Introducing Peadar O Loughlin and Ronan Browne’s The West Wind Jackie Small described West Clare music as:
The Music of West Clare hear here is unhurried and played for the satisfaction of the player or the listener; with time in a jig or a reel tosavour a particular phrase, to fill out an interval with a felicitous run of notes or linger on a note to bring out it’s colour
Which, I think, is as good a description as any of what the different ways of playing within the region have in common.
As pointed out above, there is not one way of playing defyning Clare music, even the four greats of West Clare music of the former generation , John Kelly, Bobby Casey, Junior Crehan and Joe Ryan each had easily distinguishable personal styles but they had in common what Jackie describes above.
That said, in Callahan’s first description ‘changes in volume’ features. This is a feature associated with East Clare music and even there only really with the playing of Martin Rochford and Paddy Canny, to an extend in Peter Woods and today succesfully copied and made famous by Martin Hayes. I am not sure they developed that themselves, that it goes back to pat Canny (the father) or Johnny Allen’s fiddle playing from the generation before Rochford and Canny (roughly around 1900), it is certainly a feature not widely used even in East Clare.
Different as they may be. East and West Clare music can mix well, I have on occasion heard Martin Rochford play with Junior Crehan, Canny with Casey and Ryan, O’ Loughlin with everybody else, all bringing with them the elements Jackie Small describes above.
Patrick Kelly and Ellen ‘Nell’ Galvin whom Eldarion mentions above stand alone in a way but fit in well in the style (Nell Galvin contributing many tunes, via Willie Clancy, to the canon of the West Clare repertoire) even while they have a strong connection to the old Kerry/West Limerick styles of playing (through George Whelan and traffic across the Shannon).
Ofcourse north Clare is a diferent matter alltogether, with a strong dividing line (around the moy/Faha area)between the richly embellished ornamental style around Miltown Malbay and the starker, bare style around Doolin and areas further north signified by players like Paddy Killourhy and WIllie ‘beg’ Shannon etc.
Yet, these different styles within the area mix quite well as tapes of Micho Russell playing with Martin Rochford or the Miltown crowd playing in Doolin with the ‘locals’ during the 60’s show.
Describing Kevin Burke as ‘Sligo’ is not all that well chosen (although often done) as he was very strongly influenced by both Bobby Casey and Martin Rochford. He played an awfull lot with PJ Crotty while in his late teens and there is a a large chunk of Clare influence in his playing.
As a comparison of several elements David Lyth’s book on bowing styles is a good introduction, the second volume has detailed examples of Clare and Kerry players.
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Peter, you make my point for me. These are all older musicians, many from the same areas, and what they play is different enough from each other that I would say the differences outweigh the similarities, which was my original point. I only suggested a few names, not a whole catalogue. Besides, recordings of several of the players you mention are not generally available, so may as well not exist for someone like Cal who is just starting out.
