They’ve let me loose on the airwaves. The “Station House Media Unit” [ “SHMU” ] is a community radio station broadcasting locally around Aberdeen. It’s run mainly by volunteers, and until recently had a folk / traditional music programme until presenter Gus MacDonald no longer had the time to carry it on. I’ve taken over the presentation of the programme, along with another local musician Colin Edwards. We play quite a mixture of material between us, but Colin has been on holiday these last two weeks, so I’ve had the run of things to myself. Consequently, there’s a fair bit of flute content in the programme which went out yesterday - you can listen to each programme online for a week after initial broadcast.
There are a few songs I like, but what should be of interest here are flute tracks from Jean-Michel Veillon, from new recordings by Kieran O’Hare and John Skelton, and Louise Mulcahy, and flute is also included by groups “Lllan de Cubel” and “The Alan Kelly Gang” [ Steph Geremia ].
Give it a listen - constructive criticism would be appreciated, and Colin has set up a “Facebook” page for the show if you wanted to comment there.
To hear my dulcet tones, try this link - it should work with a single click - go to “Listen again” - it may take a minute or two to connect, it is sometimes slow. Please remember, all of us are amateur broadcasters - it’s the music that is important !
PS - any requests ?
A printed setlist, so we can get the spelling of the source albums correct?
Kenny: great listen, really enjoyed it. Thanks for the post.
Good suggestion , Kevin. It is our intention to put a set list for each programme up on the “Facebook” page, so listeners can make reference to that, but my co-presenter Colin does that side of things at the moment, and he is currently on holiday. In the meantime - here’s a list of tracks played on the current programme, along with the CD titles.
Track list for 30/06/14 programme :
1 - “ Bigov” – Gilles Le Bigot and Jean-Michel Veillon
CD – “Empreintes#2” by Gilles Le Bigot
2 – “Scotland’s Story” - “The Proclaimers”
CD – “Persevere”
3 – “Lumela Lesotho / Kilfenora Jig” - Gerry O’Connor
CD – “Time To Time”
4 – “The Isle Of Skye” - “Corries”
CD – “The Very Best Of The Corries”
5 – “The Cape” - Eric Bibb
iTunes
6 – “Alborada d’Amandi / Entemediu de Nemsio / Alborada Tigre
Xuan” - “Llan de Cubel”
CD – “Llan De Cubel 4”
7 – “Paper Boy” - David Francey
iTunes
8 – “A Hundred Pipers / Farranfore” –
John Skelton & Kieran O’Hare
CD – “Two Tone”
9 - “The Doffin Mistress” – June Tabor & Maddy Prior
CD – “Silly Sisters”
10 – “Kean O’Hara” - Louise Mulcahy
CD – “Tuning The Road”
11 – “Mill Towns” – “Trouble In The Kitchen” [ Ado Barker ]
CD – “The Next Turn”
12 - “Island Of Woods / Dans Fisel” - Alan Kelly Gang
CD –“Small Towns And Famous Nights”
13 – “Femskaft / Amagerdans*” – Uhrbrand, Lydom & Cahill
CD – “Spring” by “ULC”
-
- [ had to fade out for the news just as this was starting ]
PS - and thanks for the comment, “psychodonald” - glad you enjoyed the music.
Lovely made my Friday morning getting ready to battle my way through the Commonwealthers into work.
You should play some Ralsgard and Tullberg from + 1
Thanks, Kenny. Maybe it was your atrocious accent 
Great stuff Kenny, although I must admit I thought you’d rattle out something from Harry Bradley’s new album given you’re such an avid fan.
Keep it up,
Martin.
Hi Martin - I’d been saving Harry up for later, but I’ll try to crowbar a track from the new CD in next week [ 13th ]. I can say it was a request.
“dunnp” - I picked up 2 CDs while in Ennis before the Willie Clancy week - one by Markus, and also a piccolo player called Jim Gornall - I’ll try to get tracks from them included in the next 2 weeks.
Today’s programme should be uploaded sometime tomorrow. There are a few recordings which may be of interest :
“Billy’s Reel” - written for Billy Connolly by John McCusker - flute played by Michael McGoldrick.
A set of tunes from Phil Smillie’s “Sound Of Taransey” CD released last year - best strathspey I’ve heard in years.
