Track Listing 1. Con Cassidy's // Double Jig 2. The Low Highland 3. The Lazy Dog // Highland 4. La Marseillaise March 5. Parnell's March 6. The Frost Is All Over // Double Jig 7. The Rakes Of Clonmel + Old Man Dillon // Double Jigs 8. The Speaking Waltz 9. Gallagher's March 10. Untitled Mazurka 11. Lad O'Beirne's Hornpipe 12. Con Talks About Starting To Play The Fiddle 13. McFarley's Reel ( duet with Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh) 14. Con Tells The Story Behind Taibhse Chonaill 15. Taibhse Chonaill // Single Jig 16. Con Talks About Local Musicians In Teileann 17. The Slieve League // Slip Jig 18. An Mhalaidh Gharbh // Highland 19. Miss Ramsey's Highland 20. My Love Is In America// Reel 21. My Love She's But A Lassie Yet // Lancer 22. Maude Millar's // Highland 23. Gan Ainm Highland 24. The Green Mountain // Reel 25. Gan Ainm Barn Dance 26. Dúlamán Na Binne Buidhe // Highland 27. Gan Ainm Highland 28. The Ewe With The Crooked Horn // Highland 29. Gan Ainm Barn Dance 30. The Copper Plate // Reel 31. Con Talks About Séamus Ennis 32. Francie Byrne's Reel (duet with Dermot McLaughlin) 33. The Teelin Petronella // Lancer (duet with Dermot McLaughlin) 34. Cuffe Street Reel (duet with Dermot McLaughlin) 35. Con Talks About His Fiddle Playing 36. Seán Sa Cheo // Reel Total Playing Time 64.20 Click on underscored titles to hear MP4 sound samples

We are delighted to announce the release of this fine album.

Con Cassidy
Traditional Fiddle Music From Donegal
CNF 004

Con Cassidy was born on the 6th of July, 1909 at his homeplace in Croaghlin, Teelin, Co. Donegal in the parish of Glencolmcille.

Con's parents were Frank Cassidy and Mary Haughey. Although they did not play music, they were very fond of it. From about the age of nine years, Con used to visit the house of a neighbour, Paddy Barron. Paddy played the fiddle and it was a tin fiddle that Paddy had. This was very common at the time in this area. (The Mc Connells & The Dohertys were travelling tinsmith families who were good musicians, mainly fiddlers, and they made a lot of tin fiddles, which were cheap to buy and were easy to get. They were literally delivered to your door). Con used to visit Paddy Barron's house almost every day and would be allowed to have a go at Paddy's tin fiddle.

In 1924 Con's sister, Mary Cassidy, was working in Letterkenny. She came across a shop that sold fiddles and she wrote to her father with the details of the price and delivery details. Soon after that Con got his own fiddle in the post!

The other fiddle playing Cassidy's of Teelin were cousins of Con's, namely Johnny, Paddy and Frank. Con had a lesson with Frank which lasted half an hour. Apart from that he worked it out himself.

Like many from the area, Con had to go away to get work. He worked in England for a time as a general labourer and at one time staying in the same digs as the box player, Joe Cooley.

Con was married in England to a girl from his own area, Mary Kate Mc Brearty. They returned to Teelin soon after that. Con played for Séamus Ennis when Ennis was working for the Folklore Commission. Séamus transcribed some tunes but did not record Con at that time.

John Doherty lived in Carrick for a time in the 70's and Con used to play with John often in those days. There was a great increase interest in the music of that area in the late 70's.Young fiddle players such as Dermot Mc Laughlin, Máiréad Ní Mhaonaigh, Paul O'Shaughnessy, Máire O' Keeffe, Maurice Bradley and others came regularly to visit, play with and learn from Con. Con Cassidy died in 1994.

Copperplate is very proud to have this title on our roster and hope to help it achieve its full potential.

More about Con and many other Donegal fiddlers at http://www.donegalfiddlemusic.ie

Also available from Copperplate Mail Order: Danny Meehan: The Navvy On The Shore

Press Reviews

The Living Tradition
Very much a "what it says on the tin" release, this - unpretentiously so, and all the better for it. Con (1909-1994), a native of south-west Donegal, was largely self-taught (although his cousin Frank was widely regarded as one of the best Donegal fiddlers). This CD, which is the first in a planned series issued by Cairdeas na bhFidileiri (a voluntary not-for-profit organisation), with the support of the Arts Council of Ireland, presents just over an hour of (mostly) solo fiddling, and thus is likely to be seen as of specialist interest only, but if not taken all in one sitting, it can prove more than mildly addictive. The recordings have largely been compiled from those made by Con for the landmark 1987 Claddagh Donegal solo fiddle anthology The Brass Fiddle (when he was in his mid-70s), including some tracks from those sessions which were unreleased at the time, topped up with some made for two RTE radio programmes in the mid-1980s and one made for a TV film.
Five of the 36 banded tracks are interview snippets where Con reminiscences or philosophises. The four non-solo performances are duets: a series of three with Dermot Mclaughlin and a particularly fiery duet with Allan's Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh (the core-repertoire reel McFarley's, sourced from a live recording). It's easy to hear why Con's playing style is respected: it has a sense of lyrical flow, a legato counterpointing the rhythmic impetus, which is quite charming. Con's generous and warm character comes across as much in the delicious lightness of touch and tone in his playing, although some vocal murmurs betraying his involvement in the music may prove mildly distracting to some listeners (though they're not in the "Brendel" league!). But the unusual diversity of Con's repertoire as represented here is noteworthy, including as it does highlands, marches, waltzes and mazurkas and even a contra-dance lancer alongside jigs, slip jigs, reels and hornpipes. Finally, the actual package is pretty much exemplary, with detailed notes on the tune sources complementing a well-written and comprehensive biography of Con, all placed in context by the reproduction of some invaluable archive photographs. David Kidman

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