Interview published in Irish Music Magazine, December 2019
Fiddle player & music teacher Mossie Martin has recorded his first CD The Humours of Derrynacoosan. In this interview he talks to Aidan O’Hara about it.
Chatting with Roscommon fiddler Mossie Martin about his new CD I was surprised to learn something about him and his music I wasn’t quite expecting. “I’m teaching a traditional Irish music course in Drumshanbo, County Leitrim, five days a week. Currently there are four Dubs and others from Austria, Switzerland, Sardinia, and England! It’s an adult education course, an introduction to Irish traditional music, and they learn whichever instrument they wish.”
AOH: “Your teaching sounds very interesting, but let’s concentrate on your new CD Humours of Derrynacoosan and how it all came about.”
MM: “I grew up in the townland of Derrynacoosan, near the village of Keadue in north Roscommon, where my parents bought land and built a house. And because there’s lots of tunes in the Irish tradition that begin with The Humours of..., I thought it’d be no harm to add another one. So the second tune on the album is a jig by that name and I also thought it would be a nice title for the album. We recorded the CD in that same house my father built and I grew up in.”
AOH: “Who were the musicians that joined you in making the recording?”
MM: “John Blake came down from Dublin, set up the mics and we all just played as we usually would. He plays guitar and piano on the album and he recorded, mixed and mastered the tracks. My father, Tom, plays the mouth-organ, and although he’s been playing it for many years now, there’s no music in the family. My grandparents or aunts or uncles wouldn’t have played. It was an interest he developed himself. He sings, plays guitar and bodhrán. My sister, Áine has been playing the harp for many years, influenced by Gráinne Hambly, Michael Rooney and Sorcha Rooney. The youngest of the family is Brendan and he plays fiddle and banjo. He and I play on the opening title track.”
AOH: “Where did you get your own music growing up?”
MM: “Séamus Thompson would have been a big influence and he gave me a lot of technique and foundation in fiddle playing. My father met him in Cryan’s Bar in Carrick-on-Shannon where he played regularly in the 1990s. Séamus lived just outside of Carrick and we lived near Keadue about half an hour drive away. My dad showed me the basics of the fiddle, the scales and got me going for the first year. After that he brought me to Séamus. I also got music lessons from fiddler Paddy Ryan and got a lot of tunes from him, mainly on the tin whistle. It was great with Paddy. My dad and I would go to local sessions and we’d hear tunes we didn’t know and we’d ask for the names. Then I’d go to Paddy the following week and ask him for this tune or that. We built up our repertoire that way.”
AOH: “I must tell you how much I appreciated your CD notes.”
MM: “I love the story of tunes and their background, so I tried to write as much as I could on each track. It’s an album that’s been gestating for several years and a lot of the tunes are very personal to me, like The Long Mile Jig, the composition of Séamus Thompson who taught me for several years when I was a teenager. There are my own compositions, including the opening title track and Susan Sweeney’s; Philip Duffy is a good friend and I really like his reel, Laura’s Reel.”
AOH: “John Carty says about you in the CD’s Introduction : ‘My father often remarked that it’s no good looking like you’re in the dentist’s chair when you’re playing music. I can’t think of a better example of music being enjoyed by the player himself than Mossie Martin’.”
MM: “It’s quite ironic given that my mother, Susan Sweeney, was a dentist! I love playing music and including everybody when the session gets going. John Carty has always been generous and helpful and it was great to have his support. So this semi-solo album is about enjoying the music with my family in a relaxed, natural setting.”