Fiddle player Tommy Peoples's tour with guitarist Steve Cooney and singer Mary McPartlan aims to bring traditional music to some of the country's most isolated venues, writes Mary Phelan.

Building up an audience for traditional music in places not immediately associated with the traditional idiom is grist to the mill for Tommy Peoples. The legendary Donegal fiddle player is just about to set off on a national tour that will involve performing in some of Ireland's remotest locations. From Belmullet to Bere Island, the iconic but somewhat reclusive fiddle player hits the road in the illustrious company of guitarist Steve Cooney and Galway-based singer Mary McPartlan under The Arts Council's Touring Experiment.

Touring is a rare event in Tommy Peoples's life these days. The Bothy Band veteran moved back to his native St Johnston some years ago after decades living in Co Clare. He leads a quiet life, playing the odd gig here and there. But it's a long time since he has been on tour. It's something that he is quite excited about.

"It's just great to be playing with the likes of Mary and Steve," he says. "I am really looking forward to it."

The "Dark Horse on the Wind" tour is the brainchild of McPartlan, and the trio has never actually performed together before. "I might have played the very odd time with Steve, but never in any official sense," says Peoples. "And most of the venues we are playing in, I haven't been to either. But I am looking forward to it.

"I like playing in these smaller, more intimate venues and I particularly like the idea of playing on two of our remotest islands."

The community centres on both Clare and Bere Island are on the itinerary. Part of the idea behind the tour is to bring class acts to venues that are well off the beaten track and the normal touring circuit.

Peoples has been busy and productive since moving back to Donegal. For the past two years, he has been traditional musician-in-residence at the Balor Theatre in Ballybofey. This was a new departure for the Balor, which has developed a formidable reputation as a training ground for young acting talent, but didn't have any profile when it came to traditional music.

Conor Malone, a Waterford man who moved from Dublin to manage the Balor Theatre in 2004, was determined to develop a strong musical programme and, conscious that he didn't have any particular expertise in traditional music, decided to add the cost of a traditional musician in residence to his Arts Council funding application.

When, to his astonishment, the funding for the residency come through, he consulted with some of the luminaries of contemporary Donegal fiddle playing - Martin McGinley, Caoimhín Mac Aodh and Paddy Tunney. All were in agreement that Peoples was the musician for the job and, although the initiative was put out to tender, it was clear from the beginning who the front runner was.

Peoples gladly accepted, although he does admit to being somewhat daunted, at least initially.

"I'm still surprised to be in this role" he admits. "Though I'm absolutely delighted to be involved. Sometimes, though, I feel that I am more missing than in residence. And I wasn't too sure to begin with what exactly was expected of me."

Peoples did, in fact, have a strong personal connection with the twin towns of Ballybofey and Stranorlar, having gone to school there, albeit briefly.

"Yes," he remembers "I was a student at Finn College, though I didn't turn up too often." He did, however, learn much of his music in the vicinity.

"There was quite a strong traditional music scene in Ballybofey when I was hanging about - people like Charlie Patton and Frank Kelly, who was a nephew of the great Hughie Gillespie. And then of course there was the tradition of the Dohertys. Mickey Doherty himself lived in Stranolar for a time."

However, a couple of the local hostelries supportive of traditional music changed hands, and the traditional fulcrum swung more towards other parts of Donegal, the west, northwest and southwest of the county for a number of years. Peoples's residency at the Balor has nonetheless precipitated a tangible revival of interest in the traditional idiom and a strong programme of traditional music at the theatre.

Musicians of the calibre of Liz Carroll and John Doyle, Paddy Keenan, Séamus Tansey, John Carty and Andy Irvine have all performed there as a direct outcome of Peoples's residency and a solid core audience for traditional music has been built up.

"Initially, this was a bit of a struggle," says Conor Malone. "People often think that traditional music is something one should get for free in the back room of a pub, so a bit of a cultural shift was necessary. But we now have a solid audience prepared to pay for gigs, so we can afford to pay musicians respectable money."

This has been further enhanced by a programming grant from The Arts Council, which allows the Balor to guarantee a certain fee to musicians.

"Before this, we sometimes had to haggle, or to get musicians to agree to a percentage of the door, which really isn't fair on anyone. Traditional musicians have to earn a living just like everyone else," says Malone.

As well as developing the programming side, the traditional musician-in-residence role includes an outreach function, delivering fiddle workshops at the theatre and in community and educational settings, as well as a a compositional function.

The Twin Towns, a new composition to mark the first year of the residency, was premiered at the Séamus Tansey gig in May last year, and a new composition to mark the successful conclusion of the second year will soon get its first airing. The experiment is seen as a success and Arts Council funding has been approved for the programme for a third, consecutive year.

Malone is keen to stress the significance of the compositional element of the residency. "It gives the whole thing a focal point, and it also feeds back into the tradition. It's important that the tradition remains alive and vibrant, and commissioning new material is a significant element of maintaining the vitality of the tradition," he says.

Peoples is equally happy. "It's nice for me to be involved, and it's great to be prompted to write tunes," he says.

"I moved back to Donegal a few years ago, but really I had been away for such a long time that I didn't know the younger generation of musicians here. I tend to lead a fairly quiet life and I have just one sister living locally, so it's been really good for me."

Although coming from different backgrounds and belonging to different generations, Malone and Peoples seem to have developed a very good working relationship, and both speak of the other with admiration and warmth.

"Getting Tommy for this residency was the equivalent of getting Louis Armstrong for a jazz residency. I knew that I would need help and guidance to develop a credible traditional music programme here. Tommy has provided just that. He also has been a joy to work with," Malone enthuses. "And I feel that we have worked out a very good pilot model for a traditional musician-in-residence here, where a musician is attached to an already existing arts centre."

Certainly, the main aim of developing a strong traditional music programme in the Finn Valley would seem to have been achieved, augmenting the ongoing revitalisation and diversification of the Balor's programme.

The theatre, which is community-run and community-funded, is 25 years old this year and is going from strength to strength, with over 100 shows a year. It will soon be moving to an impressive new €6 million purpose-built premises on the site of the old Isaac Butt Hall, which will add significantly to the county's cultural infrastructure.

An especially designated space will be devoted to a wall of fame of Donegal's musical heritage, and Peoples - who has embraced this project with missionary zeal - appeals to anyone having old photographs of the greats of the Donegal fiddle players, "the likes of Frank Cassidy and Nielie Boyle", to contact him at the Balor.

• The tour starts today in Barry's, Grange, Co Sligo, today, and finishes at the Balor Theatre, Ballybofey, Co Donegal, on Nov 17