Piano
Showing 33–48 of 75 results
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Johnny Connolly – Drioball na Fainleoige (The Swallow’s Tail)
The Swallow’s Tail
Si do Mhamo I / gan Ainm
Cuz Teehan’s / The Blackbird
Cooley’s / Come West Along The Road
The Annabla Polkas 2+1
Na Ceannabhain Bhana / Paidin O’Raifeartaigh
Amhran Mhainse
Rileanna Chois Fharraige
Give Us A Drink of Water / Hardiman the Fiddler
Kiely Cotter / The Bridge of Athlone / The Cuil Aodha Slide
The Trip to Barbados(That’s Right Too) / The Leading Role
Johnny Seoighe
The Bee’s Wing / The High Level Hornpipe
Poirt Inis Bearachain
The Bucks of Oranmore
The Friendly Robin / The Dawn Chorus
Press Reviews
The Irish Times
Fiddler/ Pianist Charlie Lennon and guitarist Steve Cooney combine with Connemara melodeon/accordion guru Connolly to produce a truly wonderful thoroughly rhythmic collection of Reels, Jigs, Flings, Hornpipes and Song.
The Living Tradition
His playing is sharp and solid and has a lovely warm quality to it…Each note is in place and spun with the hand of a weaver.
Musical Traditions
Johnny is a great technician and plays with a great deal of drive.
Rock’n’Reel
Johnny Connolly’s command of the melodeon allows some bright, sparkling moments of inspiration on Cuz Teehan’s and The Annabla Polkas. The Swallow’s Tail shows conclusively that Connolly is a very gifted traditional musician.
Sing Out
This album proves Johnny Connolly to be a mighty player of the melodeon. He plays with a strong rhythmic sense and depth of emotion not often reached by other boxplayers. There is an earthiness to his sound that seems to touch a lost chord in the soul.
Taplas
Enemies of the accordion family have its nomenclature on their side; melodeon, for instance, means different things in different places. In Ireland, it’s the humble instrument with one row of right-hand buttons and this is what Johnny Connolly plays. There’s a humility in this man too. His playing is understated and measured, but wonderfully rhythmic, forever exploring new twists and turns of expression. Charlie Lennon’s inventive piano accompaniments are exemplary (he’s also there on fiddle) and Steve Cooney’s more up-front guitar suits the two tracks of polkas and slides. Drioball na Fainleoige, meaning The Swallow’s Tail (which tune Connolly plays in three different keys) is a great second album from one of Ireland’s finest but less vaunted traditional musicians. John Neilson
The Living Tradition
Johnny Connolly’s debut album An tOile n Aerach received fulsome plaudits in the pages of this magazine, which rated it one of the musical highlights of its year of release, 1991. This pair of welcome new offerings from Clo Iar-Chonnachta are ample indication that the phenomenon which caused so much excitement back then was no flash in the pan, and that, indeed, what we’re dealing with here is … well, a living tradition.
Dreaming Up the Tunes is as fine an example as you’d hope to meet of a son following in an illustrious father’s footsteps. But to deal with the dad first:
Johnny senior – known as Sean-Johnny (“Old Johnny”) to distinguish him from his talented offspring – has presented us here with another virtuoso display of eclecticism and swing on the melodeon and accordion. The tunes come from all over the place – Johnny obviously has a soft spot for Kerry music, and slides and polkas are well represented here, played with a naturalness and surety of touch rare among non-Kerry musicians, unobtrusive accompaniment from the ubiquitous Steve Cooney perhaps helping the case. As might be expected, music from Johnny’s homeplace in Cois Fharraige is also well to the fore, song airs from Connemara providing the basis for dance tunes in a couple of cases, as in his slip-jig version of P id
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Johnny Og Connolly & Brian McGrath – Dreaming Up The Tunes
Gan Ainm / Doberman’s Wallet
Paddy Ryan’s Dream / Jimmy Batty’s
Mick O’Connor’s Reels
The Happy Hornpipe / The Souvenir
The Inis Bearachain Jigs
Ril Johnny Phadraig Pheter / Ril Joe Mhaire Mhicilin
Christmas in Spiddal / Twelve to the Bar
The Carraroe Jig / Homage to Rooney
Mountain Dew / Loughrea Reel
Dillon’s / Marion Egan’s
Bean Phaidin / Seanamhach Tube Station
Michael Coleman’s / Flanagan Meets O’Hanlon Barndances
Press Reviews
Taplas
Johnny Og is Johnny’s senior’s son and plays the slightly larger two-row button accordion with a beautiful fluent, light touch. The great Joe Burke was one of his early influences. Virtuoso banjo player Brian McGrath, one of the founders of Four Men and A Dog, currently plays in Sean Keane’s Band and At The Racket. He and Johnny Og have played together for years; there’s both tightness and an easy give and take in their duo playing. Distinguished accompanists here too, James Blennerhasset on cello and double bass, Eugene Kelly and Peter O’Hanlon on guitars and McGrath on piano. The title is apt. Several of the tunes are recent compositions by, among others, Charlie Lennon and Johnny Og himself, whose fine, intricate tunes include the lovely set of jigs Poirt Inis Bearachain(also featured on his father’s CD) and named after the now uninhabited Island off the Connemara coast, where Johnny Connolly Snr was born John Neilson
The Living Tradition
All are played with gusto and the box and banjo keep each other company with microsecond-precise timing, producing an overall sound that positively throbs with vitality.
The Irish Voice
The full maturity of Irish banjo and box playing has never been demonstrated better.
Dirty Linen
Johnny plays with a fine sense of rhythm, but also very melodically with smooth execution, a light touch and nice ornamentation.
The Examiner
Good honest playing of the highest order. Johnny Og’s strong, yet sensitive, accordion style combines perfectly with Brian’s crisp banjo picking
City Tribune
An album which mixes freshness and spontaneity with professionalism that is their second nature.
The Living Tradition
Johnny Connolly’s debut album An tOile n Aerach received fulsome plaudits in the pages of this magazine, which rated it one of the musical highlights of its year of release, 1991. This pair of welcome new offerings from Cl
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Karen Ryan – The Coast Road
The Coast Road
Debut solo album from Karen Ryan Released on the Clo-Iar Chonnacht label The long-awaited solo album, The Coast Road, by highly-regarded fiddler, music teacher and promoter of traditional Irish music, Karen Ryan, founder-member of the renowned traditional Irish music group, The London Lasses and Pete Quinn.
