Of the genre, without going specifically going into any argument over whether the Bothy Band played trad, etc. And not looking at Scottish music:
Matt Molloy - Matt Molloy (the black one)
Matt Molloy - Heathery Breeze
Bothy Band - Out of the Wind Into The sun
Bothy Band - 1975
Frankie Gavin and Paul Brock - Tribute to Joe Cooly
Bothy Band - Live in Paris
Bothy Band - Old Hag you have Killed Me
Planxty - After the Break
Finbar Fury and Bob Stuart (or is it Stewart) - Tomorrow we Part (The Bob Stuart bit it pants, but the very best of Finbar at his very best more than makes up for it)
And allow me a further posting later where I will change my mind
It's been pointed out that my list is terrible. Could be right, there's probably loads I forgot about. But the list is more a product of my age rather than any real objective assessment, merely the records that blew my head off when I was a kid. I don't really listen much to recorded diddley music. It bugs me the way they play the same variations over and over and over and over and over ...
Planxty, the first.
Planxty, 2004 Reunion.
Chieftains, Boil The Breakfast Early. (changed my life)
DeDannan, Star-Spamgled Molly.
DeDannan, Selected Jigs Reels and Songs
Bothy Band, Old Hag You Have Killed Me (thanks llig, that one had skipped my mind)
Bothy Band, Live (In Paris, I believe)
Beginish
Lunasa, The Kinnity Sessions
That makes nine.
The number ten slot is for "all the rest".
Bobby Casey ;Taking flight
Bobby Casey ; Spirit of West Clare, and the rest!
Canny, O'Loughlin, Hayes-All Ireland Champions.
Paddy Canny East Clare fiddler
Paddy Canny . meet PC And the rest!
Pat Mitchel's Album
Everything by Willie Clancy
Everything by Seamus Ennis
David Power; My love is in America
David Power ;The little Cuckoo
Sligo fiddler; John Vesey
The floating Bow; Johnny Doherty
Kathleen Collins. 1st Album
1.I hate this sort of ‘what’s your favourite colour?’ thread.
2.And anyway, I’d sooner play it than listen to it!
You’ll never learn how to do this music better by playing along with wax cylinders, magnetic wires, 78’s, microgroove LP’s, 45 rpm singles, EP’s, ¼ “ reel to reel tape, cassettes, 8 track cartridges, CD’s, MIDI, MP3’s, YouTube, 8 & 16mm film, WAV files, og vorbis or any other recorded format. You have to do it live with other people. It’s a two way exchange and fiddling/ strumming/ squeezing/ blowing/ plonking along to your top ten, the Bothy Band or Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh or whatever in your bedroom ain’t gonna work because (A) they can’t hear you and (b) you’ll get imprinted with unchanging versions of stuff.
Top ten at this point in time are, in no particular order:
June McCormack and Michael Rooney - Draiocht
Caladh Nua - Happy Days
John Carty and Brian McGrath - The Cat that Ate the Candle
James Kelly - The Ring Sessions
Kevin Crawford - In Good Company
The Mulcahy Family - Reelin' In Tradition
Kieran Hanrahan - Plays the Irish Tenor Banjo
Alan and John Kelly - Fourmilehouse
Cian - Three Shouts from a Hill
Cathal Hayden (self titled)
Strayaway. Of all the cds mentioned above you mention Paddy in the Smoke as one thats not great. I think its great. Its a live recording of rural Irish musicians like Casey and Burns and Curtin in top form playing tunes live in a huge lonely metropolis. The music kept their spirits high and that recording still manages to capture that for many of us today. Sugarfoot Jack. I am really looking forward to disagreeing with you sometime but that time hasnt arrived yet! Knocknagree captures an atmosphere of Co Clare musicians and dancers on a big happy trip to Co Cork. It is indeed a classic.
big_tab. What I said is that is not one of THE great trad albums. It is an excellent snapshot of yesteryear and will obviously be held dear in the hearts of those who were there but as an album of all time top ten trad it falls way short. As a historical document it serves well but dosen't answer or attempt to answer the circumstances that led to it's creation.....unless you know different, that is. Anyway, that's my opinion and I look forward to being enlightened.
I am not sure if Paddy in the Smoke would be in my all time top ten albums. It certainly wouldnt be far off. My observation was that of all the cd s mentioned above( some of them really average) you would pick that lovely album as below par.
Casey could switch on and off, when he'd play with others or in sessions he'd often 'switch off' or 'go on automatic' or whatever way you want to put it. Mind you, it would still be fine fiddle playing.
When he played on his own and for friends he'd really give it his all and pour out tune after tune and let the ideas flow into the music.
i don't think he does that on Paddy in the Smoke.
And before somebody jumps me, here's an example I had handy where I think he is more at ease and 'giving it his all':
I didn't single that one out at all, some of the others mentioned are indeed very average. I mentioned it because it constantly gets accoladed with being one of the best ever trad albums and, like I said originally, it's not. I certainly don't dislike it. My top Irish album as of right now is Fidil 3. I'll tell you in about 10 years if it merits a top 10 of all time placing.
"You’ll never learn how to do this music better by playing along with wax cylinders..."
I'm always intrigued by people who spend loads of time playing the music, but are seldom if ever tempted to go buy or borrow CDs or records and listen to them for the pure enjoyment of it.
well I have a few I have thought of myself...
Bothy Band Live in Paris, Bothy 1975, Danu (first album 1997), Best of Altan, Gerry O connor Time to time, Hayes and Cahill The Lonesome touch. 20 years of Green linnet (I like the mix)...Lunasa...
not a silly list at all llig , thanks.
and yhallhouse by the waY I never mentioned playing along to recordings at all...... jayzus , do you not own any cds? what do you use 'em for coasters?
I like to listen as well as play. I'm just scouting about for a possible good cd to buy or two, thats all..
Hey, grego, as I said earlier, even the very best cds get dull after a few playings. The same speed, pace, variations, arrangements over and over and over and over. It's not the way to play this music.
He Prof, thanks for that Boby Casey. Just listened to it, drop dead brilliant.
nicholas: ‘For me, "Kind Of Blue" marks the moment jazz became fatally enthralled with its own colonoscopy’- I totally disagree but your phrase quoted here is fabulous! I will adapt and nick it for future use! Thank you!
richrua: I have loads and loads of CD’s but only a handful are (arguably) trad Irish (and they are: the Bothy Band; Planxty; the Chieftains; Five Hand Reel and a couple more- all bought when I was getting into the music but hardly ever listened to them). Even the best bits of trad recordings sound a bit tired compared with even the most modest of real sessions. And remember here in Sarf Lunden we are rather spoilt for choice for actual real live sessions to go to. There’s no point sitting at home and listening to CD when five minutes around the corner it’s happening for real!
