Hi,
I’m a tireless fan of Conal, I’ve both of his Cds and the Raw bar Collective one.
Have someone audio files of him playing? Maybe recorded during a workshop or a gig.
Thanks a lot
I have a few recordings of him from the Willie Clancy week, and 1 or 2 odd recordings he’s turned up on, but I think most of the tunes would have appeared on “The Top Of The Coom”. He’s on 2 tracks of “The Eavesdropper” by Jackie Daly and Kevin Burke, which I think may have introduced him to a lot of people. There’s are 2 amazing tracks on Colm Murphy’s “Am Bodhran” CD where he plays “Lord Gordon’s” followed by “Kiss The Maid behind The Barrel” - one of the best pieces of Irish flute music I’ve ever heard. The other track is a jig set. He’s also on a Comhaltas Tour LP, I think from 1978. I do have that - “Bobby Casey’s” followed by “Cregg’s Pipes”, I seem to remember. I may still have a tape recording of him when he won the Under-16 All-Ireland flute competition in Buncrana in 1976. I’ll see what else I can come up with, and get back to you.
Conal’s amazing - none better, and damn few as good.
I also did see a fairly old clip of him on “Youtube” somewhere just a couple of days ago. There may well be more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_BLcC4Mr1E&list=PLE2CDA14335361312
This was from a “session.org” discussion a week ago - hope the link works.
Oooo, this is available as individual tracks from Amazon MP3. Which set of jigs is Conal’s?
Conal plays on:
“The Blooming Meadows/The King of the Pipers/Give Us a Drink of Water”, length 3:33, with Eoin O Riabhaigh on pipes, Alec Finn on Bouzouki.
You might want the other tracks, anyway. Frankie Gavin plays whistle on “The London Lasses/The Glass of Beer/Dickie Dwyer’s” , and fiddle and flute on “Garrett Barry’s/The Fog in the Bog”. Sean Ryan plays whistle on “Dunphy’s Hornpipe/Pound Hill”, and De Danann is credited on another 2 tracks.
There’s a recording of Conal O’Grada live on the Kenedy Center Millenium Stage, if you have a working install of RealPlayer.
May 18, 2000
Tommy Hayes, Conal O’Greda, Kevin Glacken, Mary Green and Ronan Brown perform tradition and contemporary Irish music. Irish Festival-Sponsored by Ireland’s Department of Education and the Kennedy Center Department of Education
Featured Artist(s): Tommy Hayes, Conal O’Greda, Kevin Glacken, Mary Green, and Ronan Brown
http://www.kennedy-center.org/education/pwtv/#ireland
or
http://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/videos/?id=M261&type=A
If not, I think I captured the audio of his set and have it somewhere.
There’s some other Irish traditional from the Kennedy Center, links here:
http://www.stresscafe.com/music/kennedycenter.html
As Kenny said, Comhaltas tour lps, although I think there’s more than one he is on. Also the Oidreacht an Cháir Willie week CDs have some tracks, one with Gary Hastings and possibly a group track with Patsy Hanly, June Ni C, Catherine Mac but I’d have to check that, it’s still early and the memory hasn’t woken up yet.
Have you some links?
I found a great live audio from a concert with a guitarist and a concertina player.
Very nice, you can find it on soulseek.
I have 2007, 2008 & 2009. This is the only one I found him credited, solo:
Various Artists - Willie Clancy School 2008 (CD1) - 14 - Lesbia Hath a Beaming Eye
The group track on that year’s CD has Patsy Hanley, June McCormack, John Wynne & Jim Mulvey, but neither Catherine nor Conal.
The track with Gary Hastings is on the second disc of the 2008 one, CD2, track 10.
As I said, the memory was still pre-coffee, I must have confused who played on the group track with a similar group that was on the concert some other year, they tend to run into one at this stage.
Hi There
If my memory serves me correctly I believe that Conal was also an All-Ireland champion on the Uilleann Pipes. Under twelve or under 15.
Cheers
John
Thanks!
Just buy his flute tutor - it comes w a cd and you can not only hear him play you can learn about how he does it. Spiral bound and autographed and he is a friendly and gracious man:
http://www.conalograda.com/?cat=25
A great investment!
Sandi
OK, I missed that one “Various Artists - Willie Clancy School 2008 (CD2) - 10 - Maurice O’Keefe’s-Johnny Walsh’s-Pulling Bracken”
I still can’t open Real Player.
However I’ve found a cute medley played by Conal too.
https://archive.org/details/SetOfJigsConalOgradaMaeveDonnelly
I write here because I don’t wish to start another topic, thanks:
Have you some friends or irish flute players that have a similar style of Conal?
