Reed Only
Drumlin Records BTCD01
Reels: Aggie Whyte's Reel / The Small Hills of Offaly / The Widow's Daughter. Jigs: The Ballinacourty / Snug in the Blanket. Hornpipes: The Good Matured Man / The West End. Reels: The Wexford Lassies / Biddy From Muckross / Spike Island Lassies. Air: Ag Taisteal na Blárnan (Travelling through Blarney). Reels: The Nine Pint Coggie / Sailing into Walpole's Marsh / The Beauty Spot. Jigs: Petticoat Loose / Cró na nGabhar. Reels: The Boys on the Hilltop / The Cashmere Shawl / The Sunny Banks. Jigs: Fasten The Leg In / Westering Home / Tell her I am. Hornpipe: Johnny Cope. Reels: The Lady's Cup of Tea / The Basket of Oysters / The Kerry Lassie. Jigs: The Wearied Lad / The Humours of Rahey. Air: The Bright Lady. Jigs: The Return to Burton Road / Do You Want Anymore? / The Humours of Glen. Reels: John Kelly’s Concertina Reel / Our House at Home / The Ballynacally Reel.Well, this is an easy one: this CD is absolutely fabulous! Buy it!
You wany more? Oh well - Brian McNamara is a fantastic piper and Tim Collins is a fantastic concertina player. Pipes and concertina go brilliantly well together. Both are recorded in scintillating digital stereo, playing a well-varied selection of less-than-common tunes. They are backed-up on some tracks by top-class people like Pádraic O'Reilly (piano), Michael Rooney (harp), Alec Finn and Mick Conneely (strings) in a way which enhances, yet never intrudes.
I'm at a loss as to selecting a track or tracks for sound clips, since all (it seems to me) are equally wonderful. If I must (sound clip left) here's a couple of jigs: the first, Petticoat Loose, is from the late, great Johnny O'Leary, and the second, Cró na nGabhar, comes from the repertoire of James Quinn (1805-1890), better known as Old Man Quinn, a piper from Aughavas - Brian's home village. Something a bit faster? Try Our House at Home then (sound clip right), from the Stephen Grier manuscript - whence came a number of tunes on the lovely McNamara Family CD (review) of a few years back.
This really is a lovely record - at once both modern sounding and completely traditional. The sound sparkling and precise; the style relaxed and at ease with itself and with the music.
Rod Stradling - 15.8.07
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