If you’re looking for good recordings to listen to consider getting music of other genres that takes the medium well; highly arranged or intricately produced stuff (e.g. Beethoven symphonies, Zappa, the Beatles, Kraftwerk, camp 50’s musical soundtracks, Crass, the Carpenters). It’s the same for jazz and BLooZ; don’t listen to the music on record, get out and play it yourself or at least hear it live!
Anything that involves Liam O'Flynn
Anything that involves Jimmy O'Brian Moran
and
The Chieftains 1
The Irish Tradition : The Corner House : w/ Brendan Mulvihill,Billy McComisky and Andy O'Brian
Na Connerys : The Session : w/ Paddy & Kevin Glackin, Sean Og Potts, John Regan, John Wynn, Tim McDonagh and Mark Kelly.
llig, I own many, many recordings that would take at least 10 plays to even begin to appreciate their content and nuance. I'm sure not all your collection are dull after a few listens, are they? Maybe I could send you a list of recommended listens that differs from all that simple diddley stuff! Having said all that, of course playing or listening live is the best way but that's stating the bleedin obvious. sarf lundaan, home of ITM, must have missed something last time I was there, yhaalhouse.
The fundamental problem with all lists like this is that they're essentially ephemeral.
However, having written that, it's interesting just how few of the selections above include albums issued in the last ten years. On the one hand, this might be saying something about the age of the posters and their album-buying habits, but, on the other, it reinforces my own feeling that the overall quality of traditional music albums has declined remarkably since the turn of the century.
That doesn't mean there haven't been some great albums (Gerry O'Connor's 'Journeyman', the first Ronan Browne/Peter O'Loughlin album, the last Martin Hayes/Dennis Cahill, John McSherry's work with Dónal O'Connor and solo, The Tap Room Trio CD, Maeve Donnelly and Peter O'Loughlin, etc.), but there's been a heck of a lot of bilge issued in the last five years.
The problem is that it's nowadays so easy to release something which used to be called a 'vanity album'. Many of these, including some issued by big names featured earlier in this thread, lack the objectivity that an experienced producer might have brought to the occasion and they're all the worse for that. Dónal Lunny (though he did record the odd stumer) and P.J. Curtis, in particular, are much missed for their quality control.
Re. 'Paddy in the Smoke'. I think Strayaway's way off-beam. It's by far and away the best session recording in existence and fully captures the essence of The Favourite and those long-lost Sunday lunchtimes. I only started going there in the mid-1970s, but the memories linger on, though perhaps more clearly related to the session's move to The Victoria at the end of that decade.
Spoiled kids that we are. We now have the luxury to listen to the most polished trad (oxymoron ?) music ever. Paddy in The Smoke makes my list because it's a seminal recording of LIVE sessions int he fifties. It's raw all right, but it's all about the craic. I don't care if the musos were not at the top of their game on that album.
Thanks to those giants.
60's pennhorse.Just. I agree and I think it is just as exciting to hear these wonderful musicians playing for their friends on a Sunday lunchtime session than some recording where they are "at the top of their game"
The point of that clip was by the way to show Casey where he was indeed playing with and for friends. Relaxed and giving it his all. Where I think on Paddy in the Smoke he is to a large extend going through the motions.
My list (on quite limited album-listening, though) would be:
(1) The first Planxty,
(2) The first Bothy Band
(keen-edge ground-breakers, as well as superb);
(3) De Danann, "Selected Jigs (whatever...)"
(A sampler of "old" approaches to songs and
tunes, albeit with the bouzoukis and stuff as well),
(4) Topic sampler, "From Erin's Green Shore"
(Worth it for songs by Margaret Barry, one of the
real greats, plus Michael Gorman and others);
(5) "Tin Whistles", Sean Potts and Paddy Moloney
(With two players duetting etc., does stuff
with whistle music that a solo player cannot);
(6) De Danann, "The Star-Spangled Molly".
(A top-notch attempt to create a 'tribute album'
about music and musicians of another age and
place. Chieftains' albums attempting this have
never grabbed me like this album has.);
(7) Martin Byrnes (fiddle, with Reg Hall on piano)
(An East Galway fiddler who came to London.
Intriguing, powerful regional-style music from an
earlier era.);
(8) John Doonan, "Flute For The Feis"
(Piccolo-playing at precise step-dance tempos -
and very nice, cheerful music. Postwar period,
again.);
(9) Molloy, Peoples, Brady
(Exalted thrash, 70s, brilliant playing and tunes)
(10) Any top ceilidh band, to indicate how lots of trad
players make a bit of a living doing what the
music's supposed to be 'for'! (I won't argue that
last point...)
I've never heard "Paddy In The Smoke", and of all the famous albums as yet unheard by me, I think it is the one I'd most like to hear. I got into trad fairly soon after that era - hence my citing musicians in my list who belonged to it, maybe playing on for some years afterwards.
Some albums came into my mind which I dropped because they were really going through ground broken by pioneers: Altan's first - though Mary Mooney's singing is poignant perfection on it - is really doing what the Bothies did first. Some I dropped because despite brilliant coups, they strike me as having lacklustre bits: despite "The Entry Of The Queen Of Sheba, which I think's the tops, De Danann's "A Song For Ireland" strikes me that way, and others of theirs.
I don't think I could name my ten favorites, but these would certainly be some of my least favorites:
Whatsda name of dis tune? - The Compulsive Noodlers
Let the Rhythm Drive You - The Wall of Guitars
That's NOT how you play it Dipsh!t - The Know it All Boys
Thundering Heard - The Bodhran Masters
Never aTune in Tune - The Banjo All Stars
You can listen to the entire album on Spotify right now for free, nicholas. Then, if you think it's worth about £7 (it is), you can buy the Cd. Easy, not like the days when we had to travel 100 miles to the nearest record shop only to find it was out of stock or, more likely, never was in stock.
Right Yhaalhouse . You dont listen to trad cds , I get the picture. I do play plenty and I have a whole house to play in, not just a bedroom! We have a group of friends who play together a lot, plus regular session visits.
I really like listening to trad. Dunno why. I like it when a tune I play sounds different on a Martin Hayes track and different again on a slide track. All little differences. It inspires me.
And thanks to this thread I have found some good planxty stuff to listen to tonight. Thanks folks!