A musician, teacher and promoter, it would be no exaggeration to say that Karen Ryan lives and breathes traditional Irish music. Born in London to Galway and Mayo parents, it was a strong Connemara tradition of melodeon players and traditional singers on her mother’s side that initially fired her love of the music.
Karen started playing music at the age of nine, taught by the North Leitrim musician Tommy Maguire at the London Irish Centre, where she herself now teaches. It was here that she met lifelong friends and fellow fiddle players, Elaine Conwell and Teresa Connolly (nee Heanue), with whom she won the under 12 Trio competition at the All-Ireland Fleadhin 1985.
Karen was fortunate to hone her musical skills through playing with a vast array of musicians in the vibrant London Irish session scene and during frequent visits to musical gatherings in Ireland and the US. Whilst gleaning much from all these players she cites Brian Rooney, Brendan McGlinchey, Danny Meehan and the recordings of Andy McGann as having the most influence on her fiddle playing.
As a founder member of the renowned traditional Irish six-piece, The London Lasses and Pete Quinn, Karen has performed at some of the world’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls, including the Royal Albert Hall, where the band performed the first ever BBC Proms ceili in 2008. The band have recorded four albums to date.
Whether as a teacher with Meitheal Cheoil in north London, a workshop leader or an adjudicator both in the UK and overseas, Karen continues to pass on the tradition to both young and old.
Also available from Copperplate, featuring Karen Ryan:
LL001 London Lasses & Pete Quinn
LL002 London Lasses: Track Across the Deep
LoLa004 London Lasses: Enchanted Lady
LoLa005 London Lasses: By Night & By Day
for more information about Karen Ryan and upcoming tour dates, please visit www.karenryan.net.
Press Reviews
www.liveireland.com Margeson on the Music Oct 12
The Coast Road is just out on Clo-iar-Chonnachta. Veteran fiddle goddess Karen Ryan is brilliant. Never mind her work with our music’s best female group, The London Lasses (sorry, Pete!), she is a master. As good as any, we reckon. Stunning playing from a real musician. All 15 selections are instrumentals. While the album favors the jigs and reels, all tempos and time signatures are brought to the fore. We love it. Every cut. This woman is a real presence and a true musician on the scene. As she is one of the folks in charge of the wonderful Return to Camden Town annual festival, we have a recommendation. Book yourself immediately! This is a great album and she is immediately in contention as the Female Musician of the Year. Lovely, altogether. Bill Margeson.
The Living Tradition
London’s vibrant Irish community has, amongst many other things, evolved a style of traditional music, and particularly fiddle music, which is as identifiable as any of the major styles on the other side of the water. Karen Ryan perfectly represents this tradition, being born in London to Galway and Mayo parents and starting to play at the age of nine. She now teaches at the London Irish Centre, is a founder-member of the celebrated London Lasses and directs the Return to Camden Town traditional festival.
Accompanied here by partner Pete Quinn on piano and keyboard; Conor Doherty, guitar; Gary Connolly, accordion; Elaine Conwell, fiddle, Teresa Connolly, fiddle, Colman Connolly, uilleann pipes; and her aunt Nancy McEvaddy on vocals, Karen plays mostly fiddle, but with whistle and banjo as well.
She has a very clear playing style, which is well demonstrated in the slow air, where she lets the tune take its own time, keeping everything nicely balanced. When things speed up a bit in the jigs and reels, however, there’s no dropping off – each note is well-defined, with a crispness and deftness of touch making for a rare listening experience.
Pete Quinn should also get a specific mention for his piano arrangements – not for him the plodding thump that can mar so many otherwise good sets, rather a well thought-out and sensitive range of slightly understated playing, which reminds us what the word “accompany” really means.
As I’ve come to expect from Clo lar-Chonnacht, this is an extremely well-packaged CD, with bilingual notes and information on all the tunes and a transcription of the macaronic song.
Well worth a listen! Gordon Potter
R2
Few musicians have been as indefatigable in championing the cause of Irish traditional music in London as Karen Ryan. As part of the group London Lasses and organiser of the Camden Irish music festival she has worked tirelessly to disseminate the music to her contemporaries, aspiring players and audiences alike.
Her first sob album, The Coast Road is dedicated to her father Michael Ryan “for loving the music so much that you did everything to help me love it too” Touching but true, for this is music that is as much about family and tradition as it is musical education.
Karen honed her fiddle skills in Irish music sessions in London and Ireland, it was her own family’s ability to transmit this music to a new generation that provived her with that first real spark of creativity. Accompanied mainly on piano by Pete Quinn, Karen plays reels, jigs, polkas, hornpipes, a waltz and one song, ‘An Draighnean Donn’, sung in a disarming fashion by her aunt, Nancy McEvaddy. There are contributions from life-tang friends and fiddlers Elaine Conwell (London Lasses) and Teresa Connolly plus others, but it is Ryan’s album and her playing shines brightly throughout. John Crosby
www.tradconnect.com Album of the Month July 12
London based musician Karen Ryan is the latest in a long line of London Irish fiddlers and on this her debut album she steps very comfortably into the shoes of those that have gone before. Musician, teacher and promoter Karen is well known and established on the London scene both at sessions and as a founding member of The London Lasses and Pete Quinn. More so than any city, London is a place where the big players come out to play and I did have the pleasure some years ago in some long forgotten venue to hear Karen. No doubt in the company of Brian Rooney, Brendan Mulkaire or the crop of great talent that was coming through all those years ago. Players like Lamond Gillespie and John Blake who have since gone on to great things.
Karen Ryan is another name that rightly deserves to be heard and The Coast Road is an absolute joy of an album. Karen’s style is strongly traditional, very expressive and true to those musicians that have inspired her. It’s a classic recording that harks back to her early musical influences. This includes Tommy Maguire, Brendan McGlinchey, Andy McGann and others, and there are echoes of their contribution within the heart of her very own style. For those reasons there is a breath of traditional fresh air in the tracks she has recorded. This is exciting, passionate and driving fiddle playing inspired by a lifetime of music. When slowed down to simple solid tunes there is nothing quite like it, especially on jigs like Kitty’s Rambles/Kitty of Oulart/An Rógaire Dubh. Some of the best fiddle music has always had a strong, solid and uncomplicated vein running through it and Karen Ryan excels in this respect.
