Can anyone recommend a recording of unaccompanied or lightly accompanied traditional songs/airs? Thanks.
Mike Burns
a recording with a majority of airs on it is Ronan Browne’s ‘the Wynd you know’.
There are not an awful lot recordings concentrating on airs alone, if they do they too often descend into Bord Failte/New age territory. Mick O Brien and Ronan Browne both did CDs in that category too, Mick with the RTE orchestra and I don’t remember who Ronan worked with. You get an awful lot of Danny Boy, Carrickfergus and that type on that sort of CD.
Thanks, Peter. The reason I ask is that it seems like one could play the airs on whistle, pipes, etc with better feeling after hearing the tunes sung. Not only that, but I like the singing too. But I don’t know if I like them enough to wade through yet another rendition of Danny Boy.
Mike
Oops, I was talking about instrumental airs.
For singing there’s a load of good Sean nos material to listen to. I like the Labhras O Cadhla CD but there’s any amount.
On 2002-12-18 12:37, Peter Laban wrote:
Oops, I was talking about instrumental airs.
For singing there’s a load of good Sean nos material to listen to. I like the Labhras O Cadhla CD but there’s any amount.
Oops on me too. I didn’t make that clear. Thanks again.
Mike
Not for devilment…this is actually true…I’ve an aunt in Limavady who’s married to a direct descendant of the blind fiddler from whom the Londonderry Air [melody for Danny Boy] was written down.
I was home for a family wedding recently and my uncle sang it at the end of the night!
I think the old fiddler [Blind Jimmy McCurry] is buried near Ballykelly, which is the village I come from. The air was one that he played when busking near the town mart.
The McCurrys came from Scotland, probably in the 1800’s, and worked building the railway from Derry to Belfast, in an area called Myroe where salt marshes were reclaimed from the sea by raising dykes and sea walls. They also were involved with netting of the mouth of the River Roe for salmon. There are still McCurrys in Myroe. The area was home to a number of great ballad singers of the Ulster tradition.
Boyd
Mike, a beautiful CD of sean-nos singing that I highly recommend is “Searc Mo Chléibh” (Love of my heart) featuring the singing of Finola Ó Siochrú. She has an absolutely beautiful voice and most of the songs are unaccompanied. I agree that listening to singers is a great way to learn Airs for the whistle. You won’t be disappointed with this CD. It’s on a private label and I got mine from Celtic Grooves http://go.to/celticgrooves
Best wishes, Tom
[ This Message was edited by: Tom_Gaul on 2002-12-18 20:18 ]
Tom,
Many thanks. I’ll give Celtic Grooves a look.
Mike