Biography
Frank Harte grew up in a conventional Irish pub situated near the Liffey, where his first encounter with Irish song came from a roving balladeer peddling printed sheets at a Boyle fair. That moment sparked a lifelong commitment to championing the Dublin street ballad. His stature within Irish music remains undisputed, though some instrumentalists might welcome his insistence that these ballads be delivered without accompaniment; his own voice meets that exacting standard. Listeners who find his Dublin accent overly thick or sense the words emerging through his nose are advised to seek a different idiom, perhaps the repertoire of singing cowboys. Beyond performance, Harte’s standing rests equally on his work as a gatherer of songs and the stories attached to them. He assembled an archive of nearly 16,000 recordings, an achievement made possible by beginning his hunt for material almost immediately after that early exposure, often purchasing ballads directly from street singers. The repertoire drew from every layer of society, reflecting both Catholic and Protestant experiences as well as a substantial contribution from returning Dublin Fusiliers after the First World War, whose songs recounted the sorrow of soldiers parting from their sweethearts. Harte was equally drawn to the older music-hall tradition and to Victorian melodramatic ditties such as “She Was Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage.” The songs he pursued stood apart from the guarded practices of professional songwriters who copyright their work and litigate over similar phrases; the ballad singers he met readily shared their material, regarding the pieces as belonging to the communities whose lives they described rather than to any individual performer. He often invoked Brendan Kennelly’s lines to express this view: “All songs are living ghosts/And long for a living voice.” Two principles shaped his outlook on Irish music. First, the tradition should remain neutral amid the painful divisions between the country’s religious communities. Second, traditional singers should adopt a stance toward audiences unlike that of professional entertainers, feeling no obligation to amuse or satisfy those present; their sole duty is to render the song, an act sufficient in itself. Harte issued several albums and appeared frequently on television, reaching many listeners through precisely this approach. For years these pursuits did not provide a livelihood, so he qualified and practiced as an architect while assuming management of his father’s pub, The Tap. He continues to appear regularly at singers’ sessions in Ireland and at clubs, seminars, and festivals across Europe and North America. He has also taught traditional song in both the United States and Canada. One of his closest associates is Donal Lunny, with whom he has produced several distinguished recordings. Their album My Name Is Napoleon Bonaparte, compiled over many years, gathers more songs about the French dictator and warmonger than might be imagined, requiring two compact discs to contain them. In 2000 Harte was invited to participate in the Kennedy Center’s special millennium concerts.
Albums
