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Caladh Nua – Happy Days
Caladh is an old Irish word meaning “Harbour” or “Shelter place”. Caladh Nua means a “New Harbour” or “New Shelter place”. Caladh Nua could also refer to a new comfortable place where music and song sets a warm lovely atmosphere. With all this in mind, this is “Caladh Nua”, the traditional Irish band. This very unique band was founded in early 2009. Like many of the great Irish traditional bands Caladh Nua simply formed as a result of great musicians crossing paths, realising a special connection and then wanting to share it with the world audience. The ensemble comprises of five qualified musicians from three beautiful regions in Ireland, counties Carlow, Waterford and Kilkenny. The tasteful musical arrangements of Caladh Nua include traditional Irish dance music, traditional songs alongside some more recently composed pieces. Caladh Nua has a perfect balance between innovation and preservation of Irelands wonderful music and song tradition, the bands special repertoire and energy is guaranteed to capture an audience of any generation
Press Reviews
Net Rhythms.com
Caladh is an old Irish word meaning “harbour” or “place of shelter”; thus the band name signifies a state whereby they’ve found a new comfortable place to showcase their musical talents in a warm and convivial atmosphere. And that turns out an apt description of the genially energetic music on offer from this fairly new young five-piece band who hail variously from Counties Waterford, Carlow and Kilkenny.
Although there’s no shortage of musicianship, the band members don’t force the issue, preferring instead to concentrate on letting the music speak for itself. Theirs is an easygoing style, as demonstrated on this collection that readily intersperses tune-sets and songs in sensibly varied and clean, uncluttered arrangements that let the individual musicians have their say without fear of being drowned out or interrupted mid-flow. And yet, considering that the lineup sports two fiddlers (Paddy Tutty and Lisa Butler), the overall texture isn’t always as rich as you might expect — but this isn’t ever a problem when the playing is so deliciously pointed and the arrangements kept so simple. The lineup’s completed by Eoin O’Meachir (banjo, whistle, mandolin), Derek Morrissey (button accordion) and Colm O’Caoimh (guitar, bouzouki), who together provide a fortuitous balance of timbres that’s impeccably judged, with melody line and harmony support well proportioned at all times.
The opening set of reels is a good illustration of the band’s flair for balance between sensitivity of internal dynamics and outright energy, although there are instances on later sets where one feels that a little more capital might have been made out of the tunes (for example The Jolly Beggarman, which flits by in just under three minutes) and that a touch more loosening-up might have helped in dispelling the hint of “by rote” that just occasionally creeps into the rhythm of the ensemble. Interestingly though, one of the most appealing of the instrumental tracks is a swinging ragtime-cum-vaudeville-flavoured piece By Heck (which originates from the playing of the Flanagan Brothers, who emigrated to America in the early 1900s).
The rest of the tune-sets contain a nice mixture of jigs, reels and hornpipes and barndances, and the chosen pace is well managed but never too frantic even in the concluding head-of-steam stages of a set. Colm gives us a delightful solo performance too, the Gort Na Mona set (comprising a jig and a hornpipe): light and lyrical guitar picking at its finest (and, like his rendition of The Humours Of Ballyloughlin on the disc’s final medley, inspired by the duetting of Paul Brady and Arty McGlynn). As far as the songs are concerned, Lisa takes the vocals for three out of the four, and she has a pleasing, warm, generous tone with a good sense of line without resorting to over-use of ornamentation; I particularly enjoyed her rendition of Cad É Sin Don Té Sin, a Donegal song dealing with the issue of personal freedom and individuality, although her treatment of Banks Of The Lee is a little too much on one level to rise above the standard. The fourth of the songs is the odd-one-out in two respects: it’s the only contemporary composition – Richard Thompson’s Beeswing – and it’s sung (albeit rather attractively too) by Colm, but it ends a little abruptly and in the end doesn’t add anything to the song’s already massive discography.