Bunch of Keys, Johnny Doran
Paddy Keenan, 1975 Album
Noel Hill & Tony Linnanne
Concertina 2 Noel Hill
Bothy Band -1st album
Paddy in the Smoke
Tommy Peoples & Matt Molloy
Tribute to Michael Coleman-Burke and McGann
Kathleen Collins-"Traditional Music of Ireland"
Frankie Gavin & Alec Finn
John & James Kelly-"Irish Traditional Fiddle Music"
Paddy Glackin & Paddy Keenan- "Doublin' "
Conal O'Grada- "Top of Coom"
John Blake, Lamond Gillespie & Mick Leahy- "Humours of Highgate"
Micheal O'Raghallaigh- "The Nervous Man"
Mick O'Brien & Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh-"Kitty Lie Over"
Bothy Band-"Out of The Wind, Into The Sun"
Angelina Carberry-"An Traidisiun Beo"
Charley Patton
Son House
Albert Ammons
Doctor Feelgood / Piano Red
Cheap Thrills - Big Brother and the Holding Company
Janis Joplin: Pearl
Jimmy Hendrix
The Rolling Stones Singles Collection
Sk8er Rock - 2 CD Collection
"Who Let the Dogs Out" - single by Baha Men, with "Move it Like This"
No, I can't limit it to ten, sorry, and putting things in any kind of order, you must be kidding...
Did I mention "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and "Super Session" and "Surrealistic Pillow" by Jefferson Airplane?
Nope, can't do it, but here are half a dozen I've bought as gifts and given away to others ~
Oh yes, I also ended up ordering at least a dozen of this set ~ "Celtic Souls", and for just one of the ten CDs enclosed it is worth it ~
"John Kelly And James Kelly With Michael Crehan And Michael Gavin: Irish Traditional Fiddle Music" http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/1567
And then there's all that lovely stuff Matt Hayes and Seamus Creagh and Jackie Daly have been involved in, but ~ damn ~ there's just so much worthy of a good listen...
Oh yeah ~ and this ~
"Green Day: American Idiot"
And every now and then a bit of dear ol' Buddy Holly seems to be what's needed...
During a discussion on when the best science fiction had been written (ie what decade was the Golden Age), someone once stated that "The Golden Age of Science Fiction is 14."
In other words, the stories you love best are the ones you read when it is all new and fresh to you.
Thus, I would suggest that most of the lists above are dominated with albums that came out during the first years that the person making the list was listening to, and playing, trad music.
(oh, and I am in the camp that thinks that "Kind of Blue" was a turning point in jazz, but a turn for the worse, I have always been more of a trad jazz guy myself)
Reverend Gary Davis
Blind Blake
Mississippi Sheiks
Mississippi John Hurt
Memphis Minnie
Libba Cotten
Hammod Family
Tommy Jarrell, solo & with Fred Cockerham/Kyle Creed, etc.
Roscoe Holcomb
"Drunk and Nutty: Hillbillies Foolin' WIth the Blues" (2-CD Anth.)
That would be just a start....
oh, and....
"Historic Recording of Music from Clare & East Galway"
(Canny/Haytes/Lafferty/O'Loughlin)
"Paddy in the Smoke"
"Star Above the Garter"
"Live in Knocknagree" (Macmahon/Hill)
"The Thing Itself" (Peadar O'Loughlin/Maeve Donnelly)
"Cooley" (Joe Cooley)
"Last House in Ballymakea" (Junior Crehan)
"Concertina Music from West Clare," Elizabeth Crotty
"Bunch of Keys," Johny Doran
That would be just a start....
“Bad Turns And Horseshoe Bends” – Harry Bradley
“The Top Of Coom” – Conal O’Grada
“Croch Suas E” – Frankie Gavin
“Any Old Time” – “Any Old Time”
“Noel Hill and Tony Linnane” – Noel Hill & Tony Linnane
“James Kelly, Paddy O’Brien & Daithi Sproule” – [ double-CD compilation of “Spring In The Air” and “Is It Yourself ?” LP records ]
“Lost In The Loop” – Liz Carroll
“Inside Out” – Michael O’Raghallaigh
“The Iron Behind The Velvet” – Christy Moore
“Welcome Here Again” – Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill
Noel Hill and Tony Linnane
Cooley
Frankie Gavin and Alec Finn
As I have said: I gCnoc Na Grai - Noel Hill and Tony McMahon
Cran - Music from the Edge of the World
Ceol Aduaidh - Frankie Kennedy and Mairéad Mhaonaigh
Marcus O'Murchu - O Bheal Go Beal
Planxty - The Well Below The Valley (this one started it for me)
Paul McGrattan - The Frost is all Over
Molloy-Brady-Peoples
Not Irish but brilliant:
Duncan Chisholm - Farrar
Bellowhead's firs album
Sin É's second album (irish but not trad)
The Unthanks
Anything by Zakir Hussain
The Watersons
ELO's entire recorded output
Bothy Band - Old hag you have killed me
Bothy Band - Out of the Wind into the Sun
Kevin Burke - If the Cap Fits
Liz Carroll - Lost in the Loop
Liz Carroll + John Doyle - In Play
Gavin / Brock / Lennon - Tribute to Joe Cooley
Frankie Gavin - Fierce Traditional
Molloy / Brady / Peoples - Molloy / Brady / Peoples
Molloy + John Carty + Arty McGlynn -Pathway to the well
Mick O'Brien + Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh - Kitty lie over
Ed Reavy, Ed and various artists -Music of Ed Reavy
(ok that's 11)
If pressed, I'd leave all the commercial recordings behind and take those I made of friends and acquaintances, wishing I could have them along as a first choice instead...
Nice one ceemonster, on both counts, and spellbreaker too...
Sadly many are no longer available except as downloads from various websites, including courtesy of a member, here ~
Jusa Nutter Eejit has opened the craters of the mind that throw up imaginary albums you'd never want to hear. Well, here goes...
(1) Gnax, "Outbreak" and "Bluetongue":
Progenitors of 'Pest Folk', Gnax give more than a
buzz with such offerings as readings from The
Daily Mash to a scarifying blend of Islamic
demonstration chants and rural Polish hoe-down
music. However, their roots are very firmly
in the psychedelic underground of 1950s Thurso.
(2) The Boggarts, "The Boggarts":
Decide for yourself if these extrovert folkies were
deliberately trying to put the wind up (on) their
audiences or not. The time when they emptied a
crowded folk club in Poodle-under-Pendle in two
and a half minutes flat is here recorded on
some wonky primitive hand-held device, as are all
the other tracks.
