Uilleann Pipes
Showing 33–48 of 49 results
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Mick O’Brien – May Morning Dew
- Statia Donnelly’s/ I Will if I Can/ Patsy Geary’s
- Higgin’s Hornpipe/ The Cuckoo’s Nest
- Kerry Reel/ Kerry Fling/ Joe Bane’s
- Bumper Squire Jones/ An Sean Duine/ O’Sullivan’s March
- Caslean an Oir/ Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back
- May Morning Dew/ Sporting Nell
- Micko Russell’s/ Moneymusk
- An Rogaire Dubh/ Connaughtman’s Rambles/ Cailleach an Airgrid
- The Strawberry Blossom/ The Honeymoon
- Johnny Cope
- Farewell to Miltown/ West Clare Railway/ Sporting Molly
- Humours of Lisheen/ Tom Billy’s Fancy/ Humours of Kilkenny
- An Buachaill Dreoite
- The Camaronion/ Greenfields of Rossbeigh/ Connaught Heifers
Press Reviews
Irish Music Magazine
Concert and flat pipes, whistles and Flutes not only demonstrate Mick O’Brien’s great instrumental versatility, but also make a fine job of the challenge of presenting yet another fine piping album…award this piper his pedestal and to prove that the Uilleann pipes can still do what they were designed for; self accompaniment of a primary melody. Fintan Vallely,
Hot Press
May Morning Dew is a snapshot of the best in trad music with not an inch left over for ego. Get your record shop to stock it and put it on their play station and you’ll be seduced utterly. Siobhan Long, 11 out of a possible 12
Evening Herald
May Morning Dew offers an interesting selection of tunes played in an easy unpretentious style with tasteful accompaniment by fiddler Terry Crehan and producer Garry O’Briain on Mandocello and Keyboards. This recording is one the nicest packages I’ve seen in a long time, beautifully designed with lovely photography and detailed notes. With
Terry Crehan: Fiddle
Mick Giblin: Guitar
Gary O’Briain: Mandocello & Keyboards
Seamus Brett: Piano & Keyboards
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Mick O’Brien & Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh – Kitty Lie Over
Press Reviews
FolkWorld CD Reviews
The herrings are boiled and the praties are roasting, Kitty lie over close to the wall!
The a line borrowed from the Irish jig “The Frost is All Over”. Dubliners north and south, Mick O’Brien (uilleann pipes, whistle) and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh (fiddle, whistle), meet. And it wasn’t in the midst of the muddy river Liffey, though one may say this record is a landmark like the newly erected Millennium Spire on O’Connell Street.
These days there seems to be a trend to the pure drop. 15 tracks including 11 pipes/fiddle duets, 2 whistle duets, and 2 fiddle/whistle duets. The only accompaniment is the drones and regulators of the uilleann pipes. These are pitched in Bb, and the fiddle is obviously tuned down. Thus the sound is mellow and smooth.
There is a fondness for Sliabh Luachra music, Mick and Caoimhín pay homage to the great names, Denis Murphy, Patrick Kelly. The latter is almost forgotten:
Isn’t it shocking that with all the recordings available nowadays, you can’t get a single track of this most wonderful of fiddle players. If you were to give him a few bits of cast-off tunes, he would sculpt them into something that could fly – like making an aeroplane out of a scrapheap..
Mick and Caoimhín give their best to continue this legacy. As Peter Browne puts it in the liner notes: Everything sounds right! Walkin’ T:-)M
IRISH ECHO Newspaper. New York City
CEOL Column
By Earle Hitchner
Top 10 Traditional Albums of 2003
Number 1. KITTY LIE OVER, by Mick O’Brien and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh (ACMCD 102)
The uilleann piping of Dublin’s Mick O’Brien first earned international recognition through his teenage performances on two late-’70s recordings, “The Piper’s Rock” and “The Flags of Dublin.
” In 1996, he issued a superb solo debut, “May Morning Dew,” that finished in the Irish Echo’s list of top 10 albums.