Overall, then, Happy Days is a pretty impressive debut, for these musicians are undeniably talented and have already learnt some key lessons in the successful presentation of Irish traditional music. And even though I’m left with a feeling of being ever so slightly shortchanged, it proves an enjoyable listen. David Kidman October 2010
www.LiveIreland.com
Caladh Nua is another young group out with a stunner, Happy Days. What a quintet! Fab songs meet wonderful, wonderful tunes
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Colum Sands – Look Where I’ve Ended Up Now
Colum is a meber of The Sands Family, one of Ireland’s favourite musical families. Colum is a master singe songwriter who has plied his trade all over the world for the past 20 years. His songs are much sough after and have been covered by several high profile singers.
An old pair of hobnailed boots in a dark bedroom beside a dormant volcano in New Zealand, a meeting in the Negev desert with a Bedouin activist struggling to hold onto his family’s lands, remembering two painters in his home village of Rostrevor, a late night childhood story from the daughter of a famous coal miner in the North East of England, wrestling with the idea of formal and informal words for “you” in the German language, raising a voice against noise pollution, recalling the smell of freshly baked bread, Colum Sands is a songwriter who works from a broad palette and sings of the colours, the senses, the accents and the language of life.
On his latest collection “Look where I’ve ended up now” Sands finds inspiration across that same vast landscape which has welcomed his songs and stories over the past thirty years – from Ireland to the rest of Europe, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and North America.
In the company of fellow Sands Family members and some of Ireland’s finest musicians, the exotic flavours of Armenian Oud player Vasken Solakian and the outstanding English accordion player Karen Tweed, the County Down songwriter comes up with lines like “Remote controllers all over the house, we have not the remotest control” or “rain coming in through the ceiling and the water bill’s gone through the roof!” to carry the tradition of the troubadour into the 21st century with the blend of humour, critical insight and optimism which has become his hallmark.
Sands himself says, “I love travelling and I always learn and write from the stories that people have to tell, I’m as happy sharing songs with ten people as I am with a thousand. It’s not about numbers, it’s about energy ..songs have been a powerful means of communication for centuries and will always find their own way to fly without the hot air side of the music business.”
With “Look where I’ve ended up now” Colum Sands sends a seventh bagful of songs out into the world to find their own feet, “through hedges and ditches, in search of the reason of rhyme.”
With previous songs translated into German, Dutch, French and Hebrew and cover versions recorded by artistes like Maddy Prior and June Tabor, Andy Irvine, Makem and Clancy, Mick Hanley, Roy Bailey, Enda Kenny and Flossie Malavialle, who knows where they might end up!
We at Copperplate are delighted to be associated with this release and proud to have this title on our roster. We will be doing all we can to help this brilliant release achieve its full
potential and will be supporting it with a full-scale promotional mail out to media and retail.
He is a consumate performer who has built up a large following in the UK, via his regular tours. News of his new tour will delight his many fans in the UK.
Press Reviews
The Living Tradition Aug/Sept 10
Colum Sands is inspired by people. The songs on his seventh solo album show this more clearly than ever, and the result is another engaging celebration of our better selves. Some of the people are from his home base of Rostrevor in County Down, but more are met on his travels. He embraces the life of a folksong troubadour in the title track, and takes us on to people met and stories heard in Israel, New Zealand, Germany, and the north east of England.
Beyond The Frame remembers two brothers from Rostrevor, artists and signwriters: In freedom’s name beneath the sun, some close one eye to aim a gun. / Some open both, see far and wide, all colours living side by side. Rostrevor is just a few miles from Warrenpoint, by the way. Song For Nuri is inspired by a Bedouin activist persecuted by the Israeli authorities. Fred Jordan’s Boots celebrates the life of the Shropshire farm labourer and tradition bearer who I was lucky enough to hear sing at the National Folk Festival: Fred bequeathed his hobnailed boots to his friend Roger Giles, and Colum stayed at Roger’s house while touring in New Zealand. From The Darkness Of the Mine came from talking to Doreen Henderson, the daughter of Jack Elliot, one of the Elliots of Birtley: her peace activism is seen as a continuation of the mineworkers’ solidarity embodied by her father. Lighter songs include Du You Sie, with delightful word play on German forms of address, and Too Loud, with a polite moan about noise pollution. Is it all too nice, too relentlessly uplifting? Maybe the occasional spurt of toxic bile (such as Richard Thompson, for instance, is capable of) wouldn’t go amiss. But Colum’s songwriting flows from his nature, experience and beliefs, and I shouldn’t wish it any other way.
