It seems to have been a quiet year for trad on both sides of the Irish Sea - though I'm going to some extent on the meagre trickle of trad releases into the racks of the local HMV shop. The few I've bought of late have been from established acts and/or issued before this year.
This is an invitation to those who think otherwise, to say who or what I've been missing...
Cnoc Bui is some album. "Welcome Here Again" the latest effort by Hayes and Cahill is quite good (its no Live in Seattle though). As well as "Wind and Reeds" by Paudie O'Connor and John O'Brien which is a great album and a future classic.
I agree with you re 'The House I Was Reared In' - we heard Christy play in Miltown this year and bought it on strength of that and it's good stuff - quirky and personal.
I don't think I've bought a single album this year. But I did discover Julie Fowlis this year and really enjoy listening to her sing. Thank god for YouTube!
Fishmonger - I'm glad you discovered the wondrous singing of Julie Fowlis. I wonder how many adoring seals and whales and stuff have beached themselves at her feet when she goes out to practise on the Hebridean shore. Happily, her albums make it into HMV, which passes for general release.
In ITM the only new thing I've heard this year has been YouTube clips of lots and lots and lots of people who can play really well, as soloists or duos or small groups; no riveting new band, though, except maybe Beoga (??) - a Canadian Maritimes band which I think begins with B, anyway...and I may well be wrong on the latter point.
Griorair Labhriudh - he is actually a male incarnation of Julie Fowlis.
His album Dail Riata is very good though it's not exactly ITM. Music of high quality in all respect.
Fishmonger - yeah, Julie Fowlis is amazing - I bought a CD of hers when I was on holiday in Edinburgh a couple of years ago & was blown away - especially with her Mouth Music stuff (haven't heard such good stuff since a track on Dolores Keane & John Faulkner's "Broken-hearted..." album).
She played in Dun Laoghaire this summer with Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh from Danu promoting a duet album they're working on (Julie's husband is in Danu, by the way). Great gig, and I'll be interested to hear the new album...
P.S. The talented (multi-instrumentalist) Michelle Mulcahy played support to them, and made me realise that harpists CAN play lively (non-Carolan) tunes!
If we are mentioning singers, I recently saw Cara Dillon live for the first time, what a great singer, and picked up her newest album, which I think is her best yet, lots of traditional songs, but with very interesting approaches. And like so many have pointed out above, Julie Fowlis is a gem of a singer!
Sue, yep that's the one! It's a great track.
I also liked on that record, how they immediately followed it with a jig. The contrast between purely a cappella, and purely instrumental tune is nice.
I'd love to hear your version when you've learnt it - mouth music seems to be quite rare. Any chance you'll upload it on SoundLantern or sth?
Also, I just tried looking up some of those artists on http://www.codamusic.co.uk/ (based in Edinburgh), and apparently the Fowlis/Nic Amhlaoibh Duet album I mentioned has just been released! I must check it out!
Ronan - yes, it's stunning! like you say, the tune/voice contrast enhances it. I want to learn it as a close harmony piece, which means finding one or two others here in Bristol interested in doing it with me - which won't be easy, but I'll be working on that soon. If I do a good enough version eventually, I'll perhaps put it on myspace.
If you can't find MacPhee or MacInnes, let me know, I'll hunt down some links for you.
Sue, well if you get even an "ok" version, I'd like to hear it!
That Coda music website has some albums by those two artists you mentioned (as well as the album by Griogar mentioned by Viking of Kiev above). And with the sterling devalued relative to the euro, they look quite cheap for me to order on-line! Looks like my credit card, which barely survived the christmas ;), is going to get more use shortly! :(
Favourite ITM album of the year?
Favourite ITM album of the year?
Mine is Christy McNamara's 'The House I Was Reared In'. Yours?
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by molaoch
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
that wasn't released this year, it was released in 2007.
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by fiddleruairi
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
It's Not Racket Science by At the Racket! Great fun!!!
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by moria enya
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
I stand corrected.
Take 2: A timeless album, and the best I heard in 2008..
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by molaoch
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
"Humours of Highgate" : John Blake, Lamond Gillespie, and Mick Leahy.
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by alec b
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Dunno about albums - but I liked "There's No-One As Irish As Barack Obama!" on YouTube!
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Conal O'Grada's Cnoc Bui. Powerful playing.
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by celtic marine
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
i liked "Humours of Highgate" : John Blake, Lamond Gillespie, and Mick Leahy. Conal's too. I'll have to think a bit more for others
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by Lord Gordon
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
It seems to have been a quiet year for trad on both sides of the Irish Sea - though I'm going to some extent on the meagre trickle of trad releases into the racks of the local HMV shop. The few I've bought of late have been from established acts and/or issued before this year.
This is an invitation to those who think otherwise, to say who or what I've been missing...
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Cnoc Bui is some album. "Welcome Here Again" the latest effort by Hayes and Cahill is quite good (its no Live in Seattle though). As well as "Wind and Reeds" by Paudie O'Connor and John O'Brien which is a great album and a future classic.
# Posted on December 27th 2008 by Why Bother?
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
The Long Note
Collette O leary, Jamie Smith and Brian Kelly. Lovely Playing.
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by S.Doherty
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Fingal-Daithi Sproule, James Keane, Randal Bays
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by rogfox
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
i loved kate mcnamara's "are you the concertina player?"....."humours of highgate" as well....
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by ceemonster
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
was the paddy murphy concertina cd this year? another great one....
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by ceemonster
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
www.myspace.com/fidilcd
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by slainte
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Bobby Casey - The Spirit of West Clare.
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by skip canlon
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
I agree with you re 'The House I Was Reared In' - we heard Christy play in Miltown this year and bought it on strength of that and it's good stuff - quirky and personal.
