just listened to this weeks late session and heard road to lough swilly. I don’t quite know what to think. Any opinions? There is no doubt that Mick O’Brien is a monster player, but the piece itself?
Ahhh, now they’re playing Dick Gaughan. He’s one of my favorites.
They also played a track from Kevin Crawford’s album “in good company” which is a fantastic album. No pipes, but still… definately worth checking out.
Anybody heard Cillian Vallely’s new CD?
…jordan
Greetings Jordan… have not heard Cillian Vallely’s new CD, but I just listened to Mick O’Brien’s performance of The Road to Lough Swilly on the RTE, and I found it really excellent! I’d love to have a copy of it.
I guess the reason it’s different is that it is very long and ranging, covering most every form. It’s part of a longer composition, I think. What, part of a symphony (?) on The Life of O’Neil by Michael Houlihan (?).
This is an old format, the long musical composition, but I for one, would like to hear long things written for pipes.
I’ve BEEN on the Road to Lough Swilly thousands of times…driving from Derry down to East Donegal to visit relatives.
Used to be a very winding and bumpy road… my Dad used to stop for a pint or two in various pubs in the villages on the way..we’re going back 25 years here…so the journey took a long old time [when he was thirsty].
Now there’s a great big road from Derry to Letterkenny, and usually I’m bombing along it on the way to either a funeral or a wedding.
Sorry…just thought I’d reminisce a wee bit!
Boyd.
Update from O’Brien:
“Thank you for your kind remarks about the playing of the Road to Lough Swilly.
Actually the more I play it the more I like it.
I have no plans to record in the near future as I am just finishing a Cd with a fiddle player, but I would love to record it soon and I did mention
to Michael that a orchestrated version might be nice. We will see. Mick.”