Track Listing. 1. Farrell O'Gara / The Crooked Road / The Stoney Steps (Reels) 2. The Humours of Ballyloughlin (Double jig) 3. Tom Ward's Downfall / Drowsie Maggie (Reels) 4. The Mountains of Pomeroy (Song Air) 5. Stirling Castle / South to the Grampians / The Cocktail (Stratspeys/Reel) 6. Padraig O'Keefe's / The Humours of Ballydaly (Slides) 7. The Ballydesmond / Mairi's Wedding / The Newmarket / Tom Billy Murphy's (Polkas) 8. Boulavogue (Song Air) 9. McGettrick's / Lad O'Beirne's Favourite (Reels) 10. Boys of Ballisadare / Comb Your Hair and Curl It / The Foxhunter's Jig/ McFadden's Favourite / The Dairymaid (Slip 'Hop' jigs/Reels) 6.19 11. Ask my Father / The Boys of Bluehill (Single jig/Hornpipe) 2.49 12. The Wind that Shakes the Barley / The Steampacket / The Mountain Top / Devanney's Goat (Reels) 6.10 Click on underscored titles to hear MP3 sound samples.

We are delighted to announce the release of this classic CD

Noel Hill:
The Irish Concertina 2
With
Alec Finn, Arty McGlynn, Brian McGrath, Liam O'Connor & Steve Cooney.

"The Irish Concertina Two' comes after a long absence from commercial recording and consists of tracks from different sessions over the past couple of years in various studios.
My sincerest gratitude to all those friends, musicians and listeners who have sustained me over nearly two decades since I released the 'Irish Concertina One' back in 1988". Noel Hill


Irish Music Magazine: "The Irish Concertina Two is a masterclass of traditional expertise and musical accomplishment". John O'Regan

Net rhythms.com "What a superb CD - anyone remotely interested in expert concertina playing just must get a copy". David Kidman

Ireland's master of the concertina returns with his follow up to his classic recording of 1988, The Irish Concertina. Noel is joined by a hand chosen set of Ireland's finest musicians on this tour de force by a master of his instrument. The accompanying 16 page cfull colour booklet is brim fully of interesting notes and brilliant old photograph's from Noel's archive, brilliant!

"Noel Hill is a master musician in the Irish Tradition. He grew up near Lissycasey in Co. Clare in a family in which traditional music was a key element in every day life.
Both his parents and his uncle Padraig A'Chnoic played the concertina so it was hardly surprising that Noel followed in their footsteps.

The locality itself is renowned for its unique music and musicians - one thinks immediately of Concertina player Paddy Murphy, and flute and fiddle player Peter 0' Loughlin, with their very particular lilting and subtle rhythmic style.
He was also very influenced by the Uilleann pipes and has absorbed many piping techniques. This is clearly evident in his playing of the Willie Clancy's version of The Humours of Ballyloughlin on track 2.

He is joined on this recording by Arty McGlynn, Alec Finn, Liam O'Connor, Brian McGrath and Steve Cooney, musicians whose brilliance and understanding of the music compliment Noel's playing to perfection and melts into the very core of the music.

Listening to Noel Hill's music and indeed talking it, one gets a strong sense of someone who is not a strong tradition, but of someone who is very conscious of nurturing and serving that tradition.
In these times of quick-fix music and indeed quick-fix everything, work like this is a relief and a wonderful lift to the spirit". Liam O'Flynn, June 2005.

Copperplate is very proud to have this title on our roster and to help it achieve its full potential will be supporting this release with a full-scale promotional mail out to media and retail.

Quotes

...Ireland's greatest concertina player --Seamus Ennis, piper, singer, broadcaster

...Noel Hill's fame preceeds him in the form of Albums and broadcasts that serve as a forum for his talents.
--The New York Times

...Noel Hill pushes the possibilities for our music beyond all expectation. What better thing than this could be said of a musician? --Tony MacMahon, musician, T.V. producer/broadcaster

There is little doubt that in music there is a special place for the concertina when so brilliantly executed by Noel Hill. --The Irish Times

Ireland is full of great musicians but only a few set standards. -- P.J. Curtis, 'Notes from the Heart'

Check out Noels own web site at www.noelhill.com

Press Reaction

TAPLAS The Welsh Folk Magazine
FEW living musicians extract such, sublime subtleties from Irish traditional music as Noel Hill does, so a new CD from the master of the Irish concertina is a significant event.

The Irish Concertina Two begins on welcome ground: the measured pace and joyous lift of the first set of reels, with fiddle and Alee Finn's tinkling bouzouki, put us in territory staked out bv that 1979 classic Noel Hill & Tony Linnane, though here the fiddle is played by Liam O'Connor.

