As an avid reader and ITM enthusiast I'm just curious if anyone has any book recommendations which center around ITM musicians or have great ITM scenes... I'm looking for fiction in particular but am also curious about any sort of engaging musical / cultural history of ITM, something like Robert Palmer's fantastic book on the Delta Blues ("Deep Blues").
In search of the craic by Colin Iriwin. Not exactly ficiton, but a humorous account of one mans session pub crawl throughout Ireland and his unhealthy obsession with finding Tommy Peoples.
You may enjoy two Alan Delgado books: ‘The Hot-Water Bottle Mystery’ and ‘Very Hot Water Bottle’. But before reading make sure your wig is suitable glued on (I'd always recommend 'SyrupStik' ) and away you'll go with much trouser changing...
There's plenty in the fantasy genre. Probably DeLint's The Little Country is the best example - there's an appendix with a bunch of tunes the DeLint wrote and ascribes to his main character. Steven Brust has one called Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille - pretty good, not his best - which features a string band in some sort of time-and-space-hopping bar. Lots of references to traditional tunes, but many of them are American. There are others, those are the two that come first to my mind.
Also, Myrlin Hermes' new novel, The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet (which I highly recommend) has some scenes in a bar which is a slightly disguised version of the old Biddy McGraw's in Portland - where the Irish scene in Portland really happened in the '90s. You'll recognize some of the characters, even if you weren't there.
As I said, one of the funniest things I've read, though it's one of those books that when you read and it reminds you of you and your mates, you're not entirely sure that's a good thing.
The New Policeman, by Kate Thompson, has chapters named after Irish tunes. I believe the dots are there for the tunes. She's a fiddler and a fiddle-repairer as well as an award-winning author. She lives in Kinvarra, a very musical town. I can't think of any novel that deals as well with Irish traditional music.
Jon Mentioned de lint, I was going to suggest another of his novels "Forests of the Heart" with the caveat that it really isn't all that good. On the surface it deals with quite dark themes, but it somehow still comes across as rather syrupy. Even the scenes dealing with session/trad music where many of the tune names etc dropped were spot on, somehow came across as entirely unsatisfactory. perhpas the insistance that all the players were perfect in their musicianship grated ( in a simalr manner pretty much all the is perhapsinstainctive having lain dormant all their lives).
I though it shallow new age dreck. But it does have a lot of scenes set in sessions. If you want to drop the sesison stuff and look for a much better examination of delint's themes of ancient survivals or "faeries" try Arthur AMchen or Sarban. Maybe I picked a poor example of his work, delint came across to me as Sarban-lite. I'm wandering OT howevre, at least the "Forrests of the Heart" meets the OP criteria
John B Keane, who is best known for his play, which was later a movie "The Field" , wrote a few books and several short stories. He is from Listowel, where he had a pub, and was a regular columnist for three newspapers, including the Irish Echo.
His novels were The Bodhran Makers, The Ram of God, and Durango.
The Bodhran Makers has several scenes that include trad music.
The West, a book of short stories by Eddie Stack has a funny yarn -- with some bits about Diddley -- at the end of it. He named that story, "Derramore."
Bardic apostles of Innisfree continued by Seamus Tansey.
ISBN: 978-0-946987-14-6
Not a novel, but an interesting informative work concerning musicians in Co. Sligo,and very funny in places
"The Heartbeat of Irish Music" by Christy McNamara and Peter Woods. Not a novel, more like a (fictional?) memoir by three generations of an Irish family that had the music, and illustrated with sepia toned candid photos of noted Irish musicians (e.g. Tommy Peoples, Joe McNamara). Published in 1997. ISBN 1-57098-134-5.
The parallel universe of Northumbrian music is touched upon slightly in Tom Sharpe's burlesque novel "The Throwback". It's a long time since I've seen it, but part of the plot goes something like this:
A worldly-wise Home Counties widow somehow hitches up with an elderly Northumberland squire, down in her part of the world. He takes her back home. A gruelling train journey ends at Hexham: thereafter, a pony and trap jolts them mile after mile into the heart of a snowbound wilderness (it's probably early summer...)
The squire's home is a ruined pele tower with a leaking roof and rusting Sir Walter Scott-era suits of armour round the walls. A villainous one-eyed retainer plays the Northumbrian pipes on the battlements when the squire goes to bed at nights, and occasionally digs coal out of the fellside for the fire - but not often enough for the widow, who had not bargained for any of this. She had, of course, assumed that her new husband would die soon, leaving her lots of money. He hasn't got a bean, of course. He is also far too highly sexed for her liking. She tries out ways of bumping him off, but he proves totally indestructible. His own recreations include the retainer's pipe playing, filthy old family ballads, and an obsession with the works of the trenchant Victorian philosopher Thomas Carlyle. (The latter element came to have its real-life parallel in Matt Ridley's obsession with Victorian social Darwinist tomes, which led him to crash Northern Rock...)
