When traditional music was making its way onto stages as performance art in both the U.S. and Ireland back in the 70s, the approach to its presentation or the makeup of the musicians and their instrumentation was very different.
In America, Irish traditional music was being brought out of the kitchen or basement sessions and transported directly on stage by people like Dr. Mick Moloney, with flute, fiddle, accordion and piano accompaniment the norm, and minimally assisted perhaps by Mick's banjo, mandolin or guitar.
In Ireland in the mid-seventies a seismic revolution was coming on that brought in many of the lads raised on rock and roll and contemporary folk music. They gravitated to the pull of their native music, but felt it needed a more sensational emphasis if it was going to appeal to a larger audience than that gathered around the turf fire, especially if a few bob were to be exchanged in listening to it live or on vinyl.
So along came De Danann, the Bothy Band, Planxty and a host of others who took traditional Irish music up tempo while staying acoustic through the use of plectrum instruments like the banjo, bouzouki and the guitar, and more and more people were drawn to the ould tunes delivered by these exciting new bands.
With innovative people like Donal Lunny, Andy Irvine, Paul Brady, Christy Moore, Alec Finn, Johnny Moynihan, Charlie Piggott and Micheal O'Domhnaill, the tradition was being respected and in safe hands helping to grow the interest. These talented individuals weren't "hijacking" the music, but simply making its appeal more contemporary and allowing a wider audience to appreciate it as much as they did.
Eventually North America caught on and developed its own modern generation of traditional musicians who blended the old with the new, aided by some transplants like John Doyle.
I was thinking about that evolution when I heard recently that Dubliner Doyle was named to be the musical director of American folk legend Joan Baez's new band, which was as much about his craftsmanship as it was to his dedication to folk music. And it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Doyle arrived in New York City in 1991 from his native Dublin at the age of 20, already performing since leaving school at 17. He was steeped in Irish folk music through his father Sean, a wonderful traditional singer, while his grandfather and uncle were Sligo accordion players.
Influenced by the English folk scene as well, he taught himself guitar, originally "upside-down" on his father's guitar as he was left-handed. Before leaving Ireland, he formed a duo called Chanting House with Susan McKeown, another Dub performing some original material plus some traditional songs, and shortly thereafter they both landed in the Big Apple and continued under that name.
In the vibrant pub scene around New York their paths crossed with fiddler Eileen Ivers and multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan who were emerging as professional players. They joined Chanting House, and Paddy Reilly's was their creative lab.
Doyle's dynamic guitar strumming was becoming the talk of the town and drawing in new audience to the quasi-trad act that was Chanting House that broke any predictable expectations from the quartet.
But other opportunities presented themselves, and Doyle and Seamus Egan went off to found Solas with Winnie Horan, John Williams and Karan Casey in 1994, while Ivers headed off towards "Riverdance" fame and McKeown went solo.
Doyle firmly established himself as one of the premier guitarists in any outfit through four very well respected Solas CDs for Shanachie Records. His reputation along with the band was growing by leaps and bounds on both sides of the Atlantic.
Success doesn't always mean contentment, so both Casey and Doyle split from Solas to pursue independent projects. Initially for Doyle that meant reuniting with Ivers' band for awhile in an unusual swap of guitarists when Donal Clancy joined Solas.
Around the same time John was looking for a more laid-back place to call home. Asheville, North Carolina, known for its old-timey roots and southern charm, has been home base now for the Dublin-New York transplant.
Given his own musical curiosity and adaptability, the proximity to Nashville was also a great boon for a musician still seeking to carve out his own identity and place in the wider music world without turning his back on Celtic music to which he still had very much to contribute.
Falling in with Alison Brown and Garry West, musicians and owners of Compass Records, and also Tim O'Brien, all based in Nashville, was mutually rewarding and helped lead to ties way beyond the also expanding Celtic scene of Ireland and Scotland.
One of the assets that made Doyle so much in demand as an accompanist was his preparation and efforts to get familiar with the material of the artist he was performing with so that he could find not only the best way to compliment their music (and his) but to enhance it.
His fine ear and feel for the core of the music, plus an engaging personality were attributes that have made him a fine contributor and producer of other's artists' recordings which are too numerous to name (over 60).
Along the way, he found time to record two solo CDs ("Evening Comes Early" in 2001 for Shanachie and "Wayward Son" in 2005 for Compass Records) as well as prove the grateful son who produced his father's only CD "The Light and the Half-Light" for Compass Records (www.compassrecords.com), all of which gave greater evidence to the skill sets that he brings to traditional folk music as an artist who respects the past while delivering in the present.
In recent years his work with Chicago fiddler Liz Carroll has been nothing short of amazing, as the tandem has tantalized one festival after another and many fine concert stages with music about as good as two equals can produce.
Combining traditional repertoire with many of Carroll's exceptional compositions with some of Doyle's in a totally sympathetic and engrossing style has been a hallmark and can be heard on their first joint CD, "In Play," for Compass, with another one on the way for next year.
They will continue to perform together as time allows and even have some joint gigs with Cherish the Ladies on their slate.
At Doyle's website (www.johndoylemusic.com) and elsewhere he is described at the busiest man in Irish music, but one look at his travel schedule will tell you that he is as likely to be in Edinburgh or Glasgow or Nashville performing with artists outside the Irish realm, whenever there is a demand for his talent, be it accompaniment, production or arranging music that seems less and less to have boundaries.
A frequent visitor to Glasgow's Celtic Connections, he can be seen performing with any number of acts over the three week winter extravaganza starting in mid-January, including the aptly named Moonlighting band comprising Michael McGoldrick, Ciaran Tourish, Dermot Byrne and John Joe Kelly, with whom he has toured in Ireland and Britain.
At last September's ICONS festival in Massachusetts, Doyle teamed up with Cape Breton fiddler Jerry Holland on short notice and gave two memorable duet performances that had the crowd stirring and faces smiling in amazement while rendering standing ovations.
Seeing him at the Irish Arts Center last weekend with Mick Moloney, Athena Tergis and Niall O'Leary in "An Irish Christmas" brought back his iron-man (with the nimblest of fingers) tour de force in the production "Absolutely Irish" performed and filmed at the center for Paul Wagner's PBS video.
Along with creator Moloney, Doyle worked up an all-star cast of Joanie Madden, Ivers, Carroll, Billy McComiskey, Brendan Dolan, Seamus Egan, Casey, McKeown and others into a compelling Irish music production that would have blown the roof off of any house.
At only 37 years of age, Doyle has had an exceptional career and helped many colleagues achieve and perform above previous form, so no doubt the Joan Baez Band (also including Cajun whiz Dirk Powell) will chart some fresh territory. But we're not anxious to have him veer too far off the Celtic path and so we look forward to his opportunistic return now and then.
If anyone deserves to bask in the limelight of touring with one of biggest folk legends in the U.S. in Baez who is still going strong at 67 and smart enough to know a find when she hears one, it is Doyle. He has worked hard and paid his dues and after all, a regular paycheck and upward mobility have lured the Irish for centuries to America.
Traditional music is close to his heart so this wayward son of Eire is not likely to stray too far.