Description
Paddy Ryan’s Dream:
The Carraroe Jig:
Michael Coleman’s:
Johnny Og Connolly & Brian McGrath – Dreaming Up The Tunes
£14.99
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
Related products
-
Johnny Connolly – An Mileoidean Scaoilte
Press Reviews
“This CD should be in everybody’s collection of traditional music”. Joe Mullarkey The Irish Post
“Johnny Connolly is an acknowledged master: possibly the greatest Irish melodeon player ever, certainly the best of his generation”.
The Living Tradition
“An instant classic . . . a memorable recording of Irish dance music”, Alex Monaghan/ The Living Tradition.
“This thoroughly wonderful CD is available from Copperplate Distribution”, Rod Stradling, editor, Musical Traditions web site
The Stillwater Times Reviews Star Rating: ****
“Johnny Connolly is an acknowledged master: possibly the greatest Irish melodeon player ever, certainly the best of his generation..
” The Living Tradition
£14.99 -
The Music of Kevin Keegan
Press Reviews
Irish Music Magazine
Many musicians have come and gone with little trace of their music left behind them except their memory in folklore, story and sometimes in song. Kevin Keegan was one musician who shied away from commercial recording because he never wanted attention focussed on him. As a result the remaining recordings of his music are mainly those made privately.
On ‘The Music of Kevin Keegan’ we are allowed to glimpse the style and heart of this musician who enthralled and inspired so many during his relatively short life. Like his contemporaries Paddy O’Brien and Joe Cooley, he emigrated to the United States, staying on when the Aughrim Slopes Ceili Band toured there in 1956. He settled in Chicago and later moved to San Francisco where he made many broadcasts on Californian radio stations. Most of the recordings here were made in Chicago and San Francisco.
Kevin was also a singer and the two songs on this album were recorded in Ireland, Adeste Fideles’ might be considered an oddity on a traditional music album but carols, hymns and church songs were part of the routine musical fare in everyday Irish life one time.
This recording was made on a wire recorder in the wee small hours of Christmas Eve, 1954 in Boula Parish Church in Co. Galway. Later in 1962 an emotional rendition of ‘The Old Thatched Cabin’, the song most associated with Kevin, was recorded in the home of Eoin 0′ Kelly near Portumna accompanied by the late Aggie Whyte on fiddle and Jennie CCampbell on piano. Eoin is on of the voices we hear on this album along with that of Joe Cooley, Alien Patterson, Richard Lundy and Kevin himself whose voice introduces the album.
Kevin Keegan’s music is all heart and character. It is lively, sprightly and full of fun, a reflection of his own personality.
The tunes are mostly great standards of the tradition such as Off to California, Contentment is Wealth, The High Reel, The High Level Hornpipe, with the exception of ‘Kevin Keegan’s Waltz’ composed by himself.
Joe Burke who meticulously sifted through the many recordings provided by friends and acquaintances to put this CD together had enormous admiration for Kevin’s music and says “I just didn’t want it to happen that he would be forgotten.” This album is significant and invaluable in that it gives to the public and younger listeners a sample of the style and character of one of the
most renowned and influential accordion players in Irish traditional music.
We have the privilege of hearing a strong individual style of music that has thankfully been preserved and restored. It is a timely remembrance, a lasting document and a fitting tribute to a unique and stylish musician. Ita Kelly.
Pay The Reckoning September 2004
A master of the two row B/C accordion, Keegan – a former member of the famous Aughrim Slopes Ceili Band – remained behind in America after the band’s 1956 tour and there he lived and played his music until his untimely death at the age of only 54.
Initially settling in Chicago, Keegan teamed up with the wealth of the musically talented who had taken up residence there. His playing days were far from over!
CIC’s new CD of Keegan’s work has been compiled from cassette tapes and reel-to-reel recordings made by friends and musical acquaintances.