Colum plays guitar, double bass, concertina and mandolin, while accompanists include Brendan Monaghan on whistle, Karen Tweed on accordion and Ursula Byrne on fiddle. Ursula closes two of the songs with tunes: The Connaught Man’s Rambles and, most fittingly, The Reconciliation Reel.
Postscript. Listening to these songs again, a few days later, the lack of bile seems fine. After I wrote the first draft of this review I turned the radio on
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Danny Meehan – The Navvy On The Shore
- The Navvy on the Shore/Cathal McConnell’s Reels
- The Japanese Hornpipe/McCormacks.
- Johnny’s So Long at the Fair/The Trip to the Cottage. Jigs
- Kitty Sean’s Barndance/Jamesy Byrne’s Downfall. Reel
- The Humours of Whiskey. Slip Jig
- Tom Ward’s Downfall/Crossing the Shannon. Reels
- Dr Gilbert/The Donegal Peter Street. Reels
- Herlihy’s Rant/Con Cassidy’s. Jigs
- The Dovecot-Lament/Docherty’s Strathspey.
- Rakish Paddy. Reel
- The Longford Tinker/Paddy Canny’s. Reels
- O’Donnell’s Air.
- Jamsey Byrne’s No 1 & 2. Reels
- Casey’s/Jimmy Meehan’s. Polkas
- Dermot Byrne’s Delight-Strathspey/Drowsy Maggie. Reel
- Napoleon’s Grand March.
- The Shaskeen. Reel
- Johnny Docherty’s-Piece/Father O’Flynn. Jig
- Sean Dún na nGall-Air/Bean a tí ar lár. Reel
- The Lowlands of Scotland. Reel
- Tarbolton/Over the Moor to Maggie. Reels
Press Reviews
Dirty Linen Reviews.01/02
Danny Meehan comes form southern Donegal, and his primary influences are from his own family and local players, though he also has ties to the great John Doherty and the tradition of travelling musicians he represents.
Meehan moved to London in the 60’s and has been part of the lively Irish musical community there ever since.
He was a member of a loosely knit band called, Le Cheile, who put out two exciting records in the mid 70s, but Navvy on the Shore is, incredibly, his first solo effort. Meehan is a strong player with the forceful attack typical of Donegal players.
He still plays many of the tunes learned as a youngster, but he has also added melodies from all over Ireland, tipping his hat now to Coleman, now to his old comrade Raymond Roland. His version of “Humours of Whisky”, should not be missed.
In fact, all three of these releases are graced with superb liner notes, and all should be eagerly sought by lovers of Irish Music. Duck Baker.
Musical Traditions Web Magazine
‘As you were close to the Favourite scene in the ’70s and ’80s’ stated our editor as the criterion for offering this review to me – and I admit that I feel more confident reminiscing about the pubs of North-East London than analysing the remarkable and eccentric fiddle style of Danny Meehan. At least it gives me a place to start.
Two good reasons, then, for buying this one straightaway: to enjoy this excellent and unique music and encourage the next release from Bow Hand.
Roger Digby – 30.10.00
With this recording we have a wonderful opportunity to listen to yet another of the under-recorded masters of Donegal fiddle music.
Danny Meehan was born in 1940 and grew up in Mount Charles, just west of Donegal Town. There, he was exposed to the music of a relatively unrecorded, apparently under appreciated circle of musicians, mainly fiddlers.
The influence of the Dochertys and their relatives was strongly felt, as it was in other parts of southwest and central Donegal. The liner notes, by Reg Hall, nicely elaborate on these influences.
Other influences on Danny’s playing, however, seem to my ears equally strong. As a young man Danny moved to London, where he fell in with the now famous London Irish music scene that included the likes of Bobby Casey, Michael Gorman, Margaret Barry, Reg Hall, and many other musicians, many of them brilliant.
The liner notes also state that Danny was also very much taken with Coleman. The result in Danny’s playing is the blend of a staccato, attacking Donegal style with a more understated southern style perhaps somewhere intermediate between the styles of Gorman, Casey, and Jimmy Power.
