Folk - Karen Ryan, Kathleen O’Sullivan and Pete Quinn

Lewes opens its folk doors to some out of town magic this month in the form of Kathleen O’ Sullivan, Karen Ryan and Pete Quinn, at The Royal Oak. The trio belong to the folk band ‘Pete Quinn and The London Lasses’ and have been described as ‘a fine manifestation of the very best elements from every known trait of the Irish tradition.’ Be prepared for a long evening.
Karen Ryan’s fiddle playing doesn’t miss a note and Kathleen O’Sullivan’s voice seems to roll of her fingertips. Her version of ‘The Red-Haired Man’s Wife’ has style yet never distracts the listener’s ears from the story in the tune. Pete Quinn’s piano playing appears like a quiet vamping sound to the dance pieces, occasionally tumbling into the vocal numbers with energy and punch.

Without the arrival of The London Lasses and Pete Quinn, Irish traditional music may have remained in the city’s sprawling boroughs. But Quinn, Ryan and O’Sullivan are climbing onto the concert platform and lifting a rich vein of roots music along the way. And that’s still not enough. Their music is always searching. The album ‘Track Across the Deep’ stirs the distance between Irish traditional music and its native origin. If intimacy is what it needs then The Royal Oak could be just the place. And what about the English tradition? Lewes resident Shirley Collins has that covered. Congratulations on the recent MBE award. ‘One of England’s greatest cultural treasures’ deserves it all. EM