Now comes “Kitty Lie Over,” a duet album with fellow Dublin-born musician Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh that surpasses
O’Brien’s earlier achievements.
In Ó Raghallaigh, O’Brien has found a fiddler whose style is an ideal match to his tonally rich, expressive chanter, regulator,
and drone work. This is much more than two talented instrumentalists getting together in the studio for some tunes.
They’ve carefully worked out the repertoire (much of it drawn from Sliabh Luachra), arrangements, pitch (B or B-flat),
and harmonies that allow them to truly marry their instruments, one complementing and extending and bolstering the other.
Ó Raghallaigh is himself an accomplished uilleann piper and pipemaker (apprenticed to Geoff Wooff in Miltown Malbay, Co Clare), so his pipes-like style and reflexes on fiddle add immeasurably to his duets with O’Brien.
The 11 pipes-and-fiddle tracks are wondrous, with “Woman of the House/Rolling in the Ryegrass” a shining example of this interplay, and there are also some tantalizing whistle and fiddle-and-whistle duets.
Hands down (or should I say up?), this is the most impressive Irish traditional instrumental CD of 2003 and one of the best in many years. [Published on January 21, 2004, in the IRISH ECHO newspaper in New York City. Copyright
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Neansai Ni Choisdealbha – Draiocht na Feadoige
Press Reviews
The Living Tradition Jan/15
Well known in lreland and beyond as a broadcaster, Nancy Costello shows herself here to be an equally ?ne fluter. In a generous 21 tracks, she covers a wide range of lrish music from session tunes to slow airs, on flutes and whistles, joined by some excellent accompanists and other musicians.
The title of this CD might translate as ‘Woodwind Wizardry’ and that would be no great exaggeration, although Nancy has no pretentions to be a Finnegan or McGoldrick.
She breathes life into these tunes though and it’s the warmth and spirit which really comes across in her music, with enough technical skill to make her playing seem the most natural thing in the world. Most of these tunes are ones l often play myself, being a whistler, so l have to take a step back from the familiar and try to be objective.
The material here comes from the heart of the tradition, well loved but sometimes neglected melodies. John Brennan ‘s and George White’s Favourite are great old reels, not heard so much in sessions these days. Tommy Mulhaire’s Jig is another rarity, but Condon’s Frolics is currently in favour. A set of polkas rolls beautifully off the fingers – no slides though. There are some exemplary hornpipes here too: The Navigator is a politically correct title and The Swan is rather less well known. Oiche Nollaig is a tune which is usually only heard for about one week a year, which is a shame. Redican’s Mother; The Skylark, The Green Mountain and The Lark On The Strand are all welcome as old friends. Lorna Hunter’s Reel puts a name to a tune for me, and Nancy’s Reel is a composition of Michael Hynes who joins Nancy here to play it. Fiddles, button boxes, jaw harp and the pipes of Nancy’s mentor, the iconic Meaiti Jo Shéamuis, provide duets and an occasional kitchen session sound, but most tracks are flute or whistle solos with deft accompaniment.
Slow airs and waltzes are plentiful, some of them true solos. Taimse im Chodhladh, An Buachaillin Ban and Ballyvaughan Bay come from the lrish repertoire, while The Duchess Tree, Westering Home and Scottish Lament have crossed the North Channel at some stage.
Alter more than an hour of fine music, Nancy launches into the pair of challenging reels, Colonel Rogers and Happy Days Of Youth, before a final house céili on four reels from Patrick’s Night to Ormond Sound. Warm, spirited and inclusive: The Magic of the Flute is a charming album which will bring a smile to the face of any lrish music fan. Alex Monaghan
R2 Magazine Nov/Dec 14 * * * *
Nancy Costello is one of the foremost’ broadcasters on RTE Radio na Gaeltachta, where she was appointed Head of Music in 2010.