(3) Das Russell Tribut-Kollektiv:
When Hans and Birgit Doppelganger walked to
Ireland in 1978 ("we got lost..."), their first landfall
was the home of the Russell Family. Spellbound,
they resolved to devote themselves to
perpetuating Micho's accent and singing voice.
The project mushroomed. They now have a large
extended family of all ages and sexes who can
sing exactly like Micho Russell, or even more so.
They have trained civic and church choirs to sing
like Micho Russell. Most ambitiously, they are
working with opera singers on a forthcoming
production of the Ring Cycle, when these, too, will
sing like Micho Russell, at extraordinary volume
and length.
Their many albums all go to Japan, where the
Kollektiv have a cult following. They were very
hard to shift elsewhere.
(4) The Hundred Willies, "Shand-y!":
A hundred randomly selected kiddies from
Folkworks and Folk Degree intakes were
recorded in a large tin drum playing through as
much of Jimmy Shand's recorded output as they
could manage in forty-five minutes, at their own
natural speed and tempo.
On this album, they do indeed get through a
staggering amount of it. If you have wizardry, you
can slow the playing down in a bid to distinguish
the tunes, but really, it was to get a bob or two out
of the parents.
(5) Treek Jaxx and Sheddie O'Tooth, "The Munster
Monsters":
A mazy dream-time concept album inspired when
they were camping in the ruins of Ballydreg Castle
in the Summer Of Love, living on hallucinogens.
An elderly neighbour told them about the
monsters: "They would come and graze in my
fields. They were sky-blue, pink and orange, just
like apples."
This album started off Celtic Music, but the couple
went off and got very rich doing something else
and thus vanished from cultural history. They
probably live in a gated mansion guarded by
sharpshooters. The album is unendurable, but no
worse than Celtic Music. It's just possible they got
their meantime wealth marketing... Celtic Music.
[oh, and I am in the camp that thinks that "Kind of Blue" was a turning point in jazz,].....great art, but not in the parameters of the parlor game we're playing here, since not traditional music. i see what you mean about the modal chapter in jazz as represented by KOB and coltrane being a new chapter, but to me the jazz "turning point" was earlier---what "smashed the mold" between more traditional jazz and what came later, were the first bebop experiments of parker and i guess gillespie.....the modal stuff was departing from that in way, but was simultaneously built on it, i think.....i know what you mean about traditional jazz....when it comes that, "i have to play that" feeling, it is traditional jazz for me. but without ever having had a yen to play it, i love to listen to the bebob-and-after stuff.
ceemonster, I love bebop, that is some of my favorite jazz, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. It is what came after I don't like. And don't get me started on Ornette Coleman....talk about noodling!!!
All time top ten trad records?
All time top ten trad records?
I was browsing around on a couple of mp3 sites and it made me wonder what my all time top ten trad records might be.
Anybody want to share their all time top ten?
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by richrua
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Do you literally mean "records"?
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Kenny
Re: All time top ten trad records?
well I really mean 'Albums' I suppose, (not single tracks)
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by richrua
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Of the genre, without going specifically going into any argument over whether the Bothy Band played trad, etc. And not looking at Scottish music:
Matt Molloy - Matt Molloy (the black one)
Matt Molloy - Heathery Breeze
Bothy Band - Out of the Wind Into The sun
Bothy Band - 1975
Frankie Gavin and Paul Brock - Tribute to Joe Cooly
Bothy Band - Live in Paris
Bothy Band - Old Hag you have Killed Me
Planxty - After the Break
Finbar Fury and Bob Stuart (or is it Stewart) - Tomorrow we Part (The Bob Stuart bit it pants, but the very best of Finbar at his very best more than makes up for it)
And allow me a further posting later where I will change my mind
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by ...
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Canny, O'Loughlin, Hayes-All Ireland Champions.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Prof. Prlwytzkofski
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Denis Murphy, Julia Clifford-Star above the Garter
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Prof. Prlwytzkofski
Re: All time top ten trad records?
It's been pointed out that my list is terrible. Could be right, there's probably loads I forgot about. But the list is more a product of my age rather than any real objective assessment, merely the records that blew my head off when I was a kid. I don't really listen much to recorded diddley music. It bugs me the way they play the same variations over and over and over and over and over ...
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by ...
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Nothing wrong with your list, "llig", and congrats on the "10,000th" post. I'll add my list later on.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Kenny
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Planxty, the first.
Planxty, 2004 Reunion.
Chieftains, Boil The Breakfast Early. (changed my life)
DeDannan, Star-Spamgled Molly.
DeDannan, Selected Jigs Reels and Songs
Bothy Band, Old Hag You Have Killed Me (thanks llig, that one had skipped my mind)
Bothy Band, Live (In Paris, I believe)
Beginish
Lunasa, The Kinnity Sessions
That makes nine.
The number ten slot is for "all the rest".
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Piece
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Bobby Casey ;Taking flight
Bobby Casey ; Spirit of West Clare, and the rest!
Canny, O'Loughlin, Hayes-All Ireland Champions.
Paddy Canny East Clare fiddler
Paddy Canny . meet PC And the rest!
Pat Mitchel's Album
Everything by Willie Clancy
Everything by Seamus Ennis
David Power; My love is in America
David Power ;The little Cuckoo
Sligo fiddler; John Vesey
The floating Bow; Johnny Doherty
Kathleen Collins. 1st Album
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by piobagusfidil
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Anything to do with Tommy People's and Charlie Lennon -
jim,,,
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by FIDDLE4
Curmudgeonly reply follows...
1.I hate this sort of ‘what’s your favourite colour?’ thread.
2.And anyway, I’d sooner play it than listen to it!
You’ll never learn how to do this music better by playing along with wax cylinders, magnetic wires, 78’s, microgroove LP’s, 45 rpm singles, EP’s, ¼ “ reel to reel tape, cassettes, 8 track cartridges, CD’s, MIDI, MP3’s, YouTube, 8 & 16mm film, WAV files, og vorbis or any other recorded format. You have to do it live with other people. It’s a two way exchange and fiddling/ strumming/ squeezing/ blowing/ plonking along to your top ten, the Bothy Band or Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh or whatever in your bedroom ain’t gonna work because (A) they can’t hear you and (b) you’ll get imprinted with unchanging versions of stuff.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Blue.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by big_tab
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Albums are generally made to be heard, rather than accompanied, I believe.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Dragut Reis
Re: All time top ten trad records?
