| Traditional Music Round-up
By Don Meade
A roaring rip tide of traditional music recordings has been flowing out
of Ireland and Irish America recently, much of it released by the musicians
themselves without recourse to record labels. A listing of the year’s best
discs could easily include several dozen equally worthy releases, so limiting
this roundup to a mere ten was a reviewer’s nightmare. You won’t go wrong,
however, with any of the items in this representative sampling of Irish
traditional recordings of note from both sides of the Atlantic.BOHOLA
Bohola
Chicago accordionist Jimmy Keane is a virtuoso of the “stomach Steinway”
with numerous All-Ireland championships to prove it. After two decades with
the popular Green Fields of America troupe, Jimmy formed this traditional
music power trio, named for a musical County Mayo town, with Windy City
fiddler Seán Cleland (formerly of The Drovers) and Dubliner Pat Broaders,
a magnificent singer and bouzouki accompanist. The group’s debut disc is
especially impressive for its artful arrangements, including lengthy medleys
that combine vocal and instrumental elements into what amount to Irish-American
pocket operas. (Shanachie)
HARRY BRADLEY
As I Carelessly Did Stray…
Belfast flute player Harry Bradley burst on the Irish music scene a few
years ago with a high-powered style that blends the sound and fury of the
northern flute band tradition with the driving dance rhythms and sophisticated
ornamentation of old-time players from Counties Leitrim and Sligo. This
recording follows up Bradley’s critically acclaimed first outing, Bad Turns
and Horse-shoe Bends, with a similar mix of marching tunes, barn dances,
slow airs and rollicking reels. One standout track features Harry’s practically
percussive tin whistle playing with the sean-nós (old-style) step dancing
of Connemara man Seosamh Ó' Neachtain. (Claddagh)
BRIAN CONWAY
First Through the Gate
The 1920s and ’30s are remembered as the “golden age” of Irish traditional
music in America largely because of the 78 rpm recordings made in New York
City by some incredibly talented County Sligo fiddlers, most notably Michael
Coleman, James Morrison and Pady Killoran. Later, New York fiddle legend
Andy McGann gave Sligo-style fiddle music a polished elegance that lives
on in the playing of All-Ireland fiddle champ and Bronx native Brian Conway.
Release by the Smithsonian Institution is a folk music imprimatur thoroughly
justified by Conway’s fabulous technique and sure feel for the Sligo tradition.
Named for a line in Yeats’ poem “The Fiddler of Dooney,” Conway’s disc is
an instant classic that includes some tasty duets with his mentor McGann.
(Smithsonian Folkways)
ÉAMONN COYNE
Through the Round Window
Traditional music purists used to heap scorn on the tenor banjo, a rackety
noise maker once classed as little better than a bodhrán (Irish frame drum)
on a stick. That attitude is long out of date, as any listener to Éamonn
Coyne’s sophisticated new release on Nashville’s Compass label can attest.
