I just compare them to what others are charging for the same service. Sometimes there are added handling charges, which is probably the case here.
I think another point to bear in mind is how retailers treat the artists when buying their CDs. Some retailers pay $6 for a CD and exp[ect the artist to pay for the postage to send batches of 25 to the US, which means two CDs g otowards the price of postage. Others take CDs as ‘sale or return’ which simply means they won’t pay for them until they need a new batch.
Custy’s is the fairest of them them all. Support them.
Or buy direct if possible so the money fully goes toward those who put up the money to make the CD in the first place.
[quote=“greenspiderweb”]I don’t have anywhere near the amount of traditional music on CD that I would like to have, simply for the economic issues. Therefore, I don’t get to hear much of that music I would like to.. quote]
Have you a library service? - we make good use of ours. They stock CD’s and will order/ request them in, if they don’t have them. It’s what we pay our taxes for
You are very lucky to have such a library. We have a library in our town, but it’s a sad one, and offers no such services unfortunately.
Hopefully others will have better libraries. But if it’s in the States, ITM may still not be on the list of choices anyway.
Favorite? That’s like asking my favorite ice cream. I like them all!
I’m currently back to Conal O’Grada’s latest, Cnoc Bui. It has the coolest version of The Graf Spey. Before that, Michael Rooney and June McCormack’s Land’s End and Draiocht were at the top of the list. I love the mix of Michael’s brilliant harp playing and June’s great flute tone.
Crawford and Molloy are great; I just temporarily burned myself out on them.
Hmm, people keep saying that. But I just can’t burn myself out on the “Shadows on Stone” cd. I’ve had it for maybe 5 or 6 years, it was the first real flute album I bought, and I love it as much today as I did when I listened to it for the first time (in a cd walkman at Stansted airport - London). From the first tune it was just magical, lovely. And I keep discovering new things I love with it. Don’t know, maybe we just clicked.
It’s sensory perfection, your first taste of blood. You never grow tired of it, it goes with everything while others are just a mood thing, just like a well matured Springbank
whisky
Hey, I bought several CDs based on recommendations in this thread and have thoroughly enjoyed them. Conal O Grada’s “Cnoc Bui” is fantastic! And I’ve really enjoyed “The Gloup” by Mark Roberts too. So thanks for suggesting those!
One of my personal favorite CDs is “Beo!” by Jean-Michel Veillon and Yvon Riou. While its only partially “Irish” I hope it counts as a legitimate response to this thread. It contains a diverse selection of traditional Irish, Breton and other tunes, including dances and slow airs. Jean-Michel Veillon’s mastery of the instrument across this wide variety of tunes and styles of playing is truly astounding. (Is he really from this planet?) I have most of his CDs and I think this is the best one - difficult to get, but well worth the struggle.
I’d like to bring “Jody’s Heaven” to peoples attention. It features Jack Gilder on flute and concertina, Dale Russ on the fiddle and Junji Shirota on Guitar. It was made over ten years ago. I find myself playing it a lot . I’d never heard of them until I went to a house concert that featured Dale on fiddle, and Tom Creegan on the pipes, and Mike Saunders playing guitar. Dale had a few CDs he was selling and this being one of them. I think it’s a real treasure! http://pweb.jps.net/~jgilder/jody7.html
FYI—Jack is a local here in San Francisco. Had a lesson with him. Great player–extremely knowledgeable and deeply steeped in the tradition. He has a local band that’s played together for I think decades called Tipsy House that also has some excellent CD’s. Look up Tipsy House, you’ll find him. He also frequents the Proctology forum here, and is Phantom Button on session.org.
‘Seanchairde’ by Dermy Diamond (fiddle), Tara Diamond (flute), and Daithi Sproule (guitar) is my new favourite. It was just launched here at the Frankie Kennedy school and it’s spectacular.
Wanted to mention that several of these albums are available on emusic.com, a legal mp3-purchase service that lets you download 75 songs per month for US$19.99 (comes out to $0.27 per song).
I just grabbed Conal O Grada’s Cnoc Bui, Grey Larsen’s Dark of the Moon, Desi Wilkinson’s Shady Woods, and Joe Burke’s The Tailor’s Choice. They also have albums (I’ve already grabbed) from Matt Molloy, Kevin Crawford, Laurence Nugent, and Paddy Carty.
For my money, and if asked to choose two albums to take to a deserted island, they would have to be Josie McDermott’s “darby’s Farewell” and Paddy Carty’s “music of Ireland” albums. The latter I recently re-acquired…the former I owned a long time ago but cannot find for sale these days. “Darby’s Farewell’ was the first album of Irish music ( it is not just flute) that I owned, and although not my introduction to Irish music it was nevertheless my introduction to truly great Irish music. I am sure that I am one of many who owe a huge debt to this truly remarkable musician.
I have read many names here of more contemporary musicians who I am not familiar with. I shall be pursuing their recordings enthusiastically. Thank you for that.
A couple of other flute players that don’t seem to get mentioned much in these pages and who are definitely worth a listen are Michael Tubridy, formerly of the Chieftains ( who bore me ) who is, like the rest of that crew, an excellent musician in his own right. Tubridy’s solo album 'The Eagles Whistle” is superb…again I once owned it but can’t find a copy these days. The other is Frankie Gavin, why he is not more universally acknowledged as one of the great flute players is beyond me. “up And Away” is a great flute album that does justice to a long ago style of playing, one that should be of particular significance to all the North Americans on this forum.
Molloy seems as always to be the favourite choice as far as I can see from the postings here. The trouble with Molloy is that like all geniuses he poses as much of a threat to the tradition that fostered him as he contributes to it. I guess that’s what genius is…and yet think of those others.
I imagine it’ll appear soon. It was released at the end of december, but I’m pretty sure I saw copies for sale at a shop in Galway on Monday already. I imagine it’ll turn up soon.
Can O’Worms, and should probably become its own thread. I don’t really agree with you, though. Did Charlie Christian damage traditional dixieland jazz?
To stay on topic, Molloy’s ‘Heathery Breeze’ is a current favorite of mine.
One of my favourite album is “The Fire Aflame”, by Matt Molloy, Liam O’Flynn and Sean Keane. It is not flute alone, but it has a great selection of tunes and an incredible sound.
[ A couple of other flute players that don’t seem to get mentioned much in these pages and who are definitely worth a listen are Michael Tubridy, formerly of the Chieftains ( who bore me ) who is, like the rest of that crew, an excellent musician in his own right. Tubridy’s solo album 'The Eagles Whistle" is superb…again I once owned it but can’t find a copy these days.
I love Tubridy’s playing…didn’t know he had a solo album.
Listening to Cathal McConnell these days, like him on flute and whistle…a friend just gave me the first Boys of The Lough album, liking that. Also Seamus Egan on the first Solas cd. Nice flute playing on Julie Fowlis’ cd’s also; in heavy rotation in the truck.
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