You a Joni Mitchell fan, then big tab? Blue is sublime.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by the wounded hussar
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Top ten at this point in time are, in no particular order:
June McCormack and Michael Rooney - Draiocht
Caladh Nua - Happy Days
John Carty and Brian McGrath - The Cat that Ate the Candle
James Kelly - The Ring Sessions
Kevin Crawford - In Good Company
The Mulcahy Family - Reelin' In Tradition
Kieran Hanrahan - Plays the Irish Tenor Banjo
Alan and John Kelly - Fourmilehouse
Cian - Three Shouts from a Hill
Cathal Hayden (self titled)
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by camwebby
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Blue is indeed a fantastic album and I'm sure that all of you on here own a copy, don't you?
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by strayaway
Re: All time top ten trad records?
It's a bit selfindulgent. But then, aren't most of the world's best albums?
Has anyone ever seen Derek Jarman's film "Blue"?
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by ...
Re: All time top ten trad records?
"Kind of Blue" is a must-have album
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by RichardB
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Blue Nun's feckin horrible wine though
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by ...
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Jaysus I have no sappy Joni Mitchell cd s. Sure I am dog rough and am a massive Chris De Burgh fan!
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by big_tab
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Maybe it's "Blue" the pop band that big_tab likes? You know he's not very forthcoming in detail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpjCrMZYzy4
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by ...
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Chortle!! (think I'll avoid clicking the link)
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by RichardB
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Thats the music Llig! Was fully expecting to see Matt Molloy pop up .
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by big_tab
Re: All time top ten trad records?
"Chris De Burgh" ?? And he had the temerarious cheek to slag my top ten.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by ...
Re: All time top ten trad records?
For f(cks sake I was joking..
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by big_tab
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Maybe you were joking about The Bothy Band being in the best trad recordings of all time.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by big_tab
Re: All time top ten trad records?
U2 is Irish music - can I have them?
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Sugarfoot Jack
Re: All time top ten trad records?
I gCnoc Na Grai - Noel Hill and Tony McMahon
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Sugarfoot Jack
Re: All time top ten trad records?
If U2 is Irish music, how come they keep winning the Brit Awards? But pedantry aside, yes, you can have them if you want
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by ...
Re: All time top ten trad records?
... they're as "trad" as the bothy band
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by ...
Re: All time top ten trad records?
This is a stupid thread.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by David Levine
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Blue Velvet is easily one of my favorite movies. RIP Mr. Hopper. I'll have a Pabst Blue Ribbon.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Blue Ribbon albums:
Paddy in The Smoke
A Tribute to Michael Coleman
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by pennhorse
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Of course it's a stupid thread. So what?
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by ...
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Why do people keep insisting that Paddy In The Smoke is one of the great trad albums? It's not.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by strayaway
Re: All time top ten trad records?
For me, "Kind Of Blue" marks the moment jazz became fatally enthralled with its own colonoscopy - but hey, we're all different!..
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by nicholas
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Well I haven't played it for ages as it's a record and the turntable is in the attic. It has good memories though
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by RichardB
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Strayaway. Of all the cds mentioned above you mention Paddy in the Smoke as one thats not great. I think its great. Its a live recording of rural Irish musicians like Casey and Burns and Curtin in top form playing tunes live in a huge lonely metropolis. The music kept their spirits high and that recording still manages to capture that for many of us today. Sugarfoot Jack. I am really looking forward to disagreeing with you sometime but that time hasnt arrived yet! Knocknagree captures an atmosphere of Co Clare musicians and dancers on a big happy trip to Co Cork. It is indeed a classic.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by big_tab
Re: All time top ten trad records?
I don't think Casey was on the top of his form on Paddy in the Smoke. Far from it.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Prof. Prlwytzkofski
Re: All time top ten trad records?
I am not talking about his musical prowess. I am referring to how happy the musicians sound to be playing tunes with their friends encouraging them.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by big_tab
Re: All time top ten trad records?
big_tab. What I said is that is not one of THE great trad albums. It is an excellent snapshot of yesteryear and will obviously be held dear in the hearts of those who were there but as an album of all time top ten trad it falls way short. As a historical document it serves well but dosen't answer or attempt to answer the circumstances that led to it's creation.....unless you know different, that is. Anyway, that's my opinion and I look forward to being enlightened.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by strayaway
Re: All time top ten trad records?
I am not sure if Paddy in the Smoke would be in my all time top ten albums. It certainly wouldnt be far off. My observation was that of all the cd s mentioned above( some of them really average) you would pick that lovely album as below par.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by big_tab
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Casey could switch on and off, when he'd play with others or in sessions he'd often 'switch off' or 'go on automatic' or whatever way you want to put it. Mind you, it would still be fine fiddle playing.
When he played on his own and for friends he'd really give it his all and pour out tune after tune and let the ideas flow into the music.
i don't think he does that on Paddy in the Smoke.
And before somebody jumps me, here's an example I had handy where I think he is more at ease and 'giving it his all':
http://www.box.net/shared/vbd3jtipz7
I'll leave that clip there for a day or so.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Prof. Prlwytzkofski
Re: All time top ten trad records?
I didn't single that one out at all, some of the others mentioned are indeed very average. I mentioned it because it constantly gets accoladed with being one of the best ever trad albums and, like I said originally, it's not. I certainly don't dislike it. My top Irish album as of right now is Fidil 3. I'll tell you in about 10 years if it merits a top 10 of all time placing.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by strayaway
Re: All time top ten trad records?
"You’ll never learn how to do this music better by playing along with wax cylinders..."
I'm always intrigued by people who spend loads of time playing the music, but are seldom if ever tempted to go buy or borrow CDs or records and listen to them for the pure enjoyment of it.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by grego
Re: All time top ten trad records?
well I have a few I have thought of myself...
Bothy Band Live in Paris, Bothy 1975, Danu (first album 1997), Best of Altan, Gerry O connor Time to time, Hayes and Cahill The Lonesome touch. 20 years of Green linnet (I like the mix)...Lunasa...
not a silly list at all llig , thanks.
and yhallhouse by the waY I never mentioned playing along to recordings at all...... jayzus , do you not own any cds? what do you use 'em for coasters?
I like to listen as well as play. I'm just scouting about for a possible good cd to buy or two, thats all..
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by richrua
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Hey, grego, as I said earlier, even the very best cds get dull after a few playings. The same speed, pace, variations, arrangements over and over and over and over. It's not the way to play this music.
He Prof, thanks for that Boby Casey. Just listened to it, drop dead brilliant.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by ...
