Guitar
Showing 1–16 of 91 results
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Andrew Dinan & Jim Richardson: Inside Out
Track Listing
- Little Katie Taylor’s/The Blocker’s/The Silver Spear
- The Night Owl/Horsebite/Our Kid. (comp Grace Kelly)
- 10 Bar Blues. (comp Andrew Dinan)
- Old Fashoned Morphine. (vocals Nancy Dinan)
- Civil War Lament (comp Andrew Dinan)
- Ronnie Cooper’s/Tommy McElvogue’s/Sean Walsh’s
- Exile of Erin (comp Tony Sullivan)/The Conversation. (comp Grace Kelly)
- Transmission. (comp Joy Division/ vocals Nancy Dinan)
- Holes/The Strong Men From Kilfinane/Time Flies Too Fast ( both comp by Andy Dinan)
- La Polka des Ours (comp Lors Jourin)/Glen Cottage/La Polkade la Meteo Marine (comp Jean-Michel Veilon
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Brendan Hendry, Paul McSherry & Nodlaig Brolly – Stringtones
www.liveIreland.com The Livies Awards 2012 Musician of the Year – Brendan Hendry
This Northern Ireland fiddle player defines what it means to be an Irish musician. His style and taste are impeccable, and nobody deserves this award more. A stunningly gifted musician as evidenced on his two albums so far, Stringtones and Tuned Up. His grasp of the music and soulful playing is what the Irish fiddle is all about. As with all the great musicians, when you hear this artist playing the fiddle, you are hearing Ireland. A master.
Press Reviews
The Living Tradition Jan/Feb 2011
Brendan Hendry – Fiddle, Paul McSherry – Guitars and Bouzouki, and Nodlaig Brolly – Clairseach, Piano and Vocals, have produced a very nice album of music and song.
Traditional and traditionally set items sit comfortably together in one of the best programmes of recorded music I have heard for a long time. Their repertoire includes songs, two sung in Irish, one in English,
reels, jigs, strathspeys, a slow air, and hornpipes. The songs are perfectly suited to Nodlaig’s slightly wistful voice, and the arrangements are very sympathetic to the mix of instruments.
Everything is faultlessly performed – these three musicians are very together. All three are new to me and so I know nothing of their backgrounds or influences, but based on the evidence of this CD they must
be wide and varied. Highly recommended. Danny Saunders
American Public Radio
What a great new album! More to come, as we will be playing it a lot.
This is great stuff. Sounds like the real deal to us!
Chicago Irish American Newspaper
Thhis is such a brilliant piece of music from one of the best musicians in the business. Wonderful stuff, true to the bone.Terrific follow up to his first album. Stringtones brings together Brendan Hendry on fiddle (excellent) , Paul McSherry on guitar and bouzouki in a very tasty accompaniment and Noldaig Brolly playing a lovely harp and piano, while singing beautifully. The whole thing has a real sense of class, style and real musicianship in the tradition.
LiveIreland.com
Another great piece of work from Derry and Brendan Hendry. Real trad played and sung perfectly. Oh! Such a tasty treat! Stringtones is one of our favorites of the 2010 albums. We trust Brendan Hendry and his fiddle to bring music of real quality. Here, backed by John McSherry on guitar and Noldaig Brolly on piano and harp, we have a real treat. We also really like Brolly’s voice. Great job all round!!!
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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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Ceide – Like A Wild Thing
- Cis Ni Liathain / The Bucks of Oranmore.
- The Dunmore Lasses / Mother’s Reel
- Flowers of the Forest.
- John the Baptist.
- The Woods of Old Limerick / Nora Rooney’s Favourite / Farewell to Tarpey’s
- Le Voyage pour L’Irlande. Air
- Within a Mile of Dublin / Ballinasloe Fair/ Mickey Finn’s.
- Like a Wild Thing.
- Gan Ainm / Cuir Barr Ai r/ My Love is in America.
- Mrs Kenny’s / Adam & Eve / Babes in the Wood.
- If I Had a Boat.
- The Pullet that Wants the Cock / The Night Before Larry was Stretched / Islay Rant.