Included in the tracks is the magnificent hornpipe called McGlinchey’s which I haven’t heard for some time. A classic tune that Karen twists and turns with triplets and rolls that display the scale of the tune from low A and on up to the top of the scale. Her tone, control and phrasing is exemplary and always does justice to the music that she is playing. Even her one set of Polkas on the album, Dan Herlihy’s/Tom Billy’s, jump to life with superb accompaniment by Pete Quinn on Piano and Conor Doherty on Guitar. In addition to these fine musicians she has also brought on board long term fiddle friends Elaine Conwell and Treasa Connolly as well as Gary Connolly on Accordion and Nancy McEvaddy on voice.
The first set, The Limerick Lasses/The Gatehouse Maid/The Mountain Top is a great opener with its driving rhythm and strong piano accompaniment. The reel set Sally Gardens/Miss McCloud’s/Tommy Maguire’s pick up the pace. Karen and Pete Quinn called them the “Black Horse Anthem” as a result of repeated requests at a session in the Black Horse in London. The last in the set is a great Charlie Lennon composition. Karen also displays her banjo skills on a couple of jigs called Kiss The Bride/Shandon Bells. As a fan of Brendan McGlinchey, a set of reels composed by Brendan deserves mention. Called Mrs Lawrie’s/Karen Ryan’s the latter was written for Karen by Brendan some years back. It has all the hallmarks of Brendan and the piano accompaniment by Pete Quinn is simply untouchable with it’s phrasing and tone.
Fiddle music in all it’s forms has a place, be it with more modern influences, newly composed or with elements external to the tradition. This is music that will not disappoint and is most definitely traditional with a capital T. On a kitchen shelf bursting with great fiddle albums by Peoples, Carty, McGlinchley, Collins and dozens more this Karen Ryan album will also now sit proudly putting London and Karen on the map when it comes to touching the heart of traditional brilliance.
The Folk Diary
That the London Irish fiddler, some time visitor to Sussex folk clubs, should turn up on that most respected and highly regarded of Irish labels comes as something of a surprise. Most on this label are from rural Ireland but as a great deal of superb Irish music is played in north London, and has been for decades, there is no reason why Karen should not be represented along with her pianist partner
Most of her previous recordings have been as part of the excellent London Lasses, but the extra focus given by this album shows just what a fine fiddler she is. She has a wide and varied repertoire and the album is given extra interest when she occasionally changes to banjo or whistle and towards the end of the album she broadens the scope by introducing friends and relatives that have played with her since childhood. Ringing endorsements from the likes of Danny Meehan and Brendan McGlinchey in the booklet show just how much Karen is respected in Irish music circles – as teacher, promoter and organiser as well as musician. Vic Smith
www.LiveIreland.com
Karen Ryan is part of the best female group in the business, The London Lasses. Her new solo album with Pete Quinn is ‘The Coast Road.’ We know it is available through Alan O’Leary at Copperplate in London. Karen is such a wonderful fiddle player, and this album immediately nominates her for Female Musician of the Year. She has a lot of tasty guest musicians in, but it is her playing alone that transcends all. This is a very, very exciting album. This woman can play, and look; we know that Pete Quinn is also in the group, The London Lasses, but he is vastly outnumbered, the lucky dog! One of our favorite groups meets one of our favorite fiddle players (Karen) and here we are on The Coast Road’ and you should take the trip, also. It is a beautiful journey.
The Journal of Music: The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaion
An Album of Tribute from Karen Ryan
Being dedicated to her father, Michael Ryan (‘for loving the music so much that you did everything possible to help me love it too’), and featuring so many tunes Ryan learned from Tommy Maguire in the London Irish Centre, this is clearly a recording with a strong sense of tribute at its heart.
London fiddle player Karen Ryan has released her first solo album, the Coast Road, featuring Pete Quinn on piano, published by Cló Iar-Chonnacht. Ryan is a founder member of the London Lasses and Pete Quinn group (who have recorded four albums to date), as well as a much sought-after workshop teacher and music promoter.
She started playing music when she was nine years old, taught by the Leitrim musician Tommy Maguire at the London Irish Centre, where she herself now teaches. It was here that she met life-long friends and fellow fiddle players, Elaine Conwell and Teresa Connolly (née Heanue), with whom she won the under-12 trio competition at the All-Ireland Fleadh in 1985.
While being very active in the London Irish session scene and festival and Fleadh circuit, as well as visiting Conamara regularly, she cites in particular Brian Rooney, Brendan McGlinchey, Danny Meehan and the recordings of Andy McGann as having the most influence on her fiddle playing.
Through her role as Director of the Return to Camden Town festival of traditional Irish music, song and dance, she is also an award-winning promoter. Now in its fourteenth year, the festival has become a key date in the Irish music calendar and celebrates the historical link between Camden and traditional Irish music.
Most of the tracks on the Coast Road feature Ryan on fiddle accompanied by Quinn on piano or keyboard, although Ryan plays banjo on the jig set of ‘Kiss the Bride’ and ‘Shandon Bells’, and whistle on the reel set of ‘The Swallow’s Tail’, ‘The Sunny Banks’ and ‘The London Lasses’. For some tracks they are joined by Conor Doherty on guitar. On the waltz-reel set featuring ‘Tim O’Leary’s’ and ‘The Rabbit’s Burrow’ she plays with fiddlers Elaine Conwell (of the London Lasses) and friend Teresa Connolly. And for the jig set of ‘Going to Mass Last Sunday’, ‘The Gold Ring’ and ‘The Battering Ram’ she plays with Gary Connolly on accordion and Colman Connolly on uilleann pipes. Ryan plays one slow air, ‘Sliabh Geal gCua’, which she writes that she learnt from Séamus Begley’s singing; and there is one song on the album, ‘An Draighneán Donn’, sung very naturally and gently by Ryan’s aunt, Nancy McEvaddy of Claregalway.
The twenty-two pages of sleeve notes include a short biographical note on Ryan, comments on her playing by Danny Meehan, Brian Rooney and Brendan McGlinchey, Irish and English versions of all the extensive track notes, and a wide range of photographs of Ryan, of instrument details and of family and friends.
Being dedicated to her father, Michael Ryan (‘for loving the music so much that you did everything possible to help me love it too’), and featuring so many tunes Ryan learned from Maguire, this is clearly a recording with a strong sense of tribute at its heart.
The Folk Diary
That the London Irish fiddler, some time visitor to Sussex folk clubs, should turn up on that most respected and highly regarded of Irish labels comes as something of a surprise. Most on this label are from rural Ireland but as a great deal of superb Irish music is played in north London, and has been for decades, there is no reason why Karen should not be represented along with her pianist partner
Most of her previous recordings have been as part of the excellent London Lasses, but the extra focus given by this album shows just what a fine fiddler she is. She has a wide and varied repertoire and the album is given extra interest when she occasionally changes to banjo or whistle and towards the end of the album she broadens the scope by introducing friends and relatives that have played with her since childhood.