Originally from a Gaelic-speaking part of Galway, a small locality that has always been renowned for tradition, Nancy was first encouraged to play music by her parents.
Accompanied by some excellent musicians, including Michael Hynes, Johnny Connolly and Eoin O’Neill, The Magic of the Flute is a varied collection of jigs, reels, hornpipes and airs, led by Nancy on flute and whistle. The playing and arrangements are solidly traditional.
Nancy is a very capable flautist with a rock-steady rhythm. Her version of the C reel ‘Swinging On The Gate’ is beautifully played, with each rolling triplet adding to the flow of the tune. Likewise, Nancy is similarly adept on the whistle, as her excellent playing of ‘The Sweep’s Hornpipe’ demonstrates. The majestic slow air, ‘Taimse lm chodladh is na duistear Mé’ (I am Sleeping, do not awaken me) is, for me, a highlight of the CD. Here Nancy nicely decorates the melody and plays with true emotion.
Draiocht Na Feadoige translates as the ‘Magic Of The Flute’, which is a very fitting title for this lovely CD. Keith Whiddon
www.liveireland.com
One of my favorites is by a terrific flute player named Nancy Costello from the Connemara in Ireland. The title: The Enchantment of the Flute on Clo Iar-Chonnacht. There are 21 cuts of fab fluting. Good heavens, this girl can play. I’m going to suggest that you get to the Clo Iar-Chonnacht website or Alan O’Leary at Copperplate Distribution in London to get this. Why? For some reason, this cd has the title, ‘Draiocht Na Feadoige’ by Neansai Ni Choisdealbha. Good God. That translates to Enchantment of the Flute by Nancy Costello. The title cannot possibly help sales, and that is a shame. All 21 tunes here are played impeccably in a gorgeous style. Nancy is a master musician. We will be playing this a lot on our LiveIreland show to help introduce this wonderful talent. Part of the fun will be to try to pronounce it. We can hear the purists calling in now. This is a terrific album, and qualifies Nancy for serious consideration as Female Musician of the Year. Bill Margeson
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Open The Door For Three: The Joyful Hour
Open The Door For Three: The Joyful Hour
Open the Door for Three is fiddle player Liz Knowles, uilleann piper Kieran O’Hare, and Dublin-born singer and bouzouki player Pat Broaders. Their music is a rare combination of unearthed tunes from centuries-old collections, newly composed melodies, fresh arrangements of songs old and new, homages to the musicians and bands they grew up listening to, and the unmatched energy of a trio of good friends playing great Irish music together.
“A road-tested, audience-approved, high-octane, fist-in-glove, laughing-out-loud trio of Irish musicians…” “Theirs is a big and brilliant sound!” — Sean Smith, Boston Irish Reporter
Liz, Kieran, and Pat have been mainstays of the Irish music scene around the world, having distinguished themselves over the last two decades as soloists with Riverdance, Cherish the Ladies, String Sisters, Secret Garden, Anúna, and The New York Pops. As a trio, they have played to a wide range of audiences in venues large and small, from Irish festivals, to concert halls, house concerts, and pubs. They have performed around the world: on Broadway and at Carnegie Hall, at L’Olympia and the Palais des Congrès in Paris, in Malaysian rainforest festivals, in theatres from Shanghai to São Paulo, and even in a bullring in Mallorca. Most recently, they have been featured at The Kennedy Center’s Ireland 100 festival, the Celtic Colours festival in Cape Breton, at The Milwaukee Irish Festival, and in The Masters of Tradition series in Bantry, County Cork, Ireland.
Irish music is a living, breathing part of Irish and Irish-American culture, and there is no single story that can sum up its history, its charm, grace, and drive. The soul of Open the Door for Three’s music is filled with connections: the connections to people and places, to teachers and heritage and audiences, and to the stories and humor that bring us all together. From these connections comes inspiration, which fills a bottomless well that keeps the trio coming back again and again – to refill, refuel, reinvent, and share.
