Track Listing 1. Reels: Trim the Velvet / Lord Gordon's . 2. Jigs: Keys to the Convent / The Knockawhinna / Teviot Bridge 3. Hornpipes: Tailor's Twist / Galway Bay / O'Kelly's Fancy 4. Song: Matt Hyland 5. Reels: John McGrath's / Dave Collins' / Larry Redican's 6. Waltz Set: Veleta Waltz / Oslo Waltz 7. Reels: Jackson's No. 1 /Jackson's No. 2 / The White !.eaf 8. Slow Air: The Wounded Hussar 9. Reels: The Peeler's Jacket / Lucy Campbell / The Humours of Westport 10. Jigs: Killimor / Pat McKenna's / Father Hanley's 11. O'Carolan composition: Madam Maxwell 12. Jigs: O'Mahony's Frolics / Condon's Frolics / Swans Among the Rushes 13. Song: Highland Mary 14. Hornpipes: The Eclipse /The Sunshine 15. Reels: Bonnie Kate /Jenny's Chickens / The Mason's Apron / Peter Street       Click on underlined titles to hear MP3 sound samples.

We are delighted to announce the release of this brilliant album:

Consider the Source
CICD 173
Brian Conway
with
Brendan Dolan, Joanie Madden, Billy McComiskey, Felix Dolan, Niamh Parsons, Dan Milner, John Nolan, Eamon O'Leary, Heather Martin Bixler, Gabe Donohue, Brad Albetta

Brian Conway is considered the leading player in the Sligo–New York style of playing, and this, his second solo album, is described by Earle Hitchner in the introduction as ‘a striking document of his evolving virtuosity, musicality and the inspiration and pleasure that come from playing such a responsive instrument for the past six years.’ The instrument in question is a Degani violin purchased by Conway six years ago which he feels has had a huge influence on his playing. He also appreciates the development in his playing over the years: ‘I think my playing has gotten better with age. There’s more fun and energy in my fiddling. I also have these excellent students, and working and playing with them has improved my techniques and made me examine more closely the structure of a tune and the relationship between bowing and phrasing.’ Earle Hitchner says of the playing: ‘Brian brings to his music an enviable equilibrium of style, substance, taste, imagination and deference to the past’. This deference to the past is also reflected in the title of the album, Consider the Source, a reference to both the importance of the source of the music and also the style of playing which originated, of course, in Co. Sligo and was brought across the Atlantic by such musical greats as Michael Coleman and James Morrison.

The album includes a large selection of tunes as well as a slow air and two songs, sung by Dan Milner and Niamh Parsons respectively. Brian is accompanied on the album by Brendan Dolan, Joanie Madden, Billy McComiskey, Felix Dolan, John Nolan, Eamon O’Leary, Heather Martin Bixler, Gabe Donohue and Brad Albetta.

The CD will be launched at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy on Sunday 6 July and at the Catskills Irish Arts Week, East Durham, New York on Friday 18 July.

Brian Conway
Born in the Bronx, New York, to Irish parents from Co. Tyrone, Brian Conway was fortunate to have grown up in a home frequented by some of the best Irish traditional musicians of the time, such as Vincent Harrison, Louis Quinn, Tom Connolly, Paddy Reynolds and Andy McGann, a musician who was to have an enduring influence on him. His tutors were also musicians of note, Martin Mulvihill and Martin Wynne. Brian’s first solo album, First through the Gate, was released on the Smithsonian Folkways label in 2002.

Also available from Copperplate
Brian Conway: First Through The Gate
Brian Conway/Joe Burke/Felix Dolan/ A Tribute to Andy McGann

Press Reviews

www.LiveIreland.com
We first heard Conway at a special concert for Andy McGann last year at the Irish-American Heritage Center in Chicago, along with Joe Burke on button box and Felix Dolan on piano. The resultant live album won a number of Awards, and rightly so. This is a lively 14 tunes and a beautiful song, Highland Mary by Niamh Parsons. Guest musicians are sitting in, including Billy McComiskey on button box , Joanie Madden on flutes and whistles, and Felix's son, Brendan on piano. Terrific. We MIGHT have preferred one of the many pics not to be showing Brian displaying his great teeth through so many smiles, but we quibble. The music is the thing here, and it is lovely. Rating: 3 and ½ Harps Bill Margeson


Irish Music Magazine
This is a powerful, mature recording and like a well-aged cheese, this CD pervades the senses and leaves you yearning for another morsel. Of course, this may come as no surprise if
you've followed Brian Conway's career: he's been rubbing shoulders with such greats as Joe Burke and Felix Dolan, and absorbed more than a little flavour from the late great
Andy McGann's music. As an Irish American fiddler, he could hardly have wished for a better environment.

