I read somewhere that the audio on the CD was greatly improved over the original cassette. True? Did they get the original cylinders to play again? Or is it the same old dubs just EQ’d nicely?
I notice that they’re still presenting some of the material as seperate tunes, whereas in fact many were originally medleys that Tom Busby recorded individually for some reason. Garryowen/Fermoy Lasses, Fasten the Leg in Her/Jennie Dang the Weaver, for instance.
I’ve crammed almost everything Touhey recorded onto one 72 minute CD and I still don’t know why they aren’t following suit.
I’ve only heard a few cuts by Touhey on the Shanachie / Yazoo compilations: “Drowsy Maggie / Scotch Mary / Flogging Reel” and “The Steampacket, The Morning Star, Miss McCleod.” Both of those were clearly sped up. I’ve read that 78s were quite variable in their speed when recording, they would often run at different rates either to get a different sound, or to fit more on the disc. Are the tunes on the NPU CDs at a corrected speed?
Nobody knows for sure what the ‘correct’ speed is for the original cylinders. I believe the NPU disc playback is a little slower than the Yazoo, but it’s still possible that Touhey’s pipes were a bit flat of A=440, no way to know now.
The new NPU disc is remastered, not just a remix.
I have a few of these old 78’s. On my grammaphone there is a speed control. I just tune the disc to A440 and away we go. Sounds very musical and controlled… amazing!
I digitally recorded them at that speed so I’m not damaging the old discs every time I want to listen to them.
You could do the same with digital playback software on your computer (Great Slowdowner or whatever).
Best of luck now lads,
Patrick.
Is the sound vastly improved, Bill? Especially on things like Gusty’s Frolics, where it sounds like he’s playing inside a sheet metal stamper.
The sound on the new CD is much better than the previous release. You can actually hear music, whereas before you were straining to catch anything at all amidst the hissing and popping. These are not perfect by any means, but at least you can now hear the music. As well, there are several additional tracks on this version. Perhaps you were thinking of this post:
http://uilleannforum.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=281&highlight=patsy+tuohey
djm
Well, only so much can be done about the echo chamber he recorded himself in 
But overally I do think it’s a lot better.
Hello
I remember when Andy Conroy played a recording of Gusty’s Frolics for me. He had it on cassette, recorded directly from the cylinder ‘from America’. He asked me to listen and to tell him what I heard. Eventually I told him that I could not hear any music. He then told me that he couldn’t hear anything either and the people who could hear music in that particular recording must have wonderful hearing alltogether.
He loved the story of ‘The Emporer’s New Clothes’ and he was not adverse to taking pot shots at people.
Regards
John moran
Well…many of these cylinder dubs are just lo-fi. Pleasantly muddy. But stuff like Gusty’s is an assault on the ear drum! Kudos to Pat and Jackie for figuring out what was going on in there.
Another bit of illogic with the NPU tape was that they used the second version of the Munster Gimlet - which is another of these very clanky recordings - instead of the first take, which is one of the “better” sounding ones.
I guess I’ll plunk down for one of these Touhey CDs then, even though I already own all the material.
Who are they going to reissue next? After Doran, Kearney, McAloon, Touhey. Reck? Clancy?
I’m waiting for more recordings of Clancy to surface, I’ve got all the recordings I know about (commercially avaliable) and its still a fairly small number compared with what Pat Mitchell transcribed. I know there are lots more recordings in private hands, it would be nice to get them avaliable for the public.
As far as I know, the only commercially avaliable recordings of Willie are
Pipering of Willie Clancy, Vol 1 & 2
Irish Jigs, Reels & Hornpipes, Folkways, (willie and michael gorman solo and duo)
Minsterel of Clare
Drones and Chanters
Gentlemen pipers
representing a total of 63 recordings of Willie, it seems like there must be more!
If you look a bit harder you should find yourself a few more, Peter Kennedy’s one with Bobby Casey, the Folkways one recorded at Ballyheige Fleadh, Pat Sky’s session tape, Seoda Cheoil, the re-issued Gael Linn 78s. Just to name a few of the obvious ones.
There are additional tons of Clancy’s music in circulation, informally.
Pat Mitchell and other pipers visited with Willie the month before he passed on. I have that cassette tape and may have a few more bits. Just drop me a PM.
I’d also run off cassette tapes of Joe Shannon 1979, the Chicago Irish PipeFest in 1981 (Joe and Johnny McGreevy, Tommy Keane, Bill Ochs, Al Purcell, Liam O’Flynn), etc. Just drop me a PM.
Well, Seoda Cheoil is long out of print, also the Skylark thing, which I’ve never obtained a copy of. 
There are a few very out of the way things like Ciaran MacMathuna’s Mo Cheoil Thu (think that’s right!), an LP of excerpts from his show, which has Willie playing Dark Loch na Gar, a different take from the Drones + Chanters. It also has Liam O’Flynn playing the Wind that Shakes the Barley.
I’m hoping NPU goes to work on legitimizing some of the better things now circulating privately, of Willie and other pipers of his generation. And - there are some good things of Willie at uilleannobsession.com, interviews from 1971/1972, with great piping.
Here’s a few suggestions, if you’re serious about getting Clancy stuff released (which I for one would like to see), you might:
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Email or write to Terry Moylan of NPU staff who generally is the overseer of NPU projects (he doesn’t pay too much heed to ‘chat’ on internet forums). For all the e-talk, the NPU staff doesn’t really get that much correspondance about these things… oddly enough.
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Make a similar approach to other organisations: I don’t see why just NPU should be expected to do it. NPU’s publications record is much more impressive than a certain other organisation which has had superior resources… there are other piping organisations as well besides.
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(my favorite one) Do it yourself. The technology was never more avilable. You could do a limited run at modest cost. I’m sure there would be people willing to help here, you might even get this internet carry-on to finally produce some tangible goods.
In short, if you wait round for it to be done for you (and I mean everything that people expect done, all Clancy tapes, all of this, all of that, change of nappy, tucked in goodnight etc.), we may be blowing the same e-talk out our e-holes in the distant future (by which time I hope we will be languishing in the servitude of our robot butlers on Mars). For God’s sake people, take some initiative!
Regards,
Harry.
(p.s.This is not an automated response)
Who are they going to reissue next?
I thinks it’s time to release the Peadar Broe recordings. The sound quality is fine and there’s some nice chat too.
Tommy
That would be nice. Martin Rochford would be nice too, with some fiddle thrown in. More Felix Doran would be appropiate as well I think.
I do agree completely with Harry, make the effort, there’s a lot out there that’s relatively easy to find but it won’t come knocking on your door of it’s own accord.
Is that the tape that starts with Trim the Velvet? He plays a couple of airs on the whistle. My copy sounds like the mic was wrapped in a couple of really thick wool socks - obtained from a friend who got it from Pat Hutchinson, I believe. Great music but the audio’s scarcely much better than Touhey’s stuff. Not that that bothers me!
All the best
Kevin