Ringing endorsements from the likes of Danny Meehan and Brendan McGlinchey in the booklet show just how much Karen is respected in Irish music circles – as teacher, promoter and organiser as well as musician. Vic Smith
Irish Music Magazine
Of Galway and Mayo parents but born and reared in London, Karen Ryan has been a mainstay of Irish music in the province of Great Britain for longer than her youthful looks would suggest. Whether founding The London Lasses a decade ago, running the Camden Town festival, leading the young Trad Gathering ensemble, or just teaching and playing in sessions across North London, Karen’s unruly hair and restless feet have featured in most aspects of the musical life of London’s Irish community. Although best—known as a fiddler, Karen also plays banjo and whistle on this debut solo recording — no sign of the mandola she’s been toting at recent gigs. Several members of the London Irish scene drop in for a tune on The Coast Road, but most tracks are just Karen and her ivory—tickling husband Pete Quinn.
Every set comes with a story: the sparkling Limerick Lasses learnt from Leitrim man Tommy Maguire in the eighties, or the sprightly version of Saddle the Pony from her grandma’s melodeon days. Karen’s repertoire includes all the old favourites, and she isn’t afraid to play them. The Sally Gardens, Shandon Bells, Miss MacLeod’s, The Battering Ram, Trans—Roscommon Airways and The Musical Priest, great tunes all, are trotted out in fine form here. There are rarer delights too, Kitty of Oulart and Walsh’s Hornpipe among them. Brendan McGlinchey’s distinctive dark style is beautifully demonstrated on his reels Mrs Lawrie’s and Karen Ryan’s, while Karen’s own composing gift gives us three flowing slip—jigs. The final few tracks ring the changes with a sean nos song from Nancy McEvaddy, a fiddle trio waltz, and a set of céilí jigs featuring pipes and accordion, before the final big set of reels on fiddle and piano.
The Coast Road combines the best of old and new music, the antique gold of An Roghaire Dubh and Sliabh Geal gCua alongside a bit of bling and skank on Dan Herlihy’s Polka. This mix and match approach also applies to the glossy sleeve notes, which add photos and fancy graphics to the trusty old way of listing the names and composers. It seems Karen can put her own sheen on more than just the music. Livelier than a Camden pub on Paddy’s Night, and more full of Irish spirit than the off—licence across the street, this is a cracking new album. Alex Monaghan
www.folking.com
This is the kind of recording that harks back to the old days of “Paddy In The Smoke” and Danny ‘Concrete Fingers’ Meehan playing at The Favourite. Possibly aimed at a more traditionally biased audience Ryan’s style of fiddle playing (sometimes opening with the predominantly two chord piano introduction so beloved of Irish set dancers everywhere provided by long term associate Pete Quinn) will give some indication to those like myself who used to sit at the altar of the likes of Raymond Rowland, Liam Farrell and John Bowe. There are plenty of great standards including “Sally Gardens”, “Miss McCloud’s” and “Saddle The Pony” but it’s Karen’s beautifully fluid whistle playing on “The Swallow’s Tail/The Sunny Banks/The London Lasses” set that does it for me. This may not be a rip-roaring album or one that’s trying to be ‘different’ but if its rock solid performances of some excellent tunes you’re looking for I’d suggest you check it out. PETE FYFE
www.musicaltraditions.com
Clo Iar Chonnacht have a reputation for releasing quality Irish traditional music CDs and this one is no exception. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable recording. There is a mix of mainly reels and jigs, but with a hornpipe, a couple of polkas, a waltz, a slow air and a song. There is also a variety of ensembles, duets and some group playing so that the CD gives the impression of listening in to a high quality session.
Fiddle player Karen Ryan is well embedded into the trad Irish scene in London. A founder member of the London Lasses and Pete Quinn, she teaches, judges and also organises the Return to Camden Festival. Although from London, Karen Ryan’s parents are both from West Ireland and she has inherited the traditions of Connemara from her Mother’s side of the family. Some of the music was recorded on a trip back home with her relatives in Galway.
Her fiddle playing is confident, energetic and expressive and she puts in some interesting twists and turns into the tunes which are mainly well known favourites. Ryan takes one track on the tin whistle and is also a handy banjo player, though not to the same standard as her fiddling and it sounds as if she has twisted the setting of Shandon Bells to fit more comfortably under her fingers. Overall there is plenty of evidence of her London heritage in hints of the fierce drive of Danny Meehan mixed with Brian Rooney’s creativeness. The sleeve notes mention the influence of New York’s Andy McGann but her tone is quite different to McGann’s so it’s not so easy to hear him in her playing
The CD starts with a real swing with three duets from fiddle and piano; reels followed by jigs, then hornpipes, showcasing Karen’s vigorous fiddle playing and Pete Quinn’s excellent accompaniment and the opening track is certainly strong enough to pull anybody into wanting to hear more. There’s a bit of a dip in the next track of polkas which seemed both geographically and musically out of place here. They just seemed too long and repetitive and just don’t have the Sliabh Luachra style to make this a good track. By contrast, the slow air, the song tune Sliabh Geal cCua, learned from Kerryman Seamus Begley, is beautiful and tender, and not overworked demonstrating Karen’s sense of musical integrity. Karen’s Auntie Nancie’s song An Draighnean Donn is delicate and captivating. The CD finished very strongly with a final set of reels from fiddle and piano.
It is obvious Karen and Pete enjoy the music and have the depth of skill to let the music speak for itself and for the most part the recording is clean and straight, without tricks, too much ‘drip’, or over arrangement. There’s no sense that the players are stretched or ‘performing’ to a crowd, the music is always centre stage and is just gorgeous for that. It takes a lot of sensitivity and understanding to take old tunes like Miss McLeod’s (here interestingly titled Miss McCloud’s) or The Lady on the Island and make then sound new and vital. Karen deserves a lot of credit for the way the choice of tunes on this record reinforce the impression that this is a few friends playing for an intimate circle.
The CD is well produced, the piano might be a bit too high in the mix for some and the squeak of fingers on guitar strings is a personal dislike, but these are minor niggles. The sleeve notes give just enough information about sources and influences to introduce Karen to those who don’t know her as a solo player.
