Eigse Mrs. Crotty 2004

We travelled in hope and expectation to Kilrush, Co. Clare, for another weekend of good music, concertina chat, meeting old friends and making new ones. This year we have adopted digi technology and the report is illustrated with photos of players and instruments which should add a bit of flavour for readers. These are in a separate folder accessible at http://homepage.eircom.net/~shields/

In previous reports to Concertina.Net for the 2002 and 2003 Eigses I have given the background to the weekend so don’t need to cover that ground again except to say that the welcome in Kilrush was as warm as it has always been.

On Fri evening I met up with Noel Kenny, a great player from Dublin who is now living in Westport, Co Mayo. He was one of the first people to own a Suttner, as far as I know, as he had been to Germany in the late 70’s early 80’s. He used to hammer out the tunes when we used to meet in the old Brazen Head in Dublin and I’m sure his “testing” helped Jurgen Suttner develop the fine instruments he makes to-day.

Nowadays Noel plays a Crabb No 18202 (that’s for Geoffrey Crabb’s info) and it is a beautiful instrument with very quick reeds and a warm tone and of course Noel makes it sing. He performed at the concertina club later that night but had recovered sufficiently to join us for a tune later on. I got a picture of Noel on the Crabb and also on Mark Davies’ John Crabb, kindly sent to me by Bill Crossland, a friend of Mark’s. I did get one myself of Aoife Ni Riain of Dublin, who plays a 4 row C Jeffries bought about 20 years ago from the late Paul Davis. This Jeffries is quick and light to the touch and though Aoife is not a particularly loud player it would keep an accordian quiet! She has some wonderful tunes, probably from sessions in Belfast where she now lives. The 4 row has its own characteristics. The lightness of touch and response are typical of Jeffries but the sound is different. It seems to emanate from deeper in the instrument and my theory is that this is because the middle of the reed pans contain so many more reeds than a 30 key or even 38 key that all this metal changes the acoustics in some way. Perhaps a scientific mind can offer a better explanation.

Next day we looked forward to Michael Tubridy’s talk on Mrs Crotty and were not disappointed. There were some illustrious visitors notably “Paddy” and “Bridget” from Japan who attend every year. They were christened by Betty McManus in Drumshanbo one year as she could not pronounce their Japanese names and they have remained Paddy and Bridget since. Also present was the redoubtable Neil Wayne of Free Reed fame looking hale and hearty as the pictures show. He talked about his time in Clare in the 1970’s recording concertina players such as Paddy Murphy, Solus Lillis, Bernard Sullivan, Tommy McMahon, Gerald Haugh and Tom Carey. He recalled how highly they spoke of Mrs Crotty and the quality of her playing.

Michael Tubridy quoted from reports of the time of Mrs Crottys gentle nature and generous spirit especially with her music. Michael himself spent many’s the Sunday afternoon during the “Holy Hour”when the pub was shut, learning tunes from her. If the weather was fine she would sometimes sit outside and play. A popular practice at the eigse in recent years but this year a plague of wasps put a stop to it. Now that smoking is banned in pubs in Ireland the smokers have to go outside but not even they could keep the wasps at bay.

Michael produced a surprise when he announced that Helena a daughter of the late Leo Rowsome had sent him the manuscript of a slow air which Leo had written in honour of Mrs Crotty’s . It had never been played in public before. So Michael gave it a go on the flute and a fine job he did of it. I hope it’s recorded somewhere and perhaps might be available by next year’s eigse. For the record I took a picture of Mrs Crottys concertina which as you can see is a standard rosewood Lachenal 30 key but with a good response an warm sound. I did not go near it this year for fear of breaking another spring as happened last year.

The assembly played a selection of Mrs Crotty’s tunes and then Neil Wayne announced that he was going to try, if copyright issues could be resolved, to release some of the 1970s recordings. He has quite an amount of material including enough of Paddy Murphy to release a CD of him alone. That would be something special as he was such an outstanding player and there is little enough of his recorded material available. We should all support Neil in his efforts to bring this about.

