Watching Lunasa playing “The Last Pint” on youtube was actually what got me to buy their album. Low whistling seems to be pretty rare, but they do a lot of it, along with some flute.
Another thing I like about them is that they seem to be more conservative when it comes to instrumentation, and by that I mean they don’t just throw in everything they’ve got on every song. A lot of Irish Traditional music groups use the same three or four instruments in every song, resulting in a sound that can be monotonous. Lunasa sometimes omits things to put emphasis on a particular instrument or part, and it gives a lot of their songs a unique flavor. Of course, that’s just a personal opinion from someone who is really picky and odd about music.
Plenty of good stuff mentioned already, so I’ll throw out some of the perhaps lesser known Low Whistle recordings/artists:
Brendan Ring’s “Troublesome Things” is top notch. A couple of warnings though - Half the recording is low whistle, but the other half is some pretty ornery Pipes playing, lots of regulator usage… 2.) One or more tracks may be tempt you to to toss your low whistles in the bin and simply give it up. This recording would probably be hard to find in print, but it’s on spotify.
Anything with Rory Campbell. One of the greats IMO and fantastic to listen to if you want to hear great piping ornamentation on whistle, even more so than McGoldrick, who’s the king of Low Whistle IMO. Rory is still extremely melodic though. If you’re strictly a trad head you’ll probably only dig Rory’s Old Blind Dogs stuff - in which case “The World’s Room” is a must. For the more open minded, his solo and duo stuff with Malcolm Stitt has TONS of great low whistle playing. “Field Of Bells” and “Nusa” are the ones CD’s that come to mind, again both are on spotify. Nusa is probably more easily digestible for the average person.
If you’re in the mood for something with a more international flavor, I recommend Hevia’s first two or three CD’s.
I don’t see this mentioned so far, track 8 from Wallop The Spot, by Patrick D’arcy.
He uses a Collin Goldie low D to play “An Raibh Tú Ag An GCarraig”, also called “Were You At The Rock?”.
Its just flat out gergeous.
You can buy individual tracks, but trust me when I say you will want the whole thing.
Most of the CD is piping, which of course is very good. http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/patrickdarcy
No one has mentioned Finbar Furey. Very much part of the development of the low D. His cd Chasing Moonbeams is mostly love songs but there is some great whistle solos also.
I agree on the brian finnegan part completely. There are three sets on youtube of “The Brian Finnegan Band” , and one of them has some really great playing on a low F, and another one on an (i think) alto A. The other tunes are on higher whistles though. I watch those videos almost everyday lately!
About the lunasa tunes you mentioned, Indeed they play a bass A whistle for autumn child, but doesn’t it switch when it gets to heaton chapel, and there is a low F whistle in the background? I could be wrong about that, I thought I remembered reading somewhere in the comments where somebody said this. That’s also one of my favourites from that album. Actually, I have quite a few favourites from that album ! Tracks 3 ,4, and 6 especially!
I rather prefer a lot of faster low whistle playing, to the extremely slow air type stuff. I really like a lot of john mcsherry stuff I’ve found on youtube of his low whistling.
Anyone have some recommendations for some faster paced reels , jigs, etc. on low whistle that you could share?
Also, whoever mentioned TinWhistler’s youtube channel, M’yup! My favourite channel on youtube. I have learned so many tunes from his videos. That tune “The Phrygian Whistle” he composed is really really awesome. Also he has a video titles “New low whistle video” , and I absolutely love all the tunes after the first one on there. That channel is a “must-view” for any whistler.
Although not ITM, there is a new CD by Jac O’Keeffe titled “Nothing and Everything” available on Amazon US only at this point. It has low whistle on four of the eight tracks, mainly as vocal accompaniment. Track 2 has some low D whistle, while tracks 4, 6 & 8 feature low C whistles both solo and as accompaniment. Track 4 is called “Celtic Mother” and is in Irish, while most of the rest are Sanskrit chants set to music. Track 2 is in English and the whistle accompanies the voice only on the 3 verses. Certainly an unusual use of low whistle along with harmonium, guitar, piano, didgeridoo and various percussion. Kind of a world music sound.
Ah, I don’t know how I could have forgotten to mention this one! Luar na lubre!
Edit: I suppose I should add the disclaimer that it isn’t irish music, if that’s what you’d be looking for. But for those who like a variety of types of music on whistle.. maybe you’ll like
2.) One or more tracks may be tempt you to to toss your low whistles in the bin and simply give it up. This recording would probably be hard to find in print, but it’s on spotify.