This CD should give pleasure to enthusiasts and casual listeners alike, and there’s a lot of depth that will reward repeated listening. Ken Ricketts & Marya Parker – 5.4.12
Rock solid performances of some excellent tunes
This is the kind of recording that harks back to the old days of “Paddy In The Smoke” and Danny ‘Concrete Fingers’ Meehan playing at The Favourite. Possibly aimed at a more traditionally biased audience Ryan’s style of fiddle playing (sometimes opening with the predominantly two chord piano introduction so beloved of Irish set dancers everywhere provided by long term associate Pete Quinn) will give some indication to those like myself who used to sit at the altar of the likes of Raymond Rowland, Liam Farrell and John Bowe. There are plenty of great standards including “Sally Gardens”, “Miss McCloud’s” and “Saddle The Pony” but it’s Karen’s beautifully fluid whistle playing on “The Swallow’s Tail/The Sunny Banks/The London Lasses” set that does it for me. This may not be a rip-roaring album or one that’s trying to be ‘different’ but if its rock solid performances of some excellent tunes you’re looking for I’d suggest you check it out. PETE FYFE13/03/2012
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Le Cheile – Out of the West
Le Chéile was formed from musicians who played regularly in The White Hart, Fulham Broadway in the early 1970’s. The 1960s and ’70s were golden years for traditional Irish music in London when musicians played before packed audiences and sparked the revival which went on to spread back home and around the globe. Le Chéile were the cult trad Irish group of 1970s London, producing some of the most memorable recordings of the time. The 1970s album Lord Mayo, was reissued on CD in 2006. To coincide with that release the surviving original band members — master fiddler Danny Meehan, Liam Farrell (banjo), John Roe (piano) and Kevin Boyle (guitar) — reformed alongside new recruits, flautist Paul Gallagher and Andy Martyn (box).
So now they’re back, adding powerful momentum to the revivalist movement within Irish music today with their exciting new big band mix of back to basics traditional Irish music from Donegal and Galway.
In March 2008 the boys began recording their long awaited third album which has now arrived.
This is the first new ‘Le Cheile’ album since 1977. A CD re-release in 2007 by Limerick University of a compilation of albums made in 1974 and 1977 reignited the band and with new members, Andy Martyn and Paul Gallagher, we returned to the studio in 2008 to put together recently developed selections of music. Though once entirely instrumental, we now incorporate songs into our repertoire.
We would like to thank our producer and engineer Gerry Diver for his great skill and remarkable patience during the recording of this album. Also, thanks to all of those who have supported and given endless encouragement to Le Cheile and the ‘Scene’ over the years. Particular thanks to the Cartys (Maureen, James & John), Annette Roland, Alan O’Leary, Austin Dawe, Bill Walsh, Lisa Knapp, Steve Dent, Karen Ryan and Noel & Mary at the ‘Kilkenny’ South Wimbledon. A particular thank you to Brendan Mulkere who is largely responsible for getting the band back together after all these years and to Niall and Sean Keegan of Limerick University for their work in releasing our 2006 CD ‘Lord Mayo’.
Also to our families and friends whose inspiration and encouragement helped us capture our music in this album.
Also available from Copperplate
Danny Meehan: The Navvy on the Shore
Kevin Boyle: Palestine Grove
Gerry Diver: Diversions
Press Reviews
Chicago Irish News
This group is a London-based quintet sent to us by Alan O’Leary at Copperplate Distribution and Promotions. Copperplate is the best and only handles the best. Le Cheile is wonderful. These guys make you feel that they are right there with you in an incredible session. They have a ball, and just play it ahead. Lay it out, and “Bob’s ‘yer uncle”. This is the stuff we all love. The vocals are not to be believed. Every now and then we hear an album and smile through the whole thing. This is one of those. Terrific, wonderful music. Bill Margeson
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Marcas O Murchu – Turas Ceoil
Turas Ceoil means a musical journey, a title that aptly captures the essence of this album which pays homage to the roots of the tradition, with tunes from as far back as the eighteenth century, while also looking to the future with new compositions by Ó Murchu. He is joined on the album by guest musicians that include Teada’s Oisin Mac Diarmada, Ben Lennon, Jose Climent, Sean Óg Graham, Gearoid Mooney, Seamus Kane, Ciaran Curran and Seamus Quinn.
The colourful CD booklet includes 24 pages of information about the tunes as well as photos of the musicians.
Ó Murchu is originally from Belfast but has been living in Derry for many years. He is a master of the rolling Sligo-Leitrim-Roscommon style of flute-playing. He is in constant demand internationally as a performer and as a music tutor. He teaches at many of the music schools throughout the country, including the Willie Clancy Summer School and the Frankie Kennedy Winter School. As well as being a musician, Ó Murchu also presents a music show on RTE Raidio na Gaeltachta every summer.
Turas Ceoil is his second album. His first, Ó Bheal go Beal, was released in 1997.
Copperplate is very proud to have this title on our roster and to help it achieve its full potential will be supporting this release with a full-scale promotional mail out to media and retail.
Press Reviews
“Marcas Ó Murchu’s flute and whistle bristle with exhilaration … he makes joyful music that never reveals signs of force or haste nor loses touch with his love of the tradition”. – The Rough Guide to Irish Music
The Folk Diary
It is now ten years since Marcas released an album, ‘Ó Bhéal go Béal’, which had a huge impact on the traditional music community in Ireland. Ten years later another album of his mesmerising flute playing is bound to have a similar impact. As a young man, he met and learned from the great rural flute players in the Roscommon/Sligo area that his family originated from, so that we can still hear the influence of the likes of Josie McDermott in his playing.
One of the great things about his playing is that he is able to give the music a modern feel without in any way compromising the traditional lilt of
the tunes. The album is very carefully programmed with solo items in different rhythms mixed with Marcus working with a variety of different
settings, with the best track saved for the seventeenth and last; two delightful polkas.