Danny’s style is nonetheless unique–a very lively, bouncy, attacking style, which is highly ornamented, featuring rolls, cuts, triplets, and quite a bit of unison double stops.
Having listened to the CD twice, I already have some favourite tracks. The first, “The Navvy on the Shore/Cathal McConnell’s” is rightly highlighted, since the playing swings along confidently, is cleaner than on some other tracks, the fiddle is higher in the mix, and the tunes too are nice and well-performed.
“Humours of Whiskey,” a Donegal slip jig, is played unaccompanied, very briskly, with great spirit, in two octaves, and in a setting somewhat similar to (but also different from) that played by Francie and Mickey Byrne and recorded by Altan. Danny does a fine job on some Donegal showpieces, including “The Japanese Hornpipe” and a couple of strathspeys. I was particularly taken with his playing of “Rakish Paddy,” not the Donegal version, but a nonetheless wonderful, elaborate, four-part version. We are also treated to a duet of Mick O’Connell, an All-Ireland accordion champion who apparently learned a great deal from Danny, backed by Reg Hall. Very nice playing on that track–Mick definitely has the touch. There are 21 tracks in all, and definitely you’re getting your money’s worth in terms of sheer amount of music, especially considering that the CD is reasonably priced.
From the point of view of the Donegal fiddle aficionado, the CD is valuable not only for the above-mentioned reasons, but also because there are a few tunes recorded here that are not recorded on any other commercially available recordings of Donegal music–indeed, there are a few Donegal-sourced tunes I’d never heard before. One is based on a song Danny’s grandmother used to sing, called “Johnny’s So Long at the Fair.” Another is a polka, sourced from his father, called “Jimmy Meehan’s.” There’s a very nice strathspey Danny calls “Dermot Byrne’s Delight,” which, the liner notes say, “comes from a much younger fiddle player … who is now playing with Altan.” Finally, there’s a piece, either a song tune or a march, called just “Johnny Docherty’s.” Many of the other Donegal-sourced tunes–about half of the several dozen tunes–are in settings close to those of players such as James Byrne and Con Cassidy, while others are interestingly different. Unfortunately, Danny did not record “Danny Meehan’s,” the reel so masterfully played by Tommy Peoples on The High Part of the Road as one of “McCahill’s Reels.”
I’d recommend this to any fan of Donegal fiddling and anyone interested in the London Irish trad scene. The playing is very solid, listenable, and traditional. Larry Sanger
£14.99 -
Dave Sheridan and Company – Sheridan’s Guest House
Dave Sheridan
“Every musician playing on this album. It was an absolute privilege to play with you. I would like to thank all of the local musicians who I learned tunes from over the years. Thanks also to the John Me Kenna Society, Nancy Woods, John Regan, Meaiti Jo Sheamuis, Tom Mulligan, Fiachra 0 Torna, Liam Kelly, Damien Stenson, Sean Me Cague, all the lads in Monaghan, Galway, Leitrim, Sligo and Dublin for their musical friendship over the years, Jimmy Mc Kee, Gaye Mc Donagh, Sister Anne, Donal and Eithne in the Mater Dei Music Department and all the staff in St Michael’s College,
I would like to thank Mam, Paddy, Gerard, Marian and of course Miriam, as well as my extended family for the support they have given me over the years. A special thanks to Brian Mc Donagh who recorded the album. Even though he is one of the most laid back men I ever had the pleasure of meeting, the amount of work he did on this recording was phenomenal.
I would sincerely like to thank two men who, without their influence, I may have never played music. They are Sean Gilrane and My Father Joe. Sean is playing the Flute on track 10 and was a huge encouragement to me down the years. He also composed Enya’s Fancy, the first tune on this track. Dad would always bring me to local sessions, classes and Fleadh Ceoil’s
and wait, sometimes into the early hours until the session was over. I could have played music until my ‘heart was content*……thanks lads”!
Although this fine recording is over 2 years old, we at Copperplate believe it too good to have fallen throught the cracks of the torrent of good recording of traditional music coming out of Ireland in recent years. We will be undertaking a full scale mail out to retail and media, in the hope of helping this brilliant recording to achieve it’s full potential. We are delighted to add this title to our roster.
