Karan Casey bringing her musical stylings to Goderich's Celtic Festival
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
Soon, Irish-singer Karan Casey will be packing her bags and coming to Huron County for a weekend of sharing her voice with the guests of the 32nd annual Goderich Celtic Roots Festival (GCRF). Casey may currently reside on the other side of the Atlantic, but that didn’t stop the acclaimed singer from connecting with The Citizen using video chat technology ahead of her arrival in Canada.
It won’t be this well-traveled artist’s first time in this vast nation; over the years, she’s played at folk music festivals in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Vancouver Island. GCRF Artistic Director Cheryl Prashker has been working on bringing Casey to Goderich for years, but now, in 2024, the stars (and schedules) have finally aligned. “I’ve been talking to Cheryl for a long time, and trying to get there,” Casey explained. “I’m delighted that it actually worked out this year - I can’t wait!”
Music has been a part of Casey’s life for as far back as she can remember. She comes from a very festive family, full of singers. “We had a lot of parties,” she recalled. “And we just sang - we were supposed to just have a song. You weren’t actually allowed to go to the party unless you had a song, or a poem, or a dance.”
Having a song at the ready wasn’t just for special occasions - Casey could be called upon to join her family in song at any moment. “My dad is a really good singer. He would take us off in the car, and we sang - we had to have a song. And it would be a mystery tour, and you sang your way around the area... and my mother always had the radio on - it was just a big part of growing up in Ireland - you had a song. You had to be able to do something at the party.”
Casey loves so much more about her culture than its wonderful music; she also loves traditional Irish food and mythology. “I like the stories of An Cailleach,” she explained. “It’s kind of the old Irish word for a wise woman, or I suppose, witch. She’s supposed to be very powerful - she was born before the seas and the sun, and the silt and the land. She makes the mountains, she picks up rocks and puts them down. She whips up the wind, and she wallops the skies. She’s kind of the omnipotent presence that can bring in the wintertime. She lays down the winter and brings in the spring, and the summer - she’s a cyclical giver of harvest. She’s said to get very cross at times, if people are bad to the land.” Unsurprisingly, there have been many Irish songs composed about this powerful entity over the centuries.
Following a childhood steeped in Irish traditional music, Casey grew into a voracious fan of many different musical styles. When she was in her early twenties, she spent two or three nights a week singing jazz in Dublin. She eventually moved to New York City to pursue a future as a singer. For 10 years, she performed at venues all over New York, three or four times a week. “I had a long kind of lead time in,” she observed.
That long lead-in time led Casey right where she wanted to be. “I was looking, really, to start working with Solas - and that’s really what started me off.” After several fruitful years with the innovative folk music supergroup, Casey branched out and found further success as a solo artist.
She may be known primarily for her mellifluous interpretations of traditional Irish songs, but Casey is also influenced by some of the great singers of North America. She reeled off just a few of her favourites. “There’s Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell - your own Joni Mitchell - Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Bobby McFerrin.”
Casey is looking forward to seeing several performers in Goderich this weekend. “I’m really looking forward to seeing Matt and Shannon Heaton,” she said. “And Rory Makem - I love Rory.” She’s also looking forward to playing this weekend with frequent collaborators Niall Vallely and Niamh Dunne.
Huron County has many residents with Celtic heritage, and they will certainly be coming out in force this weekend, but this world-class festival really does have universal appeal for people from all over the world. Casey can understand why that’s true. “I think it’s accessible,” she said. “There’s beautiful melodies that are very old, and there’s quite a lot of longing and dispossession in the songs. That seems to resonate with people... maybe it’s in their DNA, but it’s also slightly the exotic. The modes, the way they fall on your ear - it’s slightly different. And it leans into melodies, and people love a good melody. Even if we don’t know it, we love a good melody... it brings people together to feel a sense of belonging. And it lets us commune, you know, in whatever setting, through song. I think it's very powerful, you know. It’s a very potent experience. You have to be careful with what you do with songs.”