I could use some recommendations. Right now, I’ve got:
Mary Bergin
Micho Russell
Brian Finnegen
Donncha O Briain
Joanie Madden
The Chieftains
The Fureys
Joe Cooley
Tommy McCarthy
Who else should I know about? Any instrument is fine. I’m mostly hoping to fill out my knowledge of the staples, the ones everyone should know, and more particularly, know by heart.
Relatedly, if there’s an album by any of the above that I should listen to 50 times in a row, let me know and I’ll do it 
Thanks!
It came out almost 50 years ago, but one of my favourites is still Paddy in the Smoke.
They’re live recordings from a London pub, and there’s some great playing. It is a different sound to modern studio recordings with guitar backing, though, so if you haven’t listened to a wide range yet, some adjustment might be needed. It’s available on the streaming services.
The Bothy Band, and a spin-off, Relativity, are both staples for me.
Can’t go wrong with John Doherty or Tommy Peoples. Séamus Ennis is another excellent one to check out. Ennis was an amazing piper and storyteller.
I second the Bothy Band as foundational. Particularly the album 1975. The tunes on that album seem to inform every session around here. In a similar foundational vein, Planxty’s the Planxty Collection. Though more folk songs than tunes. You mention Brian Finnegan, his band Flook is amazing and pushes ITM away from its foundations. Matt Malloy’s recent (ish) album Back to the Island is fantastic. As is Harry Bradley’s Bad Turns & Horse shoe Bends. He plays with incredible energy. For a more lyrical style, I love Catherine McEvoy. Lately I’ve been listening to Mike McGoldrick. I like his family album One for the Road. Final rec: Deadly Buzz by Mick O’Brien and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. So good.
Planxty.
Especially the black album.
I’m currently mainlining Davy Spillane’s ‘Forgotten Days’ and Pat Mitchell stuff.
I am always a bit wary of this sort of thread. It will eventually become a pile on of people posting their favourite albums.
Irish music is such a broad church with so many wildly varying styles it is hard to recommend anything without knowing what someone likes. My recommendation would be a general one: follow your heart and listen to what speaks to you, take it from there, find players in similar styles, snowball it from there.
As far as I am concerned, making inroads is a serendipitous affair rather than one where you get a list of mandatory listening that will give you access once you work through it. It’s a road without shortcuts.
There’s no real point in throwing you in at the deep end and recommend stuff your ear isn’t used to. Things that may beyond you until you have a fair amount of listening under your belt.
A very dear friend of mine, and a maker of the finest of traditional instruments, used to tell me how his mother brought him Seamus Ennis’ ‘The Wandering Minstrel’ . He put it on, listened to it for a little bit and then put it back on the shelf until he felt he was ready for it. Which took a few years of listening to more accessible material. A wise decision that paid off.
Anyhow, find your niche and work your way in. Play it by ear. We all come to it along different routes.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check it out!
Since you say “any instrument is fine,” one of my favorites over the last 35 years has been Kevin Burke, the fiddler. He was the third fiddler in the Bothy Band (starting on their 2nd record), but I really enjoy his solo albums.
OK then, if there’s one classic that hasn’t dated and has stood the test of time without ever being bettered, it is this one:
You’re right, of course, about needing to find the music that resonates with me instead of just following recommendations, especially in the context of learning to play the music myself. And I’ll get there. I’ll also take your ‘deep end’ comment under careful advisement.
So far, I respect the heck out of Mary Bergin; the first time I searched “tin whistle” on YouTube, what came up was her playing The Maid on the Green and The Gallant Tipperary Boys. I was blown away. I thought, I want to be able to do that. And thus I began.
Aside from her, the two that have really resonated with me so far for whatever reason, are Micho Russell and Tommy McCarthy. I think I may have to add Blackie O’Connell to that, because that dude plays with some real fire. But I need to keep going. I need to hear more, and find more, and discover all the others who inspire and educate me.
My position is, I have no idea at all what’s out there. It’s not on the radio, I’ve never met a soul who listens or plays any, I grew up on a different continent, and so on. I’m like the young schoolkid who needs you to draw for him the different types of triangles, because he didn’t know triangles had types. I appreciate every tip or recommendation I can get.
And as a quick side note, when I mention ‘albums I should listen to 50 times’ I mean that for any given genre, there are simply hallmarks. You have to know a bunch of Metallica songs by heart to be properly considered a metalhead, even if you move on from there and seldom go back. That’s kind of what I meant. The “common language” albums.
And hey, while we’re at it, if any of you have recordings of your own playing, maybe albums you’ve done or sessions you were in, please share. Maybe you’ll be the next guy I add to the list
I handed you one above, All Ireland champions (as is the original title). Pure Clare music and the first lp of traditional music ever (in Ireland anyway).
Yep, listening to it right now. Thanks!
If it’s solo traditional whistle playing recommendations you are after, I have really enjoyed Donncha O’Biain’s playing. As far as I know he only had the chance to release one album, but it is great.
I listened to the Ennis album, and I can see (hear) why your friend may have been turned off.
Although his playing may be characteristic of a particular style of piping, it sounds rather unmusical to me when comparing to others that I’ve heard. And it’s certainly a stark introduction to the whole thing - what was his mother thinking!!?
It’s really interesting that we may well be looking at a more ‘naive’ (as in ‘naive art’), oral tradition style of playing which certainly requires some foreknowledge before it can be fully appreciated. And I fully admit that I don’t have that knowledge; although I can’t see myself ever really appreciating the album, sadly.
However, it was a recommendation, of sorts, from you, and recommendations from like-minded folks are a very valuable thing! Granted, a little more specificity wouldn’t have hurt, but it seems to me that you gave the advice that the listener should find their own path, without guiding them in a general direction - which is almost an obligation if one has previously trod similar roads (and one is replying in good faith).
I would be a very different and lesser person if, for example, she hadn’t given me that mix tape in '88. Or A stoned friend hadn’t said “Hey man, listen to this!”
Forgive the tangent @gruevy
I didn’t say he was. He was insightful enough to recognise the complexity of what he heard and had the good sense to wait and come back to it when he could fully appreciate it. Which was my point.
I’ll leave it at that.