The musicians are:
- Brian Lennon – Flute/Whistle/Vocals
- Tom Doherty – Button Accordion/Melodeon
- John Mc Hugh – Fiddle
- Kevin Doherty – Double Bass
- Declan Askin – Guitar/Vocals
The group is Céide, (pronounced Kay-ge) named after the 5000 year old Mesolithic hunter/gatherer settlement found in north Mayo called the Céide Fields
‘These five lads from various backgrounds first started to play together at a regular Sunday night session in my pub in Westport. It soon became clear that they were developing a distinctive and original sound, combining the best of traditional music with contemporary songs and arrangements. This recording does great justice to their individual and collective talent. It has a very broad appeal and I highly recommend it.’ Matt Molloy
Press Reviews
Irish Dancing International Review Sept 03 CD of the Month
Living away from the “centre of the universe”, you sometimes yearn for the “real drop” when it comes to traditional Irish music. Well, you gotta listen to this album from Ceide as it’s as close as you can get to “real” music.
It’s a delightful, genuine trad Irish album, the spirit and atmosphere of Mayo exudes from every track, starting with, Cis ni Liathain and The Bucks of Oranmore. On track two, we get Dunmore Lasses, erstwhile glorified by the Chieftains and the man behind the bar himself, Matt Molloy, in their album, “The Long Black Veil”. A lovely treatment to this, speeded up to a spirited reel pace, and again, a tried formula of lovely whistle playing, giving way to accordion, fiddle and guitar, with all five lads cutting in for good measure.
The title track, Like A Wild Thing is a slow, easy song, composed by local, Tony Reidy. It’s sung by Declan Askin and supported by all the musicians on board. It’s very meaningful and well suited to the album’s title. The CD is a fine mix of jigs, reels and polkas and a Finnish Waltz (sounds French). The musicians are exceptional and, all through the album, a polished unhurried quality pevades every note.
Oh, and leave the CD running after the last track and you get a delightful blues harmonica number by Declan with all the boys “cutting in” again, a great finish to a splendid album. Donal Lynch
Pay The Reckoning Web Site Review
Mayo-based 5-piece, Ceide, are one outfit who won’t have any difficulty in staking their claim on airtime on Pay The Reckoning’s CD carousel.
The band came together in sessions at Matt Molloy’s pub in Westport and what sparks must have flown between them when they realised they were on the same musical wavelength! Intelligent with a sense of fun; able to hold their enthusiasm in check during the first repeat of a tune yet ready to drop all inhibitions and barnstorm their way to the finish line.
Ceide combine traditional tunes with contemporary songs. In this regard they are the latest torch-bearers in a musical institution which already has an illustrious history. (Stockton’s Wing and Four Men and a Dog, to name but two groups, have walked a very similar path and to very similar effect.) Ceide’s choice of contemporary material is exemplary. They interpret John Martyn’s “John The Baptist” beautifully, allowing Kevin Doherty an opportunity to strut his funky stuff on double bass while Declan Askin showcases his guitar and vocals. Lyle Lovett’s “If I Had A Boat” also gets a well-deserved, sensitive treatment. However to our ears the stand-out song on the album is local singer/songwriter Tony Reidy’s song “Like A Wild Thing”. The song catches a former farmer, forced into office work as a result of not being able to make a living out of his farm, reflecting bitterly on his current lot. The soul-destroying bereftness which lies at the heart of this song is communicated perfectly in Ceide’s arrangement and the words linger afterwards, nagging away at the listener. “Farewell to the land where I grappled with stone/Farewell to the hills where I was soaked to the bone”.
And what of the tunes? Well … there are some beltin’ sets here. We’ve already mentioned Kevin Doherty’s double bass playing. It’s remarkable how much it contributes to the tune sets. On the first set of reels, for example, Cis Ni Liathain/The Bucks of Oranmore, the bass is in evidence throughout the first reel, lending the tune a degree of “bottom” rarely encountered in traditional Irish music. At the change, Doherty holds back, allowing Brian Lennon on flute and Declan Askin on guitar to carry the first round of The Bucks Of Oranmore. At the repeat, Doherty rejoins, immediately anchoring the sound once again.
These lads know their stuff. Tom Doherty (boxes and snare drum) and John McHugh on fiddle haven’t yet been mentioned by name, but their contribution is equally vital. There are a couple of slowish tracks (the Finnish waltz “The Flowers of the Forest” and the air composed by Pierre Bensusan “Le Voyage Pour L’Irlande”) which spotlight the band’s ability to maintain the rigid discipline necessary to put such tunes across.