Every single tracks bubbles with vibrancy on an album that stands as a type example of what can be done to make an album of traditional music exciting. This is outstanding stuff. Vic Smith
www.liveIreland.com
Few labels guarantee a great album, but Ireland’s Clo-Iar-Chonnacta comes close. Here’s another winner. Marcas O Murchu’s Turas Ceoil is just the best. This flute player has gathered some of the tradition’s great players around him, ranging from Altan’s Ciaran Curran on guitar and Oisin McDiarmada on fiddle to Ben Lennon on fiddle, with the great Seamus Quinn on piano. There are more, but the trad buff gets the drift. This album is really filled with the northwestern style of flute—you know the deal— Sligo, Roscommon and Leitrim. Polkas, reels and jigs abound. One complaint. There are only two airs, with one thrown overboard too quickly in favor of adding a hornpipe. We have long argued against recording a gorgeous air, only to have it turn half-way through into an uptempo piece of business. It is as if the musician does not trust the audience to cherish the air, hold it close to the heart, and make it a part of their soul. Rather, it seems to say, ” Okay, we won’t bore you any longer with this. We know what you want, hear comes some faster stuff.” Shame. BUT–that is only nitpicking! This is a great, great album by a master musician. Flute players the world ’round know about, and respect, this brilliant interpreter of the staccato, yet flowing style that marks his geographic style of playing. We are rapidly losing the regionally stylistic features of Irish traditional music for a number of reasons frequently described here. The point is that these styles can still be found, thanks to labels like Clo-Iar-Chonnacta, and true-to-the-bone musicians like Marcas O Murchu. This is a great album. Not very good, mind you. Great. Bill Margeson. Rating: Four Harps
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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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Oisin MacDiarmada – On the fiddle (ar an bhfidil)
Press Reviews
Irish Music Review
One of the brightest young stars in the panoply of Ireland traditional music, this is fiddler Oisín Mac Diarmada’s third album, though the first to bear just his own name. First came, in 2000, the sparkling Traditional Music on Fiddle, Banjo & Harp, recorded with banjo player Brian Fitzgerald and harper Micheál Ó Ruanaigh, followed earlier this year by Oisín’s band Téada’s self-titled debut album, also on Ceol Records. However, Ar an bhFidil (‘On the fiddle’) tops the lot, fully confirming Mac Diarmada’s position as a wonderfully adept and evocative musician.
Oisín’s early years were spent in County Clare where he learnt his first music before the family moved to South Sligo where he took lessons from the notable fiddle teacher, Paddy Ryan. Now noted as a music tutor in his own right, and still only in his early twenties, Oisín’s playing on Ar an bhFidil creates a relaxed confection of the music of Sligo and Clare, topped with the delicacies of an astounding technique given full expression by the sheer imagination of his tune settings. His playing of the slow air Bean a ‘leanna, associated with the late Connemara singer Joe Heaney, simmers with an unrequited passion. Jigs and reels are threaded with an innate merriment and, above all, Oisín has the power to invest very familiar tunes, such as The Lark in the Morning with new life fashioned by the pure merriment in his playing. Thoroughly enjoyable throughout, this is unquestionably an album that merits repeated listening.
The Living Tradition Dec/ Jan 2004
This is really good fiddle playing by a 24 year old who’s got more talent than many older fiddlers. Moving from Clare to Sligo as a lad must have done something for him because he has a mixture of both styles as well as his own personality stamped on his playing.
He wrote his own concise but thorough sleeve notes giving due credit to the players he got the tunes from and they show the wide range of the players who influenced him, Coleman, James Morrison, John McKenna, and Ennis (of course).
He seems to be able to change style as easily as changing key, from the old Clare style of the first track, to the 1920s James Morrison/ Michael Coleman tracks on The Tap Room/The Kerryman’s Daughter, via John McKenna, Josie McDermott, Denis Murphy and Ed Reavy. Yet throughout, he puts his own style of playing on every tune. In some ways, his ability to do this is reminiscent of Frankie Gavin in one of his mischievous moods.
There’s a good mix of tunes, mostly well known but with rarities like a Seamus Ennis version of The Lark in the Morning that’s not often played now. Reels predominate, of course, but ther are single and double jigs, hornpipes, and Leitrim style polkas too. A big surprise is The Strayaway Child, composed by Maggie Barry (who’s become known as Margaret lately), that Michael German used to play But the big one for me is The Morning Thrush, composed by Seamus Ennis’s father James. I’ve never heard anyone else but Ennis play this, and Mac Diarmada makes a great fist of it. It’s a great pipe tune that deserves more playing.
My old friend Paddy Ryan wrote the introduction to the CD and says at the end that he can highly recommend it. I sometimes disagreed with Paddy in the past, but not this time. This is great music, well played by a fine young fiddler. I look forward to his next release. Mick Furey
Irish Music Magazine April 2003
Of late, there seems to have been a trend among traditional musicians of a younger generation to move from fiery blistering pyrotechnics to more mellower and laid back means of musical expression. By that, I mean players are engaging themselves with the details of the music and it’s manifold subtleties rather than kick stepping their ways to oblivion. Martin Hayes is one such example and on this showing, Oisin MacDiarmada is another.
Oisin MacDiarmada’s debut solo album, Ar an bhFidil typifies this laid back approach. MacDiarmada’s fiddle playing is rooted in the Sligo style. While the frantic wildness of a Michael Coleman is evident on, The Tap Room, he is no idle speed merchant. He favours the low-fi approach with the music speaking for itself; the result is a warm natural sounding album.
Ar an bhFidil revels in the small dry sounds so beloved of Television’s, Tom Verlaine on their seminal Marquee Moon album. This is low-key traditional music, yet rich in character, subtlety, and individual strength. The 17 tracks on show augurs well for the purse strings along with a plentiful supply of notes for each track detailing source musicians and other details. We aren’t talking encyclopedia type documentation, but enough for the casual reader to get the gist of what’s going on, and yet nail the vital facts down.
The accompaniments are also sparse with a minimum on one extra instrument whether, it’s piano, flute, second fiddle or bouzouki – the balance between featured protagonist and guests is just right. Add to that, a concise production from Harry Bradshaw and this becomes one well thought and enacted affair. Ar an bhFidil is a work of discernment and quality, check it out. John O’Regan.
Claddagh
A very pleasing trait of some current young musicians is that quite a few of them are happy to play in the way their antecedents played; one thinks immediatly of the Kane sisters, Harry Bradley, Martin Hayes. Oisin MacDiarmada is another such. He has the lonesome touch, and quite a few of the tracks are totaly unaccompanied. Where accompaniment is used, it is not as an offensive weapon, and throughout. he proves that he is not just a very fine fiddler, but a young man with an understanding of exactly what the music means. Yet another very worthwhile release in a year that has provided us with many great recordings.