The sound quality is not always of the highest order. However Keegan’s playing cuts through the hiss and the background noise like a knife. With touching sleeve notes by Keegan’s long-time friend Joe Burke – no mean accordionist himself!- the CD is both celebratory and melancholy in equal measure. Celebratory of a mighty talent; melancholy in its reflections on a man taken from us too soon – a man whose music still had a way to go.
www.irishmusicreview.com
“the sheer fun of his music and a resolute belief in letting the tune do the talking and you have an almost perfect release”.
Great stuff and thanks, Joe! Geoff Wallis
£14.99 -
Charlie Lennon – Turning the Tune
Turning the Tune is a new double-CD of fiddle music from Charlie Lennon which includes one CD of his own compositions, released on the CIC label.
“One CD looks back, the other looks forward.” That is how Charlie Lennon summed up his new double-CD Turning the Tune.
Charlie is a veteran of traditional Irish music and a member of the well-known Lennon family from Kiltyclogher, Co. Leitrim, which includes his older brother Ben, also a master fiddler. Charlie has seen many changes within the tradition over the years and fears that it may be in danger of becoming too diluted. “We are moving through a period of constant innovation and unless we keep a sharp eye on where we’ve come from, we’re likely to stray off course,” he says. The challenge, he feels, is to build on the tradition, and that is the underlying principle of Turning the Tune. The first CD looks back to the roots of the tradition and past masters and features trusted old tunes with the notes in the booklet referring to many sources including McKenna, Morrison, Coleman and Killoran. Charlie Lennon presents many of these tunes in a new way while staying within the tradition, demonstrating the possibilities which the tradition offers. The second CD looks forward, and contains all new music composed by Charlie. He says of the compositions: “I find it helpful in writing to recall good memories of people and places and seek to capture these in music. While the genre is primarily Irish traditional, I have moved into other genres at times in order to best paint the picture.” The booklet details the inspiration for each piece, adding a particularly personal touch to the album.
Other musicians featuring on the album include: Brian McGrath, Frank Kilkelly, Éilís Lennon, Brian Lennon, Johnny and Johnny Óg Connolly, Steve Simmons and Emmet Gill. Turning the Tune contains thirty tracks in total.
Press Reviews
The Irish Times 2.11.07
Leitrim fiddler and prolific composer Charlie Lennon lends some finely wrought tunes to the tradition, and this double CD is a formidable addition to his arsenal.
With one CD of established tunes accompanied by another brimful of newly minted compatriots, Lennon bestows another gabháil of music to listeners and players hungry to cross new borders.
Against an occasionally overly robust backdrop of piano, banjo, viola and box, Lennon’s throaty fiddle traces an earthy route around old standards such as James Morrison’s Peach Blossom, as well as recently birthed muzettes (Waltz Joe-Anne), strathspeys and a pair of sublime commemorative pieces: an air/reel in memory of Lennon’s talented sound engineer, Éamonn Goggin, and a reel dedicated to his nephew, John Lennon.
Delicately perceptive playing from a musician who marries the cerebral and the emotional without ever sacrificing one to the other. Siobhan Long
The Folk Diary
Under the booklet section entitled “A Word of Advice” Charlie counsels ‘Don’t just learn the notes for these are only a portion of the tune.
Think about the different ways of phrasing it.’ He then demonstrates the value of this over 30 tracks and two albums. Thus on the first album,
his assured fiddling finds new and exciting ways of addressing standards from the Irish repertoire and tunes such as ‘The Liverpool Hornpipe’ and
‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’ have new life breathed into them and his rendition of ‘The Blackbird’ makes the hair stand on its end.
Charlie doesn’t mention the value of listening to the classic recordings of Irish music, but from his whole approach we can hear his appreciation of these, particularly of the early Irish American 78s.
On the second album, Charlie plays tunes that he has written himself, but apart from the fact that these obviously sound less familiar than those on
the first album, nothing else in the approach is changed. These are tunes that totally fit alongside the tradition.
