John Spillane, Cork’s finest songwriter and charismatic performer, plays St Mary’s Collegiate Church in Youghal on Friday October 30. Sacred Root Productions are promoting the event to raise funds for their excellent work with youth and community groups. The concert is the first in a series to be staged in the historic Church with Mick Flannery coming at the end of November. -Interview with Youghal’s Eanna Dowling

Sacred Root conducts songwriting and performance workshops with youth and community groups throughout East Cork. The series of concerts will raise funds to enable CDs to be recorded and give participants access to top class tuition and studio experience.

John Spillane is a well-loved performer and recently released a career retrospective called “So Far So Good, Like”, his seventh solo album. With two Meteor awards on the mantelpiece and a reputation as one of Ireland’s best songwriters, the album compiles some of the outstanding songs from his career. I interviewed him recently about the album, the new tracks, singing in the kitchen with Christy Moore and the Irish Songs he learned at school

INTERVIEW

Eanna Dowling: John, you’ve just released a new album, can you tell us about it?
John Spillane: The new album is called “So Far So Good, Like”, released on EMI records. It’s available from good record shops and online.

ED “So Far So Good, Like” is a “best of” compilation – What’s on it, and are there any songs left out that you would have wanted on it?
JS I’ve recorded two new songs and re-recorded one old song. Then there’s two songs from each of my six albums to date. The one song that’s left out that I would have wanted on is “Prince’s Street” from “Will We Be Brilliant or What?” It was one of my earliest successes. But my manager, Lorcan Ennis, he picked the tracks, you have to give him something to do, you know, like?

ED One of the new tracks is called Passage West. How did that come about?
JS I’ve lived in Passage West for the last 12 years and one day a man approached me in the street and gave me a book on the history of the place. He asked me to write a song about it, so I did. It’s a song for the town and it’s a love song. People left Passage West to go to America and Queen Victoria visited in 1849. There’s still places in Passage called after her, Victoria Terrace and the like. There’s also a strong republican tradition in Passage West so I included that in the song too.

“The famine Queen stood tall and proud
On either bank the people bowed
From Passage West came a Fenian yell
‘Rule Britannia, rule in hell’”

ED Why did you re-record The Dance of the Cherry Trees?
JS Well I got a lot of slagging over the production on that song, people thought it was like Eastenders or the theme song from Bosco, the production was a bit poppy. So I’ve re-recorded it with my live band, it has a more acoustic sound, including some lovely cello.

ED You’ve written a lot of songs about places – Johnny Don’t Go to Ballincollig, Gortatogart and now Passage West. Is a sense of place important to you?
JS All my songs seem to be geographical now.

ED Christy Moore recently recorded your song Gortatagort, written about your family farm in West Cork. How does that feel to have Christy recording your songs?
JS It’s my proudest moment. He came out to visit the farm at Gortatagort, he walked the fields with me. My cousin has the farm now. We had high tea in the kitchen and I sang the song. Aunty Mary played the fiddle and Christy sang the Cliffs of Dooneen, it was marvellous, beautiful altogether. He recorded it for his new album “Listen” and he calls it “the emotional heart of that album.”

“I sing the field, I sing the farm
I sing the house my mother was born
In Gortatagort, Colomane
A green jewel.”

ED That’s the third of your songs that he’s recorded after Johnny Don’t Go and Magic Nights in the Lobby Bar.
JS Yes, I’m very proud of that, we’ve a bit of a mutual appreciation thing going on now.

ED You recently played in the Lobby Bar again, or the Crœib’n as it’s called now.
JS Yes, another great night, the gig was sold out. They were like lambs to the slaughter, we played brilliant.

ED “Irish Songs We Learned At School” was a success for the Gaelic Hit Factory last Christmas.
JS Yes, it was a great success, and I have to thank Ray D’Arcy and Ryan Tubridy. They picked up on it and it was like in the movies where a DJ hears a song and makes it a hit. It sold over 30,000 copies in Ireland and was number 7 in the Christmas chart, battling it out with BeyoncŽ, Brittany Spears and Joe Dolan in the top 10. It was largely on the back of that success that EMI, the record company, wanted to release a “best of” package and that’s what’s out now.

ED Will there be a follow up to “Irish Songs We Learned At School”?
JS Yes, there’s loads of great songs there, Eamonn an Cnoic, Mo Ghile Mear, loads of great Irish songs. I’ll be doing my homework and putting the tracks together. The record company wants us to do “Irish Songs We Learned at School Volume 2″, it’ll be out for Christmas. That’ll be my second album this year and I released two last year too.

ED The music scene in Cork is very strong. Are there any local artists you admire?
JS I’ve a lot of time for Ger Wolfe, who’s a very poetic songwriter. He’s well worth a listen. And Niwel Tsumbu, he’s a rare talent.

“There were magic nights in the Lobby Bar
when Ger Wolfe would sing like a lark,
singing ‘winter hung her coat
on a hanger of dark’”

ED You do a weekly radio show – Rogha John Spillane ar Radio na Gaeltachta – a diverse mix of contemporary and classic tracks from cŽil’ to reggae.
JS It’s kind of a sideline thing, I play for a couple of hours on a Sunday night. I play music I like myself and, as you say, it’s very diverse. I play Irish music but I like to throw in a little AC/DC to wake up the Gaelgeoir’, or a bit of Deep Purple, or something like the Ace of Spades.

John Spillane plays St. mary’s Collegiate Church Youghal on Friday October 30, starting at 8.00. Tickets €18, door €20. Support from Grayson. Contact Sacred Roots at 087 9957102 for tickets or details.

See www.johnspillane.com for more information about John, including gig listings, his career to date and up to date news.