Concertina
Showing 1–16 of 31 results
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Ben Lennon & Friends – The Natural Bridge
- Memories of Ballymote /Gurkin Cross
- The Enchanted Lady /The Holy Land
- The Donegal Mazurkas
- The Blackberry Blossom /McFadden’s
- Song: Flora
- Maguire’s Fiddle /O’Donnell’s Hornpipe
- Rattigan’s /The Collier’s
- Mick McNamara’s /Touch Me If You Dare
- Return of Spring /The Mountain Pathway
- Johnny Henry’s /Ryan’s Rant
- Cathleen Hehir’s
- Song: The Banks of the Clyde
- McDermott’s Hornpipe
- The Lonesome Jig /The Tenpenny Bit
- Batt Henry’s Barndance
- The Boys of Ballisodare /The Five Mile Chase
- The Primrose Polka
- Farrell O’Gara /Lucy Campbell
- The Flax in Bloom
Press Reviews
Irish Music Magazine. July 2000
Originally released in 1999 it’s taken a while to pecolate it’s way through our review pages, but like that famous water, it’s the pure drop bottled. The wait only increased the thirst and pleasure from subsequent quenching. For some of us, who have already clocked up four decades, this music will recall the past masters and the sound we grew up with. Remember those old 78’s of Coleman, Morrison and Kiloran? Theirs was a regional style but was that qualitythey had just a little to do with the recording equipment? Not a bit of it, this album proves that gool old-fashioned music is as good as ever. And it can still be made.Proof too that there is a lyrical voice from Leitrim that’s accented and eloquent. Ben Lennon, the elder statesman of Leitrim music, brother of composer Charlie, and father of fiddler, Maurice and fluter, Brian, (all of whom guest on this album), is joined here by Garry O’Briain, John Carty, Ciaran Curran, (Altan) and Seamus Quinn on piano. Gabriel McArdle who plays concertina gives us a song, The Banks of the Clyde, collected from John Redhill, on an island in Loch Eirne. The acompanying 20 page liner notes area a tastefully designed store of information. I’ve now another classic recording to add to Milestone at the Garden, Paddy in the Smoke and The Long Strand, The Natural Bridge links the tunes and styles of two generations ago in a seamless road without a halt in the step, rising above the turbulent waters of fashion with elegant grace. An architectural treasure if ever there was one. You won’t really know the tradition until you number albums like this in your collection. Sean Laffey
Taplas
There’s a wonderful lilt to the tunes, especially the polkas and the barn dances, and a tremendous sense of fun and enjoyment. Not only is this CD a natural bridge between the traditions of north Leitrim and south west Fermanagh, but also between the present and the music of the past, like Paddy Kiloran, Johnny Doherty and Batt Henry.
The Folk Diary #178 Aug/Sept 99
One of Ireland’s best loved, most respected old fiddler’s offers a wonderful selection of his playing, mainly in the Leitrim/Sligo style of his birth. Though the fact that he has lived in Donegal (and played regularly with Johnny Doherty) also shines through. There are only a few solo moments as Ben immerses himself in what sound like a variety of different sessions, featuring his brother Charlie and friends. Mostly recorded in one takes and using an empty pub as a studio, this is fine, varied playing. Ben also shows himself to be a fine singer in a style that seems to derive from the same inspiration as that of Cathal McConnell. Another triumph for the company that are becoming THE company for Irish traditional music and song. Vic Smith.
The Living Tradition #34
Ben and Charlie Lennon together should be enough to make you listen: add Brian and Maurice Lennon, Gary O’Briain, John Carty, Ciaran Curran, Gabriel McArdle and Seamus Quinn, and you really sit up and take notice. This is a typical Clo Iar Chonnachta production; well balanced and with twenty pages of comprehensive notes. There’s one particular Irish label that ought to take heed of CIC’s thoroughness in that regard. “The Natural Bridge” is north Leitrim style at it’s best; flowing and unhurried, giving the music elbow-room, yet with a strong assured rhythm. Maybe maturity in traditional music comes when you don’t play floridly and fast just because you can? As the title implies, there’s feeling for the styles of near neighbours from South Leitrim, Sligo and Fermanagh. The bridge is also with the past, because Ben pays tribute to the older musicians whose records influenced him; Coleman, John and Mickey Doherty, Killoran, James Morrison, etc. There are also tributes to musicians who are still with us, like Michael McNamara of Aughavas, south Leitrim. McNamara’s influence shows through on the reel named for him. Instrumental balance in varied throughout 17 tracks of reels, jigs, hornpipes, polkas and a great barndance, as well as two songs from Gabriel McArdle. An inspired idea is Maurice Lennon’s fine Viola. It fits really well; “Rattigan’s and The Collier’s” rarely sounded so good. There are rarely played tunes as well as old favourites; and the best version of “Cathleen Hehir’s” I’ve heard yet. This is great stuff; definitely one for the ready-for-use rack. Mick Furey.