Fatally enthralled with its own colonoscopy
nicholas: ‘For me, "Kind Of Blue" marks the moment jazz became fatally enthralled with its own colonoscopy’- I totally disagree but your phrase quoted here is fabulous! I will adapt and nick it for future use! Thank you!
richrua: I have loads and loads of CD’s but only a handful are (arguably) trad Irish (and they are: the Bothy Band; Planxty; the Chieftains; Five Hand Reel and a couple more- all bought when I was getting into the music but hardly ever listened to them). Even the best bits of trad recordings sound a bit tired compared with even the most modest of real sessions. And remember here in Sarf Lunden we are rather spoilt for choice for actual real live sessions to go to. There’s no point sitting at home and listening to CD when five minutes around the corner it’s happening for real!
If you’re looking for good recordings to listen to consider getting music of other genres that takes the medium well; highly arranged or intricately produced stuff (e.g. Beethoven symphonies, Zappa, the Beatles, Kraftwerk, camp 50’s musical soundtracks, Crass, the Carpenters). It’s the same for jazz and BLooZ; don’t listen to the music on record, get out and play it yourself or at least hear it live!
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Anything that involves Liam O'Flynn
Anything that involves Jimmy O'Brian Moran
and
The Chieftains 1
The Irish Tradition : The Corner House : w/ Brendan Mulvihill,Billy McComisky and Andy O'Brian
Na Connerys : The Session : w/ Paddy & Kevin Glackin, Sean Og Potts, John Regan, John Wynn, Tim McDonagh and Mark Kelly.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: All time top ten trad records?
llig, I own many, many recordings that would take at least 10 plays to even begin to appreciate their content and nuance. I'm sure not all your collection are dull after a few listens, are they? Maybe I could send you a list of recommended listens that differs from all that simple diddley stuff! Having said all that, of course playing or listening live is the best way but that's stating the bleedin obvious. sarf lundaan, home of ITM, must have missed something last time I was there, yhaalhouse.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by strayaway
Re: All time top ten trad records?
The fundamental problem with all lists like this is that they're essentially ephemeral.
However, having written that, it's interesting just how few of the selections above include albums issued in the last ten years. On the one hand, this might be saying something about the age of the posters and their album-buying habits, but, on the other, it reinforces my own feeling that the overall quality of traditional music albums has declined remarkably since the turn of the century.
That doesn't mean there haven't been some great albums (Gerry O'Connor's 'Journeyman', the first Ronan Browne/Peter O'Loughlin album, the last Martin Hayes/Dennis Cahill, John McSherry's work with Dónal O'Connor and solo, The Tap Room Trio CD, Maeve Donnelly and Peter O'Loughlin, etc.), but there's been a heck of a lot of bilge issued in the last five years.
The problem is that it's nowadays so easy to release something which used to be called a 'vanity album'. Many of these, including some issued by big names featured earlier in this thread, lack the objectivity that an experienced producer might have brought to the occasion and they're all the worse for that. Dónal Lunny (though he did record the odd stumer) and P.J. Curtis, in particular, are much missed for their quality control.
Re. 'Paddy in the Smoke'. I think Strayaway's way off-beam. It's by far and away the best session recording in existence and fully captures the essence of The Favourite and those long-lost Sunday lunchtimes. I only started going there in the mid-1970s, but the memories linger on, though perhaps more clearly related to the session's move to The Victoria at the end of that decade.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by MacCruiskeen
Re: All time top ten trad records?
MacCruiskeen, how can you say that I'm way off beam and then agree with my summary?
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by strayaway
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Spoiled kids that we are. We now have the luxury to listen to the most polished trad (oxymoron ?) music ever. Paddy in The Smoke makes my list because it's a seminal recording of LIVE sessions int he fifties. It's raw all right, but it's all about the craic. I don't care if the musos were not at the top of their game on that album.
Thanks to those giants.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by pennhorse
Re: All time top ten trad records?
60's pennhorse.Just. I agree and I think it is just as exciting to hear these wonderful musicians playing for their friends on a Sunday lunchtime session than some recording where they are "at the top of their game"
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by big_tab
Re: All time top ten trad records?
At your service, I have it deleted.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Prof. Prlwytzkofski
Re: All time top ten trad records?
The point of that clip was by the way to show Casey where he was indeed playing with and for friends. Relaxed and giving it his all. Where I think on Paddy in the Smoke he is to a large extend going through the motions.
No accounting for taste.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Prof. Prlwytzkofski
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Shame. I didn't get to that clip before you deleted it.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by ethical blend
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Sorry Prof if I seemed lacking in appreciation for your clip. It was wonderful.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by big_tab
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Awww... I missed the clip. :(
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Thanks for that clip Prof, My favourite fiddler , so inventive and lyrical.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by piobagusfidil
Re: All time top ten trad records?
My list (on quite limited album-listening, though) would be:
(1) The first Planxty,
(2) The first Bothy Band
(keen-edge ground-breakers, as well as superb);
(3) De Danann, "Selected Jigs (whatever...)"
(A sampler of "old" approaches to songs and
tunes, albeit with the bouzoukis and stuff as well),
(4) Topic sampler, "From Erin's Green Shore"
(Worth it for songs by Margaret Barry, one of the
real greats, plus Michael Gorman and others);
(5) "Tin Whistles", Sean Potts and Paddy Moloney
(With two players duetting etc., does stuff
with whistle music that a solo player cannot);
(6) De Danann, "The Star-Spangled Molly".
(A top-notch attempt to create a 'tribute album'
about music and musicians of another age and
place. Chieftains' albums attempting this have
never grabbed me like this album has.);
(7) Martin Byrnes (fiddle, with Reg Hall on piano)
(An East Galway fiddler who came to London.
Intriguing, powerful regional-style music from an
earlier era.);
(8) John Doonan, "Flute For The Feis"
(Piccolo-playing at precise step-dance tempos -
and very nice, cheerful music. Postwar period,
again.);
(9) Molloy, Peoples, Brady
(Exalted thrash, 70s, brilliant playing and tunes)
(10) Any top ceilidh band, to indicate how lots of trad
players make a bit of a living doing what the
music's supposed to be 'for'! (I won't argue that
last point...)
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by nicholas
Re: All time top ten trad records?
"At your service, I have it deleted."
Oh, rats! I was looking forward to it.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Bob himself
Re: All time top ten trad records?
I've never heard "Paddy In The Smoke", and of all the famous albums as yet unheard by me, I think it is the one I'd most like to hear. I got into trad fairly soon after that era - hence my citing musicians in my list who belonged to it, maybe playing on for some years afterwards.