Press Reviews
The Folk Diary
Dave is a very talented young flute player from County Leitrim and he plays in that breathy straight-ahead fashion that is quite reminiscent of Matt Malloy. In fact a lot of the ensemble playing here – Dave surrounds himself a total of fifteen musicians at various places on the album – sounds like an updated Bothy Band, particularly when the flute is heard in tandem with fiddle or pipes and a bouzouki is providing accompaniment.
He is probably at his best playing reels and though there is that exhilarating flat-out feeling to them, it is clear that he is always playing within himself and allowing a feeling of space in the music. Strangely enough, the most interesting track is probably the one where Dave plays different instruments; he doubles on low whistle and button accordion on Johnny Allen’s and Paddy Gavin’s before bursting into one of Scotland’s most popular session tunes and it is fascinating to hear the slightly different emphasis that the Irish put on The Easy Club Reel.
Vic Smith.
Taplas
ALTHOUGH predominantly an Irish flute album with many opportunities to hear solo flute, Dave Sheridan’s feast of jigs and reels are considerably augmented by a large group of friends. Pipes, low whistle, fiddle, piano accordion, guitars, mandola, bouzouki, keyboards, electric bass, percussion and bodhran help to keep the music varied by playing in different combinations.
It’s driving, lively and upbeat The arrangements keep the music ever changing. It defiantly doesn’t sound ‘all the same1 as some uninitiated sceptics may sometimes accuse Irish music of being. The sound is often very full and padded out, setting it apart from other more typical trad CDs.
The one song is surprising, because it sounds more like a Broadway production than a traditional song. It’s very polished, nonetheless!
There’s a lot going on here, but it’s not overwhelming and in-your-face, but full of treasures to be unearthed as you return to it time and time again. Imogen O’Rourke
The Living Tradition
Co. Leitrim people never seem to shout about their musicians. OK, we know about Joe McKenna, Ben and Charlie Lennon, the MacNamara family, but 1 don’t understand why so much talent isn’t boasted about. Maybe it’s because Leitrim’s overshadowed by its next-door neighbours, Donegal and Sligo?
Dave Sheridan is a young Leitrim flute player, now teaching in Dublin, who deserves to be more widely known and appreciated. He has a fine drive about his playing with discreet ornamentation that still allows the basic tune to shine through. He’s laid down fifteen tracks, most of them around 3′ 30″, of ‘standard’ jigs and reels with a few less well-known tunes. Sixteen musicians, plus a singer, are on just about everything from accordion to uillean pipes. Not all of them play at the same time, so there’s a great variety between tracks. A special round of applause for track 3; Brian Rooney’s outstanding fiddle sets fire to The Maid on the Green and the Humours of Drinagh. He reminds me of the older fiddle style of players like James Morrison. One of Sheridan’s old mentors, Sean Gilrane, plays flute on his own composition, Eania’s Fancy, on track 10 then follows on with Captain Kelly’s and The Salamanca.
There are discreet and sensitive bodhran players, in spite of the base lies you’ve been told. The secret is playing so that musicians are aware of it without noticing it. Neil Lyons plays bodhran on most of the tracks, with Liam Cryan, Junior Davey and Hugh Sullivan picking up the rest. Track 2 (Christy Barry’s, King of the Pipers/Michael Dwyer’s) gives a valid answer to the spoilsports who insist that no more than one bodhran should be played in a session. Lyons and Cryan both play but don’t overpower the set.
Sheridan’s cousin, Conor, sings Sheridan’s own composition Our Beautiful Tradition, a song about older musicians wondering if the younger ones will carry on the well-loved old traditions. I liked the song immediately because it’s the first one I ever heard on this thorny subject. The answer is the latest crop of musicians; the tradition’s safer now than it’s been for decades. As well as the song, Sheridan’s own polka and reel, Enjoy Your Stay/In Sheridan’s Guest House start the final track. The last reel, Safe Home, makes a logical ending to the whole CD. I only wish that all sixteen had gone out in a blaze of glory on this track.
Copperplate Distribution believe this CD is ‘too good to fall through the cracks’, so they’re publicising this two-year old recording. I’m glad they have; it’s a real treat. For all it’s a studio recording, this has an impromptu feel because of the different line-ups on each track; I don’t think any two sets have the same musicians playing together. Copperplate’s blurb says, ‘Imagine a friendly hostelry somewhere in the Irish countryside…’ I don’t want to do that, because this isn’t a bit like a pub session; that would be full of the usual distractions. This feels more like a spontaneous gathering of musicians in someone’s house and you’ve been honoured by being invited. Welcome to Sheridan’s Guest House. Mick Furey
LiveIreland.com
Sheridan’s Guest House by Dave Sheridan from Ireland is a joy of a thing. He has about 16 guest musicians on the album. He is a wonderful flute player out of Leitrim, we believe. A massive talent, and there is such a sense of joy in this album as he generously shares the spotlight with his musical friends. This is just flat-out wonderful. Rating: Four Harps
Bill Margeson
www.netrhythms.com
Here’s another great recording that but for the kind auspices of Copperplate Distribution would have fallen through the cracks and remained largely unheard in the UK. It was made over 2 years ago, but has all the timeless appeal of the best of Irish traditional music.
Co. Leitrim-born Dave is a fine flute player who gathered together an assortment of his musician friends to partake of a session in that metaphorical guest-house-cum-caravan somewhere in the Irish countryside. The 15 tracks, mostly jigs and reels, may be carefully planned as far as arrangements are concerned, but they’re played with all the spirit of the convivial session and the varieties of texture Dave and his accomplices conjure up is quite miraculous. Dervish’s Brian McDonagh, who’s recorded the album, has given the sound a unified bloom that’s full and attractive, yet lets the individual contributions breathe within the total sound-picture. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a flute-centred record quite as much, in fact, for the spirit of the music-making is so infectious; even though the whole affair’s obviously a studio production rather than a live recording, there’s a great feel of different musicians dropping in for each set and being accommodated and allowed free rein.
This accentuates, but in a thoroughly nice way, the degree of contrast between individual tracks, and makes for some imaginative touches — as on the Johnny Allen’s set (track 5), an isolated instance of Dave forsaking the flute for the button accordion and bringing in Seamie O’Dowd on dobro alongside Padraig McGovern’s uilleann pipes and some excellent rhythmic underpinning from Neil Lyons and Keith Kelly. This set forms a real contrast with that preceding, a more strict-tempo approach to a pair of jigs (Maid On The Green and Humours Of Drinagh) where Brian Rooney’s spirited fiddle steps it out with Dave to Kevin Brehoney’s lively piano vamping. That sort of points up the glory of this album — that it’s emphatically not just another series of ‘more jigs and reels’ in ‘OK, so what?’ performances, but a pleasing and often intriguing sequence of inventively varied renditions. And when you glance down the list of musicians (apart from those mentioned, there’s Oliver Loughlin, Damien O’Brien, Michael McCague and Padraig O’Neill to name but four), you just know you’re in for some scintillating musicianship.
After all this positive commentary, however, I feel obliged to voice my one reservation regarding the disc: the inclusion of a song, a composition of Dave’s own (Our Beautiful Tradition), the admirable sentiment of which rather fails to light my candle on account of the smooth yet overwrought manner in which it’s sung by Dave’s cousin Conor. No such problem besets Dave’s self-penned polka and reel on the final track — the only other exception to the exclusively traditional source material used throughout this classy record. David Kidman
The Irish Democrat
GIVEN THE ongoing popularity of all forms of traditional Irish music and a seemingly never-ending stream of high quality recordings from both new and established musicians and groups it’s not surprising that the odd album falls through the cracks of critical recognition.
Sheridan’s Guesthouse would appear to be one such album. Originally released in 2006, this collection of traditional tunes has been put together, arranged and produced by Leitrim flautist and Dublin-based teacher Dave Sheridan.
Assisted by sixteen musician ‘friends’ of the highest calibre, including Dervish’s Seamie O’Dowd (guitars) and Brian McDonagh (mandola), they combine to deliver a delightful and varied set of traditional music with a distinctly upbeat, though not frenzied, feel.
The album ably showcases Sheridan and co,’s musical talents and passion for the tradition. On Johnny Allen’s and Paddy Galvin’s, Sheridan demonstrates that, in addition to being a fine flautist, he’s no slouch on the button accordion, while O’Dowd’s splendid rhythmic guitar playing is a particular joy, providing the drive behind many of the tunes.
The one song on the album, Our Beautiful Tradition, is sung by Dave’s cousin Conor Sheridan. A celebration of traditional Irish music, it is written from the standpoint of an older musician and questions whether it will survive and flourish amongst the younger generations. Given the opening paragraph of this review, I would say that the answer is fairly obvious.
However, while I approved of the song’s sentiments, the arrangement and slightly breathless vocal delivery leaned a bit too far in the direction of MoR for my taste – a bit too Daniel O’Donnell and not enough Christy Moore, if you like.
That minor criticism aside, this is an excellent album, which deserves a wider audience. So, take a break and check in to Sheridan’s Guesthouse. You’ll be sure to have a pleasant stay. David Granville
Hot Press Magazine
In the liner notes for his debut CD young Leitrim flute player Dave Sheridan thanks his Dad profusely for all the hours he spent waiting to drive the fledgling musician home from trad music sessions that continued late into the night. Listening to the aptly named Sheridan’s Guesthouse, you get the feeling that you’ve happened upon such a session-and a damn fine one it is too. An ever changing cast of players join in for a tune or two, anchored by the crack string team of Brian Mc Donagh (mandola) Seamie O Dowd (guitars) and Michael Mc Cague (bouzouki); but always at the centre of things is Sheridan, with his fluid, unflashy style, sound technique and solid ryhthm. A beautiful album throughout! Sarah Mc Quaid
Froots Magazine
It’s easy to have a soft spot for Leitrim, that gentle-paced Irish country whose traditional music seems to match the rises and rolls of the landscape and the tone of the flute players is as clear as the glassy waters of Lough Allen. Dave Sheridan is one such instrumentalist and comes from the tiny village of Killargue, halfway between Manorhamilton and Drumkeeran, but he’s not just a dab hand on the flute, but the button accordion and low whistle too, as Sheridan’s Guesthouse amply illustrates.
For any recording debutant it’s always a boon to be surrounded by inspirational companions, so Dave has corralled the doyen of local accompanists, Sligo’s Séamie O’Dowd, into the studio as well as the ex-Dervish man’s string-plucker in arms, mandola-player Brian McDonagh, and a host of other musicians from his musical stomping ground.
While Dave’s flute takes on lark-like qualities, not least on the effervescent opener Mulhaire’s/Kiss the Maid Séamie proves a bedrock throughout this utterly enjoyable album. However, the sparks truly fly when Dave hooks up with with long-time London-based fiddler Brian Rooney for Maid on the Green/Humours of Drinagh, while the thoroughly foot-stomping set of reels kicked off by Johnny Allen’s sees his accordeon trading notes in remarkable rapidity with the uilleann pipes of Patrick McGovern.
Elsewhere, there’s a flute duet to die for, Enya’s Fancy, featuring Dave’s cousin Seán Gilrane, and two tracks revealing the talents of fiddler Pádraig O’Neill from Dublin (clearly revealing himself as one of Ireland’s greatest wasted talents — as for why, the story’s too long to tell).
So book yourself a room in Sheridan’s Guesthouse, the rooms might need refurbishing, but the house band is a killer. James O Donnell
Gordan Turnbull
Hailing from County Leitrim, this impressive debut album features a large number of guest musicians (hence the title), with the flute playing being the central thread running through it all.
The flute playing is highly accomplished, dynamic and in a modern flowing style rather than the rhythmic style traditionally associated with Leitrim (such as Packie Duignan). The guests are too numerous to mention in detail here, but notably include Brian Rooney (fiddle) on one track, Junior Davey (bodhran) on several others and Brian McDonagh and Seamie O’Dowd from Dervish providing backing on all but two tracks. Some of the arrangements are inventive and forward-looking, but still very much within the tradition.
This is a delightful and exhuberent recording that reminds me of Jimmy Noonan’s The Maple Leaf in the sheer joy of playing that comes over to the listener.
£14.99
