Any new piping recordings of note? The last one I purchased was the Mckeon’s ‘The Dusty Miller’, which was grand and from which I was inspired to learn a few tunes.
Also, I have a young student that needs to start listening to some of the classics. What recordings can be considered in the top 10 of all time?
Mike
Recent releases:
David Power - The Eighteen Moloney
Jimmy O’Brien-Moran - Take me Tender
Mick O’Brien/Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh - The Deadly Buzz
Classics:
Seamus Ennis - The Return from Fingal
Willie Clancy - The Gold Ring
You’ll probably end up with a list of every conceivable piping recording. I would suggest you let them find their own way by having them listen to what they enjoy and go in further from that point. There’s really not a lot of sense of making them listen to say, Séamus Ennis playing Jenny’s Welcome to Charlie and tell them it’s great. They’ll get to that point, or not, in their own time.
Meanwhile it’s probably best to encourage them to listen to everything they can get their hands on, at least until they decide where their interest really lies.
[x-posted]
Joey Abarta’s CD “Swimming against the Falls” is a must have.
Best piping CD this century.
Tommy
How did I miss this?
I’ve seen Mr. Abarta play live, what a talent!
Thanks for the heads up Tommy.
Agree with Mr Gumby’s advice in large part, though that said there are definitely a bunch of recordings that are indispensable one way or another.
One thing I would say is that I think I’ve got more value recently out of non-piping records - fiddlers, flautists, etc. It’s almost more instructive to try and reproduce what these guys are doing.
I’d completely agree with that but in my experience committed learners will get to the seminal piping in their own time, not when they’re told to. Some gentle coaxing is apropriate though.
And yes, good fiddlers. Or better: good music.
I agree with the advice given ,except in a different way. I’d say to approach things in what way is best for you.
RORY
Hi
Learning pipes in the 1970s meant trying to track down piping recordings (there were very few commercial recordings made and hard to get them). I remember buying a Wolfe Tones LP because there was some piping on it (the Cook in the Kitchen I think). Then finding a double cassette tape of Seamus Ennis. And not understanding a thing of what he was doing. I thought that there was something wrong with his pipes because I could hear a gap between notes. I didn’t realise at the time that this was part of a way or style of playing.
Getting instruction on the pipes was the key. Probably still is.
John
the Cook in the Kitchen I think)
Tommy Reck playing with the Dubliners? He told a great story about the night that was recorded, there was all sorts of secrecy backstage until during the concert Nelson’s head, him of the column, was brought on stage. He still got a chuckle out of that when he told it.
I know of a few who, starting to learn were confronted with the Jenny I mentioned above, or the Boys of Bluehill for that matter, and were frightened off the pipes for years.
But the chasing of recordings, the hunger for stuff to listen, that’s really the key element, quite a different thing from just loading forty CDs onto an iPod and putting them on shuffle too.
I’m glad new CDs are coming out but having spent the last 8 years trying to make a go of a specialist store selling piping CDs I fear that the market for physical discs is dwindling fast. Those who perform in concert will sell at the venue and hopefully will cover the costs of production but finding a shop like Collets or Dobells used to be in London to sell them through is getting very difficult.
Ian
As a struggling neo-Luddite I don’t keep abreast of latest trends and technologies. But I assume ‘CD’ can still refer to tune collections organized under a tittle, placed online for purchase to download? And I suppose the younger set prefer to not pay for them?
Mike
And listen to singers. Lots and lots of singers. Sean-nós, preferably unaccompanied, in Irish and English.
(Currently enjoying Ceol Ársa na bPíob by Éanna Ó Cróinín. It’s just the cup of tea the lady ordered.)
P.
All great suggestions so far in this thread. I would recommend picking up David Power’s and Jimmy O’Brien-Moran’s previous albums too.
Recently I’ve been listening to Brian McNamara’s Fort of the Jewels and Éanna Ó Cróinín’s Ceol Ársa na bPíob.
Being a learning piper with no tutor I think this thread is a great idea. I’m always keen to hear of more piping albums to listen to and different styles to hear as well.
Being reluctant to give iTunes much of my money I have found that a certain Bay has a few well known piping albums available, for others that way inclined.
When I started I was lent, The Bunch of Keys - Johnny Doran, Classic of Irish Piping - Leo Rowsome and a Willie Clancy cassette. It was a pleasant education after only hearing pipers in bands before.
In North America, many of today’s older/middle-aged pipers were first bitten by the piping bug with the release (on Nonesuch Records) of “Irish Pipe Music” by Finbar Furey (1974).
Still a tour de force after all these years.
Yep … When I went scouring my local public library for Irish trad recordings in the late 70s/early 80s, that album was all they had.
Emmett Gill & Jesse Smith’s “The Rookery” has been in my car for probably close to two years nonstop at this point. It gets played even when I’m not the one in the car, so it’s probably been played in its entirety over a hundred times or so to myself and my family.
Flat pipes and tuned-down fiddle… 
All of the above … and many, many more. I could go on and on, though ditto on the “good music” comments. That’s what makes me keep at this madness!
As for brand-new recordings, Joey’s “Swimming Against the Falls” is a must-have. Then there’s Blackie O’Connell’s “Friar’s Green” – astonishing. Absolutely mind-boggling! I swear there’s pure adrenalin pressed into every track.