Bumblebees Interviews

Hot Press 13/10/99

Siobhan Long hears how all-female trad group Bumblebees are creating quite a buzz.

Traditional Music has been through a sea-change in the last decade, swapping the ghetto for the bright lights to take its place among the hippest sounds around. Highly talented players can be found on virtually every street corner. And there’s a buzz so vibrant in sessions that if it could be bottled, it would surely make someone a millionaire.

Bumblebees are a relatively recent arrival on the trad music scene. An all female quartet of sterling musicians, the ‘Bees are soaring on the back of a second album, just released, christened (naturally) Buzzin’. Colette O’Leary, the bands’ accordionist is wide-eyed with delight at the arrival of their second studio offspring. Since their 1996 eponymous debut, they’ve added Donegal fiddler Liz Doherty to their line-up, and with fiddle, accordion, harp and banjo/mandolin, the Bumblebees’ sound is finally established.

Having already schlepped it out with the likes of Steve Earle, Jackson Browne, Kate Bush and Sinead O’Connor the ‘Bees have never been shy of trading licks, jigs and the devil knows what in live sessions. And it’s the richness of the disparate influences that have fuelled their appetite for live playing even more, according to Colette O’Leary. "We’ve been over to Scotland quite a number of times in the last year", she says, by way of explaining the considerable presence of Scottish tunes on the CD, "and I think there’s a very strong connection between Ireland and Scotland musically. I’ve always loved Scottish music. There’s always great drive and energy in it. And the French-Canadian music has such joie de vivre in it too. It’s real ‘from the heart’ music, so gorgeous to listen to, and it puts you in a certain kind of mood."

Bumblebees

With Clare’s Mary Shannon, a sister of Sharon, on banjo and mandolin and Mayo’s Laoise Kelly on harp and fiddle squaring the circle, Bumblebees have a deep well to draw from, and it’s a well that they’re only beginning to explore, O’Leary asserts. "There’s only one tune by Mary on Buzzin’, she explains, "and I’d certainly like to see us doing a lot more of that, including more of our tunes. The progression that I can see most from the first album to the second - apart from the addition of Liz - is that we’re doing more arrangements and we’re exploring the whole area of harmony an awful lot more. But you know, writing our own tunes comes with an increased confidence, and the more we become familiar with playing with together, the more that can happen. Broadening our musical horizons has been great."

The all-female Bumblebees’ position as role models in a male-dominated trad music world hardly preoccupies O’Leary, or the others for that matter. According to Colette, the hand of fate has more to do with it than any grand plan. "We take it for granted because we live in a time when equality isn’t such a hugh issue", she averts, "but I know it is a point of identity for some people. For us though, it’s really not such a big issue. It could just as easily been two fellas and two girls in the line-up."