in case you haven’t seen this link which is circulating IRTRAD-L and the woodenflute list:
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/liveline/
click on Thursday
I read that in Irtrad-L. Looks like Seamus pulled an Elton-John. 
i listened to the whole program… the letter is read in the first ten minutes or so, so no need to listen for the whole hour if you have better things to do. it was a pretty vicious gesture on his part towards a young player who had the temerity to ask him to tune his flute to her box.
I can’t listen to it because my version of Windows Media Player doesn’t like it. Thanks for the standards, Microsoft! But the stuff that was in Irtrad-L yesterday was very bad. Most great musicians i’ve met have been generous people, but this shows someone can be a brilliantly inspired player and still behave like a bad-mannered child. To me one of the most damning things is that he gave permission for the letter to be read on the radio!
the kicker for me was that he wrote the letter three weeks after the event (which by all accounts lasted maybe ten minutes)… so it must have really stuck in his craw and festered for that whole time.
he then sent it off to her, addressing it by totally mangling her name and just adding “box player, (name of the town), county kerry”. “great postal system they’ve got down there!” remarked the show’s host.
If Seamus was not a musician who deserved the name then I would make a comment but OC there are very few today who are that good and he certainly is dead on target about the kid with the box.
An Accordion even in expert hands is just not in the same league with the Flute, and the player is not well known nor from what I read much use at it anyways. For example, John Gallagher from Sligo is never mentioned here on the net, yet is reckoned to be about as good as it gets with the Box. Now if Seamus had dissed him I would be wondering what he ate or smoked. But OC he didn’t.
The old music is very difficult to play well, and even more difficult - near impossible - on the Box, but a good Flute player who grew up in the tradition can do it when they need to.
So I think it timely that some senior Irtrad players who are after all the heart of the tradition, begin to call the sissies out
toasty, why am i unsurprised that you agree with ST in this
even if he is right about the young woman – she’s an opportunistic disrespectful shite box player who’s just out to make a quick buck and mongrelizing the tradition (which by the accounts of those on the show who’ve known her for more than ten minutes one would not be inclined to believe) – it still doesn’t make it decent human behavior to do what he did to her.
and, as one caller asserts, in doing so he comes off as “an embittered old guy” and only marginalizes himself. you’re worried that the tradition’s going to hell because of the young people? then educate them-- they’re kids after all. and RTE listeners who might otherwise not be familiar with tansey’s brilliance on the timber flute may likely never acquaint themselves with that side of him and only remember him as a profanity-spewing crank who didn’t know sharp from flat – and since he is representative of the “heart of the tradition”, they may very well write off traditional music and its old guard as a whole in a similar manner.
and finally, he squandered an opportunity to show some leadership and humility by admitting he mishandled the situation. the audience was practically pleading with him to offer some apology to the young woman and he would not. if he had followed the lead of the show’s host and agreed that the letter was more of an open comment to the ITM community and that he was unfairly targeting this particular person with some very harsh and hastily-conceived judgements, i think all would be well and his point would be heeded.
okay, go ahead and call me a nancyboy
OK, i can listen to it from home. It turns out it’s a “Real Audio” file.
What an ass. :roll:
One thing, though, he does say he’d like the letter to remain “private”. But there isn’t much more. The guy just keeps opening his mouth and sticking his foot in.
This thing was screwed up to start with, though. Something is wrong with the story; why would the pub book those 2 and not tell them that there was someone else in the bill? Something got screwed up in the schedulling. He got mad and wrote something he shouldn’t have. But having done it, he just couldn’t back up and kept making it worse. The RTE guy is more than happy to give him enough rope to hang himself with.
Darnit, i keep trying to explain it, because it’s so embarrasing.
In contrast, the young woman is polite, never insulting. She even apologizes for not knowing Seamus.
I heard the programme on the radio, certainly a nasty letter, however, one thing that struck me was that Sharon said she had never heard of Seamus Tansey - she has been playing since she was 4 years old and never heard of ST?
What planet did she come from?
That may seem a glaring omission on her part, but I have heard that a lot of the younger musicians in Ireland don’t play much pure drop in Ireland, or much of the older tunes.
Clearly he unloaded a lot of various old man’s complaints on this one young lady, whether she deserved it or not. On the surface he sounds very egotistical about his reputation, but really, underneath, his bitterness seems to be more against what she played, the way she played it, and moreover, his objections to newer styles displacing the older (his) style. I think there’s a lot more going on here than, “You did me out of a gig”.