Hot Press November 6th 2002
This debut solo CD by 24-year-old Sligo fiddler Oisín Mac Diarmada opens with a superbly confident set of tunes played without accompaniment, full of lovely raw scraping double-stops and rolls. Elsewhere on the album, Séamus Quinn contributes a bouncy piano to a few tracks, a set of reels played by Mac Diarmada on the whistle has bodhrán backing from Tristan Rosenstock, and several others feature bouzouki or guitar accompaniment; there are also a couple of fine duets with fellow fiddler John Carty. Mostly, though, it does exactly what it says on the tin – pure traditional fiddling, raw and unadorned, and all the better for it. The album was produced by RTÉ’s Harry Bradshaw, who’s done a beautiful job at keeping the sound natural and letting the tunes take centre stage. Sarah McQuaid. Nine out of Ten.
The Irish Times (Irish Newspaper) September 26th 2002
Fiddle music for folks who like their trad infusion unadulterated. Oisín Mac Diarmada, Sligo fiddler and member of young turks téada, is already on his second solo run, and how his pace has slowed – but admirably so. Ar An bhFidil is exactly what is says on the tin: a stripped down sally (back and) forth through the Sligo tradition. Duelling and duetting with fellow fiddler John Carty on the set of Michael Coleman jigs, Jackson’s Morning Brush/The Rambling Pitchfork, Mac Diarmada’s playing is feisty and earthy at the same time. Not afraid to let the fiddle’s hoarseness seep through, this is a player who cajoles his instrument through nooks and crannies in the tradition that lesser players would avoid. Lonesome magnificence.
Siobhán Long**** (4 stars)
The Irish Examiner (Irish Newspaper).September 26th 2002
In traditional music, as in other forms, solo albums are rarely what they claim to be. At a minimum, musicians like to use the safety net of an accompanist. Other players are added, sometimes in a perfectly valid attempt to recreate some fondly remembered session. When the process is taken to extremes, the leading player is often relegated to the background. In his new album, Ar an bhFidil, Oisín Mac Diarmada sets a brave course.
This is a solo fiddle album and, on many tracks, solo fiddle is exactly what we get. When he moves beyond the strictly solo format, it is in the company of another melody player – John Carty on fiddle and Damien Stenson on flute. Or in tandem with a single accompanist – Séamus Quinn on piano, Seán McElwain on bouzouki, Tristan Rosenstock on bodhrán and John Blake on guitar all take turns. Mary Brennan’s Favourite kicks off, slow and steady. The pace picks up for The White Leaf, but the velocity remains on the leisurely side. John Carty joins for the jigs, Jackson’s Morning Brush/The Rambling Pitchfork, and the hornpipe/schottische Peter Wyper’s/The Killarney Wonder. The two players meld wonderfully. Mac Diarmada shows another part of his musical personality in switching to whistle for the reels The Flannel Jacket/The Maid That Dare Not Tell. The Cisco Hornpipe and Walsh’s Hornpipe are taken at a strolling pace, which allows both the music and the musician room to breathe. The Morning Thrush – written by Séamus Ennis’ father James – is a beautifully clear and expressive slow reel. A jokey piano line introduces The Tap Room, pushing forward to the point of interference. In contrast, the bouzouki background on The Rainy Day is unobtrusive.
Ar an bhFidil is warm, rich music that combines a high level of technical skill with a sense of humour. Pat Ahern
Pay The Reckoning Web Site
Pay The Reckoning was captivated by Teada’s recent offering and so we were excited to hear rumours that Oisin MacDiarmada, the band’s fiddler, was in the process of putting together a solo recording. Well, folks, the patient wait is at an end and the results of MacDiarmada’s time in the studio have surpassed our high expectations.
MacDiarmada proves himself yet again to be one of the most sensitive and soulful fiddlers around. The album’s design, simple and straightforward, reflects his own approach to his craft. MacDiarmada isn’t a man for pyrotechnics, he doesn’t batter a tune into submission and then bends it to his will. His is a more subtle approach; he gives the tune room to develop in a seemingly organic way, so that his ornamentation and embellishments seem natural, unforced.
However, as any musician will tell you, such apparently natural ease with a tune is the product of two elements – natural talent and hard work. MacDiarmada has no end of the former and has no fear of the latter. The result is pure magic!
MacDiarmada’s knowledge of, and captivation by, the music of the 20s and the 30s (the “golden age” of Irish music, as some have dubbed the period) is worn proudly on his sleeve as he gives us versions of a number of tunes and sets on the album which were recorded by such legends as Coleman, Morrison, John McKenna, Patsy Tuohey and Paddy Killoran. However, you mustn’t get the impression that MacDiarmada’s an academic. His interest isn’t so much in the history of the tunes as their timelessness and his playing of the tunes represents a reawakeneing rather than a resurrection.
There are moments of savage, soulful (there goes that word again) perfection on this album. His playing of “The White Leaf” – a version of the more widely known “Mason’s Apron” – is so elementally powerful a sound as to cause the listener to wonder how one tune can express at the same time such extremes of joy and melancholy.
On the polka set “The Merry Girl/Charlie O’Neill’s”, MacDiarmda lays claim to Sligo/Leitrim influences. But to our ears, the latter tune in particular sounded as if it was being played by the ghost of the long-dead John Doherty (and we know of no higher compliment), so refined was the blend of dazzling technique and sheer emotion.
The reel set “The Flannel Jacket/The Maid That Dare Not Tell” is of interest in that MacDiarmada shows us another aspect of his musical ability as he gives both tunes an airing on the whistle. Accompanied by Tristan Rosenstock on inventive, yet rock-solid bodhran, the “spare” feel of the track conjures up an atmosphere which a more busy production could never capture.
And so, throughout the album, MacDiarmada, along with various musical sparring partners (Seamus Quinn on piano, John Carty on fiddle, Damien Stenson on flute, with guest cameos by fellow Teada members Sean McElwain on bouzouki, John Blake on guitar and Trisan Rosenstock on bodhran), lays out his stall of mighty talent, a great ear for a tune and a great feel for capturing mood.
However, even amid all the excellent music which MacDiarmada provides, his solo version of “The Strayaway Child” stands out as a defining moment of the album. Played to great effect by Kevin Burke in his Bothy Band days, MacDiarmada nevertheless manages to inject the tune with so much of his own feeling that it’s difficult to imagine it ever having been played by anyone before and almost impossible to imagine anyone else ever doing the tune justice.
A massive album. Honest, passionate and quietly defiant. You’d do well to visit http://go.to/copperplate and get yourself a copy. And while you’re at it, grab hold of a copy of Teada’s debut!
