So I finally got my copy of Paddy in the Smoke TSCD603 (1968, re-issued on CD in 1997), and I am mesmerized by the fiddle-playing of Martin Byrnes. I listen to his tracks on the CD over and over. I love the other stuff, too, but I had never heard Byrnes before.
On the back of the liner notes there is an image of Byrnes, a pale, slightly stocky and bearded man. There is a softeness to the half-closed eyes that gaze along the strings of his fiddle. In the music this gentleness is even more pronounced, and there is a calm langor in the phrasing that is just entrancing. On Eileen Curran and Bunch Of Keys, Byrnes’ playing sounds almost held back, the way he eases into the strong beats and draws out the phrases while keeping the rhythm solid. It’s subtle, deep stuff that isn’t flashy. I could listen to fiddle playing like that for hours (come to think of it, I do).
I’ve heard people complaing about Reg Hall’s piano playing on Paddy In the Smoke, and I guess I can see their point, but it’s not bothering me too much, yet. But why couldn’t they have confiscated those spoons?
Wonderful description, Bloo. Wish there was someplace you could sign up for what you’d like to be in your next life - I want to be a fiddle player and make folks’ hearts ache.
Martín was from the Loughrea area of Galway and had a very individual style of playing. His bowing was immaculate. I played a fair biit with him in Dublin in the eighties and really enjoyed his company. There are many stories told about him, and he was a close friend of Willie Clancy and Seamus Ennis.
Garech De Bruin became his ‘patron’ and Martín lived in his mansion right up until his death. He was a staunch republican (in the Irish sense of the word) and saw himself as a type of ageing hippy.
He had large hands with wide fingers and I always wondered how he coaxed such music out of his fiddle. He was a rather short, portly character who liked to stand up when he played.
He prided himself on never having worked a day in his life.
i have a great tape of himself and Sean 'acDonncha on which Sea ntells how Mairtin composed a somng for when Ennis would die. He sings it [to the tune of Molly Brannigan] with a deep macabre voice
When Seamus Ennis dies , we’ll bury him down in Marrinan’s
we’ll get a dispensation from the Pope and from the Vatican…
and so on about how Byrnes and Clancy are to make the grave and all that
he then goes on to tell how Seamus thought about it and almost immediately came up with a reply of what would happen when Mairtin died.
That is the photo of Byrnes I was describing in my first post, btw, there in Brad’s link. The quality is poor though on the internet, and you can’t really see much on it.