I don’t make excuses for his letter, but whoever chose to make public what was intended to be a private exchange is the truly reprehensible person in this whole exchange. Its a cheap shot for the sake of sensationalism at the expense of a better known musician.
djm
This whole episode makes Seamus look like a very silly man. Anyone who’s followed this sorry saga will have difficulty listening to his playing again in the same light.
Steve
Does Tansey play melodeon that he can lecture the young lady on the fine points of roll techniques on it?
Steve, Seamus is famous for his uncontrollable temper. He’s alienated a lot of people, to the point that he has trouble getting himself recorded these days. But he’s still what he is, a genius.
This was an unfortunate incident. He was wrong, there is no doubt. Of course the letter was private, etc, but nobody has a right to act as a jerk and expect no consequences. As it is, he commited the capital Irish sin: made a spectacle of himself.
That’s too bad.
But this too shall pass.
As for why the girl didn’t know Tansey, i think it’s very possible there are some great accordion players out there that i don’t know. If she were a flute player, i would be more surprised. Cest la vie.
Glauber writes:
<<Steve, Seamus is famous for his uncontrollable temper. He’s alienated a lot of people, to the point that he has trouble getting himself recorded these days. But he’s still what he is, a genius.
This was an unfortunate incident. He was wrong, there is no doubt. Of course the letter was private, etc, but nobody has a right to act as a jerk and expect no consequences. As it is, he commited the capital Irish sin: made a spectacle of himself.
That’s too bad.
But this too shall pass.>>
I detect some limited defence of the man here. The fact is, he wrote a letter to a young lady filled with some of the most vituperous, intemperate, gratuitously-insulting and profane language he could muster. That makes his sin a damn sight worse than just making a spectacle of himself. The letter could have remained private, but it was his decision to allow it to be read out. More fool him. I have a daughter of approximately the girl’s age. If she told me that some guy had written a letter to her like that one, I’d have been sorely-tempted to go round and punch his bloody lights out. I would have had to find something else to do as I’m a generally law-abiding type of chap. Indefensible behaviour for which excuses should not be sought. Boycott him until he apologises is what I say! 
Cheers
Steve
actually, i’ll bet he’s moved some copies of his book since thursday…
No. I’m just saying that people who know him are not surprised with this latest outburst. You had said: “Anyone who’s followed this sorry saga will have difficulty listening to his playing again in the same light.” And i was respoding to you, that this isn’t anything new.
No defense. As i said “nobody has a right to act as a jerk and expect no consequences.”
I think one problem with this whole story is that we’re trying to compare oranges with bananas. They’re both fruits, but still totally different.
It has to be understood that many old timers, who’s been playing for 40 years, would react the same way Seamus did if told they were out of tune by a young player. He was totally wrong to lash out at her the way he did (poor her!) but I think he sensed a lack of respect and wrongfuly reacted that way. I think she will need to be more diplomatic in the future, and I’m sure she will, 'cause she sounds a lot wiser than him (women usually are wiser than men, arent they?!).
Now, the real reason of Seamus’ anger is the tradition slipping away. What I don’t understand is that we’re talking about stage music here, and for me stage or CD music is 100% different than session music. I agree that if we want to have sessions where there’s a good chemistry going on with rich, tight music, we should keep the repertoire and style as traditionnal as we can, but when you’re on stage you need to play what people want to hear, and rules change.
So bottom line, you get an old timer who’s been playing for 40 years on stage with a box/guitar duo who didnt really expect him and never played with him before, with no good mic available, and you get the ingredients for that sort of thing. It’s Seamus’ mistake to have accepted to play in this gig, that’s for sure.
His part of it, perhaps. But I’d be hard-pressed to agree that the tradition is slipping away. I think he’s objecting to the experimental changes that all living traditions go through, and I’ll bet that most of them won’t survive the test of time.
…whatever his reasons, valid or not, this was a demonstration of bad form…something, I would think, did more to alienate and possibly mar the complexion of ITM than it did to promote it…too bad; for his is a mighty talent and gift.
Tansey has a long history for lashing out at people verbally at the slightest hint of disrespect or disagreement with him. I doubt this has changed ITM, as it is not new. You will get heated debate over just about any aspect of ITM and pure drop, and none of it means anything or goes anywhere, but some pretty nasty stuff gets exchanged along the way. As for the letter, I don’t know, I kinda liked it … 
djm