I recently recieved some CDs from Celtic Grooves, a vendor for Irish Trad.
Among these were these three recordings from RTE;
Willie Clancys, The Gold Ring
Seamus Ennis, Return From Fingal
Elizabeth Crotty, Concertina Music From West Clare
To call it great music would be understatement
But the surprise was the liner notes, that have to be termed extensive.
Its a real treat to read in depth about the time, place, and history of the people.
So much information, and really, a spring board for further research.
I should also mention that the service recieved from Celtic Grooves was first rate.
One of the items I wanted was a Kitty Hayes CD, but it was out of stock.
The Elizabeth Crotty was recommended to me, and I’m very happy with it.
Looking foward to more.
Sometime during May 2006 a telephone call arrived asking Kitty and myself to play a few tunes on a Sunday afternoon in Kilrush. As it turned out it there was a gig rig set up in the square, it was miserably cold and very windy. On our arrival nobody paid any attention so we went into Crotty’s for tea and shelter. We unpacked and played a few tunes to warm up. Eventually the call came something was happening, we went on played a few tunes for the half a dozen or so people in the square and managed to get through our bit before the instruments and cold fingers turned against us.
Inside, over more tea Kitty recalled a visit to Crotty’s in 1962. Her husband Josie, fiddler Paddy Killoran (over from New York), went out to Kilrush to play with Lizzie Crotty in Killoran’s new car (which he had bought in Ireland to take back to the US on the ship from Cobh). While the three were playing for hours Kitty sat in the corner, longing to have a go at Mrs Crotty’s concertina (she had no concertina herself after her old one broke and as it turned out she would have to wait over another thirty years before she finally able to take it up again). Nobody paid attention to her, she was the woman in the corner, pining unnoticed.
That Sunday evening though, she sat in the same corner, confidently playing her heart out, making up for the day in 1962 and loving every minute of it.
Great story Mr. Gumby, thanks for relating it.
I much admire Kitty’s playing, and it seems to echo Crotty’s music very nicely.
Being a Clare resident must be a joy.
Not sure I’d agree with the echo bit but it doesn’t matter.
When Paddy Killoran came to West Clare the fisrt time, in 1948 he brought two wire recorders. He plugged the first one in and blew it up (220 instead of the New York 110) but an improvised transformer got the second one to work. He made recordings of local musicians, including the first recording of Willie Clancy. That recording was lost. On later visits though he brought a tape recorder and once again recorded many West Clare people, music and greeting for friends and relations in New York. Those survive. On the last visit in 1962 Ciaran Macmathuna came out with the RTE mobile recording unit and recorded again. RTE lost those recordings but locally a few survive. Including just about the only recordings of Josie Hayes playing the flute.