Omagh-bound Ralph McTell on why music is so important to him

When I was first told that ‘yes’ Ralph McTell would do an interview with me for this week’s Ulster Herald, I was giddy with childlike excitement. Of course we journalists are professional, but surely we would be lying if talking to someone whom we admired and looked up to didn’t stir some sense of surreality or visceral elation.

I mean, I must have listened to the song ‘Streets of London’ a hundred times (…literally and metaphorically); it is a song that I’m sure all of you audiophiles have heard and enjoyed on the airwaves many a time and perhaps also enjoy deeply too.

But ironically, it isn’t Ralph’s love of the streets of London that brings him here to Omagh for a concert on Thursday, May 15 – it is his vast admiration for Ireland.

A genuine appreciation for, and resonance with, Irish culture that runs so deeply that the 80-year-old has actually returned here ‘every single year’ since he first stood on seasoned Irish soil all the way back in 1969.

But what is it about the Emerald Isle that speaks to Ralph so poignantly?

“Well,” Ralph reflected. “I think that there is a spiritual connection between what I write about and the Irish character.

“There is a natural kindness and thoughtfulness in the culture of Ireland, and in particular the love of poetry, the love of music and art, and the power they have to stir emotions – that’s an extraordinary connection for me.

“I also love Irish traditional music; the sentiments in the songs move me incredibly. I don’t always find it in other music but I do find it here.

“I’ve been coming to Ireland on a fairly regular basis since 1969; the start of the Troubles,” Ralph recounted.

“I was at Queen’s University as part of a festival, and ever since then, I don’t think a year has gone by when I haven’t returned.

“I feel very much at home here.”

The curious guitar

For Ralph, bringing people into his inner world of creativity and seeing where the resonances are in his poetic, thoughtful, storytelling style of song writing is of utmost importance.

“Luckily for me, some of my songs have really had an effect here in Ireland,” the 80-year-old said.

“I love to talk about where the songs come from, and I don’t have to soften the ground too much here before I talk about them.”

Using music as a melodic vehicle to tell a story is something which Ralph has always endeavoured to do, even back in his earliest days as a musician playing in the folk clubs in the 1960s and ‘70s.

But it was his passion for the guitar that came first.

“I loved the old blues-ragtime players from the ‘20s and ‘30s and that was my entry to the folk club world,” Ralph told the UlsterHerald.

“I would hear music from Ireland, music from England, music from Scotland, with some wonderful guitar playing as well.

“The instrument itself was what attracted me to this music anyway. I never thought of myself as either a writer or a singer; I wanted to be a good guitar player.

“…I still want to be a good guitar player!” he laughed. “And I do play every day.

“I love the fact that, in those early days, you’d be playing in a small back room developing your own style – and people would be listening, instead of drinking and talking.

“And amid those wonderful story-songs of traditional music and the guitar players would take the instrument to places it hadn’t been to before.

“Their techniques amazed me and the fact they would write words around them… That’s what I tried to do myself.”

‘A stroke of luck’

But for Ralph, everything changed when he wrote a little number modestly titled ‘Streets of London’.

“I was a street musician for a while… not a very good one!” he said. “Now, I did travel across Europe with a ten shilling note in my jeans pocket for emergencies, busking as far as Istanbul when I was 20-something.

“I finished up in Paris playing on the streets where I started writing a song called ‘Streets of Paris’, which later became ‘Streets of London’.

“Social media wasn’t even thought of, so songs travelled in the traditional way and before I knew it, people were learning the song and singing it in folk clubs.

“And in fact when it first came out on record, I know within a week, someone was heard playing it in Australia.

“So somehow this song travelled by its own wings around the world,” Ralph continued.

“And now I have to put my hand up and accept that it was a stroke of absolute luck – there were dozens of songs being written at that time by young writers, both male and female, but that one had long legs and it is still getting recorded even today – I get letters about it on a weekly basis.

“I really have embraced it because I know that it’s introduced me to other people who have found my other music from it and that’s a lovely feeling,” Ralph said.

“When I sing it now, I think, “Gee, we’re a lucky guy to have written that.”

Precious gift of time

Ralph’s tour of Ireland is beautifully called ‘Time Drift of the Road’ – the same title as a song which will be appearing on an album that the Farnborough native is in the process of creating alongside some of his favourite Irish artists.

“The chorus of ‘Time Drift of the Road’ goes, “The time drift of the road I know is to wander. To try to seek a glimpse of how it ends,” Ralph detailed. “‘Whether it is sand or gold dust, it is yours to squander. The precious gift of time is yours to spend’.

“Now I’ve always thought that music suspends time,” Ralph pondered.

“Whether I’m creating with it, whether I am playing the guitar or whether I am performing, one of the nicest things that people say is: ‘I don’t know where that hour-and-a-half went’ and I think: My life has been like that; I am entranced by what comes out of the guitar.

“And it’s not just me or my playing, it’s the labour. There’s a wonderful labour in writing. It’s not easy; it doesn’t come easy to me. I don’t write a song in the morning… I once took 20 years to finish a song.

“Sometimes you’ve got to do a lot of writing to find out what you really wanted to say.

“‘Keep your eye on the prize’; that’s the reason for writing.”

Reflecting upon his lyric, ‘whether it’s sand or gold dust’, Ralph mused, “It doesn’t matter does it? It’s worthless in the end and it’s yours to squander.

“The precious gift is time itself.”

‘The healing process’

Time is, indeed, a precious gift. And this is something that rings especially true now for Ralph, who in recent years, has been faced with an advanced health scare: A prostate cancer diagnosis which he is, at present, receiving treatment for following an operation.

Sadly, on top of this, Ralph’s beloved wife, whom he’d been married to for 57 years, passed away in October.

“That has been a hard road to hoe and really, music and this tour, in particular, is very much a part of my getting well and healing process,” Ralph said. “Music is what I turn to.

“And that doesn’t mean that one necessarily gets over these things; it reminds me of what you are still in the position to be able to do: To share those thoughts and the poetry and the music.

“Music was always very important to me – but now it is vital.

“And there’s a difference in the two words and the weight of vital – music is actually keeping me going. I mean, what else would I do?

“…What else would I do?” he repeated. “So I’m giving it my best shot.

“It doesn’t mean to say that writing is any easier – it’s harder,” Ralph continued. “But the lows are lower than they were, there’s no doubt about that; there’s always that dark shadow.

“And the highs are even higher, if that’s possible. Because you need the darkness to see the light sometimes. To see all the good things.

“And I’ve got a wonderful, supportive family, I’ve got all the guitars I’m ever gonna need…” he smiled. “I’ve got good company and I’m travelling in Ireland in the spring with two of my sons… C’mon! It doesn’t get much better.

“This is the most comprehensive tour of Ireland that I have ever done, and that’s one of the joys of not being an overnight sensation: It has been a slow journey, a good journey – and I’m still enjoying it.”

Ralph McTell will be presenting ‘Time Drift of the Road’ at the Strule Arts Centre, Omagh, on Thursday, May 15 beginning at 8pm. To book tickets, please visit: struleartscentre.co.uk/show/ralph-mctell