Two Hornpipes -- The Humours of Tullycrine & The Garden of Daises.
http://www.eigsemrscrotty.com/
http://www.timcollins-concertina.com/home.htm
Tim's formal introduction to music began at the age of 10 when his parents bought him a 'black dot' Hohner accordion in O'Neill's in Newcastle West. He and his brother John picked up tunes by ear from their father before attending Celia Regan's music lessons in the old hall in Templeglantine. Three years later, Con Herbert, a family friend from Killeedy, who had learned music from Collins' granduncle Tadhg, introduced Tim to the concertina. Herbert, a highly respected musician and teacher, trusted the thirteen-year-old with a 28 key rosewood ended Jeffries to practice on. Within a year, Herbert found a 38 key metal ended Jeffries that put Tim firmly on the road to concertina music. Herbert also loaned his young charge two key recordings of Irish concertina music, The Flowing Tide by Chris Droney and Irish Traditional Concertina Styles, a compilation released by Topic in 1977 that featured several legendary players; among them, Tom Carey, Solus Lillis and Paddy Murphy. Both discs had a seminal impact on Collins' style and repertoire.
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The Kilfenora Ceili Band
Like his predecessors, Collins brought his music across the river to Clare, where he has taught music for almost a decade and played with Clare's legendary Kilfenora Céilí Band, one of the most decorated traditional ensembles in the country, with an unprecedented seven All Ireland titles and several award winning albums to its credit. While the musical ethos and philosophy of the Kilfenora, especially, the importance of tune structure, rhythm and lift has had a profound impact on his music, Collins has also contributed in no small way to the Kilfenora; not least, the seminal stock of slides and polkas that he has given to the band.
This is an old cakewalk tune called "Whistling Rufus" by Kerry Mills. I arranged an anglo concertina version from the original 1899 sheet music. This is a somewhat shortened version, usually I'd repeat each part twice. But it was difficult enough playing it this long without making too many mistakes. I played it on a Wakker anglo concertina with rosewood ends.
The audio was recorded with an iRiver iFP-899 MP3 player, using a plug-in gooseneck stereo microphone lying next to my feet. I mixed in a bit of audio from the camera for room ambience.
A ComhaltasLive favourite, here is Ernestine Healy (concertina), one of the Directors of the annual Meitheal Residential Summer School with a selection of jigs, joined by Fionnuala Rooney on harp. The first tune was recorded by Louise Kelly, followed by "Port na gCairdeanna" and concluding with "The Rolling Waves".
More info and videos at http://comhaltaslive.ie
One of the ComhaltasLive favourites, here is a selection of reels played by Edel Fox from Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare: "Devanney's Goat", "The Bag of Spuds" and "Maud Millar".
More info and videos at http://comhaltaslive.ie
One of the longest-running annual concerts of Irish traditional music must surely be the Mullahoran Concert in Co. Cavan, organised every year by fiddle player Antón Mac Gabhann. The 2008 concert, the 39th since its inception in 1969, takes place on Sunday 30th March.
This week we feature some of the music from the 2007 Mullahoran Concert, commencing with a trio of All-Ireland champion concertina players Fionnuala, Blathnaid and Ailbhe Mac Cába from Ashbourne, Co. Meath. They play two reels: "The Curragh Races" and "Hand Me Down the Tackle".