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Ben Lennon & Tony O’Connell – Rossinver Braes
Music from Two Different Generations
Rossinver Braes is the new album of traditional Irish music on fiddle and concertina from Ben Lennon and Tony O’Connell, released on the Cló Iar-Chonnachta label.
Ben Lennon is a legendary figure in traditional Irish music circles, a fiddler from Co. Leitrim who celebrates his eightieth birthday this year and who has been playing the fiddle for seventy of those years. Although almost fifty years separate Ben from his fellow musician on this album, Tony O’Connell from west Limerick, there is an undeniable musical connection between them. David Lennon, Ben’s son, says in his introduction to the CD: ‘Tony is probably the most empathetic musician I have heard my father play with. There is an understanding of phrasing, time and nuance that one finds only rarely in any musical form.’ This is O’Connell’s second album; his first album was recorded with another Leitrim fiddler, Andy Morrow, and was released to critical acclaim in 2005. The album came second in the top ten albums of 2005 of highly-respected traditional Irish music reviewer Earle Hitchner of the Irish Echo, second, interestingly, to the album Within a Mile of Kilty released on the Cló Iar-Chonnachta label that year and featuring Ben and Charlie Lennon, as well as four other superb Leitrim fiddlers.
Rossinver Braes features both traditional and newly-composed tunes. Several of Charlie Lennon’s compositions are included, including the hornpipe that gives the album its title, named after the village where Ben now lives. Charlie also composed two barn dances in honour of the musicians while the album was being recorded at his Cuan Studios outside Spiddal, ‘Lord Leitrim’ and ‘The Earl of Thomond’, tunes which he feels reflect the spirit of both musicians and their dynamic playing together. The tune selection leans toward the Sligo—Leitrim area and includes many tunes associated with Michael Coleman and James Morrison. Accompaniment is provided by Charlie Lennon (piano), Alec Finn (bouzouki) and Jerry McNamara (guitar).
Ben Lennon is from Kiltyclogher, Co. Leitrim and has recorded many albums during a long and illustrious traditional music career. He is regarded as one of the very finest of Leitrim’s fiddlers, no mean feat in a county renowned for its fiddling tradition.
Tony O’Connell is from Glin in west Co. Limerick and is currently living in Limerick city where he plays regularly and teaches at the Irish World Music Centre in the University of Limerick. He has won All-Ireland concertina titles at both underage and senior levels and has toured Asia, America and Europe with various shows and groups.
Also available from Copperplate and featuring Ben Lennon
CICD 139 The Natural Bridge
CICD 159 Within A Mile of Kilty
Press Reviews
Irish Music Magazine March 09
“When my father mentioned that he thought it would be a good idea to make a CD with Tony, I sensed that something special was happening, and so it proved to be.” That quote is taken from the CD notes of Rossinver and was written by David Lennon, one of Ben’s sons. David also said that when his father first mentioned he had been playing music with a top-class concertina player called Tony O’Connell from Limerick, he realised that this man must be good. “My father is not in the habit of praising musicians without considerable merit…”
Ben is a great living exponent of the strong, regional style of fiddle playing from the north Leitrim, south-eastern Fermanagh area and the fact that he took up with a man from far-off Limerick and almost fifty years his junior was also a bit of a surprise. “It took a while for us to get it all together,” Ben says, “because we have different styles of playing but he was able to adapt. He’s very adaptable, very musical, and he has a great passion for the music. He’s a younger man, but he really knows what it’s all about.”
That said, Ben is no stranger to playing with musicians from all over Ireland, having lived at various times in Cork, Limerick and Donegal. “When I was in Cork we had a group with Jackie Daly and Charlie Piggott and Gary Cronin. At that time there was great music in Cork and we had regular sessions, maybe twice a week. We formed this little group and called ourselves The Shaskeen, long before the well-known band of the same name came along. I enjoyed that very much. Then in Donegal we had a band called Dog Big Dog Little that featured himself, Seamus Quinn, Gabriel McArdle & Ciaran Curran. I liked playing with them very much. And then I played with my own family, my sons, Brian and Maurice, and my brother, Charlie.”