These albums are as exhilarating as any I have heard in a long time. Vic Smith
(This album also got my vote in the fRoots Critics/BBC Radio 3 “Album of the Year” poll)
Irish Music Magazine OCT 07
To get one CD of fiddler, Charlie Lennon’s playing is cause enough for celebration, but to get two, one of them devoted entirely to his own compositions, is quite something indeed. On the album he also plays viola, piano, harpsichord, bass and keyboards, and he is joined here and there by Brian McGrath (piano & banjo), Frank Kilkelly (guitar), Johnny O’Connolly (accordion), Johnny Connolly (melodeon), Steve Simmons (guitar), Emmet Gill (uilleann pipes), and family members, Eilis Lennon (fiddle), and Brian Lennon (flute).
The arrangements are nicely varied, but always with justice done to the fiddle player himself, whose sound doesn’t lose out to over-dominant accompaniment. For that we must thank Charlie himself who, along with David Lennon, produced the album, and to Ed Kenehan and the late Eamonn Goggin who were the sound engineers. The CD is dedicated to Eamonn, who was a close friend of Charlie’s.
In Clo lar-Chonnachta’s (CIC) website notes we are told, “One CD looks back, the other looks forward,” which is how Charlie summed up his new double-CD Turning the Tune. The first CD looks back to the roots of the tradition and past masters and features trusted old tunes with the notes in the booklet referring to many sources including McKenna, Morrison, Coleman and Killoran. Charlie presents many of these tunes in a new way while staying within the tradition, demonstrating the possibilities that the tradition offers. The second CD looks forward, and contains all new music composed by Charlie. He says of the compositions: “I find it helpful in writing to recall good memories of people and places and seek to capture these in music. While the genre is primarily Irish traditional, I have moved into other genres at times in order to best paint the picture.” The CD booklet details the inspiration for each piece, adding a particularly personal touch to the album.
In his written introduction to the CD, Charlie explains the choice of the album’s title. “Can you turn this one?” Francis John McGovern used to spend time at Charlie’s parents’ house in Co. Leitrim in long winter evenings. Charlie recalls that his father and Francis John would chat by the fire, and during a pause in the conversation, the latter would draw a Clarke’s whistle from his breast pocket and play part of a seldom-heard tune. “That came to me while I was taking the rough off a headstone in the workshop today but I can’t turn it,” he would say. There’d be another long pause while all looked into the fire for inspiration. “Sometimes I would get an inkling of the high part,” Charlie writes, “reach for the fiddle and start to stagger out a phrase or two.” Francis John would exclaim, “That’s it! I have it now.” Then the old man and the boy would take time in fleshing out the tune together. “This was Francis John McGovern’s way of giving encouragement and recognition to any aspiring young musician that he came in contact with,” says Charlie.
There is a feast of good music and tunes on these two CDs of Charlie’s: reels, jigs, hornpipes, a couple of barn dances, a waltz, an air/reel (dedicated to Eamonn and his parents), and even a strathspey which Charlie composed in memory of his friend, Dick Lett, who promoted Irish and Scottish music workshops when Charlie lived in the north of England. I recommend this album highly. Aidan O’Hara
www.liveireland.com
Turning the Tune” is a new double album out from the great musician, Charlie Lennon. In this outing, we have Charlie giving a tour de force on fiddle. This is a beautiful textbook of music at its best, played with total understanding and grace. This is for real trad lovers only. It is required for all aspiring Irish fiddlers, not only for the technique, but the vast array of tunes on offer. In a double album we would have wanted more airs, but you can’t have everything. This is a corker. Rating: Recommended. Bill Margeson
£16.99 -
Rattle the Boards – The Parish Platform
BIOG:
Playing together since 1992,Rattle the Boards have been praised as one of the best traditional acts in Irelands music scene. Pat,John and Benny were all members of the Knocknagow Ceili Band who were based in Clonmel,Co.Tipperary and spend many years playing for dancers throughout Ireland.Benny is also leader of the International supergroup”Danu”and has toured all over the world. In 1999 Rattle the boards released their debut album to much acclaim. With many performances in Ireland and Europe over the past years Rattle the boards have grown into an act very much sought after.In 2002 Rattle the Boards provided the musical inspiration for a major Irish theatre show called Teac A Bloc by famous visual artist Des Dillon.Rattle the boards arranged and performed with Teac A Bloc to sold-out venues throughout Ireland and also performed two sketches from the show on Irelands premier tv show”The Late Late Show”This is only one of many TV appearances by Rattle The Boards todate.In March 2008 Rattle the boards released their long awaited second album “The Parish Platform”nearly a decade after the debut release.Their scense of fun and lift in the music of Rattle the boards makes them unique among their contempories.As their name suggests this is a group that will have its audience on their feet and rattling the floorboards.
