Jim Donoghue, His Music, and Recordings

Whistle
1

I’ve become quite interested in the playing of Jim Donoghue. It is different than the type of style I tend to go for, but I find his playing quite enjoyable and unique nonetheless. However, for a long time I thought that he had no recordings available other than the following YouTube clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOLIJUq9Lg0


However, over the past year I’ve discovered that he has indeed been featured on a few recordings. He is on some low quality recordings available on a disk titled “Music From The Coleman Country Revisted”, in which he isn’t very audible, as the sound quality is very grainy, so I don’t play those tracks very much. (to go a bit off topic- this disk does contain a few other quite nice tracks of larger groups playing, as well, particularly the Boys of the Lough/Devils of Dublin set).

Earlier this month I came across a better quality recording that also features several players, “The Coleman Archives Vol. I” and there are two tracks with Jim Donoghue. On the first track he is playing “Pigeon at the Gate” solo, and on the second track he is playing again with his son Seamus, the “Newport Lass” and “Jim Donoghue’s Favourite”. He plays some quite unique (at least as far as I know) settings of many of these common tunes.

I also seem to recall coming across a disk somewhere where he is playing Drowsy Maggie on a track, but I don’t own this disk yet. I don’t remember the name of it, but I think I have it bookmarked on my other computer and will pick it up soon.

So, in this thread I’d like to learn a bit more about him, as well as the availability of his music. Are there are any other disks or online recordings that feature his playing? As I understand it, he lived from 1910-1990. Has anyone here had a tune with him? Also, what exactly did he do to that Clarke? As far as I know, he was a flute player up until losing his teeth, and I think this comes through a bit in his style on the whistle. Are there any recordings of him on flute?

As I understand it, he was a very influential player, and it is a shame that there aren’t more recordings of him available. I’d be interested to learn more about him, as well as any information about his music, his playing, and possible other recordings that I haven’t yet come across. Are there any online archives or disks where I can hear more of his music?

2

http://www.rogermillington.com/tunetoc/index.html

There is the transcription of Ms. McLeod’s above.

There is the suggestion of tweaking his Clark block with a heated hacksaw blade that I think I read in the Companion book.

I heard from another source he was forever poking a small metal nail file in the wind way.

Presumably he was doing the opposite of what most tweakers do and enlarging the wind way
to get a stronger tone with more first octave sound in the second octave.

Playing a Clarke out of the side of your mouth can change the tone a bit as well.

3

There was footage of him, some with his son, at some point on Come West.

He was, solo, on the original Coleman country lp wasn’t he? Tapes knocking around too.

4

I think the footage you are referencing is what I linked to on YouTube, isn’t it? Or were there more?

On the Coleman Country disk he is accompanied by Seamus on his track, but he is also in some group tracks on the record.

5

On the Coleman Country disk he is accompanied by Seamus on his track, but he is also in some group tracks on the record.

I wasn’t sure the ‘revisited’ you mentioned was the same as the original lp I got in 1974 or so.


Or were there more?

I seem to remember seeing several over time.

There’s write up in ‘The Trip to Sligo’ as well, with some tunes.

In cases like this, it’s worth going to the ITMA catalogues and see what they list. And then perhaps try find the material elsewhere.

6

There are some recordings of Jim Donaghue in the British Library archives. Try searching for his name on this page http://sounds.bl.uk/Search and you should get a fair few hits from the Reg Hall English, Irish and Scottish Folk Music and Customs Collection, and a few more from the Terry Yarnell English & Irish Folk Music Collection.

7

It is, but it seems when the producers contacted Séamus Tansey with a view to reissuing, he persuaded them to record introductions spoken by himself to all the tracks with a good deal of interesting background information and a good deal of less interesting information of the “another good man gone down to his grave too soon” variety. In his comments about Jim Donaghue, he says “Why he didn’t make more recordings when he was alive, I will never know.”

This quickly makes listening to the record a bit of an ordeal. Why couldn’t they have stuck it all at the end of the record? I immediately made a copy with all this stuff removed.

I only had a cassette tape of the LP until I bought the CD. The sound would seem to be much cleaned up - I could clearly hear the Hammond organ behind the guitar in the backing, which I had never noticed on the tape. ST seemed very proud of their daring decision to use backing musicians from a local C&W band.

8

Thanks for that Steve. The lp only lists Oliver Killoran as guitar backer, no organ. I listened to it a lot during the seventies but not much since.

“Why he didn’t make more recordings when he was alive, I will never know.”

I can think of a few instances of that, as will you no doubt. But that’s with hindsight only, fact is i being there at the time without the need to stick a microphone or a camera between the person(s) and yourself was enough.