Some albums came into my mind which I dropped because they were really going through ground broken by pioneers: Altan's first - though Mary Mooney's singing is poignant perfection on it - is really doing what the Bothies did first. Some I dropped because despite brilliant coups, they strike me as having lacklustre bits: despite "The Entry Of The Queen Of Sheba, which I think's the tops, De Danann's "A Song For Ireland" strikes me that way, and others of theirs.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by nicholas
Re: All time top ten trad records?
I don't think I could name my ten favorites, but these would certainly be some of my least favorites:
Whatsda name of dis tune? - The Compulsive Noodlers
Let the Rhythm Drive You - The Wall of Guitars
That's NOT how you play it Dipsh!t - The Know it All Boys
Thundering Heard - The Bodhran Masters
Never aTune in Tune - The Banjo All Stars
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: All time top ten trad records?
You can listen to the entire album on Spotify right now for free, nicholas. Then, if you think it's worth about £7 (it is), you can buy the Cd. Easy, not like the days when we had to travel 100 miles to the nearest record shop only to find it was out of stock or, more likely, never was in stock.
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by strayaway
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Right Yhaalhouse . You dont listen to trad cds , I get the picture. I do play plenty and I have a whole house to play in, not just a bedroom! We have a group of friends who play together a lot, plus regular session visits.
I really like listening to trad. Dunno why. I like it when a tune I play sounds different on a Martin Hayes track and different again on a slide track. All little differences. It inspires me.
And thanks to this thread I have found some good planxty stuff to listen to tonight. Thanks folks!
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by richrua
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Bunch of Keys, Johnny Doran
Paddy Keenan, 1975 Album
Noel Hill & Tony Linnanne
Concertina 2 Noel Hill
Bothy Band -1st album
Paddy in the Smoke
Tommy Peoples & Matt Molloy
Tribute to Michael Coleman-Burke and McGann
# Posted on August 18th 2010 by tommy fegan
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Kathleen Collins-"Traditional Music of Ireland"
Frankie Gavin & Alec Finn
John & James Kelly-"Irish Traditional Fiddle Music"
Paddy Glackin & Paddy Keenan- "Doublin' "
Conal O'Grada- "Top of Coom"
John Blake, Lamond Gillespie & Mick Leahy- "Humours of Highgate"
Micheal O'Raghallaigh- "The Nervous Man"
Mick O'Brien & Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh-"Kitty Lie Over"
Bothy Band-"Out of The Wind, Into The Sun"
Angelina Carberry-"An Traidisiun Beo"
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by jaychoons
Re: All time top ten rad recordings?
Charley Patton
Son House
Albert Ammons
Doctor Feelgood / Piano Red
Cheap Thrills - Big Brother and the Holding Company
Janis Joplin: Pearl
Jimmy Hendrix
The Rolling Stones Singles Collection
Sk8er Rock - 2 CD Collection
"Who Let the Dogs Out" - single by Baha Men, with "Move it Like This"
No, I can't limit it to ten, sorry, and putting things in any kind of order, you must be kidding...
Did I mention "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and "Super Session" and "Surrealistic Pillow" by Jefferson Airplane?
Nope, can't do it, but here are half a dozen I've bought as gifts and given away to others ~
"Josie McDermott: Darby's Farewell"
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/130
"Mairéad ní Mhaonaigh & Frankie Kennedy: Ceol Aduaidh"
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/296
"The Rushy Mountain: Classic Music From Sliabh Luachra 1952-77"
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/1274
"All-Ireland Champions - Meet Paddy Canny & P.J. Hayes"
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/868
"Johnny Connolly: An Mileoidean Scaoilte"
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/1375
"The Brass Fiddle: Traditional Fiddle Music From Donegal"
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/274
&, cheating, "The Clare Set" box set from the Free Reed folks ~
http://www.free-reed.co.uk/
http://www.free-reed.co.uk/anclar-06
That's hardly scratching the surface...
Oh yes, I also ended up ordering at least a dozen of this set ~ "Celtic Souls", and for just one of the ten CDs enclosed it is worth it ~
"John Kelly And James Kelly With Michael Crehan And Michael Gavin: Irish Traditional Fiddle Music"
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/1567
And I also ordered a bunch of these from the artist ~
"John Brosnan: The Cook in the Kitchen"
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/1279
And I'm fond of Kitty Hayes and this ~
"Kitty Hayes & Peter Laban: They'll Be Good Yet"
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/1889
And then there's all that lovely stuff Matt Hayes and Seamus Creagh and Jackie Daly have been involved in, but ~ damn ~ there's just so much worthy of a good listen...
Oh yeah ~ and this ~
"Green Day: American Idiot"
And every now and then a bit of dear ol' Buddy Holly seems to be what's needed...
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by ceolachan
Matt Hayes? ~ Sorry, I met Matt Cranitch!
It's late...
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by ceolachan
Re: All time top ten trad records?
So many traditions and such an open ended question....
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by ceolachan
Re: All time top ten trad records?
During a discussion on when the best science fiction had been written (ie what decade was the Golden Age), someone once stated that "The Golden Age of Science Fiction is 14."
In other words, the stories you love best are the ones you read when it is all new and fresh to you.
Thus, I would suggest that most of the lists above are dominated with albums that came out during the first years that the person making the list was listening to, and playing, trad music.
(oh, and I am in the camp that thinks that "Kind of Blue" was a turning point in jazz, but a turn for the worse, I have always been more of a trad jazz guy myself)
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by AlBrown
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Reverend Gary Davis
Blind Blake
Mississippi Sheiks
Mississippi John Hurt
Memphis Minnie
Libba Cotten
Hammod Family
Tommy Jarrell, solo & with Fred Cockerham/Kyle Creed, etc.
Roscoe Holcomb
"Drunk and Nutty: Hillbillies Foolin' WIth the Blues" (2-CD Anth.)
That would be just a start....
oh, and....
"Historic Recording of Music from Clare & East Galway"
(Canny/Haytes/Lafferty/O'Loughlin)
"Paddy in the Smoke"
"Star Above the Garter"
"Live in Knocknagree" (Macmahon/Hill)
"The Thing Itself" (Peadar O'Loughlin/Maeve Donnelly)
"Cooley" (Joe Cooley)
"Last House in Ballymakea" (Junior Crehan)
"Concertina Music from West Clare," Elizabeth Crotty
"Bunch of Keys," Johny Doran
That would be just a start....
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by ceemonster
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Great choice ceemonster. Lets make it more interesting. Top ten from musicians under 50 years old?