A solo Humours of Ballyloughlin follows, then a set of reels in which Arty McGlynn is given his head on guitar backing. The McGlynn/Hill is a pairing like no other, and Tom Ward's Downfall gets nearer than anything else to the knife-edge excitement they can generate live.

Steve Cooney's wilder guitar on a few later tracks seems ill-at-ease with Hill's meticulous style and the electric keyboard elsewhere adds
a synthetic element, pushing the two otherwise beautiful slow airs perilously close to kitsch.

The focus and integrity of The Irish Concertina of 1988, with the incomparable Charlie Lennon on(real) piano, made it a masterpiece.

This one is less cohesive, but there's still plenty to savour in Hill's playing. John Neilson

The Folk Diary
Noel's first "Irish Concertina" record dates from 1988 but it still gets lots of plays in this house with its memorable attacking playing of reels like "Salamanca". Obviously, this much later follow up has a very different feeling to it. For one thing, Noel uses a greater number of different accompanists and different studios giving the album a great sense of variety. Though he uses top musicians like Alec Finn, Arty McGlynn and Steve Cooney, the album reaches its best moments when Noel is playing solo as in the outstanding "The Humours of Ballyloughlin". Though he gets a great deal from his approach to reels, jigs and polkas, his masterly and creative musicianship is probably heard to greatest effect on his playing of two slow song airs, "Boolavogue" and "The Mountains of Pomeroy"; these demonstrate his ability to be innovative and yet remain firmly within the tradition. Vic Smith.

Irish Music Magazine Feb 06
Eighteen years in between solo recordings; Noel Hill releases his second solo album entitled The Irish Concertina Two, obvious title when you think about it.

In the meantime artists have taken to releasing recordings on their own labels and now Noel adds his tuppenceworth to the DIY traditional music industry. To say that this album is long awaited is akin to asking a Chinaman where is Hong Kong. However the fact is that it is now here and it delivers the promise outlined by its predecessor The Irish Concertina
in 1988.

This time Noel gathers a number of recordings made within the last few years in the company of Arty McGlynn, Alee Finn, Steve Cooney, Brian McGrath and Liam O'Connor to some delicious solo performances to create a killer of an album.

Hearing the Hill fingers push the buttons on 'Farrell O'Gara' does the business and this is concertina playing of an exemplary nature.
One of the big piping jigs 'The Humours of Ballyloughlin' is rendered with the due respect while airs like 'The Mountains of Pomeroy' and 'Boulavogue' are recast with a new shimmering beauty.

The backing is solid and top class while two extended sets'Boys of Ballisadare' and 'The Wind that shakes the Barley' simmer for 5 and 6 minutes of controlled excitement.

'The Irish Concertina Two' is a masterclass of traditional expertise and musical accomplishment. John O'Regan

www.netrhythms.com
It doesn't seem long since I reviewed a "dangerously exhilarating" duo release by Anglo-concertina maestro Noel and button accordionist Tony MacMahon which teamed them up in 1985 in a Knocknagree pub.

The very same description could apply equally to this tremendously uplifting new release, a solo set from Noel (albeit selectively and variously accompanied) that forms an official (if very much belated!) sequel to his classic recording of 1988 The Irish Concertina.

Noel's playing - at whatever tempo, fast or slow - has such an abundantly attractive lilting quality that you can't fail to be captivated. Unusually among concertina players, Noel's distinctly and audibly influenced by Uillean piping techniques (listen to the Humours Of Ballyloughlin double jig - track 2 - or the hornpipe set at track 11, for instance). Yet it's perhaps Noel's musicality that's the overriding, nay overwhelming quality here, and it's apparent right from the first notes he plays on the opening set of reels, for, riding right in tandem with his innate easy virtuosity, that incredible musicality never lets up, whether he's niftily squeezing out the notes and nuances or easing aside by judicious phrasing in order to let other musicians into the forefront of the clearly defined texture he's enabled.

The epithet "other musicians" is but a tag of convenience, giving little indication of their brilliance and understanding of their role/s - yet when their roster comprises Alec Finn (bouzouki), Arty Mc Glynn and Steve Cooney (guitars), Liam O'Connor (fiddle), and Brian McGrath (keyboards), well you just know nothing can go wrong. Their judgement in terms of dynamic shading and positioning is unimpaired by ego, yet the perfection in their roleplaying doesn't bring even a trace of unwelcome staleness. The ensemble work is outstanding, and I specially liked the set of reels on the final track, Liam's fiddle faultlessly conjoining with Noel's melody line and brilliantly reflected in the sparkling, rippling guitars and piano accompanying.

But then again I can't resist replaying track 5 (the strathspeys & reel set - another unusual choice for an Irish player, you might think, but hey it works!) and the gorgeous slow air Boulavogue (track 8). And the driving set of polkas (track 7), and the breathtaking set of reels (track 9).

What a superb CD - anyone remotely interested in expert concertina playing just must get a copy. David Kidman