Not sure if this has already surfaced on the board, but I think it deserves
its own heading.
Last night I came across Joe Burke’s website with about 100 photos of
most all the heroes of trad that I’ve learned about. (most with Joe in the
photos).
http://www.joeburkemusic.com/pictureGallery/index.html
There’s the old Ballinakill band, Paddy Fahey, Aggie White, lots more. Also
some great photos of Joe currently and lovely shots of Anne Conroy
Burke.
Lesl
Great photos indeed. Thanks for the link Lesl!
You made me stay up too late tonight, putting me on to them. I love the one with Barney McKenna: “two men just finishing off badgers!”
Cheers!
Steve
Great stuff Lesl! Thanks. I especially liked the photo of a very young Paddy O’Brien…I almost didn’t recognize him without the close-trimmed beard. 
Wait, is that Paddy O’Brien of Chulrua? (Next to Joe Cooley?) Or is it the other Paddy O’Brien?
It’s a good question. Paddy O’Brien of Chulrua is an old longtime friend of Joe’s. I have not seen the other Paddy, so I really have nothing to compare him with…anybody else have the answer?
The late Paddy O’Brien of Tipperary (Nenagh). Not that I am the expert on
this but I have read and heard about him, and have some of his tunes
which I think are fantastic.
This Treoir had some information about Paddy O’Brien:
http://www.comhaltas.com/education/Treoir/2003Tr4/joeburke.htm
"Joe learned much of his early music not from fellow box players but from
fiddlers, pipers, and flute players in and around Galway. Not surprisingly
Joe is adept on the fiddle, pipes and wooden flute and he’s an
accomplished tin whistle player as well.
But the button accordionists who transformed Joe’s style of playing were
Tipperary’s Paddy O’Brien and fellow Galway men Kevin Keegan and Joe
Cooley. ‘I think the reason why Paddy and Kevin and Joe had such an
influence on me was that they were the first accordionists I ever heard
play like the fiddlers,’ said Burke. ‘They could play the fiddle tunes with a
lot of the same technique and ornamentation that a fiddler would use.
That was what attracted me to them.’ "
I’m also a big fan of Joe and Ann. I went to a concert once where they
were playing this famous hornpipe, what name escapes me, with lots of
hard sounding stuff in it (I’m not a box player) and it was totally note for
note. Then at one point Joe suddenly just got up and left Ann to continue
the tune while he stepped off the little stage to the bar for a drink, to
much laughter from the audience. After she went a few times through the
tune alone (and equally brilliantly) he came back and sat down again and
launched into it some more with her. Was a great show.
Lesl
Jackie Daly often tells a story of how he played a concert with Burke i nthe states, one of the basses on Joe’s box was giving trouble and he commplained about it t oJackie. ‘Jackie Jackie my bass is going, what am I going to do?’. 'Well Joe ’ said Jackie, ‘you could for a change try one of the others’