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by big_tab
Re: All time top ten trad records?
“Bad Turns And Horseshoe Bends” – Harry Bradley
“The Top Of Coom” – Conal O’Grada
“Croch Suas E” – Frankie Gavin
“Any Old Time” – “Any Old Time”
“Noel Hill and Tony Linnane” – Noel Hill & Tony Linnane
“James Kelly, Paddy O’Brien & Daithi Sproule” – [ double-CD compilation of “Spring In The Air” and “Is It Yourself ?” LP records ]
“Lost In The Loop” – Liz Carroll
“Inside Out” – Michael O’Raghallaigh
“The Iron Behind The Velvet” – Christy Moore
“Welcome Here Again” – Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by Kenny
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Noel Hill and Tony Linnane
Cooley
Frankie Gavin and Alec Finn
As I have said: I gCnoc Na Grai - Noel Hill and Tony McMahon
Cran - Music from the Edge of the World
Ceol Aduaidh - Frankie Kennedy and Mairéad Mhaonaigh
Marcus O'Murchu - O Bheal Go Beal
Planxty - The Well Below The Valley (this one started it for me)
Paul McGrattan - The Frost is all Over
Molloy-Brady-Peoples
Not Irish but brilliant:
Duncan Chisholm - Farrar
Bellowhead's firs album
Sin É's second album (irish but not trad)
The Unthanks
Anything by Zakir Hussain
The Watersons
ELO's entire recorded output
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by Sugarfoot Jack
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Off the top of head type thing -
Bothy Band - Old hag you have killed me
Bothy Band - Out of the Wind into the Sun
Kevin Burke - If the Cap Fits
Liz Carroll - Lost in the Loop
Liz Carroll + John Doyle - In Play
Gavin / Brock / Lennon - Tribute to Joe Cooley
Frankie Gavin - Fierce Traditional
Molloy / Brady / Peoples - Molloy / Brady / Peoples
Molloy + John Carty + Arty McGlynn -Pathway to the well
Mick O'Brien + Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh - Kitty lie over
Ed Reavy, Ed and various artists -Music of Ed Reavy
(ok that's 11)
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by domhnall.
Discussion: Desert Island Discs
# Posted on October 8th 2003 by Aidan Crossey
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/2230
If pressed, I'd leave all the commercial recordings behind and take those I made of friends and acquaintances, wishing I could have them along as a first choice instead...
Nice one ceemonster, on both counts, and spellbreaker too...
Sadly many are no longer available except as downloads from various websites, including courtesy of a member, here ~
Dragut Reis
http://www.thesession.org/members/display/59067
http://ceolalainn.blogspot.com/
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by ceolachan
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Jusa Nutter Eejit has opened the craters of the mind that throw up imaginary albums you'd never want to hear. Well, here goes...
(1) Gnax, "Outbreak" and "Bluetongue":
Progenitors of 'Pest Folk', Gnax give more than a
buzz with such offerings as readings from The
Daily Mash to a scarifying blend of Islamic
demonstration chants and rural Polish hoe-down
music. However, their roots are very firmly
in the psychedelic underground of 1950s Thurso.
(2) The Boggarts, "The Boggarts":
Decide for yourself if these extrovert folkies were
deliberately trying to put the wind up (on) their
audiences or not. The time when they emptied a
crowded folk club in Poodle-under-Pendle in two
and a half minutes flat is here recorded on
some wonky primitive hand-held device, as are all
the other tracks.
(3) Das Russell Tribut-Kollektiv:
When Hans and Birgit Doppelganger walked to
Ireland in 1978 ("we got lost..."), their first landfall
was the home of the Russell Family. Spellbound,
they resolved to devote themselves to
perpetuating Micho's accent and singing voice.
The project mushroomed. They now have a large
extended family of all ages and sexes who can
sing exactly like Micho Russell, or even more so.
They have trained civic and church choirs to sing
like Micho Russell. Most ambitiously, they are
working with opera singers on a forthcoming
production of the Ring Cycle, when these, too, will
sing like Micho Russell, at extraordinary volume
and length.
Their many albums all go to Japan, where the
Kollektiv have a cult following. They were very
hard to shift elsewhere.
(4) The Hundred Willies, "Shand-y!":
A hundred randomly selected kiddies from
Folkworks and Folk Degree intakes were
recorded in a large tin drum playing through as
much of Jimmy Shand's recorded output as they
could manage in forty-five minutes, at their own
natural speed and tempo.
On this album, they do indeed get through a
staggering amount of it. If you have wizardry, you
can slow the playing down in a bid to distinguish
the tunes, but really, it was to get a bob or two out
of the parents.
(5) Treek Jaxx and Sheddie O'Tooth, "The Munster
Monsters":
A mazy dream-time concept album inspired when
they were camping in the ruins of Ballydreg Castle
in the Summer Of Love, living on hallucinogens.
An elderly neighbour told them about the
monsters: "They would come and graze in my
fields. They were sky-blue, pink and orange, just
like apples."
This album started off Celtic Music, but the couple
went off and got very rich doing something else
and thus vanished from cultural history. They
probably live in a gated mansion guarded by
sharpshooters. The album is unendurable, but no
worse than Celtic Music. It's just possible they got
their meantime wealth marketing... Celtic Music.
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by nicholas
Re: All time top ten trad records?
[drum roll please]
...and the best trad album of all time is:
"Slow Boat to County Hell" by The Ballyfeckit Ceili Band
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: All time top ten trad records?
[oh, and I am in the camp that thinks that "Kind of Blue" was a turning point in jazz,].....great art, but not in the parameters of the parlor game we're playing here, since not traditional music. i see what you mean about the modal chapter in jazz as represented by KOB and coltrane being a new chapter, but to me the jazz "turning point" was earlier---what "smashed the mold" between more traditional jazz and what came later, were the first bebop experiments of parker and i guess gillespie.....the modal stuff was departing from that in way, but was simultaneously built on it, i think.....i know what you mean about traditional jazz....when it comes that, "i have to play that" feeling, it is traditional jazz for me. but without ever having had a yen to play it, i love to listen to the bebob-and-after stuff.
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by ceemonster
Re: All time top ten trad records?
Well done Nichols - I think I'd actually run out and buy that Jimmy Shand tribute...
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by Jusa Nutter Eejit
Re: All time top ten trad records?
ceemonster, I love bebop, that is some of my favorite jazz, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. It is what came after I don't like. And don't get me started on Ornette Coleman....talk about noodling!!!
# Posted on August 19th 2010 by AlBrown