Nowadays I pull the mobile phone for a quick soundfile when I hear a tune I want to learn but that’s it, not too different from the recording Walkman days actually.

9

Indeed, Peter, it’s a shame that JD and so many others are not recorded.

But the reason I gave the quote was mischievous I’m afraid, looking for a bit of comedy amidst all the ponderousness.

The implication of ST’s words taken literally is that Jim D is no doubt making recordings up in heaven, or in the grave he has gone down to along with so many other good men (most before their time). And given some of the fanciful things he says (e.g. about musicians summoning up magic supernatural forces from the bog around them as they play) perhaps that is what he meant… :slight_smile:

10

But the reason I gave the quote was mischievous I’m afraid, looking for a bit of comedy amidst all the ponderousness.

My excuse is that I am knee deep in scanning my negatives from the late eighties to 2005 and have a few of those 'why didn’t I make more of an effort ’ moments regularly. Although I haven’t done too bad at other times. I am a bit pre-occcupied with that sort of thing at the moment.

I have read ST’s writings. Enough said.

11

I’ll leave these up for a day or two.

Jim Donoghue: https://soundcloud.com/jonesbach/st-intro-to-jd

General intro: https://soundcloud.com/jonesbach/st-introduction-to-mcc-revisted

Edited to add: so happy to see your photos safely curated. :slight_smile:

12

Thanks for that Steve. I can see how those additions spoil the whole atmosphere. Are they part of the track or have they been given separate track numbers. I have seen recordings that did just that so you could program the player to skip the intros.

Hearing the intro also explains the confusion yesterday when I read ‘I don’t know why we recorded him more often’ instead of what was actually said. I already mentioned I am a bit pre-occupied by my retro-project.

13

Mighty playing there. (And the bodhran player is very, um, in the zone.) I really like the octave folding.

I imagine a wide windway is the best way to get this sound/approach. (Maybe a Shaw would be a good bet for this sound?) But could it also work on a (tuneable) plastic-headed whistle? Maybe blunt the ramp edge a bit to favor the bottom octave? (I don’t have a spare whistle to try this on.)

14

The intros have their own track, and not all tracks have their own. Not much of an issue for me, as I don’t play albums from start to finish, as I select whichever track I want to hear. If burning it to a disk, you can easily leave out all of the intros (though they do have some interesting bits of information here and there, though it is largely buried beneath the “everyone is dead” and “mystical and magical supernatural forces” stuff.

I was under the impression that more music tracks were added to the “revisited” edition, though I may very well be wrong about that.


The bit in the track intro where ST mentions that he doesn’t know why Jim never recorded is what made me give up on looking for more tracks with his playing. I thought this album was the only place to hear his playing other than the one video clip. Glad to have discovered that this isn’t the case.

15

Colman, this is a great lead, thank you! I overlooked your comment and am quoting it now in case others missed it too among all the blather. BTW important to search with the Donaghue spelling, which is what is used on MftCC.

In the Companion his name is given as Donoghue. Did Reg Hall make a mistake - or is everyone else assuming a more common spelling?

PS SirChronique - I think the Johnny Henry track “Coolin & two reels” (the Flowing Bowl and Never was Piping so Grand) is the only addition on the CD version.

16

I have a few of Terry Yarnell’s field tapes on the external hard drive. I just had a look but it’s mostly Clare and Galway musicianers there.

There are a few un digitised tapes I have that may have something but it would be a bit time consuming to check those right now. I’ll see what I can do though.

The British Library lists 26 tracks, between Hall and Yarnell. You’ll have to search Jim Don**a**ghue.

Comhaltas archive yields nothing.

Never was Piping so Grand

Is that a slightly homophobic variant of a Reavy tune?

17

Ah, no. I knew the Yeats poem had another adjective before “gay” and I thought Reavy’s title had the two, but having checked, it’s not “grand”, it’s “sad”. A quality you could ascribe to some piping in more ways than one. :slight_smile:

18

Hmm, I did check too, before I posted that. In my Reavey edition it is just ‘gay’. But I take the point about fitting adjectives for ‘piping’.

19

Sorry for the confusion. I should have said that I checked the Yeats poem (The Host of the Air), a stanza of which reads

He heard while he sang and dreamed
A piper piping away,
And never was piping so sad,
And never was piping so gay.

Of course you are correct about the title of the Reavy tune.

Now I think of it, “grand and gay” comes from Song for Ireland. :blush:

20

Thanks everyone for the responses!


I was wondering, is this the correct spelling of his name? I first saw it spelled “Donoghue”, but I have recently seen the other spelling almost as frequently. Have I been spelling his name incorrectly this whole time? :blush: