In Search of the Craic: One Man's Pub Crawl Through Irish Music

If you enjoy Irish Music and Pubs, as well as travel thru Ireland, then this is a must to read.Covers all the above, enjoyable ,easy to read and takes you on the trip with the writer.

This book was tough to find but well worth the search. Colin and Mrs. Colin, a pair of Brits, spend their holidays in Ireland hunting down traditional music. Irish music has become commoditized over the past decade or so, and the real stuff is elusive. In the very first pub Colin visits, the innkeeper tries to tell him that there is no such thing as the craic. This is a great, funny travel memoir and a darned good place to start your education on traditional Irish music. I can hear the music in my head but I only wish it could have been accompanied by a CD. He does provide an extensive discography, but I suspect most of them are out of print.

My only regret about this book is that I didn't find it before I went to Ireland in 2005 in search of "the music". While my daughter and I did find lots of great traditional music in Cork, Galway, Dublin and other places, Mr. Irwin's book provides as close as you can get to a guide to something as fluid and out of the spotlight as Irish session music and musicians. In the guise of a funny (and it truly is funny) series of musings, Mr. Irwin manages to put together a non-academic, but relatively exhaustive overview of the development and then current state of Irish traditional music. His biases are laid out clearly, many times to be auto-debunked as his travels open his eyes to the precursors of his heroes of the '70's and '80's, like Planxty, Bothy Band, etc. Mr. Irwin's research would be of great benefit to anyone traveling to Ireland for the music, or just interested in Irish traditional music.

Like most pub "sessions" in Ireland, this book doesn't offer a flawless performance, but it is still good craic. And, like a good session, it leaves you wanting more. People unfamiliar with the Irish traditional music scene, however, might find the book's references too obscure to be of interest, since reading about music you haven't heard must be like listening to someone describe what a slow pour pint of Guinness tastes like, when you've never had the pleasure of drinking one yourself. But anyone who has traveled Ireland and checked out a pub or two in search of traditional Irish music will enjoy the vicarious pleasure of following along with Colin Irwin on his quest. His interviews along the way with some of the leading figures in Irish music are one of the best parts of the book. Hearing Liam Clancy talk about his conversation with Shane MacGowan, bad boy of The Pogues, was priceless. Also funny was Irwin's own discomfort at being face to face with Clancy -- after a jouralistic career in which he had often mocked the trailblazing Clancy Brothers for their Aran-sweater-Oirish act that today seems over-the-top. Just as rewarding was seeing how unbothered Clancy was by the criticism.