Which is not, of course, to deny that discipline is also necessary in successfully playing jigs and reels and so forth. Ceide prove on this album that they are masters at constructing and playing exhilarating tune sets. Here you’ll come across old standards and tunes you might not be familiar with as well as tunes which take you completely by surprise. In the final category is the inclusion of “The Night Before Larry Was Stretched” played as a slip jig in a set in which it is sandwiched between The Pullet That Wants The Cock and The Islay Rant, and benefitting greatly from the eeriness which it borrows from Doherty bowing, rather than plucking, his bass. All the sets are outstanding and are therefore all worthy of a mention. As well as those which already get a namecheck above, then you’ll be excited by “The Dunmore Lasses/Mother’s Reel”, “The Woods Of Old Limerick/Nora Rooney’s Favourite/Farewell To The Tarpeys Of Arderry”, “Within A Mile Of Dublin/Ballinasloe Fair/Mickey Finn’s Favourite”, “Gan Ainm/Cuir Barr Air/My Love Is In America” and “Mrs Kenny’s/Adam And Eve/Babes In The Wood”.
All things considered, a superb debut by a bundle of accomplished musicians, about whom we expect to hear very big things in the near future. It’s no exaggeration to say that in the space of a few days, this has become one of Pay The Reckoning’s favourite recordings … we’ll be singing its praises at every opportunity! Pay The Reckoning
Folk Roundabout Review. 01/02
This is the first release from a new Mayo-based five-piece, and comes highly recommended by Matt Molloy at sessions at whose pub in Westport he first encountered their distinctive collective approach and individual talents. Matt sure has a finely tuned ear, for this album’s appealing blend of traditional tunes and contemporary songs makes for a good listen.
The opening set defines the mood and pace, with spirited front-line accordion (Tom Doherty) offset by gently rhythmic guitar (Declan Askin) and smooth bowed double-bass (Kevin Doherty), before fiddle (John McHugh) and whistle (Brian Lennon) join the front line for the repeat and the rhythms take off, though maintaining a level of restraint that’s attractively managed.
The band’s general method of attack remains thoughtful rather than full-tilt, and their ensemble tightness conceals a considerable degree of internal fire, and there’s some very expert shading in the playing that repays many further listens. With an innate and well-considered sense of poise, Céide have a healthy attitude to repertoire too, unafraid to essay a Finnish waltz (and bring in a handbell-choir to boot!) alongside reels and jigs (those on track 5 feature Charlie Lennon’s wonderfully gentle guest piano playing as a bonus). There’s also a hidden track, where a wailing blues harmonica drives the whole train off on holiday!
The choice of songs (just three out of the twelve tracks) is clearly tailored to suit the winning combination of softness and strength in Declan’s blues-inflected vocal style – Lyle Lovett’s If I Had A Boat, John Martyn’s John The Baptist and the hitherto unfamiliar title track, a fine composition by local Mayo resident Tony Reidy that rather belies the image evoked by that title. I liked this album a lot, and look forward to hearing more of Céide. David Kidman
Folking.com Web Site
If none other than Matt Molloy recommends a band, you can rest assured you should be on pretty safe ground. I’m pleased to report that this CD met all expectations and then some. The line-up of flute, accordion, fiddle, guitar and double bass will undoubtedly bring comparisons to Lunasa etc but I personally think these lads have it if only for the fact they have included some vocals.
Reading from the sleeve notes gives a fair indication of what to look forward to and first impressions are that here the musicians have put a lot of thought into the construction of the set pieces by concentrating not only on the rhythms but the keys they are performed in as well. Years ago De Dannan sussed that if you played tunes in unusual keys such as Eb that the listener’s ear isn’t used to this and therefore makes your performance sound ‘different’ from the crowd. Ceide utilise this to good effect and, take for instance ‘The Bucks Of Oranmore’ in the key of A major this technique gives the tune more character. Off setting the tradition with contemporary songs including John Martyn’s ‘John The Baptist’ definitely sets the band in a field of its own. I look forward to further outings. Pete Fyfe
Ita Kelly, Irish Music Magazine, Vol 7 No 3. Oct 2001
‘The debut release from this Mayo based band is an interesting mix of traditional tunes and contemporary songs. Declan Askin is responsible for those songs and they represent his own influences and personal taste for the work of Lyle Lovett (‘If I had a Boat’) and John Martyn (‘John the Baptist’). The title for the album ‘Like a Wild Thing’ is taken from a song written by Tony Reidy a singer songwriter from the village of Aghagower near Westport. It’s an apt song for this Mayo based group, representative of the Céide area in North West Mayo where infrastructure is nil and the lot of the small farmer is very harsh as depicted in this song. Brian Lennon’s low whistle permeates throughout and Kevin Doherty’s bass is allowed to be heard very naturally. Tom Doherty on melodeon and accordion and John Mc Hugh on fiddle complete the Céide line-up. The perky Mrs. Kenny’s Barndance again has the lovely dropping bass and the Pierre Bensusan tune ‘Le Voyage’ is beautiful, the ‘Flowers of the Forest’ sweet and ‘John the Baptist’ funky and a little Gospel. While this group achieves the full-blooded swing of the tunes sets they also have plenty of insight into music from farther afield than Co. Mayo.