David notes: “Tony is probably the most empathetic musician I have heard my father play with. There is an understanding of phrasing, time and nuance that one finds only rarely in any musical form.” You can check it out for yourself in this delightful fifteen-track album of reels, jigs, hornpipes and barn dances that comes with the typical Clo lar-Chonnachta attention to detail in notes that are full and generously informative on the musicians and their music. Aidan O’Hara
LiveIreland.com
You can always, always count on Clo Iar Chonanachta to put out wonderful, traditional music. Now the label brings us Ben Lennon on fiddle and Tony O’Connell on concertina in a magical thing called, Rossinver Braes. Wonderful. Guest musicians include Charlie Lennon on piano, Alec Finn on bouzouki and guitarist, Jerry McNamara. A contender for Instrumental Album of the Year. If you love real Irish music, this one is for you. A wondrous and lively piece of work, altogether. Rating Four Harps Bill Margeson
The Folk Diary
The much-loved octogenarian fiddler from Co. Leitrim with the totally distinctive way of phrasing his tunes teams up with a much younger concertina player from west Limerick.
The instinctive way that their instruments phrase together belies the near half century that separates their ages. This is delightful inspiring music that produces a sense a
relaxed control in their playing, even when they are playing reels and the sense of space in The Cavan Reel/The Galway Rambler is delightful though the real beauty of their playing
is when they playing at a slower pace – barn dances and hornpipes and even a tune that is somewhat dubiously deemed to be a foxtrot.
The recording mix favours strongly the lead instruments so that the superb playing of the likes of Alex Finn of De Danann fame and Ben’s brother Charlie on piano is very much in the background. As well as being Ireland’s top accompanist of choice, Charlie Lennon is also one of his country’s leading composers of dance tunes and here he contributes two barn dances,
each named for the lead musicians. Vic Smith
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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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Micheal Hynes, Charlie Lennon, & Steve Cooney – Ceol Sidhe (Shee Music)
Press Reviews
Irish Music Magazine
A well-known Galway musician, piano accordionist in his youth and later switching to the concertina to save his back, Micheal O’Hynes has a sureness of touch and a fondness for the nuances of slower tunes which comes with a certain maturity. He also acquired a strong interest in more unusual traditional dance forms – clogs, strathspeys, flings, clan marches and the like – from his Clare and Galway parents. Many of these are to be heard on Ceol Sidhe along with more familiar reels and jigs such as Bunker Hill, Brennan’s, Rakish Paddy and Munster Bacon.
Micheal is joined on this impressive recording debut by adopted Galwayman, Charlie Lennon on fiddle and the well-travelled Steve Cooney on guitar. There are two of Charlie’s compositions here, and four of Micheal’s own: the rest are broadly traditional. The pace is restrained, but that only enhances the quality of this music. Like a fine malt whiskey, this album reveals more with time. And after all, as the title of Micheal’s delightful jig says, What’s the Hurry?
Ceol Sidhe, music of the magical and mischievous Irish faery folk, doesn’t actually include any of the numerous tunes attributed to fairy musicians – with one possible exception. The slow air The Enchanted Valley may be such a tune, ancient, modal, haunting on .solo concertina. Much of Micheal’s music is similarly magical, particularly his slow airs: faster Snow, The Wild Geese, Da Auld Resting Chair by the late Tom Anderson from Shetland, and a spellbinding version of Limerick’s Lamentation which progresses from march to jig to air. Green Grow the Rushes and Jimmy Lyons’ Highland are familiar as flings in Donegal, and continue the Scottish strand here, which culminates in as fine a pair of strathspeys as I’ve heard from Irish players. There’s also a great selection of hornpipes and clogs: The Tailor’s Twist, City of Savannah, The Locomotive and Charlie Lennon’s Salthill. Charlie features prominently on a superb pair of reels, Micheal’s Welcome to Charlie and his own composition The Twelve Pins – named after the pub in Finsbury Park, no doubt.
Grace and charm, musicality, and plenty of expression: that’s the music of Micheal O’Hynes. Alex Monaghan
www.liveIreland.com
Ceol Sidhe features Steve Cooney, Charlie Lennon, and Michael Hynes on guitar, fiddle and concertina, respectively. There are 19 cuts on the album, each more brilliant than the other. Believe it or not, there are only two sets of reels! This album is adults playing Irish music. Perfectly. Not 305mph, like so many of today’s children. If you love Irish traditional music, this is the perfect instrumental album. We know Copperplate in London has it. Bill Margeson
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