Connie O'Connell - Milltown Malbay 1983

One of my favourite fiddlers, from Kilnamartyra in West Cork

I recorded this in a quiet Milltown Malbay pub where CO'C struck up with a flute player. It shows the man's lovely rolling style and very tasty left hand well, although the quality is not great. IMHO his formal recordings don't do him justice.

The first track is 'reminder' run-through of an uncommon tune.

01 Johnny Going To The Ceilidh
02 The Holly Bush
03 The Piper's Despair / McCabe's
04 My Love Is Fair And Handsome / The Dawn
05 Connie O'Connell's Reels
06 Gan Ainm
07 Red Haired Lass / Lady On The Island
08 Fairy Reel / Cameronian
09 Gan Ainm / Jenny's Wedding
10 Gan Ainm / A Fair Wind
11 Lord McDonalds
12 Boys Of Ballynahinch / Dublin Reel

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2008

A collection of stuff I've worked on over the past year. There's no particular theme to it, and some of it could be further polished, but what the hell. I've also done a nice label for those interested enough to print it out.



The set list is:

1. Misty
2. Viola Lee Blues
3. The Sheik Of Kerry
4. Willie Taylor
5. Cherries
6. Sweet Jane
7. Arab Dance
8. Reynardine
9. Summertime
10. Saint Augustine
11. Laridé Sans Nom
12. Firewood Song
13. The Skipton Ram
14. The Trees They Do Grow High
15. O’Rahilly’s Grave

Its mostly guitar, oud and fiddle with Garageband loops (esp. percussion). Further information is in the files themselves.

Ripped @192

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A Tribute To The Emperor

Ras Michael and The Sons Of Negus with Jazzboe Abubaka


Here's a vinyl rip @160 of a 1977 album which doesn't seem to have a CD release (although the tracklist is on the iTunes database). Roots reggae plus religious vocals, flavoured with solo lead trombone!

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Sean Ryan and Paddy Fahey

The reverse side of the Paddy Canny tape mentioned earlier has "Sean Ryan and Paddy Fahey" written on it. These two are legendary fiddlers and the composers of many legendary tunes, usually called "Sean Ryan's" or "Paddy Fahey's". I'm not sure who is who, or what half the names of the tunes are, and they wouldn't be tunes I would learn or play often (I prefer more straightforward rhythmic stuff) but for those more interested, here they are.

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P.S. The new Rapidshare 'collector's account' process is a bit hard to understand, I hope I've got it right.

Paddy Canny R.I.P.

RTE article

And here is the man himself, a rip of a private tape made in his house a while ago, and a few tracks recently aired on RTE's 'Ceilidh House' from way back, when he was right on top of his game - includes a version of 'Cielito Lindo'!

Music Of Sligo (again)

Its nice to play along with recordings rather than just practising as such. However, in the case of a lot of Irish music, higher and lower pitches occur regularly, usually as a means of putting a bit a variety into things (Eb flutes and concertinas played a tone down are typical of this) . Where a recording is consistently high e.g. Frankie Gavin's first where he is tuned up to 'Eb', it might be worth adjusting tuning for a hour or so, but this isn't on when things jump about a lot.

One such recording is 'Music Of Sligo' by Fred Finn and Peter Horan. Several tracks are up in 'Eb', while one is more or less in 'E' (some mistake here surely - the recording is technically so bad that I suspect that tapes were run at the wrong speed somewhere). However in these digital days it is easy to tweak things a bit (in my case using Sound Studio on a Mac) and make things a bit more consistent.

So here's the whole recording, as if played in concert pitch throughout. The speeds have not been altered.

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Casey In The Cowhouse (Re-rip)

I've found the tape and dusted off the cassette player. Here it is again. I've changed a couple of track names as well.

01 Glen Of Aherlow / Rolling In The Barrel
02 Jenny's Welcome To Charlie
03 My Love Is Fair And Handsome
04 Musical Priest
05 Shores Of Loughrea / Biddy From Sligo / Pipe On The Hob /Scully Casey's / Banks Of Lough Gowna / Brian O'Lynn
06 Paddy Ryan's Dream
07 Toss The feathers
08 Pol Halfpenny / Murphy's
09 Jaundiced Itinerant / Bunch Of Keys
10 College Groves / Toss The Feathers
11 Hurry The Jug
12 Daly's / Sculley Casey's / The Cuckoo / The Western
13 Banish Misfortune / Kitty's Wedding
14 Old Wheels Of The World / My Love Is In America
15 Galway Reel / The Ships Are Sailing
16 The Gallowglass / The Legacy
17 Miss McDonald
18 Farewell To Milltown / Star Of Munster

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Casey In The Cowhouse (update)

It turns out that the thumping noise referred to in the original post is not a cassette tape artifact, but a fault on the CD-R I ripped it onto. The CD-R is one of the 'blue' ones which always seem to give trouble after a while. I'll re-rip the cassette ASAP, sooner if anyone is interested enough to make a request.

