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Wow. Four of the
greatest Irish recordings of all time, all re-released on CD with the
original artwork, as part of Gael-Linn's jubilee celebrations. To be honest,
these have all been available on CD for some time, but not in this form,
so if you needed an excuse to add them to your collection, you've got
one now.
Mary Bergin's first whistle album is still one of the best, despite two
new generations of musicians and numerous improvements in whistle design.
The reels and jigs sparkle: Blackberry Blossom, Lady on the Island, and
of course The Monaghan Jig. She also gives us two splendid slow airs,
from the days before low whistles: how many people have been brave enough
to do that? There are still very few musicians who can compete with Mary
Bergin - Carmel Gunning, take note!
Paddy Keenan's first solo CD is a classic of Irish piping pure and simple.
Recorded partly as a tribute to Johnny Doran, it shows Paddy at the height
of his youthful brilliance, pouring out music in the swirling traveller
style. Listen to his duet with fiddler Paddy Glackin on The Humours of
BallyConnell and Toss the Feathers, regulators going full blast. Paddy
duets with brother Johnny on banjo for The Ace and Deuce, and there are
also two banjo solos from Johnny, among the best of his rare commercial
recordings. Brother Thomas contributes a couple of solos on the whistle,
and Paddy does a spot of whistling himself, but pride of place goes to
the pipes. The final track is a corker: Colonel Frazer and My Love is
in Americay, two big piping reels played by a master.
In 1974, Clannad released their second album and set the traditional music
world alight. Whatever you may think about their subsequent musical direction,
Clannad 2 remains a fine achievement. This is how I first heard Clannad,
playing acoustically at concerts around 1975: spirited arrangements of
songs like An Gabhar Bán and Coinleach Ghlas, delicate instrumentals such
as Eleanor Plunkett, and that great Irish-Scottish cross-over which is
the guts of Donegal music.
Sean O Riada's 1969 concert in Dublin's Gaiety theatre featured many of
the best musicians in Ireland at the time, doing things which hadn't been
done before. His Ceoltoiri Cualann group included Paddy Moloney, Sean
Keane, Mairtin Fay, Sean Potts and Michael Tubridy, who metamorphosed
into The Chieftains. Thirty-five years later, they're still going strong,
and still building on the visionary eclecticism of Sean O Riada. Many
of the Irish melodies which have inspired two generations first surfaced
here: O'Neill's Cavalry March was taken up by Silly Wizard, Limerick's
Lamentation by Boys of the Lough, and March of the King of Laoise by Duck
Baker, pipers Neil Mulligan and Allan MacDonald, and many others. Seminal
stuff indeed.
Alex Monaghan
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