I was recently going through my Irish CD collection when it occurred to me that my library is very flute heavy. I know, that’s surprising news from a flute player. So, to round things out, I was wondering what other instrumentalists everyone is listening to out there. If you had to pick ten non-flute albums to recommend, what would they be?
Thanks,
Paul
They make albums without flutes 
Really
that’s a loaded question, you gotta put out some limits. I’ll stick to solo’s:
Just finished with Mick O’Brien’s (pipes,whistle, and flute but flute not favored) so I’ll start with his CD. Some others that pop into mind:
Mary MacNamara concertina
Paddy Canny fiddle
Brendan Power harmonica
Josephine Marsh accordian
Joe Cooley from the old geezer archives
about another hundred are coming to mind. I’ll stop there.
r
If you had to pick ten non-flute albums to recommend, what would they be?
Hmm…ten, huh? Okay, here’s mine in no particular order.
Paddy Glackin & Robbie Hannan (fiddle & pipes)–Seidean Si/The Whirlwind
Noel Hill & Tony Linnane (fiddle & concertina)
Paddy Glackin & Paddy Keenan (pipes & fiddle)–Doublin’
Paddy Keenan (pipes)–self titled
Tony MacMahon & Noel Hill (accordion & concertina)-- I gCnoc na Grai
Kevin Burke (fiddle)-- In Concert
Kevin Burke–If The Cap Fits
(Well, just about anything by Kevin Burke would be in my top ten, actually…)
Seamus Begley & Steve Cooney (accordion & guitar)–Meitheal
Tommy Peoples (fiddle)–The High Part of the Road
Talking Heads Play Hindemith’s Greatest Hits
Mick has just released a new CD, you’ll be happy to hear – pipes and fiddle duets in Bb. I can’t wait to get my hands on this one…the first album is one of my all-time favorites.
Rama’s list is great, all brilliant stuff.
I just love John Williams first concertina/box CD. Great stuff. Also, any CD from Liz Carroll. (non-flute, but you can playb along, which is cool)
I just love John Williams first concertina/box CD. Great stuff. Also, any CD from Liz Carroll. (non-flute, but you can playb along, which is cool)
Thanks Brad, that new Cd sounds sweet. From what I understand, you’ve already got a Bb flute, so I’m sure you’ll be tooting along (you lucky dawg). I had Mick’s (first) Cd in my car stereo for about 2 months. About 2 weeks ago I switched to the Noel Hill /Tony Linanne Cd which Sporting Pitchfork recommends. Nice choice.
rama
Here, just off the top my head, are some great albums that have been influential both in my own playing and also in the session scene here in Washington DC. None of them are flute albums per se, although there are flute players on a few of them.
Paddy Canny, P.J. Hayes, Peadar O’Laughlin and Bridie Lafferty “An Historic Album etc”, formerly “All Ireland Champions - Violin”
Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin and Patrick Orceau "Tracin’ "
Noel Hill and Tony Linnane
Noel Hill and Tony MacMahon “I gNoc na Grai”
Seamus McGuire and John Lee “The Missing Reel”
The MacNamara Family “Leitrim’s Hidden Treasure”
Eoghan O’Sullivan, Gerry Harrington and Paul De Grae “The Smoky Chimney”
Jacqueline McCarthy and Tommy Keane “The Wind Among the Reeds”
P.J. Crotty, James and Carol Cullinan “Happy to Meet”
Liz and Yvonne Kane “The Well-Tempered Bow”
Micheal O Raighaillaigh “The Nervous Man”
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, but really you won’t go wrong with any of them. And not a one of them on Green Linnet, either…
Callan Bridge by Cillian and Niall Vallely (Pipes/Whistles and Concertina) fantastic as well.
Regards,
Thank you all for your suggestions. I think Philippe Varlet (Celtic Grooves) is likely to profit handsomesly from them over the coming months!
Paul
A lot of my faves have already been mentioned – Jo Marsh’s first album, Smokey Chimney, Kane Sisters, Gearoid & Patrick, etc. – but here are a few more:
Frankie Gavin, Frankie Goes to Town
Frankie Gavin & Joe Derrane, Ireland’s Harvest
Dermot Byrne, Dermot Byrne
Billy McComiskey, Makin’ the Rounds
Trian’s two albums
Ronan Browne and Peter O’Loughlin, The South West Wind
Cathal Hayden, Cathal Hayden
Jackie Daly, Many’s a Wild Night
Jackie Daly & Seamus Creagh
Michelle O’Brien, Aoghan Lynch, & Gavin Ralston
Mick, Louise, and Michelle Mulcahy, The Mulcahy Family
Oisin Mac Diarmada, Brian Fitzgerald, & Michael O Ruanaigh, Traditional Music on Fiddle, Banjo, and Harp
Here’s another classic that I can’t believe I forgot to mention the first time around. It does have a flute player on it, and he’s not too shabby, but again this one is more than just a mere flute album.
Matt Molloy, Paul Brady and Tommy Peoples. Recorded about 25 years ago and still just as fresh today. I think it’s on Shanachie or maybe Green Linnet here in the States, and probably Claddagh in Ireland. In fact, just two weeks ago Tommy Peoples was doing a gig at a local pub here and Matt Molloy just happened to be in the house that night. He got up with Tommy in the second half of the gig and they played about half the cuts off this album. It was heaven…
Anyone who knows me from lists knows that I’m a sucker for the old stuff. With that said your collection can’t really be complete without one of those 78 fiddle albums. “Milestone at the Garden”, “From Galway to Dublin”, “The Brass Fiddle”(Unique for a Donegal emphasis) or The Michael Coleman set is invaluable.
My $.02
And here are two more all-time classic albums that are really representative of Irish music at its best. Every couple of weeks I go to a session that’s about an hour’s drive away from home. I have a tape that I’ve put these two albums on back to back. I pop that tape into the player when I leave home for the session, and when I get there I am definitely ready to go! No flutes involved on either of these.
Frankie Gavin, Paul Brock and Charlie Lennon “Omos do Joe Cooley” (“Tribute to Joe Cooley”)
Joe Burke, Andy McGann and Felix Dolan “Tribute to Michael Coleman”
Fiddle, box and piano. Could that be the ultimate combination? A bit heretical for me as a flute player to be saying it, but on the basis of these two albums, maybe so…