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Irish fiddler Bobby Casey’s music on CD  One
of the greats of Irish fiddle playing, Bobby Casey was born at the Crosses
of Annagh near Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare.
His father John ‘Scully’ Casey, who died when Bobby was a
teenager, was a well-known fiddler as well as being a flute and concertina
player.
Scully gave lessons to Junior Crehan, as did Scully’s cousin, the
noted dance master Thady Casey.
Bobby in turn learned much of his playing from Junior Crehan and the two
remained lifelong friends.
He moved to London in 1952 and was a regular at the Sunday morning sessions
in the Favourite and Bedford Arms pubs which became rallying points for
Irish musicians and rural emigrants in the ’60s.
In 1959 Ita Crehan helped him record Casey In The Cowhouse, literally
recorded in an old cowhouse and which, along with four other tracks, are
now available on tape.
“A musician’s musician,” is how Muiris O Rochain of
the Willie Clancy Summer School described him.
He had an easygoing and likeable personality. His style was described
as gentle “with an exceptional flair for variation”.
With Séamus Ennis, he performed at the first Willie Clancy Summer
School in 1973 and returned frequently to Miltown Malbay to give classes.
In later years he moved from London to live in Northampton. Bobby died
in 2000 and is buried in his native Clare.
Dermot Kearney said:“Wherever I hear Clare music I am instantly
transported back. The music of Bobby Casey takes me instantly to that
place. I can be in The Burren looking over the Atlantic Ocean towards
the Aran Islands or standing on the Cliffs of Moher hearing the seagulls
shriek or drinking a pint of porter in Milltown Malbay, despite the fact
that I am many miles away, maybe even on a foreign shore.
“The fiddle playing of Bobby Casey does that to me.”
Always associated with West Clare, the music of Bobby Casey brings to
mind the sights, the sounds and smells of Clare.
Bobby Casey is the most influential and inspirational fiddler of his generation
and at long last his music is now available on CD.
Hopefully the listener will get an idea of the nature and humour of Bobby
and will have your heart warmed by his music.
Musicologist and collector Dr Reg Hall, who was at the original sessions,
has produced this 18 track CD, lovingly restored and remastered for the
20th century. Initially recorded in Camden Town, London by Bill Leader
and Reg Hall in 1966, it was produced by Dermot Kearney and Reg Hall.
Bobby Casey The SpiritOf West Clare. Distributed by Copperplate/Proper
Copperplate Consultants, 68 Belleville Road, London SW11 6pp Tel/Fax 020 7585 0357 e-mail: copperplate2000@yahoo.com |