Grand old reels a plenty grace this album: Trim the Velvet, Lord Gordon's, Larry Redican's, The Peeler's Jacket and Lucy Campbell among them. No surprise again; as a youngster Brian benefited from the teaching of Martin Mulvihill, Martin Wynne and Lad O'Beirne, so his Sligo fiddling roots are as deep as any and his connections to Coleman beyond reproach.
There's a longish essay setting out Brian's background in the sleeve notes: the bottom line is, given where he comes from he should be good. And he is, turning his hand to slow airs and waltzes as well as showpieces like Madam Maxwell with a lovely tone throughout from his Degani violin. The only weakness I detect is on the jigs, three sets of them, and all short of lift
and swagger until Brian is joined by Billy McComiskey on button box.

In fact, Brian is joined by eleven musical friends here, accompanists and melody instruments, with a song each from Niamh Parsons and Dan Milner. Highland Mary is a fascinating voice
and fiddle duet, putting old words to this slow air. Matt Hyland is more of a band setting for a romantic ballad. Other highlights include a captivating set of hornpipes and a gutsy performance of the oft neglected Jackson's Reels. After over an hour of music, Consider the Source finishes with a blast of perennial favourites: Bonnie Kate, Jenny's Chickens,
The Mason's Apron and Peter Street refreshingly played. A fitting end to a fine CD. Alex Monaghan

www.liveIreland.com
Brian Conway is one of the great fiddle players in America. He is out of New York and an exponent of the Sligo style, redolent of the greats like Michael Coleman, James Morrison and Paddy Killoran. His new album is Consider The Source. We first saw this brilliant player a couple years back when he was at a concert in The Irish American Heritage Center in Chicago with Felix Dolan on piano and Joe Burke on button box. The resultant album from that evening was a fav of ours, and this will be, too. All the frills, ornamentation, lift and rhythm are there, as you would expect. What you would not always expect is the fab turn of phrase, the wonderful grasp and deep understanding of the very roots of the music. This is a man about his business, and he is one of the best, as is this album. It, again, is on Clo Iar-Chonnachta. There are certain artists, who you know---you just know---you are going to love everything they do. And, there, alone among them all, is this one label, Clo-Iar-Chonnachta. We have never NOT loved an album released by this label. It is magic. Rating: Four Stars for artist, album and label!! Bill Margeson

Brian Conway's Commanding New Solo CD 'Consider the Source' Is His Finest Album to Date

CEOL By Earle Hitchner [Published on September 17, 2008, in the IRISH ECHO newspaper, New York City. Copyright (c) Earle Hitchner. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of author.]

A command so strong and ever-present that it melts into the music: that rare, powerful paradox is at the core of Brian Conway's fiddling on "Consider the Source," his second solo album.

Born in the Bronx and now residing in White Plains, N.Y., he never loses his grip on a melody, yet a newfound liberation and greater self-assurance sweep below the surface of this new solo CD. His ornamentation reveals more detail and subtlety, more playfulness and punch, yet without any gaudy display of technique for its own sake. Brian Conway has never been more comfortable in his own musical skin than on "Consider the Source."

In the past, his steadfast championing of such Sligo-style fiddle masters and mentors as Andy McGann (1928-2004) and Martin Wynne (1913-98) has at times skewed some critics' judgment of his own fiddling. The bond between Conway and those masters was close, but it shouldn't be construed as a collateral attempt to inhabit their styles or channel their musical spirits. Close study is one thing; slavish imitation, another. Conway has always understood the difference.

Without question he is the leading living exponent of the so-called New York Sligo style of fiddling. He has earned that mantle and wears it comfortably. But his artistry also demands to be appreciated on its own terms. In many ways the album title should have been "Reconsider the Source" because it illuminates, better than any recording he has ever made, his evolution as an Irish traditional fiddler who preserves the best of the past without being pigeonholed by it. I have never heard Conway perform with more elan than on this new release, to which I contributed an essay.