Afterwards we sojourned to the Turk pub to meet Tom Carey and yet another surprise was in store. None other than Jackie Daly, the maestro of the accordian, was there. What a lift he has in his music, you’d nearly be up dancing listening to him. In fact a lady did get up and do a step, in clogs borrowed from Annie seen dancing herself in a picture taken the next day. So between the dancing and Jackie and Tom Carey, joined by Gerald Haugh belting out tunes there was a great buzz for a couple of hours. A picture of Jackie in full steam ahead mode is on Lisa’s website

Taking a break to eat something, in the company of Mark Davies, allowed for an examination of his Wilfra concertina, made in Sth Africa. This is a very striking concertina, modelled on a 40 key anglo Aeola but built with red ivory wood ends and with a ten fold bellows. You’d never run out of wind but would develop great chest muscles drawing it out. A number of pictures are included in an attempt to show it off. Notable features are the hook supports for the levers, like the later ones which Wheatstone used, and the wooden pallets used with the pads. I had never seen this before on an English made concertina but I think it could be done on the old german concertinas and also on accordians. I’m not sure if it is an improvement on the traditional cardboard, felt and leather combination, perhaps the Sth African climate has something to do with it.

You will also see from the pictures that the reedpan is made of perspex, and it works. Comments please from Messrs Dipper, Suttner, Dickinson and anyone else with an insight into the technicalities, benefits drawbacks etc., involved. The reed pan is not supported around the edges on small blocks as is normal, but rests on a wooden frame with recessed areas cut out for the protruding reeds underneath the pan, as the picture clearly shows. Altogether a very interesting tina which is responsive, has good action and good tone.

After that bit of research it was time to give the B*/F tinas an airing. Mark Davies, Tom Driscoll and myself sojourned to Buggles and had a quiet hour or so playing in this lovely pitch. The three concertinas going together was like a church organ at full steam. It is a real pity that it is rarely possible to play in sessions in Bflat. Sometimes a piper will have a C chanter, but not often, so it is hardly worth carrying the B*/F tina around. The demand for Jeffries and Wheatstones and indeed Lachenals is so great that the flat pitch boxes tend to be tuned up which is a great pity as the tone is so beautiful.

Gerald Haugh then joined us and played some lovely tunes ( in normal pitch) in the real west Clare style, including Sean sa Ceo and the Dawn. The session gradually developed to the stage that there were seven concertinas and about six fiddles, two flutes, two accordions and a piper. One of the concertinas was a John Connor 40 key raised metal ends with lovely light action, though it was a bit heavy. The session was going full blast when I left. The Dawn would have been an appropriate tune to finish with I’d say.

Sunday, meant a gathering of tired and not so tired heads in Crottys where, as last year, Rob Murch and friends; Jason, Roger, Claire and Annie, from Devon had assembled. Also there were Mark Davies, Neil Wayne and Billy Crossland who joined in the English country dance tunes being played. Neil had a lovely 40 key rosewood ended Wheatstone and Billy played a Shakespeare. Annie contributed on triangle and trombone ( surely a first in Crottys) and was captured on photo doing a clog dance. Tom Driscoll, Lisa Shields and myself made up the Irish contingent. We arranged that all the tinas present be put in Crottys window. “Crotty’s the Shop Window for Concertinas” might be the caption. The individual tinas are described in the picture.

Tom Driscoll from Ennistymon has a lot of old Clare tunes learned from the Killoughry brothers Paddy (RIP) and John and also from his father who plays the fiddle. John Killoughry is still going strong at 91 and I met him with Tom during the summer in Ennistymon where he was still playing away at 1.am. Tom played some of these tunes, which include different settings of commonly played tunes and it would be well worth getting them on record.

Jurgen Suttner came in to listen just as a trio of young Clare musicians on concertina, flute and bouziki started up. The concertina player was John Talty who happens to be a nephew of Noel Hill and an excellent player as you’d expect with a nice easy style of playing. He had an ebony ended Suttner which sounded great so Jurgen must have been pleased.

This personal note does not include all the events which took place over five days, including classes, workshops, recitals, concerts, outdoor ceilis and the many sessions I was not part of. The eigse site: www.eigsemrscrotty.com gives many more details. As I’ve said before you should try to get there at some stage as the atmosphere is very welcoming and informal. Thanks to the organising committee for another very successful year.

Shay Fogarty
Dublin
October 2004