Ceol An Clair

A long out of print compilation recording of Bobby Casey, Junior Crehan, John Kelly, Joe Ryan and Patrick Cree (all now dead). I copied this off an LP when my tape deck was in terminal decline, so there is an extraneous electric buzz present unfortunately. In some ways this record is a museum piece as the approach of these players to 'the music' is history really - although it is an inspiration for some younger fiddlers such as Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh.

01 Reel Of Mullinavat / Tie The Ribbons - Bobby Casey
02 Drunken Gauger - Bobby Casey
03 Wheels Of The World / Rakish Paddy - Joe Ryan
04 Dear Irish Boy - Joe Ryan
05 Mary Brennan's - John Kelly
06 Sean O'Dhuibhir A Ghleanna - John Kelly
07 Mist Covered Mountain - Junior Crehan
08 Caislean An Oir - Junior Crehan
09 Denny Mescall's Slide - Patrick Kelly
10 Salamanca / Milliner's Daughter - Patrick Kelly
11 Humours Of Kilclogher / Elizabeth Kelly's Delight - John Kelly
12 Repeal Of The Union / Toss The Feathers / Maids Of Mitchellstown - Joe Ryan
13 Kerry Woman's Lament - Junior Crehan
14 The Gallowglass / Jimmy Ward's - Bobby Casey
15 Drowsy Maggie - Patrick Kelly
16 O'Connel's Farewell To Dublin - Patrick Kelly
17 Morning Star - Patrick Kelly
18 The Foxhunters - Patrick Kelly
19 Banish Misfortune - Patrick Kelly
20 The Bucks - Patrick Kelly
21 Gillian's Apples - Patrick Kelly

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Casey In The Cowhouse

A long out of print recording of Bobby Casey, the Clare fiddler who was said to inhabit a tune rather than play it. A @128 rip of a copy of a cassette. Some tracks have what sounds like an electric bodhran player thumping along - an artifact of the good old days of cassette-to-cassette copying.

01 Glen Of Aherlow / Rolling In The Barrel
02 Jenny's Welcome To Charlie
03 My Love Is Fair And Handsome
04 Musical Priest
05 Shores Of Loughrea / Biddy From Sligo / Pipe On The Hob /Scully Casey's / Banks Of Lough Gowna / Brian O'Lynn
06 Paddy Ryan's Dream
07 Toss The feathers
08 Pol Halfpenny / Murphy's
09 Jaundiced Itinerant / Bunch Of Keys
10 College Groves / Toss The Feathers
11 Hurry The Jug
12 Daly's / Sculley Casey's / The Cuckoo / The Western
13 Banish Misfortune / Kitty's Wedding
14 Miss McDonald / My Love Is In America
15 Galway Reel / The Ships Are Sailing
16 The Gallowglass / The Legacy
17 Old Wheels Of The World
18 Farewell To Milltown / Star Of Munster

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Paddy Canny & Peter O'Loughlin

Some fiddle music from Clare, recorded at a workshop in Tulla in '96. Nothing out of the ordinary, and the recording quality isn't that good, but classic fiddle tunes played at a nice pace.

01 Christmas Eve
02 Musical Priest
03 Hornpipes
04 Bunker Hill / Old Bush
05 Old Grey Goose
06 Lord McDonald's / Ballinasloe Fair
07 Rights Of Man / Wexford Hornpipe
08 Plains Of Boyle / Cuckoo's Nest
09 Cherish The Ladies
10 Miss Johnson / Gan Ainm
11 Dublin Reel / Steampacket
12 Sherlocks / Tell her I Am
13 Jenny's Chickens
14 Repeal Of The Union / Toss The Feathers
15 Lucy Campbell / Toss the feathers / Ships Are Sailing
16 College Groves / Dairymaid
17 Rose In The Heather
18 First House In Connaught
19 Down The Broom / Gatehouse Maid
20 Sean Ryan's Jigs
21 Swallowtail / Congress

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