Harry McGowan on flute

Irish Flute
1

In November of 2011, Blayne Chastain and I had the opportunity to go to Ireland for 10 days to film flute players for our documentary, “The Keymaster: Patrick Olwell’s Story”. We met and interviewed 14 flute players, traveled over 1,000Km, and had one of the most memorable trips of our lives.

Our first interview was the wonderful flute player Harry McGowan, from Carrowdore, Co. Sligo, and he warmly welcomed us to his farm. We were fresh off the airplane that morning, jet-lagged like crazy, but Harry made us feel right at home, and shared some lovely tunes with us. I still remember how effortless he made it seem, barely moving his fingers and tapping his shoe, but the music danced around the room.

Here’s a peek at that morning… https://vimeo.com/162391670

2

Thanks for posting that. Lovely playing.

3

Fine flute playing there. Does Harry have two Olwells or did you bring keys for Harry’s keyless Olwell?

4

He was actually playing Blayne’s Nicholson-model Olwell in that portion, and his own keyless in the other set…good eye!

5

I looked for recordings of him after seeing that great clip. I can’t find any.

Was he one of the many great players that were never really recorded on their own?

6

See Kenny’s post @ thesession.org as well as his link to another video a bit further down the same thread there

7

Thank you!

8

yes, something of a revelation watching this.

9

For what it’s worth, he appears on a few tracks on both As We Got Them and The Mountain Road.