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by the wounded hussar
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
'The House I Was Reared In' - sounds gay.
by gay i mean happy.
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by skip canlon
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Beginish, their first CD.
I loved every note of it. Good singing too, IMHO.
And Lunasa, the Kinnity Sessions, was delightful, too.
As for the rest, "What's old is what's new."
Give me John Doherty, Tommy Peoples, Mickey Dunne, Paddy Keenan, etc. etc.
Happy trails.
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by Piece
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
I don't think I've bought a single album this year. But I did discover Julie Fowlis this year and really enjoy listening to her sing. Thank god for YouTube!
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by Fishmonger
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
The only one I bought was the Casey one. And I already had all those Reg Hall recordings anyway so I don't really count it as a new one.
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by Prof. Prlwytzkofski
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Fishmonger - I'm glad you discovered the wondrous singing of Julie Fowlis. I wonder how many adoring seals and whales and stuff have beached themselves at her feet when she goes out to practise on the Hebridean shore. Happily, her albums make it into HMV, which passes for general release.
In ITM the only new thing I've heard this year has been YouTube clips of lots and lots and lots of people who can play really well, as soloists or duos or small groups; no riveting new band, though, except maybe Beoga (??) - a Canadian Maritimes band which I think begins with B, anyway...and I may well be wrong on the latter point.
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
I loooovvved Humors of Highgate. Great work, guys.
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by Seosamh Ui Sinan
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
I'd heartily recommend 'Tuned Up' by Brendan Hendry, Brendan Mulholland and Paul McSherry.
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by MacCruiskeen
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Could it be Beolach..? - the Canadian band I referred to, I mean.
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by nicholas
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Griorair Labhriudh - he is actually a male incarnation of Julie Fowlis
.
His album Dail Riata is very good though it's not exactly ITM. Music of high quality in all respect.
# Posted on December 28th 2008 by Viking of Kiev
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
oh, yeah, i forgot the ben lennon/tony o'connell cd, "rossinver brae." is that the sweetest thing, or what???
# Posted on December 29th 2008 by ceemonster
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
I very much liked hearing albums from both Billy McComisky and Tony DeMarco, two fine American musicians who have not been recorded nearly enough!
# Posted on December 29th 2008 by AlBrown
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Not Irish, but class: Lau-Live.
# Posted on December 29th 2008 by BrownAleMugger
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Not a quiet year at all - lots of decent recordings.
McComiskey - some great tracks, but uneven I thought.
Humours of Highgate was tremendous.
Frank Cassidy, and Bobby Casey. Catherine McEvoy, O Maonaigh and O'Donnell, At the Racket also.
Also uneven but with some great tracks is the new O'Connor and Hayden CD.
# Posted on December 30th 2008 by continuo
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
"Pride of the West" John Wynne & John McEvoy, and "Flame on the Banks" by Maeve Donnelly
# Posted on December 30th 2008 by newdeafman
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Fishmonger - yeah, Julie Fowlis is amazing - I bought a CD of hers when I was on holiday in Edinburgh a couple of years ago & was blown away - especially with her Mouth Music stuff (haven't heard such good stuff since a track on Dolores Keane & John Faulkner's "Broken-hearted..." album).
She played in Dun Laoghaire this summer with Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh from Danu promoting a duet album they're working on (Julie's husband is in Danu, by the way). Great gig, and I'll be interested to hear the new album...
P.S. The talented (multi-instrumentalist) Michelle Mulcahy played support to them, and made me realise that harpists CAN play lively (non-Carolan) tunes!
# Posted on December 30th 2008 by -ronan-
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
If we are mentioning singers, I recently saw Cara Dillon live for the first time, what a great singer, and picked up her newest album, which I think is her best yet, lots of traditional songs, but with very interesting approaches. And like so many have pointed out above, Julie Fowlis is a gem of a singer!
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by AlBrown
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
If you like Julie Fowlis, try also - Cathy-Ann MacPhee, and Maggie MacInnes - lovely stuff.
Ronan - is that Keane/Faulkner track called Mouth Music, and is it a song called Dance to your shadow? hoping to learn that this year.
Sue
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by suesinger
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Sue, yep that's the one! It's a great track.
I must check it out!
I also liked on that record, how they immediately followed it with a jig. The contrast between purely a cappella, and purely instrumental tune is nice.
I'd love to hear your version when you've learnt it - mouth music seems to be quite rare. Any chance you'll upload it on SoundLantern or sth?
Also, I just tried looking up some of those artists on http://www.codamusic.co.uk/ (based in Edinburgh), and apparently the Fowlis/Nic Amhlaoibh Duet album I mentioned has just been released!
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by -ronan-
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Ronan - yes, it's stunning! like you say, the tune/voice contrast enhances it. I want to learn it as a close harmony piece, which means finding one or two others here in Bristol interested in doing it with me - which won't be easy, but I'll be working on that soon. If I do a good enough version eventually, I'll perhaps put it on myspace.
If you can't find MacPhee or MacInnes, let me know, I'll hunt down some links for you.
# Posted on December 31st 2008 by suesinger
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Sue, well if you get even an "ok" version, I'd like to hear it!
Looks like my credit card, which barely survived the christmas ;), is going to get more use shortly! :(
That Coda music website has some albums by those two artists you mentioned (as well as the album by Griogar mentioned by Viking of Kiev above). And with the sterling devalued relative to the euro, they look quite cheap for me to order on-line!
Happy New Year's everyone!
# Posted on January 1st 2009 by -ronan-
Re: Favourite ITM album of the year?
Ronan - try Eilean Mara (MacInnes) and Canan nan Gaidheal or Chi mi'n Geamhradh (MacPhee). Enjoy!
# Posted on January 2nd 2009 by suesinger