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. Contact Copperplate for all your PR needs.
The lads are generally available for interviews; please contact us to arrange a mutually convenient time. Please copy us on any reviews/features/airplay. Feedback always welcome.
Press Reviews
www.liveireland.com
THE LIVIES 2009
Newcomers of the Year: Rattle the Boards: Rattle the Boards
Benny McCarthy on accordion, Pat Egan on fiddle and banjo, John T. Egan on vocals, John Nugent on guitar and vocals and Donnchadh Gough on bodrhan have stormed onto the scene this year with one of the biggest selling and most loved debut albums in memory. The key? It is fun. It is a BALL!! Terrific tunes and songs, all imbued with a real sense of the joy that Irish music is. Mason’s Apron is our favorite tune, and Patrick Was a Gentleman our fav song. These guys get it. No self-involved navel-gazing here about ‘the meaning of the tradition’, and all that crap. No pretentious egos. Just a sense of the fun of it all. We love these guys and cannot wait to see them in person! Bill Margeson
Folk World Editors Best Loved Albums of the Year
Irish traditional music at its best — lively and real, spontaneous and passionate. Central to the band’s sound is the wonderful accordion playing of Danu’s Benny McCarthy, and he is joined by Pat Ryn (fiddle, guitar, mandolin), John Nugent (guitar) and the singing of John T Egan. A great mix of traditional tunes — from jigs and reels via polkas and airs to hornpipes and quicksteps — plus a number of trad songs. A few friends have joined the lads for a few numbers — and there is a bit of an unusual but very welcome interlude of a trumpet in one of the numbers, giving the number some jazzy flair.
All of this played with so much passion that the listener’s feet won’t stand still. This lot managed to distil the spirit of traditional music onto a CD, giving the listener the feeling that the foursome would just sit around the corner in his/her kitchen. And don’t be surprised that you find yourself rattling the boards of your wooden floor dancing away. An album that lifts your soul and just makes happy. Great stuff! Michael Moll
Rock’n’Reel
The brain child of Danu frontman, Benny McCarthy, Rattle the Boards second album continues their intention to revive the joie de vivre inherent in Irish music performed for pleasure and dancing before The Clancy’s and the ballad boom exposed the music and song of Ireland to a wider world.
It succeeds in its core ideal, in the verve, authority and drive of the performers attacking of the polkas, jigs and reels with flair and invention.
Of course, time hasn’t stood still and along the way, the players, John Nugent, John T Ryan, Pat Ryan, McCarthy and assorted guests contribute something of their own musical personalities. Consequently, there’s nothing precious here, with the rugged St Patrick Was A Gentleman making way for the innovative Whistling Rufus quickstep, where Decky O’Dwyer’s trumpet adds an air of Mariachi to the performance, and classic reels such as The Mason’s Apron are given a new alacrity and tempo courtesy of some dazzling melodeon from McCarthy.
