Forgot to comment on this after posting it. The “Boys” 2nd recording saw the departure of Dick Gaughan, his replacement being North-East of England multi-instrumentalist Dave Richardson. Some fine Shetland music on this recording – the opening set of reels, and also the 2 “listening” tunes – and a mixed bag of music from several counties of Ireland. A couple of Kerry slides, “The Halting March” from the North, Cathal plays a solo of “Patsy Campbell” on whistle in the style of Miko Russell, and I believe this was the first recording to introduce the “Gravel Walk”, from Donegal to a wider audience, [ it certainly was in Scotland.] The version of the “Gold Ring” is a lesser-played 5-part version. There’s also the show-piece “Mason’s Apron”, with both Cathal and Aly going through all the variations on whistle and fiddle, respectively.
The singing on the album is probably an “acquired taste”, but I still like Robin Morton’s version of “Sally Munro”.
Boys' Second album
Forgot to comment on this after posting it. The “Boys” 2nd recording saw the departure of Dick Gaughan, his replacement being North-East of England multi-instrumentalist Dave Richardson. Some fine Shetland music on this recording – the opening set of reels, and also the 2 “listening” tunes – and a mixed bag of music from several counties of Ireland. A couple of Kerry slides, “The Halting March” from the North, Cathal plays a solo of “Patsy Campbell” on whistle in the style of Miko Russell, and I believe this was the first recording to introduce the “Gravel Walk”, from Donegal to a wider audience, [ it certainly was in Scotland.] The version of the “Gold Ring” is a lesser-played 5-part version. There’s also the show-piece “Mason’s Apron”, with both Cathal and Aly going through all the variations on whistle and fiddle, respectively.
The singing on the album is probably an “acquired taste”, but I still like Robin Morton’s version of “Sally Munro”.
# Posted on November 3rd 2005 by Kenny