A classic set of great pipe tunes by “The Tannahill Weavers”.
A whistle trio of Desi Wilkinson, Frankie Gavin and Liam O’Flynn from an Irish Folk Tour CD.
Not flute-related, but great “craic” - a Belfast rap from Gina Lupari and “Four Men And A Dog” - dedicated to bodhran players everywhere.
I’ll post the whole track list once the programme is available - there are also songs by Martin Simpson, Tim Hart, and a 1980 Dougie MacLean
[ who performed to his biggest audience ever at the closing of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 3 days ago, with Kylie Minogue and Lulu doing backing vocals ! ] Tonight he’s playing to probably around 100 people 25 or so miles from Aberdeen. Back to reality.
If you’re not interested in the songs, you can slide forward to miss them out completely. I will try to get as much flute in as I can, especially some obscure stuff not that easy to find.
There’s a possibility of us having Calum Stewart live in the studio towards the end of September, so I’ll remind you about that nearer the time.
All the best, Kenny
PS - Kevin - I’ll work on my accent 
I was going to suggest a piccolo segment but I’d be the only clown wanting to listen to that.
(paddy finlay through to Doonan through to Jim Gornall)
How bout some of your own playing at some point?
We could duet with piccolos making their ears bleed
Yesterday’s programme has been uploaded, and can be accessed using the same link at the top of the discussion.
Instrumental tracks # 1, 3, 6, 9,10 and 11 should be of interest to tune players.
As mentioned above, if you don’t want to hear the songs, you can move the slider control forward to miss them out.
Any comments appreciated.
1 - “Billy’s Reel” - John McCusker [ Michael McGoldrick on flute ]
[ CD - “Billy Connolly’s Musical Tour of New Zealand” ]
2 – “Love Never Dies” – Martin Simpson [ CD – “Righteous Humidity” ]
3 – “Finlay MacLennan Smillie Of Finavon Castle / The Braes Of Castle Grant / Ruileadh
Cailleach, ‘heatadh Cailleach”
– Phil MacLennan Smillie [ CD – “The Sound of Taransay” ]
4 – “10 – 15 Year Old Festival Blues” - Mike Silver [ CD – “How Many Rivers” ]
5 – “Wrap It Up” - “Four Men And A Dog” [ CD - “Barking Mad” ]
6 – “Lament For Abercairney” - Chris Leslie [ CD – “The Flow” ]
7 – “Dancing At Whitsun” – Tim Hart [ iTunes ]
8 – “The Northern Cowboy” - Dougie MacLean [ CD – “Snaigow” ]
9 – “Conon Bridge / MacBeth’s / Major David Manson / Mrs.McPherson Of Inveran” –
- “Tannahill Weavers [ CD “Land Of Light” ]
10 – “The Other High Reel / The Monaghan Twig” [ whistle trio ]
- Desi Wilkinson, Frankie Gavin, Liam O’Flynn [ iTunes ]
11 – “The Quiet Man” set – Jonny Hardie & Gavin Marwick [ CD – “The Blue Lamp” ]
[ PS – sorry Kevin, no improvement on the accent, I’m afraid. ]
Well, I hope you’ll keep practicing off-air.
Now, as to Jim Gornall, is that the CD “The Picturesque Piccolo”, or is there another?
We had quite an interesting programme yesterday, with a live visit into the studio by Scottish flute player and uilleann piper Calum Stewart, with Breton musicians Heikki Bourgaut on guitar and Yann Le Bozec on double bass which we pre-recorded on Tuesday. The trio played a set of 3 tunes which are new and haven’t been recorded yet, Calum playing them on uilleann pipes, and then there was about 10 minutes or so of discussion. We will play the 2nd half of the recording - more chat, and another live set next week. Because it was Calum, I crowbarred a few flute tracks in - 2 sets from their “Hunter’s Moon” recording, a track by Klezmer flute player Adrianne Greenbaum, whom I had heard for the first time last week in Aberdeen, and a “novelty” track by Gary Shannon. It was all a bit chaotic in the studio, and not at all “polished”, but great fun anyway. I think some of it at least should be of interest to people here, so give it a listen :
Quite a few of the tracks played on this past Wednesday’s programme should be of interest to flute players :
Here’s the full track listing :
1 - set of reels by Ciaran Somers [ flute ], Dave Sheridan [ fiddle ], and Nicolas Quemener [ guitar ].