The squire has a son, conceived and born in the hunting field, whom he styles The Bastard. This lad has a single-minded obsession with shooting and blowing things up. Somehow the widow escapes, but The Bastard also is brought down to Surrey or wherever for some reason. He doesn't like it there so he blows it up, and the widow and no doubt other characters are thus disposed of, in characteristic Tom Sharpe style.
What a brilliant idea for a discussion!
'The Heartbeat of Irish Music' by Peter Woods - that's the subtitle. The title is 'The Living Note' - a great book, and Christy MacNamara's photos are really good.
For Scottish music, 'Para Handy's Piper' by Neil Munro still makes me laugh when I think of it. For English music, 'The Chime Child' by Ruth Tongue is a most interesting book. Thanks for all the recommendations, I'll be looking up those I'm not familiar with.
ITM in fiction
ITM in fiction
As an avid reader and ITM enthusiast I'm just curious if anyone has any book recommendations which center around ITM musicians or have great ITM scenes... I'm looking for fiction in particular but am also curious about any sort of engaging musical / cultural history of ITM, something like Robert Palmer's fantastic book on the Delta Blues ("Deep Blues").
Cheers...
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by natepedersen
Re: ITM in fiction
Last Night's Fun by Ciaran Carson. It's a brilliant, experiential poetic meander through the music. Hard to describe.
The Good Servants by Johnny Brennan. One of the funniest things I've read. It's about the mad, pished adventures of Irish trad players from Dublin.
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: ITM in fiction
In search of the craic by Colin Iriwin. Not exactly ficiton, but a humorous account of one mans session pub crawl throughout Ireland and his unhealthy obsession with finding Tommy Peoples.
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by Beanstalk
Re: ITM in fiction
You may enjoy two Alan Delgado books: ‘The Hot-Water Bottle Mystery’ and ‘Very Hot Water Bottle’. But before reading make sure your wig is suitable glued on (I'd always recommend 'SyrupStik' ) and away you'll go with much trouser changing...
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: ITM in fiction
I meant to say one the best recollections I ever read was Packie Manus Byrne's 'recollections of a donegal man. cracking read.
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by Beanstalk
Re: ITM in fiction
There's plenty in the fantasy genre. Probably DeLint's The Little Country is the best example - there's an appendix with a bunch of tunes the DeLint wrote and ascribes to his main character. Steven Brust has one called Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille - pretty good, not his best - which features a string band in some sort of time-and-space-hopping bar. Lots of references to traditional tunes, but many of them are American. There are others, those are the two that come first to my mind.
Also, Myrlin Hermes' new novel, The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet (which I highly recommend) has some scenes in a bar which is a slightly disguised version of the old Biddy McGraw's in Portland - where the Irish scene in Portland really happened in the '90s. You'll recognize some of the characters, even if you weren't there.
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: ITM in fiction
The Good Servants!
I've meant to pick that up for a read but it fell off my radar. Thanks for the reminder.
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: ITM in fiction
As I said, one of the funniest things I've read, though it's one of those books that when you read and it reminds you of you and your mates, you're not entirely sure that's a good thing.
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: ITM in fiction
The New Policeman, by Kate Thompson, has chapters named after Irish tunes. I believe the dots are there for the tunes. She's a fiddler and a fiddle-repairer as well as an award-winning author. She lives in Kinvarra, a very musical town. I can't think of any novel that deals as well with Irish traditional music.
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by David Levine
Re: ITM in fiction
I kinda thought Kate Thompson's book was a bit too clever for it's own boots - contrived even. But then it was aimed at the younger reader, I guess.
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by the wounded hussar
Re: ITM in fiction
Why does Kate Thompson need to print the dots? Does she not know the tunes in her head and play 'em by ear?
(This was posted by me to save a certian Mr Gill a chore)
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: ITM in fiction
certain
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: ITM in fiction
The Bodhran Makers by Frank B. Keane. A great novel, set in the 1950s.
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by lcox
Re: ITM in fiction
Jon Mentioned de lint, I was going to suggest another of his novels "Forests of the Heart" with the caveat that it really isn't all that good. On the surface it deals with quite dark themes, but it somehow still comes across as rather syrupy. Even the scenes dealing with session/trad music where many of the tune names etc dropped were spot on, somehow came across as entirely unsatisfactory. perhpas the insistance that all the players were perfect in their musicianship grated ( in a simalr manner pretty much all the is perhapsinstainctive having lain dormant all their lives).
I though it shallow new age dreck. But it does have a lot of scenes set in sessions. If you want to drop the sesison stuff and look for a much better examination of delint's themes of ancient survivals or "faeries" try Arthur AMchen or Sarban. Maybe I picked a poor example of his work, delint came across to me as Sarban-lite. I'm wandering OT howevre, at least the "Forrests of the Heart" meets the OP criteria
- Chris
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by ramblingpitchfork
Re: ITM in fiction
John B Keane, who is best known for his play, which was later a movie "The Field" , wrote a few books and several short stories. He is from Listowel, where he had a pub, and was a regular columnist for three newspapers, including the Irish Echo.