Unpretentious and packing so much into its 12 tracks, Rattle The Boards enable much of the Irish tradition to breath anew. Danny Moore
The Living Tradition Aug/Sept 08
As if playing in Danu isn’t enough to fill in his days (and nights!), Benny McCarthy has got together with a bunch of his local musician friends, plus a few other guests, to produce an album of music for a good old hooley. This is not a recording for purists or musicologists to analyse and contemplate; rather it’s one for everyone just forgetting about the rest of life’s boring stuff, getting carried away with the atmosphere and having a dance, or, if that’s too much like hard work, just listen and enjoy, since this is a delight throughout.
The band line-up is Benny McCarthy on button box and melodeon; Pat Ryan, fiddle, mandolin and banjo; John Nugent, guitar; and John T Egan, vocals. Guests are Donnchadh Gough, bodhran; Des Dillon, harmonica; Jon Kenny, vocals; Decky O’Dwyer, trumpet (yes, trumpet!); Albie Grace, bass Paul Ryan, button box; and Bruno Stachelin, percussion. There is a strong Tipperary connection, with many having played in the Knocknagow Ceili Band. This is not a ceili band album, however, ditching the strict-tempo approach in favour of a free-flowing, good-time sound.
The majority of the tunes and songs are very well known and very popular indeed, and it sometimes takes a fresh, lively attack on them like this to help us all realise why they became popular in the first place. From the vocal hilarities of St Patrick was a Gentleman, via the inspired trumpet breaks on Whistling Rufus through to any other track you mention, this CD just oozes with the sounds of talented guys having a good time and infecting everyone who hears them with their sense of enjoyment.
As a nice touch, the CD is designed to look like an old-fashioned vinyl record (remember them?). Listen to this, but make sure you’ve left some space for dancing – that’s what you’ll feel like doing! Gordon Potter
TAPLAS, the Welsh folk magazine
The Parish Platform, on the other hand, is about as different as you can get while remaining within the style and repertoire of the traditional Irish genre.
Even- track is completely unlike the last. It is bright, sparkly and energetic. Each musician’s individual characteristics shine through.
The band includes Danu’s Benny McCarthy on accordion, John Nugent on guitar, John T. Egan on vocals and Pat Ryan on fiddle, mandolin and banjo.
There is also a long list of guest musicians including a cracking bodhran player and even some brass!
With all these different instrumentalists chopping and changing, soloing and blending and all playing with exuberance, dexterity and vigour, it doesn’t get stale for a second. The couple of songs are extremely engaging and entertaining and you even get to find out what happened to all the snakes in Ireland! This is a great one for the collection! Imogen O’Rourke
The Irish Democrat
EIGHT YEARS on from the release of their self-titled debut album, Rattle The Boards have come up with another toe-tapping collection of traditional Irish dance tunes and songs.
Based around a nucleus of founder members Benny McCarthy (button accordionist), John Nugent (guitar/vocals), Pat Ryan (fiddle/banjo) and former guest singer John T. Egan (vocals), Rattle The Boards have produced an album that is unashamedly nostalgic in feel. This time around featured guests include Jon Kenny (vocals), Decky O’Dwyer (trumpet), Donnchadh Gough (bodhran), Des Dillon (harmonica), Paul Ryan (accordion) and Bruno Staelhelin (percussion).
What could so easily have ended up as mere pastiche is anything but. This is entirely down to the excellent quality and vitality of the playing – though you’d hardly expect anything less from an ensemble that features two members of Irish traditional ‘supergroup’ Danu (McCarthy and Gough) and a bevy of renowned and respected musicians with more ceilis under their belt than you could shake a stick at.
While their unrepentantly backward-looking tribute pays homage to the musical culture of a bygone era it does so in style. Although their approach won’t please everyone, you’ll need a narrow mind and a cold heart not to find your spirit lifted and your feet tapping, providing a reminder of a time when virtually the sole purpose of music was to get folk on their feet.
