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Irish Music On An English 'tina.cd


mike delta

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Someone who plays Irish on EC and is outstanding is Ken Sweeney (mostly of Connecticut USA). I wish he would make a CD of this style but I'm not aware of one (he does have a dance music CD with harmonica and banjo on it), so no help to you I guess. Listen to him if you ever get a chance - he did some great workshops at the Northeast Squeeze-In last week.

 

another Ken

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Can anyone recommend a currently available CD of a solo (or at least predominantly) artist playing Irish music on the English concertina.

Depends on what you mean. Various players of the English play some of the same tunes the Irish play, just not in an "Irish" context. And they each have their own style. Alistair Anderson, Simon Thoumire, David Paton, and George Marshall (of "Wild Asparagus"), come immediately to mind.

 

If you want "Irish style" on the English, you're entering a wholesale market in fish bait.

 

I have a few on the Tune Links page, and so do others (Danny Chapman and Henrik Müller, e.g.), but none of us has done a full CD, yet, that I know of.

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With the English International compilation I am having major problems with this subject.

Tony Canniffe is supposed to be an excellent player of Irish music on the English, but he has dissapeared.He initially agreed to do me some recordings, but is now not answering my Emails.Henrik has been contacted after I met him at Bradfield and heard him play on his own make concertina.Dick Miles plays Irish music but is better known for his singing.

Many years ago I met a superb English System player of Irish music in Dublin who I later saw a few days later at the Willie Clancy Festival in County Claire,I may try to track him down but he has moved from the Dublin area.

I will keep you posted on this one.Where are you TONY?

Al

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You may not need any more names Alan, but in addition to Ken Sweeney, another English concertina player I find very interesting is Rachel Hall of the group Simple Gifts (Pennsylvania USA). There is a cut of a fast Balkan tune on one of their albums (with EC playing the melody) that is amazing.

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You may not need any more names Alan, but in addition to Ken Sweeney, another English concertina player I find very interesting is Rachel Hall of the group Simple Gifts (Pennsylvania USA). There is a cut of a fast Balkan tune on one of their albums (with EC playing the melody) that is amazing.

While it is true that several prominent Irish musicians have taken to playing -- even writing -- the occasional tune in a Balkan 7/8 or 9/8 meter, I don't think that qualifies all Balkan music as "Irish". ;)

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You may not need any more names Alan, but in addition to Ken Sweeney, another English concertina player I find very interesting is Rachel Hall of the group Simple Gifts (Pennsylvania USA). There is a cut of a fast Balkan tune on one of their albums (with EC playing the melody) that is amazing.

Many thanks Ken,I know of Rachel Hall and for a few reasons I have held back on Simple Gifts for towards the end end of the project.I have recordings of Raphael ,Gregori Matusewitch and Mark Gilston an excellent player fron Canada who does Swedish,Danish and Balkan music. I would appreciate Ken Sweeney's Email address Ken just in case my other Irish playing contacts fall through.

Many thanks for the suggestions,it is what this English International is about.

Al

Edited by Alan Day
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Two months ago in the infamous "Toireasa" thread, Stephen Chambers mentioned a player who had won All-Ireland concertina honors on an English concertina. I meant to follow up at the time with a query for further information, but neglected to do so. Any chance she has recorded?

 

[Edited URL so it goes to the first post mentioning said player]

Edited by Michael Reid
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It's been suggested to me off-list that the aforementioned player who won All-Ireland honors on an English concertina doesn't exist -- that the reference to her win was part of the game being played in that thread.

 

That would be very odd indeed.

 

I do find it curious that there are no other mentions of this player on concertina.net (outside of the "Toireasa" thead), insofar as I can tell.

 

To review, here's what was said in the "Toireasa thread":

 

I know a woman in West Limerick who's a great player of Irish traditional music on the English concertina, an All Ireland Champion on it no less.... You might have seen her on RTE, performing with her sisters on fiddle and harp?
Ihave seen the footage of Madeline o Dowd, over twenty years old. so I am aware of her style.
I was aware of Madelines existence, but deliberately chose Dick Miles, .... That doesnt mean I wont be listening to Madeline in fact already have done so and had done so before Stephen Chambers made his comments, which again was why I chose Dick Miles, and I will continue to listen to Madeline, and many others.
I'm hoping that Madeleine will get back into playing again soon, having taken an extended break to raise a family, and the interest could have encouraged her. But at the moment I have her concertinas here for repair; both the Joseph Scates she learnt on, and won the All Ireland on, and the Æola that I later got for her.

The one other mention of Madeline O Dowd that I've found on the web was posted by Dick Miles (writing as "Captain Birdseye") on Mudcat Cafe, where in a a discussion of bellows technique he mentioned on August 20th:

Madeline O Dowd[all ireland champion concertinist on the english]

As someone who has tried to cultivate an Irish style in my English playing, I would appreciate any information or details about Ms. O Dowd, her playing, her All- Ireland win, etc.

 

Anyone?

 

[edited for tact]

Edited by Michael Reid
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Further digging in the archives revealed another post mentioning this All-Ireland Champion who played English Concertina:

...(though I do know an All-Ireland Champion who won her title playing an English of his [Joseph Scates'] manufacture!)

The fact that this was written in May proves that the anonymous tipster I referenced in my previous post in this thread was wrong: The player in question wasn't invented in the "Toireasa" thread.

 

It remains curious to me that the existence of a living All-Ireland champion on English concertina could remain largely unknown to the knowledgeable people on this board, and indeed on other forums. There was a lengthy, heated thread in 2003 ("Anglo Vs English") wherein it was stated that no one had ever competed on an English in Ireland; that statement went uncontradicted. In that thread, Frank Edgley wrote:

I don't know of one well-known concertinist in Ireland playing English.
to which Jim Lucas replied:
I don't, either, but I have been told by Irish musicians I do know that there now are at least a couple. I'm trying to learn more, and will of course report immediately if/when I have something concrete to report.

The "Irish on English" issue has been played out many times on the Irtrad-L mailing list; I've read that list for 10 years and have searched the archives, and never has anyone reported there that a championship was once won on English. Such an event would disprove, or at least soften, the picture of rigidity in All-Ireland judging that has been presented both on concertina.net and Irtrad-L, no?

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Isn't it time that we EC players start proving that you can play good Irish music on the EC?

 

 

In my opinion we already have. A champion in a contest? Well, if one is into that as validation...okay. To those who can't see past a rigid concept of TIM that most likely will not mean anything but the lowering of standards and what has the world come to, blah, blah, blah. <_<

 

Play and enjoy.

Edited by Mark Evans
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Isn't it time that we EC players start proving that you can play good Irish music on the EC?

 

 

In my opinion we already have. A champion in a contest? Well, if one is into that as validation...okay. To those who can't see past a rigid concept of TIM that most likely will not mean anything but the lowering of standards and what has the world come to, blah, blah, blah. <_<

 

Play and enjoy.

Surely, unless competition rules specify otherwise, we are talking about the ability to play music, and it should be irrespective of the concertina system used. All agreed? :unsure:

 

Regards,

Peter.

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Isn't it time that we EC players start proving that you can play good Irish music on the EC?

Isn't that what Henrik and Jonathan Taylor (to name but two) have been doing for some time? Although I shouldn't have thought they are thinking in terms of proving anything, they are just playing the music they want to play to the best of their not inconsiderable abilities.

 

Chris

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