I got yesterday 2 whistle CDs i ordered from Claddagh:
(1) Paddy Molloney / Sean Potts : Tin Whistles
What a fun CD. Recorded in 1973. Just whistle, with a little bodhran here and there. What did you think of that funky Julia Delaney? I’m not sure i like it, but what a blast!
(2) Mary Bergin : Feadóga Stáin
This is from 1979. I hear a lot of people consider this the finest whistling CD. I think it’s very good, but maybe a little bit too perfect. There are no liner notes, so i don’t know what kind of whistles she’s playing, but from the sound, i’m guessing Burke. Does anybody know?
Of the 2, i like the Molloney/Potts one best, maybe because it’s rougher. They seem to be playing Generations, and sometimes they have a hard time getting the 2 whistles to play in tune, but each man is a master and seems to be having a lot of fun. I also like it that there’s no accompanyment.
Mary Bergin, as i said, maybe a little too perfect, but nobody can deny she’s an amazing player.
Any other whistle CDs i should be listening to?
g
P.S.: we need something like Wooden Flute Obsession for the whistle. I suggest Pennywhistle Envy, to keep with the mental disease theme. I think i’ll email Kevin Krell.
I think it’s only fairly recently that she’s started using the Sindt. I don’t think Burke was making whistles in 1979. There’s been a huge increase in the number of whistle makers in recent years. There was much available in 1979 except Generation and Clarke.
Why does the fact that she’s playing Generations make the album more amazing? She would sound just as amazing if she was playing a Burke, an Overton, a Sindt, or anything else.
I’m sorry, but I fail to see the importance of the type of whistle a certain person plays. Mary Bergin will still be great on anything she plays and a beginner will sound like a beginner on whatever they’re playing. It’s the musician, not the whistle.
I think i sound better when i play a Burke then when i play a Generation. This is probably another way to say i’m a beginner, then. In my limited experience, a Generation is much harder to control than a Burke. I’m picking on Burke and Generation because i own these 2 whistles, but i probably could have picked most any pairing of cheap and expensive whistle. Judging from your opinion, when i get to be really good, these distinctions will probably go away.
You can be quite sure that Mary Bergin was playing a batch of good Generations. Good Generations are good, very responsive whistles. I have an Eb that is close enough for me to be able to tell what a good one would be like and I haven’t even tried the blue tack tweak yet, just done a little filing. There is just so much pointless confusion about this point. Really good Generations are great whistles .. they are not bad whistles. Bad Generations are stinkers. People who play well on Generations are not fighting against bad whistles, although they do need to adjust to them. The same is true of high-end whistles.
Even in the days when good Gens were easier to find they were still hard to spot and they still required tweaking. On both these points, and on Mary Bergin’s ability to find good ones, see the Paddy Moloney interview on the main site.
Re the ‘good Generations’ - I love those Gens. on the Molloney/Potts album cover-each looks as if it has about half a roll of clear ‘Sellotape’ holding the head in tuned position!
It’s a pity i just fixed it (by beheading and installing a Hoover whitecap), but i had a truly horrible Generations D whistle, green head on brass body. That thing almost ended my whistling career before it began.
I also have a Bb that i wouldn’t call good, but it’s not horrible, and a F that’s adequate (but has been tweaked). I’ll probably tweak that Bb sometime soon to see if i can get rid of some of the raspiness.
Glauber,you MUST hear Micho Russell-any of his albums are worth investing in,plus the ‘Ireland’s whistling ambassador’ video is well worth a look.
Very,very individualistic playing,and a very different approach from the other albums discussed.I would say that his music,though on first listening sounds a lot ‘rougher’ than Bergin,Maloney or Potts,it is in fact very sophisticated.
I like everything that I’ve heard by Micho,so far.
I don’t think that you could go wrong with the ‘Ireland’s whistling Ambassador’ c.d.,which features Micho playing in different environments-studio,hall and apartment.This is probably the easiest to get hold of-it’s available from the Pennywhistler’s press website.
The album is mostly different material from the video of the same name,so don’t be afraid that you would be duplicating your collection if you bought both.
If you haven’t done so already,check out Micho’s playing on the transcriptions page of Brother Steve’s site.
Cool. The “Ireland’s Ambassador” CD is the only one available on Ossian. Claddagh has 7, but with the weak dollar, it’s a lot more expensive to buy from Europe now.
