Some recordings become so associated with a particular time. I was in the Roadside Tavern in Lisdoonvarna listening to Micilin Conluann in 1979, on the wall was a poster with an oil lamp a fiddle and a concertina advertising a new lp. That looked interesting. I bought it the next day in a recordshop in Ennis. Noel Hill and Tony Linnane, still THE seminal concertina and fiddle duet. I saw them play on a number of occasions, I remember the Great Southern Hotel in Galway early may 1981, they supported Christy Moore that night. There were other occasions, the last one in 1983, with Frank Hogan accompanying them on the mandola. It was magic music, some combinations just work, have the magic that makes a duet or group a lot more than the sum of it’s parts.
There have been reunions. Jackie Daly brought Seamus Creagh to Gleeson’s a few years ago, they played a set of their own before we all joined for the regular music for the sets. Afterward Tom Munnelly said to Jackie it was a bit like the Beatles getting together again.
Two years ago I saw Planxty in Glor in Ennis doing one of their first reunion gigs, I saw them in 1979 on an earlier reunion and they certainly hadn’t lost their spark on either occasion.
Tonight in Glor in Ennis Tony Linnane and Noel Hill joined forces for the first time in twenty years or so. Linnane opened the concert with six sets of tunes accompanied by Mick Conneelly on the bouzouki. Lovely music but of a very introvert nature. Noel Hill took another six sets with Brian McGrath on the keyboards. Plenty of Hill in that set.
After the break the four of them came on stage and from the very first moment, opening with the classic Humours of Ballyconnell,/Drunken Landlady/Maudabaun Chapel the magic was there. No more ego, everything just fitted. Linnane was all smilies and seemed to float a few inches above his chair. Pure magic. There were plenty of requests, real classics like The Home Ruler/Kitty’s Wedding and loads of other stuff, beautiful tunes, sparks were flying. Any more requests? Hill asked. ‘Spancill Hill’ someone shouted, it being the 23d of June: the day of the fair afterall.
They played for well over an hour, it was feckin mighty stuff.
Ah, he threw that out at a store concert last year here in town. I yelped “Tinker’s Wife,” a tune from Co. Clare, right up his alley, right? Took him a bit to remember it! I had to atonally lilt a few bars, but great stuff when he got going.
Hope they “hit the road” while they’re in the mood!
At the Oxford Folk Festival last year, the thumpy-bumpy keyboard of Brian McGrath wrecked an otherwise enjoyable concert by Frankie Gavin.
It may not have been Brian’s fault, the sound engineer was the one who should have known better, but it has given me a bad impression of keyboards in ITM generally.
There don’t seem to be many pure concertina/fiddle cds available, but it’s a great mix!
I just got the Gearóid Ó HAllmhuráin & Patrick Ourceau CD Tracin’ from Custy’s, but haven’t had a chance to listen yet. I see from the sleeve notes there’s some piano sneaked in on several tracks there too.
Yeah, but that’s good piano. McGrath’s a very good piano player too, but the keyboard sound is overbearing on most of the recordings I have where he plays. He’s mixed way, way too high on the first Brian Rooney album, which is a shame because the fiddling’s so great and yet I have a hard time listening to that album. He’s more in the background on the second one, but the tunes are more interesting on the first one…you can’t win!
Thanks for the story, Peter. I’ll start listening to more of that. And aha, so THAT’S where the Home Ruler/Kitty’s Wedding set comes from! A friend got it from Mick Moloney, who got it from …