Very thoughtfully arranged and great reading in the sleeve notes.’ Fintan Vallely, Sunday Tribune
‘Slick musicianship and great, solid arrangements.’ Siobhan Long, Irish Times
‘Débutantes Céide are a quintet with not just attitude, but finesse by the bucket load.’ Gráinne Ní Ghilín, Foinse
‘The song ‘Like a Wild Thing’ written by Tony Reidy from Aghagower, Co. Mayo is extremely powerful.given a heartbreaking rendition by Declan’
Irish Music Review Web Site
Back in the days when he had more money than sense, a certain friend of mine would gouge additional grooves into records to ensure, as a consequence, that those tracks he disliked were skipped by the needle. Of course, when he later had more sense than money, he found himself with a heap of unsellable vinyl and regularly being sneered at by Nottingham’s own especially surly brand of second-hand record shop assistants. In subsequent years I sometimes wondered whether the advent of the compact disc player and its programmable facilities had been invented with him in my mind for, certainly, his fingers would be fiddling with the remote control’s buttons to erase certain tracks from this debut album by Céide to create his own preferred version. In an interview in The Journal of Music in Ireland (Vol. 2, No. 2), the Cork singer Jimmy Crowley railed against the encroachment of ‘mid-Atlanticisms’ into Ireland’s music: You see this a lot in younger people, I’m afraid. If someone from Kerry, say, sings an Irish song in an LA accent, that’s the end of my interest. But if it’s a Kentuckian singing in a Kentucky accent, that’s great, of course. I’d criticise some singer/songwriters for these American accents. There’s no worth in this mid-Atlantic stuff, they haven’t been true to their culture, to the land they’re living in. Often too, the songs aren’t saying anything either.
There are many exceptions (for example, Danú, Altan, Dervish, Providence etc.) where singers have remained true to their roots and, importantly, their voices, but also far too many cases where songs from other genres are interpolated into the band’s repertoire and delivered in the kind of accent that Jimmy despises.
As such, it is questionable whether Mr. Crowley would be especially enamoured with Céide’s album Like a Wild Thing and, especially, the band’s singer, Declan Askin, who has three outings of variable worth on the album. The first is John Martyn’s John the Baptist from the 1970 album Stormbringer recorded with his wife Beverley. In the Martyns’ hands, the song was an epic with the contrast between the pair’s voices and the subtlety of the arrangement highlighting the latent violence of the relationship depicted in the lyrics. While noting that Scullion also recorded the song in 1979, Céide inform us that ‘To improve on such history is very difficult, if not impossible, but we have tried to give the piece a contemporary groove, while highlighting the song’s unusual lyrics’. Actually, they’ve turned it into a jaunty little singalong with Askin’s mid-Atlantic drone and quasi-rock singer intonations to the fore, thereby losing any of the song’s quirky impact.
Next up comes the title track, written by a County Mayo man, Tony Reidy, a song about the economic exigencies of a small farmer forced ‘To make a living I must sit at a chair, Sit at a chair and stare at a screen’. This is far more successful and entirely because Declan forsakes any extraneous accents and sings in his own voice.
Lastly, however, comes a rendition so horrific that the album case should carry a warning sticker, a song interpreted so terribly that it makes Dessie O’Halloran sound like Christy Moore. The song in question is Lyle Lovett’s If I Had a Boat. Céide’s notes state that their ‘arrangement, while deviating quite considerably from the original still shows what a talent Lyle is’. It certainly does, but not in the way the band intended. Askin sings as though he’s auditioning for a biopic of Michael Bolton, albeit while suffering from a hernia and, as a consequence, manages to miss all the ironic humour of Lovett’s lyrics.
