I dug an old cassette out the other day. I’d made the cassette a decade or so ago, and it contained the Paddy Carty record accompanied with tenor Banjo.
I’d listened to it a bit when I first found it, and eventually I think sold the vinyl copy.
This time I was looking for music for the car (which has only cassette and radio) I dug it out and played it.
Lord, what a revelation. I’ve had it on steadily for days, rewinding past the music on the other side.
Does anyone know a source for his other recording? There’s one clip on the roger millington site. Are there any more to be had?
There are a few others as well in general circulation…there’s a great tape of Carty, Fahey, Tully, Hogan, and others in a session, and another one of Carty accompanied by some bodhran players at a pub in Loughrea. I’ve heard bits and pieces of others as well. Plus there’s a nice video clip of Carty and Tully on the first Come West Along the Road video, very nice.
Here’s a clip from the Carty/Tully/Fahey/Hogan et al. session…they’re playing The Broken Pledge, followed by an East Galway version of Red Tom of the Hills (a Reavy composition). The latter tune appears on the cassette that Carty, Tully, and Hogan recorded, the one that Rama mentions above.
Red Tom is particularly tricky on the flute…it’s one of those haunting tunes that grabbed me by the heart immediately but I can’t get my fingers round it very well; I suspect this is one of those tunes where Carty’s Radcliff system flute offered an advantage, but he was used to playing in these keys as well. The F-nat and Bb keys really get a workout.
i can’t seem to download soundclips, i guess my dialup internet connection can’t handle them. bummer.
yeah brad, the first time i heard ‘red tom…’ i was taken by it too, a delightful tune, and i wish i could nail it down. carty seems to flow thru these tunes with such ease.
what an interesting combo: the odd strain of tunes like ‘red tom’ etc. and the odd radcliffe system flute. the resulting sound seems so unique yet traditional, a nice (east galway) feel.
hi mary, i hope you find at least one paddy carty recording, they are worth a listen. there are some nice renditions of tunes on them. as brad alluded to, some are tough for the simple system flute, but even the ones that aren’t, have a nice flavor to them - ala paddy carty.
You can play Red Tom in Aminor/major - you might say it “modulates” in the second part, you could play high C#s (second octave) instead of the first part’s Cnats (which would be in the first octave). Helpful if you’re not up to playing a Bb-C-D triplet.
Carty could play a tune in any key, according to the liner notes of the Shanachie record, written by Dan Michael Collins - founder of Shanachie, Paddy’s was their first release. I’ve tapes with him playing Bb hornpipes like Galway Bay or the Beeswing. NOT easy with the simple system.
I think with the Radcliffe you have two thumb keys (where the Bb is on the simple system), if you press one of them you get Bbs with the B fingering. That would iron things out…could you do something like that on a simple system, I wonder? I’m sure it could be done, somehows. Terry McGee, are you there?
I have never used a Radcliffe system but it’s very similar to Boehm so yes there is a Bb thumb key as well as a Bnat thumb key so playing in Fmaj is merely moving the thumb back a little and using the same fingerings as Cmaj, and also I believe (this to be verified) that the Radcliffe system was an open G# flute which means G# is the normal note you get after Fnat (going up) and he would have had to put his left hand pinkie down to get Gnat, so he would be playing the same fingering as Cmaj on our modern Boehm system (which has a closed G#) to be playing in Bb when using the Bb thumb key.
My favourite key to play in is Fnat on the modern Boehm system. It seems to me to be the easiest key of all.
By te way, my Sanachie recording (34017) came just 2 hours ago from a long waiting of 27 days from the States. Absolutely delightful! How could I’ve missed this for 6 years?
Mick O’Connor, who played the banjo on that Shanachie album, is now best known as a flute player. I haven’t heard him play myself, but he’s gotten heaps of praise from the likes of Catherine McEvoy, among others.
We will have to call him Michael so as there is already a very fine flute player called Mick O’Connor. The ‘real’ Mick O’C. played with the Castle Ceili Band and made a CD with Charlie Lennon and the ever present Mandola player Fran Hogan.
Hmmm, well I hope I’m not confusing the two of them. But I do remember being at a session where someone was talking very disparagingly about the banjo playing on that album, and Catherine replying with a bit of reproach that she plays with Mick O’Connor regularly in Dublin and that he’s an excellent flute player.
The Mick O’Connor that would play the flute regularly in Dublin would be the ‘Castle Ceili’ Mick. You don’t hear much about this Mick O’C but he had a lot of influence on other musicians. His kids all play music and one of them (Liam) is making quite a name for himself.
Mick plays in a totally Leitrim style and also runs the flute classes at Willie week as well as always introducing the flute concerts from Miltown.
I can see where the mixup must have occurred. After doing a bit more research on “banjo” Mick O’Connor, it looks like he lives in London and doesn’t play flute after all!