In fact, if these tunes and songs don’t get you in the mood the volume’s probably not up loud enough – either that or you’re under the boards rather than in any position to rattle them. David Granville
“Tunes familiar to every parish but with a bit of fire under them” THE IRISH TIMES
Shake, ‘Rattle,’ and Roll On Music Meant for the Dancer in You
[Published on June 4, 2008, in the IRISH ECHO newspaper, New York City. Copyright (c) Earle Hitchner. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of author.]
The self-titled debut recording in 1999 by Rattle the Boards raised a smile for me when I read the group’s track note for “The Controversial Reel.” Listed as “trad.,” it was described as “a lovely reel which is around a long time.” Thirty-one years ago, the reel appeared on “Kiss Me Kate,” an album by fiddler Liz Carroll and button accordionist Tommy Maguire. So the track note is accurate–except for “trad.” It isn’t. The reel was composed by Brooklyn-born, Baltimore resident button accordionist Billy McComiskey. But the compliment to McComiskey comes from the assumption that a tune that good must be “trad.”
“Trad.” instrumental music is mainly dance music, and the latter dominates “The Parish Platform,” the new recording by Rattle the Boards. My hope is that the group, like “The Controversial Reel,” will be around a long time, for their music is an unvarnished joy meant to get your feet moving and, yes, rattling the boards.
The founding members of Rattle the Boards are Danu button accordionist Benny McCarthy from Waterford, banjo, fiddle, and mandolin player Pat Ryan from Tipperary, and guitarist John Nugent, Ryan’s brother-in-law, from Tipperary. All three formerly played with the Knocknagow Ceili Band, based in Clonmel, and have gotten together to play music almost weekly since 1992.
The guest singer on the first Rattle the Boards album was Tipperary’s Martha Beardmore, and the full-fledged member now singing with the group is Tipperary’s John T. Egan. He possesses a gruff voice well suited to the two songs on the new CD, “St. Patrick Was a Gentleman” (Jon Kenny shares lead vocal) and “The Nightingale.”
The rest of the dozen tracks on “The Parish Platform” are tunes, and the album’s most dazzling performance comes from button accordionist Benny McCarthy on “The Mason’s Apron.” It’s a warhorse traditional reel that was boosted in popularity by fiddler Sean Maguire with the Four Star Quartet and then boosted again through the solo turn by flutist Matt Molloy in the Chieftains’ concerts. The embellishments by McCarthy in this reel refreshen it. Accompanied by Nugent on guitar and McCarthy’s Danu colleague Donnchadh Gough on bodhran, the button accordionist plays with triplet-flecked swing and inventive panache while never losing his grip on the tune’s melodic spine. This tour de force matches McCarthy’s best work with Danu.
“McKillop’s/Love at the Endings/High Reel” is a medley initially showcasing Pat Ryan’s skill on the fiddle. With Nugent and Gough backing him, Ryan plays the first reel with limber energy and pulse, all ratcheted up when McCarthy enters on the second reel and Ryan himself switches to banjo on the third reel. Even nailing your shoes to the floor won’t prevent you from tapping them to this percolating beat.
In the “Galway/Peacock’s Feather” hornpipes, McCarthy’s accordion playing, which sports some well-placed, Derrane-like triplets, and Ryan’s banjo playing, which ably complements the box and also allows it to veer off on nimble flights of fancy, form a crisp, cohesive whole, backed unobtrusively by Nugent on guitar.
“The Irish Washerwoman” is a jig still shunned by many Irish traditional musicians, who feel it has been done to death in the past and also conjures up a cultural image of demeaning stereotype. But no matter how long this jig may be mothballed, it is instantly recognizable when dusted off and performed. The reason is its enduring melodic and rhythmic appeal. Both are obvious in the vibrant new airing the jig receives from McCarthy on accordion, Ryan on banjo, Nugent on guitar, and Gough on bodhran in a medley that includes “Maid in the Meadow” and “Humours of Drinagh.”