Exemplary lift, fluidity, accuracy, and embellishment are the fiddle hallmarks of the opening track, "Trim the Velvet/Lord Gordon's," accompanied by Brendan Dolan on piano. The two instrumentalists communicate instinctively and unerringly, the product of almost six years of playing together.

The next track, "Keys to the Convent/The Knockawhinna/Teviot Bridge," traces the compact invention with which Conway climbs in register and then nimbly descends, all the while holding firm to the melodic spine. This is headphone listening of the best sort, letting us pick out the refined details in his delivery of those jigs, backed capably by Eamon O'Leary on acoustic guitar.

The formidable foursome of Conway, button accordionist Billy McComiskey, flutist Joanie Madden, and pianist Felix Dolan (Brendan's father) perform the "Tailor's Twist/Galway Bay/O'Kelly's Fancy" hornpipes, "The Peeler's Jacket/Lucy Campbell/The Humors of Westport" reels, and "O'Mahony's Frolics/Condon's Frolics/Swans Among the Rushes" jigs. The tempo is ideal, the energy is high, and the pull of their music would prove irresistible even to double-left-footed dancers.

Without any falloff in finesse, Conway's bowing flexes its muscle in "Bonnie Kate/Jenny's Chickens/The Mason's Apron/Peter Street." These reels are so familiar and ingrained that he could have turned them out with nary a thought. But to his credit he invests them with fresh flourishes, tight swings in dynamics, and a bubbling, slyly gleeful intensity that compel us to savor the beauty of the melodies anew.

That same delectable mix of grace and gusto informs Conway's renditions of "Jackson's No. 1/Jackson's No. 2/The White Leaf" and "John McGrath's/Dave Collins'/Larry Redican's" reels as well as "Killimor/Pat McKenna's/Father Hanley's" jigs. The album's second medley of hornpipes, "The Eclipse/The Sunshine," similarly exhibits this blend of liveliness and litheness.

Conway has also wisely included tunes that deepen the variety in texture and mood on his new CD.

The pairing of "Veleta Waltz/Oslo Waltz" is played by him, button accordionist John Nolan, and pianist Brendan Dolan in a way to conjure swishing petticoats and sliding brogans across the dance floor. There's a glide in the ride those three musicians give those waltzes.

Conway's deft traditional-with-baroque approach to Turlough O'Carolan's "Madam Maxwell" is reinforced by passages of continuo-like piano playing from Brendan Dolan, while Conway's evocative, tender version of "The Wounded Hussar" slow air features a lovely harmony line from one of his fiddle students, Heather Martin Bixler, who adds tastefully spare piano playing to seal the tune's haunting effect.

Two songs, "Matt Hyland" and "Highland Mary," appear on the album, and each illustrates an oft-overlooked aspect of the fiddler's art: support for singing.

Fondly recalled for a traditional music club he ran at the Bells of Hell and the Eagle Tavern in Manhattan, Dan Milner invited Conway to guest on two albums for Folk-Legacy, "Irish in America" in 2001 and "Irish Ballads & Songs of the Sea" in 1998. Conway reciprocates by inviting Milner to sing "Matt Hyland," which was covered by Cherish the Ladies on their "At Home" album in 1999. What distinguishes this highly effective new version is the glistening poignancy given it by the two longtime friends.

Another guest vocalist, Niamh Parsons, sings "Highland Mary," bookended by Conway's exquisite fiddling and assisted throughout by Brendan Dolan's sensitive keyboard work. Parsons knows how to slip inside a song to bring out more of its latent richness, and at 8 minutes and 29 seconds this longest of album tracks becomes a prism through which the first of all instruments, the human voice, and two instruments close to it in expressiveness, the violin and the keyboard, shine with equal radiance.

Comprising 15 tracks that provide more than 65 minutes of music, "Consider the Source" captures Brian Conway in peak performance. The album joins "A Tribute to Andy McGann," which he made with button accordionist Joe Burke and keyboardist Felix Dolan in 2007, and "First Through the Gate," his solo debut chosen as the Irish Echo's top traditional recording of 2002, in a body of work to rival the finest that any other Irish traditional musician has issued over the past six years. Brian Conway has been on a creative tear, and it's about time we all noticed.
Easily one of the best releases of the year. Earle Hitchner