2 - “Halley Came To Jackson” - Mary Chapin-Carpenter
3 - “The Omnibus / The Marquis Of Waterford’s Hornpipe” - Andy May
4 - “The Earl’s Chair / Gan Ainm” - John Blake [ flute ] “The Earl’s Chair” is an unusual version from the playing of Gabriel “The Gabe” O’Sullivan, slightly different from the common version today.
5 - “The Great Song Of Indifference” - Bob Geldof
6 - “The Island Dentist’s Jigs” - Kevin MacLeod [ mandolin ]
7 - “Going For A Soldier, Jenny / The Chandelier” -
“The Alt” [ John Doyle, Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O’Leary ].
8 - excerpt from “Bigov”, by Giles Le Bigot and Jean-Michel Veillon [ flute ].
9 - “Chimes At Midnight” - Allan Taylor
10 - “The Chorus Jig” - Harry Bradley [ flute ], Jesse Smith [fiddle ], Adrian Scahill [ accordion ]
11 - “Corn Rigs” - Tony Cuffe and “Ossian”
12 - “The New Year’s Gift / The South Shore / James Hill’s Waltz” - Stewart Hardy [ fiddle ]
Never mind the presentation, just listen to the music It’ll be up on the website to listen to again until next Thursday.
Actually, out of that great list of tunes/songs, my favorite is “When Halley Came to Jackson”. Thanks for pulling that out of her early works.
Best wishes.
Steve
Cheers, Steve. I agree - a great song. I see you’re a Robert Earl Keen fan. I will get round to playing a song or two by him sometime in the future.
Need a bit of help here, folks, and we might be able to make it worth your while. We had a local musician on our programme last Wednesday, Finn O’Neill, who’s a very enthusiastic player of both banjo and bodhran, and almost omnipresent in sessions in and around Aberdeen. We asked Finn to pick 3 tracks of his own choice and he came up with a track which I can’t identify, and it’s bugging the hell out of me, because I think I might have given it to him in the first place and can’t remember where it came from. Problem was that he had it on his iPod, so there are no details such as you’d get in the good old days of CDs, and dare I say it, LPs, where you had sleeve notes or inserts.
It’s possibly Kevin Griffin on banjo, but I’m not 100% certain about that. We can’t identify the first reel, the 2nd is the reel which Mary Bergin started off her very 1st solo album, and the 3rd is the reel commonly known as “The Convenience Reel”. Can anybody tell me what the first reel is, and the recording where this track came from ?
We also have a competition running for copies of “Hunter’s Moon” by Scottish flute player, Calum Stewart and Breton guitarist, Heikki Bourgault, which should prove ridiculously easy to the denizens of this website.
Please have a go – the programme’s email address is given below :
The programme link is this :
http://www.shmu.org.uk/fm/shows/wednesday-session
Finn’s mystery track starts at : 14m10s
The competition starts at : 35m00s
Email your answers to : thewednesdaysession@shmu.org.uk
Any help, and competition entries - much appreciated.
The first tune of Finn’s mystery track is Sam Cormier’s reel, aka Denis Langtou’s (really Lanctôt’s): https://thesession.org/tunes/3788
The second tune is Friel’s Reel: https://thesession.org/tunes/2464
The third tune is, as you say, The Convenience: https://thesession.org/tunes/226
Friel’s is very similar (but not identical) to Mary Bergin’s Gan Ainm - which was identified as John Naughton’s after your own posting of the tune on The Session. And the discussion under Friel’s mentions Cathal Hayden (of Four Men and a Dog) and/or Celine Donaghue*, both on banjo, as a possible source. So maybe that’s enough info for you to track down the track.
- Interesting that the track listing of Celine Donaghue’s source recording mentioned above has her playing Friel’s and The Convenience as a set, which is 2/3 of the mystery track: http://www.scottishmusiccentre.com/catalogue/c33627/
The Guru wins a coconut ! First track from Celine Donoghue’s CD “Something Else”. Thank you,ma freend !