His novels were The Bodhran Makers, The Ram of God, and Durango.
The Bodhran Makers has several scenes that include trad music.
# Posted on March 18th 2010 by Toppish
Re: ITM in fiction
A friend of mine, John Teehan, wrote a science fiction story about a busker on the moon, that appeared in an anthology a few years ago.
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by AlBrown
Re: ITM in fiction
Ah gee - I meant to say John Keane, not Frank! Anyway, The Bodhran Makers is a great read.
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by lcox
Re: ITM in fiction
The West, a book of short stories by Eddie Stack has a funny yarn -- with some bits about Diddley -- at the end of it. He named that story, "Derramore."
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: ITM in fiction
Thanks for the great recommendations, everyone! I'm sure this will keep me occupied for awhile...
- Nate
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by natepedersen
Re: ITM in fiction
The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter.
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by Jeeves Tones
Re: ITM in fiction
A good one on here by john j a few years ago:
An Irish language refresher course for Barlinnie Prison inmates:
Brush Up your Erse
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by Rudall the time
Re: ITM in fiction
Joseph O Connor's star of the sea has reference to trad song and music - Fintan Vallely did an article on this for Journal of Music if I recall.
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by iwerzon
Re: ITM in fiction
Bardic apostles of Innisfree continued by Seamus Tansey.
ISBN: 978-0-946987-14-6
Not a novel, but an interesting informative work concerning musicians in Co. Sligo,and very funny in places
Don't forget P.J. Curtis' brilliant "A note from the heart"
http://www.oldforgebooks.com/aboutus.asp?bioid=2141
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by Steamwilkes
Re: ITM in fiction
"Bardic Apostles" is "fiction" ?
# Posted on March 19th 2010 by Kenny
Re: ITM in fiction
"The Heartbeat of Irish Music" by Christy McNamara and Peter Woods. Not a novel, more like a (fictional?) memoir by three generations of an Irish family that had the music, and illustrated with sepia toned candid photos of noted Irish musicians (e.g. Tommy Peoples, Joe McNamara). Published in 1997. ISBN 1-57098-134-5.
# Posted on March 20th 2010 by mkchen
Re: ITM in fiction
The Johhny Brennan novel sounds worth reading.
The parallel universe of Northumbrian music is touched upon slightly in Tom Sharpe's burlesque novel "The Throwback". It's a long time since I've seen it, but part of the plot goes something like this:
A worldly-wise Home Counties widow somehow hitches up with an elderly Northumberland squire, down in her part of the world. He takes her back home. A gruelling train journey ends at Hexham: thereafter, a pony and trap jolts them mile after mile into the heart of a snowbound wilderness (it's probably early summer...)
The squire's home is a ruined pele tower with a leaking roof and rusting Sir Walter Scott-era suits of armour round the walls. A villainous one-eyed retainer plays the Northumbrian pipes on the battlements when the squire goes to bed at nights, and occasionally digs coal out of the fellside for the fire - but not often enough for the widow, who had not bargained for any of this. She had, of course, assumed that her new husband would die soon, leaving her lots of money. He hasn't got a bean, of course. He is also far too highly sexed for her liking. She tries out ways of bumping him off, but he proves totally indestructible. His own recreations include the retainer's pipe playing, filthy old family ballads, and an obsession with the works of the trenchant Victorian philosopher Thomas Carlyle. (The latter element came to have its real-life parallel in Matt Ridley's obsession with Victorian social Darwinist tomes, which led him to crash Northern Rock...)
The squire has a son, conceived and born in the hunting field, whom he styles The Bastard. This lad has a single-minded obsession with shooting and blowing things up. Somehow the widow escapes, but The Bastard also is brought down to Surrey or wherever for some reason. He doesn't like it there so he blows it up, and the widow and no doubt other characters are thus disposed of, in characteristic Tom Sharpe style.
Northumberland is actually like this.
# Posted on March 20th 2010 by nicholas
Re: ITM in fiction
Damn good place, all the same...
# Posted on March 20th 2010 by nicholas
Re: ITM in fiction
What a brilliant idea for a discussion!
'The Heartbeat of Irish Music' by Peter Woods - that's the subtitle. The title is 'The Living Note' - a great book, and Christy MacNamara's photos are really good.
For Scottish music, 'Para Handy's Piper' by Neil Munro still makes me laugh when I think of it. For English music, 'The Chime Child' by Ruth Tongue is a most interesting book. Thanks for all the recommendations, I'll be looking up those I'm not familiar with.
# Posted on March 22nd 2010 by The Archivist