The question is ultimately, of course, why a band based in Mayo should want to sing about Roy Rogers, Trigger, the Lone Ranger and Tonto (as Lyle understandably might) rather than about their own childhoods or locality (wherein lies part of the success of Like a Wild Thing). If this was not bad enough, Céide have employed one of modern musical technology’s most irksome innovations, the hidden track. Islay Rant, though included in the track listings, appears several minutes after its predecessor. The novelty of this device has worn thinner than a cigarette paper. There is one further feature of Céide which may irritate some – the presence of a double bass player, one Kevin Doherty. In the Crowley interview quoted earlier, Jimmy also attacked what he sees as the increasing commercialism of Irish music: One result is that it’s getting bland, and Ireland was never bland. Much of it sounds boring to me, too many not-very-good clones of the Bothy Band.
To this I would add a new phenomenon, the sub-Lúnasa clone and one that is likely to reappear thanks to the sales of their last album, The Merry Sisters of Fate, and its subsequent critical acclaim in the USA. Like a Wild Thing’s opening track, yet another version of The Bucks of Oranmore, simply sounds too close to Lúnasa for comfort (albeit there’s accordion instead of pipes, but the bass drone gives the game away and elsewhere Céide employ some of Lúnasa’s trademark rhythmic shifts).
That being said other parts of Like a Wild Thing are at times excellent and others delightful. The best moments feature the flute and low whistles of Brian Lennon, a member of the prominent musical family from Leitrim (he is the son of Ben, the fiddler) and one of the most lyrical players around. Equally, Tom Doherty is no mean accordion and melodeon player and well to the fore on a set of jigs kick-started by The Woods of Old Limerick. Fiddler John McHugh, however, hardly gets a look in until the very last track (not the hidden one!) where his rendition of the slow jig The Pullet that Wants the Cock has all the kind of lugubrious qualities that make you check his photograph for signs of a pension book. Geoff Wallis
£14.99 -
Charlie Lennon – Turning the Tune
Turning the Tune is a new double-CD of fiddle music from Charlie Lennon which includes one CD of his own compositions, released on the CIC label.
“One CD looks back, the other looks forward.” That is how Charlie Lennon summed up his new double-CD Turning the Tune.
Charlie is a veteran of traditional Irish music and a member of the well-known Lennon family from Kiltyclogher, Co. Leitrim, which includes his older brother Ben, also a master fiddler. Charlie has seen many changes within the tradition over the years and fears that it may be in danger of becoming too diluted. “We are moving through a period of constant innovation and unless we keep a sharp eye on where we’ve come from, we’re likely to stray off course,” he says. The challenge, he feels, is to build on the tradition, and that is the underlying principle of Turning the Tune. The first CD looks back to the roots of the tradition and past masters and features trusted old tunes with the notes in the booklet referring to many sources including McKenna, Morrison, Coleman and Killoran. Charlie Lennon presents many of these tunes in a new way while staying within the tradition, demonstrating the possibilities which the tradition offers. The second CD looks forward, and contains all new music composed by Charlie. He says of the compositions: “I find it helpful in writing to recall good memories of people and places and seek to capture these in music. While the genre is primarily Irish traditional, I have moved into other genres at times in order to best paint the picture.” The booklet details the inspiration for each piece, adding a particularly personal touch to the album.
Other musicians featuring on the album include: Brian McGrath, Frank Kilkelly, Éilís Lennon, Brian Lennon, Johnny and Johnny Óg Connolly, Steve Simmons and Emmet Gill. Turning the Tune contains thirty tracks in total.
Press Reviews
The Irish Times 2.11.07
Leitrim fiddler and prolific composer Charlie Lennon lends some finely wrought tunes to the tradition, and this double CD is a formidable addition to his arsenal.
With one CD of established tunes accompanied by another brimful of newly minted compatriots, Lennon bestows another gabháil of music to listeners and players hungry to cross new borders.
Against an occasionally overly robust backdrop of piano, banjo, viola and box, Lennon’s throaty fiddle traces an earthy route around old standards such as James Morrison’s Peach Blossom, as well as recently birthed muzettes (Waltz Joe-Anne), strathspeys and a pair of sublime commemorative pieces: an air/reel in memory of Lennon’s talented sound engineer, Éamonn Goggin, and a reel dedicated to his nephew, John Lennon.
Delicately perceptive playing from a musician who marries the cerebral and the emotional without ever sacrificing one to the other. Siobhan Long
The Folk Diary
Under the booklet section entitled “A Word of Advice” Charlie counsels ‘Don’t just learn the notes for these are only a portion of the tune.
