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Billy Clifford – Echoes of Sliabh Luachra
“A clear and sweet tone announces the flute music of Billy Clifford captured here on 20 tracks – over an hour of skilful and distinctive playing of traditional music tunes of many types including two slow airs with some selections played on tin-whistle to add further variety.
Billy inherited music from both of his parents – his father John Clifford was a highly regarded accordion player and his mother was Julia Clifford, one of a family of ten, the Murphys of Gneeveguilla, all of whom played traditional music. She is acknowledged as having been an outstanding fiddle player of her generation, and so Billy has a rich Sliabh Luachra heritage on both sides of his family.
Although the main instruments in the Sliabh Luachra area are the fiddle and accordion, Billy’s choice was the concert flute and this makes his playing of slides and polkas and indeed the other tunes and airs on this disc all the more appealing and interesting. He has rare tunes and also unusual versions of other tunes that are commonly played. The music he has selected from many sources for this recording and his ability to use tasteful ornamentation and variation give his playing a special quality. He has also over the years of his life absorbed many musical experiences and all this has given his music a rounded depth which will give pleasure and value to those who hear it – listeners, learners and lovers of traditional Irish music”. Peter Browne
Press Reviews
Folkworld
This is one for the archives. Billy Clifford was a childhood hero of mine: fluter with the Star of Munster Trio, playing alongside his parents John and Julia Clifford, or his uncle Denis Murphy. Billy Clifford’s flute was a distinctive sound in Sliabh Luachra music, at a time when flute players were not so common. Several decades later, Billy is still keen to preserve the regional character of his music, and to present the Sliabh Luachra repertoire to an audience unfamiliar with the style of Munster’s musical heartland. Billy plays wooden keyed flutes in the Boehm and Radcliffe systems, similar to orchestral flutes in appearance but with a very different tone, and he switches to the tin whistle for a few selections here. He is accompanied on several tracks by Máire Begley on piano.
Echoes of Sliabh Luachra crams more than two score tunes into just over an hour, mainly in sets of two. The majority are Sliabh Luachra classics, with some unusual versions. The Blue Ribbon Polkas, Tom Billy’s Jig, The Ewe Reel, Denis Murphy’s Jig, Dinnie Dennehy’s Polka and John Clifford’s Polka are among the melodies in this collection which encapsulate that Cork and Kerry sound. Billy also plays two beautiful slow airs here, The West Wind and The Dear Irish Boy, as well as some widely known reels and hornpipes. Billy Clifford has produced other recordings, and some of them are still available, but he never recorded a large body of music and we’re fortunate indeed that he has found time to put down these twenty tracks. Alex Monaghan
Irish Music Magazine
SLIABH LUACHRA FLUTE PIONEER HONOURED
One of Irish music’s true gentleman Billy Clifford was presented with the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann Gradam at Ballykisteen Hotel during the start of the Tipperary Fleadh. Billy who has lived in the premier county for four decades made two of the classic Topic albums of Sliabh Luachra music over forty years ago. Billy is the son of the late John and Julia Clifford, his mother was the sister of Dennis Murphy. Their Julia, John & Billy Clifford – The Star of Munster Trio (Topic – 12TS310 – 1977) was recorded between 1964 and around a single microphone in Eric and Lucy Farr’s kitchen. Billy was joined on stage by his son Dennis who played his uncle Dennis’ fiddle. Billy is due to release a CD in late summer.
£14.99 -
Brian Conway – Consider the Source
Brian Conway
Born in the Bronx, New York, to Irish parents from Co. Tyrone, Brian Conway was fortunate to have grown up in a home frequented by some of the best Irish traditional musicians of the time, such as Vincent Harrison, Louis Quinn, Tom Connolly, Paddy Reynolds and Andy McGann, a musician who was to have an enduring influence on him. His tutors were also musicians of note, Martin Mulvihill and Martin Wynne. Brian’s first solo album, First through the Gate, was released on the Smithsonian Folkways label in 2002.
Also available from Copperplate
Brian Conway: First Through The Gate
Brian Conway/Joe Burke/Felix Dolan/ A Tribute to Andy McGann
Press Reviews
www.LiveIreland.com
We first heard Conway at a special concert for Andy McGann last year at the Irish-American Heritage Center in Chicago, along with Joe Burke on button box and Felix Dolan on piano. The resultant live album won a number of Awards, and rightly so. This is a lively 14 tunes and a beautiful song, Highland Mary by Niamh Parsons. Guest musicians are sitting in, including Billy McComiskey on button box , Joanie Madden on flutes and whistles, and Felix’s son, Brendan on piano. Terrific. We MIGHT have preferred one of the many pics not to be showing Brian displaying his great teeth through so many smiles, but we quibble. The music is the thing here, and it is lovely. Rating: 3 and
£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 -
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
