| Off The Beaten Track is a low-budget documentary about Irish Traditional Music. Shot in nine days, mainly on Digital video and Betacam SP. The core of the film is the story of Tommy Barton, alias "The Gentleman Busker", who was a highly accomplished banjo-plar in Dublin in the Fifties and Sixties. His sons Billy, Tommy and John, musicians themselves, are travelling back to memory lane, to tell their father's story.
Tommy Barton was a close friend of Teddy Furey, whose son Finbar, the well known Uilleann piper and friend of the Barton's, also features in this documentary. As well as the Dubliners' banjo-player Barney Mc Kenna, who was a student of Tommy Barton and Ronnie Drew, the lead-singer of this famous Irish band.
The Barton family lived in the Liberties (the Tenements), one of the poorest parts of Dublin. The whole family of eleven lived in one room, without central heating or electricity.
Billy Barton, who now lives in Manchester is the on screen narrator of the film. He is the passionate and knowledgeable lead-singer of his own group The Dublin Rogues.
Off The Beaten Track is a rich tapestry of memories, anecdotes and
lyrical archive footage, spiced up with lots of music from the past
and present.
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Why Irish Traditional Music?
The main drive behind this film is our love for this music. Added to that is the spectacular revival of Irish culture in general and music in particular. In recent years there has been a great demand for Traditional Music from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, China and Japan. The most successful groups on tour are The Chieftains, The Dubliners, The Fureys and Donal Lunny's Celtic Flame, with Mary Black and Sharon Shannon.
Traditional Irish Music is true to life. It mixes sadness in songs of loss and loneliness and melancholy with joy and tremendous liveliness. It has a sense of rebellion.
It's not just an expression of feelings and emotions, but is an important part of the Irish cultural identity and heritage too.
Or in the words of Van Morrison, one of the most well known Irish musicians:
" … somehow this (Traditional) music has the ability to express the spiritual character of the human psyche in it's most profound experience of love, grief, loneliness, joy in nature, sensuality and celebration. Nowhere is this more evident than in the performance of the music."
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