Are there any of the above kicking their heels and looking for someone to play those Paddy O’Brien (Nenagh), or Jack and Charlie Coen tunes?
A nice medium paced style would be welcomed!
Harry
Sorry, no, but do let me know if you find yourself in London!
Ditto central Kentucky, USA! We have a bi-weekly session with a bona-fide PO’B RIP devotee; we’ve been working away at the apocryphal session tape all summer. Wish you were here; you’d do a better job with all those F’s than me, I’m sure – so no doubt our box player would wish you were here, too!
Anyway, good luck, and it’s wonderful to hear that someone else appreciates his music; we’re quite fond of it here in the middle of nowhere. 
Hi Cathy, I first heard Paddy’s music, in the music shop in Doolin, and bought the CD straight away, it’s the one with some of his compositions played by his daughter Eileen, and Willy Fogarty-wonderful stuff indeed! I’m looking for a copy of “Where The Shannon Flows”, it’ll probably be a Christmas present now. I just love the way he turns a tune, happy and lonesome at the same time! What’s your favourite tune?
Harry
Hi Harry,
you might ask Gary Kelly. He lives in Swindon, not a million miles from Cambridge, and plays a little English Concertina, and also flute - two wooden flutes together would be gorgeous.
You might also try getting in touch with the Burwell Bash organisers. Every first week in August (i.e. it’s hapenning right now!!!) there’s a week long event at Burwell near Cambridge, and some locals do attend. They don’t focus on box or concertina, but I’ve seen both played during the evening sessions, and they may be able to put you in touch with a few people. You could pop in of an evening and ask around.
Have you attended the Cambridge Folk Festival? I think it’s just over, but that would have tons of players attending.
Hi, Harry! Well, unfortunately the CD we’re all enslaved to isn’t a proper studio recording; it’s actually from a sort of “bootleg” tape of a ceildh he played back in the … 70s? Thus, I don’t know many of the tune names (although our accordion-playing pal who got us into this knows more), especially of some of the more arcane items on there (it also doesn’t help that some of the sets are five and six tunes long!).
That said, however, I’m currently in love/hate with The Girl That Broke My Heart/The Rainy Day/Captain Kelly; I also love the set of jigs he does with Strike The Gay Harp/Tenpenny Bit/Kitty’s Rambles – he puts a simply brilliant little twist on Strike the Gay Harp via an extra C natural in the A part. And of course, the Shaskeen/Salamanca/???/??? batch of reels is cool. And then there are those WONDERFUL little marches. None of us has any idea what those are called, but Beverly does a spot-on job of them; they’re charming!
Hey, duh. Would you like a copy of the CD? It’s a whole mess of stuff, solid music for 80 minutes – and the quality’s not great, but it definitely captures the essence of Paddy at a ceildh. Anyway, if you want one just PM me your address and I’ll be happy to burn you a copy.
OK, off to a “save our farmland” meeting. Then maybe home to some tunes, yeah.
Bye!
cat.