By Paul Keating

Back in November in the historic setting of Dublin’s GPO, An Post unveiled a symbolic new way for Irish music community to keep in touch. They launched a commemorative set of postage stamps featuring the images of four traditional music groups who sparked the worldwide appreciation of Irish folk music over the past four decades or so.

Three of the four, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, the Dubliners and the Chieftains, burst on the scene in the 1960s riding the first crest of the folk music revival that paved the way for the next generations.

Following that path some decades later were trailblazers in their own right whose mission was to spotlight the rich musical heritage in the north of Ireland from Donegal to Belfast.

With the selection of Altan as the fourth featured band it was an honor accorded to the group that had distinguished itself over 21 years in the Irish music business as one of Ireland’s finest performing and touring acts bridging the music from the 20th century into the 21st.

It has been an illustrious career thus far for Altan, whose origins have remained true to the cultural cauldron of Donegal so steeped in the Irish language and a musical tradition that comes from the very core of Irish life.

From the outset back in the early 1980s, Gweedore native Mairead ni Mhaonaigh and her late husband, Frankie Kennedy, a flute player from Belfast, displayed a missionary zeal as they exposed to the listening public a great body of music like Highlands, Germans and Shottisches, along with the reels, jigs and hornpipes played in that fast flowing northern style.

It was a treasure chest they cultivated from a wide array of legends in Donegal that included Mairead’s own father, Francie Mooney, who sadly passed away last March at 83. Their vision was to share this music with a broader audience along with the love of the Irish language which found a most expressive and captivating voice in Mairead.

Astutely selecting and mixing songs that were humorous, romantic or just told a good story either in Irish or English are well within her ken and have made Altan stand out over the years.

Upon that firm grounding the key to Altan’s stability and staying power is a well crafted unit that added first in 1985 bouzouki player Ciaran Curran from Fermanagh, guitarists Mark Kelly (Dublin) and Daithi Sproule (Derry for their U.S. gigs), fiddlers Paul O’Shaughnessy (Dublin) and later Buncrana natives Ciaran Tourish, who first joined in 1988, and last but not least, box player Dermot Byrne, who came aboard in 1994 before the tragic death of founder and inspiration Frankie Kennedy. (Byrne and ni Mhaoinaigh subsequently married and have a daughter Nia, 3).

The hand picked squad has a great simpatico and gra for the music and way of life in Donegal, that remote but oh so beautiful clime on Ireland’s northwest coast. Their friendship and professionalism have been models for all the young upcoming bands that seek to make a living on the road.

For a veteran troupe like Altan with normal busy family lives, forays to America are not only logistical challenges but welcome opportunities to revisit friends and places they have maintained contact with down through the years.

In a phone conversation from her home in Donegal, group leader Mhaonaigh told me the band was getting excited about coming over after a two year hiatus and “looking forward to experiencing your 24 hour lifestyle traveling around on a wee cloud as we meet with so many old friends who have been with us since the beginning.

“Today’s touring leaves little time to develop those friendships because you move so quickly from place to place,” she added.

The pace will be hectic, with just over a month to fit in all the shows, but having a tour bus makes the travel more relaxing and pleasurable.

Their upcoming schedule features 25 concerts from coast to coast that will feature, for the first time in years, some of their earlier work recorded in the first decade when Altan and Green Linnet Records together took advantage of the rising tide and interest in Celtic music.

The fruits of that early collaboration withered somewhat when things turned nasty between the struggling label and one of its early stars (along with Cherish the Ladies and Eileen Ivers) who battled over payments for product and royalties.

Now that the back catalog of five original CDs on GL will be available thanks to the new arrangement with Compass Records to go along with the five they have produced for Virgin/Narada Records since 1996. Touring bands rely on the sale of products to offset mounting costs of being on the road, especially when the dollar is weak against the euro, so the additional material will be very welcome for the artists and their fans.

To fully appreciate Altan’s alluring charm all these years, you need only to see them perform live and watch the rapport they establish from the get-go, drawing their audience into the fun they have themselves on stage. The craic combines the tightest arrangements you’ll find anywhere laced with self-effacing humor that has consistently provided the best stage show you will see anywhere this coming season.

The fun begins on Friday, February 9 up in Fairfield, Connecticut (their only New York City area performance) at the spacious state of the art Ludlowe Middle School Auditorium at 8 p.m. sponsored by the Shamrock Irish Traditional Music Society (www.shamrockirishmusic.org), or call 203-256-8453 to reserve tickets ($20 adults and $5 for kids).

For details of the full tour see www.altan.ie. To purchase the commemorative postal stamps visit www.anpost.ie.