This is my first post here, so I hope I’m sticking it in the right place.
I’ve recently got interested in traditional irish music, mainly because I’ve just started playing in a sort of “string quintet” (mandolin, acoustic bass, acoustic guitar, violin, cavaquinho - it’s almost the same as the hawaiian ukulele, but played in a different scale and rhythm) where we play some polkas and celtic music (like John Ryan’s, etc.) and portuguese folk music (and a lot more stuff, really).
Well, I’ve searched the Internet for more and it’s hard to find good irish music, mainly because they all have voice in it, wich, in my opinion, makes the music not so good, or because in most cases artists play it to slowly (I’m not saying they play it bad, I just don’t appreciate it so much). I’m looking for some instrumental cds, with no voices, like “danceable” music.
If it’s polkas you want you could try Music From Sliabh Luachra Vol. 6 which has Jackie Daly on accordeons and concertina and which is a peerless recording. Also worth having are any of the Sliabh Notes CDs such as Gleanntan or Along Blackwater’s Banks. Apologies if I have the titles slightly wrong!
Thank you all for the suggestions, which I really appreciated. Too bad I still couldn’t find what I was looking for. We play John Ryan’s like 3 times faster (and believe me, not worse) and I think that the music loses a lot when played so slowly. Don’t you know some irish music played really fast (I know that I seam a beat obsessed with the speed, lol), like in a Pub after hours or something? I’ll see if I can upload some songs for you to know what I’m talkin about.
I second the suggestion of Jackie Daly and Seamus Creagh, and would add “Meiteal” by Seamus Begley and Steve Cooney. They might not be what you want, but I think they may be what you need.
I’ve searched the Internet for more and it’s hard to find good irish music, mainly because they all have voice in it,
Sorry, but you haven’t searched very well if all you can find are songs. There are loads of Polka’s out there that can be played at breakneck speed, but if you are looking to play Polka’s faster than the Sliabh Lauchra style of playing, I think you are MAD!!! I don’t mean that in a bad way, it is just that if you are playing faster than that you will lose all feel for the lilt of the tune. Speed for the sake of speed is only interesting to those playing it, and you will lose any listening audience very quickly.
Try going to the ABC tune finder site where you can down load the tunes in midi/gif/abc etc, it’s at; http://ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind You can then search for polkas.
Here is the search I did; http://ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind?P=polka&find=FIND&m=title&W=wide&limit=1000&thresh=5
If you increase the limit in the options box on screen from 1000 you will get more polkas than you could poke a sharp stick at!
Good luck.
Whit3X,
Could it be that the really fast tunes that you hear played in pubs are reels? CDs abound that have fast reels. You asked about Polkas, so the recommendations given so far generally reflect the way Polkas are played in the Irish tradition (which is to say, slower than a Polish Polka )
Artists with tune-only CDs who come to mind at the moment and who play a bit fast:
Franky Gavin (fiddle and Flute)
Laurence Nugent (flute)
Tom McElvogue
Groups who arguably play fast but also have vocal tracks on their albums:
Beginish (few polkas on their debut album)
Solas
Danu
Dervish
Altan
so the recommendations given so far generally reflect the way Polkas are played in the Irish tradition (which is to say, slower than a Polish Polka
Let me point out that when polka’s are played in Ireland for dancers they are played slow enough for the dancers to be able to keep up, but the tunes are still pretty fast.
It is a different matter however when polka’s are played in sessions, it gives musicians the chance to really rip into a tune and play flatstrap without having to consider if the dancers are going to keep up with the pace!
Polka’s are a borrowed form of dance/music that has been integrated into and become part of traditional Irish music. Polish polka’s are played slightly differently from Irish polka’s because of the different stylisation in the phrasing of the tunes. The dances, although both being polka’s, are different in their stepping and movement which is reflected in the speed in which they are played.
If you really want to hear fast Irish polka’s being played you need to get a hold of some CD’s with the Sliabh Lauchra style of playing on them.
I played at a session recently where a box player ripped into eight or nine polka’s in a row, it was awesome, he played so fast. There were a few joking complaints afterwards that he played too fast, but he commented that this was the way he played them in Ireland. I agreed with him, it had been a fair time since I have had the chance to play polka’s that fast.
I have found (here in Australia anyway) that if polka’s are played in sessions they are played as if there were dancers there. Polka’s are really good tunes to rip into if you have the right tunes.
They definitely are a tune not used often enough in sessions and make a really good change from the sets of jigs/reels/reels/jigs/jigs/reels/reels/reels ad nauseum that can make a session monotonous at times.
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