Among the other medleys packing a punch on the new album are “Farrell O’Gara/Gan Ainm/The Flying Irishman” reels, “Cuz Teahan’s/Gan Ainm/Johnny O’Leary’s” polkas, and “Jimmy’s Jig/Gan Ainm.”
Where ceili band and showband merge (collide, if you’re a purist) is “Whistling Rufus,” a hoot of a quickstep tune played a little too loosely. It additionally melds Irish trad with New Orleans jazz strains, especially through guest Decky O’Dwyer’s trumpet playing.
A critic in Ireland wrote that “The Parish Platform” may veer near “caricature.” I suppose the plain woolen caps, work shoes, and other attire worn by the quartet in sepia-toned album photos–one shows them dancing and playing music on a small wooden platform laid on a dirt country lane with an old car parked close by–may give off that impression to some. But it’s a mistake to suggest that “The Parish Platform” inadvertently swerves toward “caricature” or, worse, constitutes a deliberate goof or spoof smirking at a musical style and attitude rooted in the rural Ireland of the not-so-distant past. This album is not a lampoon but a lively, winsome tribute, full of fun and motivated by respect, recalling a time when spurring people to dance was all that mattered. What’s not to like about that? Earle Hitchner
www.liveIreland.com
Next up is a new fav, The Parish Platform by Rattle the Boards. Four musicians, with guest stars. John Nugent, Benny McCarthy, John Egan and Pat Ryan offer an album of great fun and a sense of the real trad. This is not the honed studio perfection of so many albums today. This is a big, blousy thing with a great sense of the music, the rhythms and the meaning. It is the most fun we have had listening to anything in quite a while. We frequently smiled, and even got up to shake a foot occasionally ourselves! The role of ceili and set dancing is well recorded in Irish music, and vastly overrated. And, if this album in description pays a little too much of a tip of the hat to the dancing tradition, it delivers the essential goods—the music itself. You will love this album. It will be a contender for Vocal/Instrumental Album of the Year. It is their second album and is offered through Doon Productions. Go to www.rattletheboards.com. Find this album and buy it. Then turn it up. Smile. Rating: Four Harps. Bill Margeson
Irish Music Magazine
Rattle the Boards tread a fine line between ceoltoir and caricature. I’d say they carry it off, their music is meant to be fun and it is. From the opening notes of ‘Cuz Teehan’s Polka’ we’re clearly well down the country, the whole album is a triumph of exuberance.
All the old favourites are trotted out: ‘The Mason’s Apron, The Irish Washerwoman, The Galway Hornpipe’ and The High Reel’. Box and banjo front men, Benny McCarthy and Pat Ryan are well known from Danu and the Knockgow band. They’re joined by John Nugent on guitar, and John T Egan for the occasional song, on this follow-up to their 1999 debut CD.
Amidst plenty of good stuff, the majority is pure traditional: ‘Johnny Leary’s, Off to California, McKillop’s Reel, Humours of Drinagh’, and a couple of ‘Can Ainmneacha’. The showband standard, ‘Whistling Rufus’ adds a note of jazz and pays homage to Clonmel’s other musical heritage (Mick Delahunty’s big band). The big band on this track is a one man horn section from Decky O’Dwyer and some deft finger work on the box from McCarthy.
Benny excels on his ‘Mason’s Apron’ solo, with enough variations to please any Dubliners die-hards, while ‘Autumn Sky’ and The Nightingale’ are firmly back in showband territory. There are just two songs on The Parish Platform’; the other is a rough-and-ready romp through the comic ballad ‘St Patrick Was a Gentleman’, a duet with comedian John Kenny. A set of reels headed up by ‘Farrell O’Gara’ provides the big finish, played straight and not too fast, a satisfying conclusion to a most entertaining CD. There’s an engagingly antiqued website at www.rattletheboards.com. Alex Monaghan
£14.99
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.