ENTERTAINMENT: Stockton’s Wing founder brings trad trio to Westport

POPULAR Westport venue Matt Molloy’s will be hopping next week when Maurice Lennon, Ciara Brennan and Chris Dawson bring their unique brand of traditional and newly composed music to the stage.
Many will be familiar with Maurice Lennon as one of the country’s foremost fiddle players. The current holder of the Gradam Award for musical composition, he first rose to fame as a founding member of Stockton’s Wing. Perhaps his entry into the world of trad was inevitable, coming from Lennon family, who are well-known amongst lovers of Irish music.
Maurice’s father, Ben Lennon, is famed as a master of the Leitrim style of traditional fiddle, and his uncle, Charlie Lennon is renowned as a composer, piano accompanist and fiddler. Proof that this musical legacy had been passed onto Maurice came at the age of 19, when he became the youngest person to win the Senior Fiddle Championship at the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil, held in Ennis in 1977. That same year, the young musician helped to found Stockton’s Wing, along with Paul Roche, Tommy Hayes, Kieran Hanrahan and Tony Callinan.
The ’80s saw the band take off and they went on to attain almost super-group status, with Maurice continuing to compose, record and perform with them for the next 27 years. During that time, he shared the stage with a host of world-famous artists, including Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli, Sammy Davis Jr, Stéphane Grappelli and Michael Jackson. He even appeared in the classic Irish film, ‘The Field’.
Since ending his long-time love affair with ‘The Wing’, Maurice has continued playing as a solo musician as well as performing and touring with Finbar Furey and Seán Keane. He has also been focusing on his first real love, composing music and writing lyrics – as well as working on a book of his music, words and photography, called ‘That's The Way’, which is due out later in the year.
Now, after a three-year absence from Mayo, he is teaming up with Ciara Brennan and Chris Dawson for a performance as The Maurice Lennon Trio.
Ciara first connected with Maurice as a young second violinist to his solo violin for his Brian Ború suite – a musical biography of the legendary high king, composed by Maurice over a 20-year period. In more recent years, she has also performed on stage with Michael McGoldrick, John Doyle and John McCusker.
With her roots in Irish traditional music, the Dubliner is also an established singer and a keen songwriter venturing into other genres, such as performing with alternative rock band Kid Coy, who recently released their debut album, ‘Resolute’. She has also won all-Ireland titles in violin, solo singing and in the not-so-common art of lilting.
Two very different violin players with different styles and backgrounds, Maurice and Ciara have found what they call “a deep understanding and expression of the tradition between them” which “creates a natural ‘oneness’ when they play together.”
Meanwhile, Ciara and Chris have already performed, composed and recorded intensely together over recent years as a duet. Originally from the Manchester area traditional-music scene, Chris is a traditional/celtic/folk musician whose large instrument repertoire includes flute, whistle, cittern/bouzouki, bodhran, mandolin, keyboards and guitar.
A completely self-taught flautist, he is one of those rare players who can use circular breathing, a technique that allows a wind player to inhale air to fill their lungs while simultaneously exhaling air to continue to sustain a note seamlessly. Not only that, for over 20 years he has been been making and playing his own professional-quality bamboo flutes.
Next week’s performance in Matt Molloy’s will feature compositions by Maurice as well as compositions by Ciara and Chris, along with music from the Irish, Swedish and Northern English folk traditions. The concert will also include a performance of a new song written by Ciara Brennan, in tribute to the crew of the R116 coastguard helicopter that crashed off the coast of Mayo in March 2017, called ‘Blackrock Island’.

The Maurice Lennon Trio will perform at Matt Molloy’s, Bridge Street, Westport, on Thursday, January 18. Doors open 8pm.