Live Reviews
Teada Live Review
The Herald (Scottish Newspaper) April 25th 2003
The name, like k d lang’s, is determinedly lower case. It’s pronounced “tay-day”. It’s Irish for “strings”, and it might be advisable to get used to it because there was a feeling of portent as pronounced as a poteen hangover about this gig. The band are young – how young you can guess by the news of teada’s bodhran player’s absence due to exams – and maybe it was the novelty of having an accordionist make up the quartet, but loathers of football clichés look away because I’m going to use one: this was a game of two halves – bloody good and bleedin’ marvellous. The first established the group’s liking for variety of metre and arrangement, pairing off for fiddle and flute duets, and employing numerous other instrumental permutations, from solo to quartet. It also confirmed that, in Oisin Mac Diarmada, teada have a fiddler of quite starting old-head-on-young-shoulders ability. You could hear centuries of tradition and doubtless long hours of dedication in his sweet and graceful melodiousness. If at times, then, his colleagues seemed to be playing catch-up, later they were right on the pace, adding richness and precision on banjo, bouzouki, box, and flute. Flautist John Blake, English-accented but Galway-based, takes stick for his origins but brings natural aptitude and technique on tunes, and in doubling upon guitar he offers harmonic invention and real drive. One complaint might be their one song per set ration. Mac Diarmada sings well, interestingly, and with feeling, and might do even more so with some practice. But with such quality of musicianship and attention to a tune’s essential shape, they’ll so as they are for now. Rob Adams
Teada Live Review
Edinburgh Evening News (Scottish Newspaper) April 24th 2003
Edinburgh’s Ceilidh Culture programme continued last night as young Irish band Teada brought their classic Celtic credentials to town in their debut Scottish gig. Now a five-piece outfit since the recruitment of accordion player Paul Finn earlier this year, Teada were shorn of their bodhran player Tristan Rosenstock, back home in Dublin preparing for his finals, but, in his absence, the band, with Oisin Mac Diarmada leading on fiddle and excellent vocals certainly passed this test. Traditionally Irish but with a punkish edge to their style, Teada, which is Irish for strings, genuinely enjoy their music, and their repertoire had enough shifts in pace and style to keep the band, and their audience, on their toes, raucous one minute, sensitive and serene the next, traditional Irish music with attitude. Seemingly playing well within themselves in their first set, with an intriguing mix of reels, jigs and hornpipes, the band cut loose in a second set that got one encore, but could have received several, such was the reception they received. Mac Diarmada is a real talent, his fiddle-playing of the highest order, but with a distinctive, almost discordant edge to it, and his Irish vocals were full of Irish passion. Teada, however, are no one-man-band, and with banjo/bouzouki player Sean McElwain offering subtlety and style, Finn on accordion and John Blake on guitar and flute, they are a refreshing addition to the genre. The highlights were the numbers in celebration of the piping tradition shared on both sides of the Irish Sea, and the hornpipes, especially Tom Connor’s and Mayday, and reels such as Teetotaller and Billy McCumiskey’s showed the versatility of Teada goes across the spectrum of Irish music. Teada are a tight, traditional Irish band with something quite intangible to separate them from the rest, and if there is a better new band on the Emerald Isle, then they must be very, very good. Mike J. Wilson
Customers Comments.
I was having a few tunes with Marcus O’Murchu this evening, (as you do) & he happened to have a few copies of this new CD about his person, so I took out one of those crisp foldy things & exchanged it for Oisin’s brilliant new CD – fair exchange is no robbery.
It is lovely piece of work, from this highly accomplished young musician, who is confident enough to play many of the tracks without any accompaniment, & his playing stands up beautifully on it’s own, a joy, especially for Fiddlers, to listen to.
He is joined by John Carty on a couple of tracks for some super double Fiddle magic. Seamus Quinn comes in on a couple of tracks on Piano, while Sean McElwain does the same on Bouzouki, John Blake lends a hand on Guitar on one track & Tristan Rosenstock accompanies Oisin’s whistle playing, on Bodhran, on track No. 5.
Paddy Ryan writes about how ‘the music is tastefully played by a musician who knows his art form. He has a deep understyanding of the richness & beauty of the music & an innate ability to interpret a good tune.
The imaginative tune settings, the intricate variations & technical mastery, & the full-bodied, sweet tone are the hallmarks of his superb musicianship. His style is very distinctive & very personal with influences from Clare & North Connaught showing through. This recording encapsulates the artistry of Oisin MacDiarmada as a top class Fiddler. The music flows with clarity & fluency, & the rich variety of tunes displays his extensive musical range.’
Paddy concludes by saying he ‘can highly recommend it’. Well I concur, it’s a beezer, & if your a Fiddler, it will be added to your collection, sooner or later, mark my words.
One wee gripe, & it’s nothing to do with this CD, or it’s incredible music, which is sure to delight all who are fortunate to listen to it. It’s just that since James Morrison’s Orchestra recorded this tune in the 20’s, & someone miss spelt the name, nobody has since checked up, they just copy the fault. For anyone interested, take out an atlas & find Aberdeen, on the NE coast of Scotland, now travel due west until you come to the village of Monymusk – not Money Musk. OK – you have now been warned!
Posted on August 30th 2002 by PtarmiganSligo fiddle-player Oisin Mac Diarmada, at 24 years of age, is an honours graduate in Music Education from Trinity College, Dublin. In addition to widespread performing activity whish has brought performances in venues and festivals throughout Europe and the USA, Oisin is respected internationally as a fiddle tutor and his journalistic, lecturing, examining and production work. He is fast becoming one of the most exciting young musicians on the traditional music scene, his playing on a previous release, CICD144 Traditional Music on Fiddle, Banjo and Harp (available from Copperplate) was described by renowned music journalist, Simon Jones as “so sensitive it’s enough to make grown men cry”.
Now, performing with exciting young traditional band, teada, who have released their highly successful debut album (available from Copperplate) recently, Oisin’s performances bring a strong flavour of the rich Sligo tradition of fiddle-playing, together with what fiddler/ researcher/ broadcaster, Paddy Ryan describes as ” a deep understanding of the richness and beauty of the music, and an innate ability to interpret a good tune”.
On this new release, Oisin predominately features traditional Irish fiddle-playing in a pure, solo context, performed in a uniquely personal and traditional style with flavours of the great Sligo fiddle tradition. Additionally there are a number of tracks which separately feature artists of the calibre of John Carty, on fiddle, Seamus Quinn on piano, Sean McElwain on bouzouki, Damien Stenson on flute, John Blake on guitar and Tristan Rosenstock on Bodhran.
We at Copperplate will be supporting this release with a high profile promotional campaign and full-scale mail out to media and retail sectors. Feedback always welcome. Thank you for your support.
£14.99