Think about the different ways of phrasing it.’ He then demonstrates the value of this over 30 tracks and two albums. Thus on the first album,
his assured fiddling finds new and exciting ways of addressing standards from the Irish repertoire and tunes such as ‘The Liverpool Hornpipe’ and
‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’ have new life breathed into them and his rendition of ‘The Blackbird’ makes the hair stand on its end.
Charlie doesn’t mention the value of listening to the classic recordings of Irish music, but from his whole approach we can hear his appreciation of these, particularly of the early Irish American 78s.
On the second album, Charlie plays tunes that he has written himself, but apart from the fact that these obviously sound less familiar than those on
the first album, nothing else in the approach is changed. These are tunes that totally fit alongside the tradition.
These albums are as exhilarating as any I have heard in a long time. Vic Smith
(This album also got my vote in the fRoots Critics/BBC Radio 3 “Album of the Year” poll)
Irish Music Magazine OCT 07
To get one CD of fiddler, Charlie Lennon’s playing is cause enough for celebration, but to get two, one of them devoted entirely to his own compositions, is quite something indeed. On the album he also plays viola, piano, harpsichord, bass and keyboards, and he is joined here and there by Brian McGrath (piano & banjo), Frank Kilkelly (guitar), Johnny O’Connolly (accordion), Johnny Connolly (melodeon), Steve Simmons (guitar), Emmet Gill (uilleann pipes), and family members, Eilis Lennon (fiddle), and Brian Lennon (flute).
The arrangements are nicely varied, but always with justice done to the fiddle player himself, whose sound doesn’t lose out to over-dominant accompaniment. For that we must thank Charlie himself who, along with David Lennon, produced the album, and to Ed Kenehan and the late Eamonn Goggin who were the sound engineers. The CD is dedicated to Eamonn, who was a close friend of Charlie’s.
In Clo lar-Chonnachta’s (CIC) website notes we are told, “One CD looks back, the other looks forward,” which is how Charlie summed up his new double-CD Turning the Tune. The first CD looks back to the roots of the tradition and past masters and features trusted old tunes with the notes in the booklet referring to many sources including McKenna, Morrison, Coleman and Killoran. Charlie presents many of these tunes in a new way while staying within the tradition, demonstrating the possibilities that the tradition offers. The second CD looks forward, and contains all new music composed by Charlie. He says of the compositions: “I find it helpful in writing to recall good memories of people and places and seek to capture these in music. While the genre is primarily Irish traditional, I have moved into other genres at times in order to best paint the picture.” The CD booklet details the inspiration for each piece, adding a particularly personal touch to the album.
In his written introduction to the CD, Charlie explains the choice of the album’s title. “Can you turn this one?” Francis John McGovern used to spend time at Charlie’s parents’ house in Co. Leitrim in long winter evenings. Charlie recalls that his father and Francis John would chat by the fire, and during a pause in the conversation, the latter would draw a Clarke’s whistle from his breast pocket and play part of a seldom-heard tune. “That came to me while I was taking the rough off a headstone in the workshop today but I can’t turn it,” he would say. There’d be another long pause while all looked into the fire for inspiration. “Sometimes I would get an inkling of the high part,” Charlie writes, “reach for the fiddle and start to stagger out a phrase or two.” Francis John would exclaim, “That’s it! I have it now.” Then the old man and the boy would take time in fleshing out the tune together. “This was Francis John McGovern’s way of giving encouragement and recognition to any aspiring young musician that he came in contact with,” says Charlie.
There is a feast of good music and tunes on these two CDs of Charlie’s: reels, jigs, hornpipes, a couple of barn dances, a waltz, an air/reel (dedicated to Eamonn and his parents), and even a strathspey which Charlie composed in memory of his friend, Dick Lett, who promoted Irish and Scottish music workshops when Charlie lived in the north of England. I recommend this album highly. Aidan O’Hara
www.liveireland.com
Turning the Tune” is a new double album out from the great musician, Charlie Lennon. In this outing, we have Charlie giving a tour de force on fiddle. This is a beautiful textbook of music at its best, played with total understanding and grace. This is for real trad lovers only. It is required for all aspiring Irish fiddlers, not only for the technique, but the vast array of tunes on offer. In a double album we would have wanted more airs, but you can’t have everything. This is a corker. Rating: Recommended. Bill Margeson
£16.99