Bluegrass banjo star and Compass co-owner Alison Brown was so impressed
by Coyne’s Celtic banjo prowess that she joined him on a track that combines
the Dubliner’s four-string plectrum attack with her own Southern-fried five-string
licks. Other outstanding collaborations include duets with Dervish fiddler
Tom Morrow, Capercaillie flute player Mike McGoldrick and Altan button accordionist
Dermot Byrne. (Compass)
P.J. CROTTY, CAROL CULLINAN, JAMES CULLINAN
Happy to Meet
“Flutes and fiddles everywhere / If it’s music you want, You should go
to Clare.” So sang Christy Moore in his Irish trad-rap classic “Lisdoonvarna”
back in the 1980s, and it’s still sage advice. It’s a long way from there
to here, of course, but if you can’t make it to Lisdoonvarna, the very best
of County Clare music can come to you in the form of this gorgeous recording
from flute player P.J. Crotty and fiddler James Cullinan, with piano backing
from James’ wife Carol. Crotty was a well-known figure in the London Irish
music scene of the 1970s and ’80s. Cullinan is considerably younger, but
as these seamless flute-and-fiddle duets prove, traditional music knows
no generation gap. (Available at Import Specialists)
LIZ and YVONNE KANE
The Well Tempered Bow
Fiddling sisters Liz and Yvonne Kane grew up on the Dawros peninsula,
a wild, rocky district near Letterfrack in the Connemara gaeltacht (Irish-speaking
district). Liz came to prominence first, winning the All-Ireland championship
and the prestigious “Fiddler of Dooney” and “Fiddler of Oriel” titles to
boot. Yvonne, five years younger, quickly caught up, however, and in these
duet tracks matches her older sibling’s every bow stroke and ornamental
flourish. Much of the repertoire on the disc comes from the other side of
the county, including seven tunes by east Galway fiddler Paddy Fahey, a
reclusive legend who leaves his many compositions nameless. Londoner John
Blake adds superb guitar and piano backing. (Available at Import Specialists)
NIAMH PARSONS
Heart’s Desire
Dubliner Niamh (pronounced “Neeve”) Parsons is Ireland’s reigning queen
of traditional song. She has a warm, well-broken-in voice that caresses
slow ballads like no one else in Irish music today. In addition to singing
traditional classics such as “A Kiss in the Morning Early” and the Napoleonic
love song “Broken Hearted I’ll Wander,” Parsons ventures into modern territory
with songs composed by Andy Irvine, Mark Knopfler and noted Armagh songsmith
Seán Mone. Guitarist Graham Dunne renders appropriately low-key backing
and contributes two impressive flat-picked instrumentals. (Green Linnet)
SÉAMUS QUINN and GARY HASTINGS
Slán le Loch Eirne (Stories to Tell)
A fiddling Catholic priest from County Fermanagh and a flute-playing
Church of Ireland minister from Belfast – can this be a musical match made
in heaven? Even if not divinely inspired, this collaboration by Fr. Quinn
and the Rev. Hastings certainly demonstrates that there is no sectarian
divide in Irish traditional music. Before discovering their clerical callings,
both men were a bit wild in their younger days. If their lifestyles have
since calmed down, their music certainly has not. This is high-powered and
fast-moving dance music, as well as a few choice slow airs, with backing
from Altan bouzouki ace Ciarán Curran and Father Quinn’s own estimable piano
playing. (Cló Iar-Chonnachta)
MARY RAFFERTY
Hand-Me-Downs
This is a stunning instrumental solo debut from a veteran of the popular
all-female Irish-American band Cherish the Ladies. Mary’s talent on the
button accordion, flute and tin whistle was nurtured by her father Mike,
a much-respected east Galway flute player and uillean piper who has been
a stalwart of the New Jersey traditional music scene for half a century.
The accordion is a dangerous tool in the wrong hands, but Mary makes her
button box sing in a gently lyrical style that will impress even hardened
accordion-phobes. Dónal Clancy (son of famed Clancy Brother Liam) adds subtly
sophisticated guitar and bouzouki playing that sets a new standard for Irish
music accompaniment. (Available at Import Specialists)
CILLIAN and NIALL VALLELY
Callan Bridge
It’s been a good year for Armagh, with the men of Ulster’s smallest county
taking their first-ever All-Ireland football crown. The release of this
duet album from Armagh brothers Cillian and Niall Vallely (pronounced Killian
and Nile VAL-luh-lee) is one more good reason for celebration in the Orchard
County. Cillian is a member of trad super-group Lúnasa and one of Ireland’s
very best uilleann pipers. Older brother Niall, who founded the group Nomos
and now tours with singer Karan Casey, is one of the most original and virtuosic
concertina players in the history of Irish music. Their collection of solos
and duets features many rare musical gems, including some of Niall’s many
original compositions and interesting older tunes culled from the pages
of 19th-century manuscript collections. (Compass)
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