Kate Mcnamara, a lovely young concertina player from Tulla, East Clare, is launching a new CD in a week or two in Tulla. Claire Keville plays two tracks from the CD in her Clare FM show for this week, up for download till next tuesday (this show is actually packed with lovely concertina stuff), and they're beautiful.....I've gotten to hear Katie Mc several times in East Clare and her style is my favorite, i.e., spare ornamentation like Mary Mac or Packie Russell, but playing across the rows with a light slap triplet or roll here and there....gorgeous stuff...can't wait to get this, perhaps my dympna o'sullivan cd will get a break once in a while!

I certainly agree with the "lovely young concertina player" description. Any idea how those of us who cannot get to Tulla in the near future might get a copy of this CD?

According to this or this, launch event will be held on 20th June at Minogues Bar, Tulla.
I can't be there but would like to buy one copy.

well, i predict it will almost certainly be available by june or july at custys. if it's not on their "top ten" page then in the "new releases" section, or just the inventory listings.

btw, my thread title did not mean to be the cd title. i don't know what that is. on clare fm, they just said they were playing tracks from a master of the upcoming cd, to be launched at the clare fleadh in tulla in early june. the tracks were really lovely, and i'm sure it will be at custys.

She has a great sound.

Kate is featured on Anglo International and actually went to the recording studio, at my request, with Mary her Tutor (no relation),when Mary was recording for the collection.
As soon as I heard her recordings there was no way she could not be included. A lovely style based on Mary's teaching, but with more ornamentation.
Al

yes, i love her tracks on anglo international.....i also love those mandy murray tracks.

well, i'm listening to the june 3 archived claire keville show on clare fm, which features a slew of wonderful music live in tulla from the opening of the clare fleadh there.

and according to kate, who plays lovely concertina sets on this show, this June release is titled, "Are You the Concertina Player?" since that is apparently what people ask her everywhere she goes.....

great show, packed with fantastic tulla music.....

I'm listening to her play right now and I wouldn't say her ornamentation is all that "sparse" really. She's also using the slap-roll at every opportunity, or at least everywhere that I use it anyway. It's definitely a departure from Mary Mac's style as far as that goes. Nice playing!

Did anyone happen to notice the hilarious Cowboy & Western advert where some cowgirl is moaning in a country twang about not going to the pub? It's hilarious to hear her making references to things like "craic" and on the last line she says "pain in the hole." The advert is promoting local pubs and encouraging people to frequent them. Are people in Clare not going out? Are the pubs desperate for business now?

i called her ornamentation "spare," not "sparse." and in terms of ornament-to-melody ratio, i find it as spare as mary mac's, sometimes, to my ear, even sparer. i sometimes hear kate doing less of those quiet little offbeat bass taps mary often does. (claire keville does these quite a bit, as does paul groff.) neither kate nor mary do bass chords, and bass double stops are also quite rare for both, in this spare style. as my post did note, in the melody, at roll or triplet opportunities where mary mac just does a slurry type triplet connecting two of the notes in the triplet with a little bellows shake, kate will indeed do a modern slap or maybe a dympna-ish roll, not sure. otherwise, the ornament-to-melody "ratio" aesthetic for the two is very similar. also characteristic of both players, treble cuts are few and far between, and they are executed quietly rather than with that percussive "snap" sound that is very popular for cuts in many quarters at present.....dympna o'sullvian, whose cd i am really enjoying, also has a lovely style i would call "spare" in terms of ornament-to-melody ratio, with very little going on the bass and very few and delicate treble cuts, and she, too, uses modern slaps or rolls at those long roll opps.

i must look for the cowgirl ad, ha.

pb, i am learning "humours of lissadell" on concertina right now, and i can play it with jack coen, and i can pretty much play it with joe ryan, but i'm not there with yours yet. it's the low notes in the "A" part.

I've sometimes heard her at the Thursday night sessions at Lena's in Feakle, though I don't go over there too often as it's a bit of a long drive from here. She's a lovely player.


People all over rural Ireland are not going out, and many pubs are desperate for business, in fact they're closing down all over the place. Only last night "The Dugout", one of the music pubs in Kilrush, closed down. There used to be a session there with Joe Searson and Anne Hayes every Friday night.

It's the same in East Clare - last year, when I was house-hunting, I realised (from different auctioneers websites) that three out of the four pubs in Feakle, including the famous music pubs "Pepper's" and "Lena's", were up for sale.

Mind you, we're also losing plenty of local post offices, shops and petrol stations too...

sheesh, i had no idea. the real estate prices have gone up and up and up, there, yet.....????

If you're talking about Jody's Heaven, that was pre-phantom button for me and I executed them differently. One of the advantages of the phantom button (slap-roll) is that I can now execute a tight 3-note triplet on any note on the left hand now... even with my wee finger or ring finger. Before I had to fabricate something less effective.

Have we met?

Why do you suppose this is; could it be the drinking and driving laws and the Breathalyzer, or the smoking ban... or both? Or is the price of drink too much. I did notice the whole round thing seemed to have changed last time I was over.

House prices have fallen considerably actually since the boom ended.

People have comfortable houses now so they don't need to go to pubs to stay warm, they can get safely pissed at home. That's one reason anyway.

Yep, they shot up about four years ago. Unfortunately it was right around the time I moved down here from Dublin, if I'd done it one year earlier I could have got a much better deal.

But the boom is over and they've levelled off now.


A bit of all those things, but probably more the random breath-testing and the price of drink. Most people find the pubs are now pleasanter without the cigarette smoke.

But another factor is that, the way the licensing system works here, if a supermarket wants to sell alcohol they have to buy a pub license, so pub licenses can be sold for a substantial amount of money.

So it's a combination of the price of drink and random Breathalyzer testing that's keeping punters at home, and the potential cashing in of their pub license that's prompting publicans to sell their pubs?

I read somewhere that the closing of the rural pubs is having a tragic effect on the older generation living in the area with an increase of suicides since there’s little to do and people are feeling more isolated and lonely. Is that true?

hi....i bought the "garden of butterflies" cd by mail order and i think it was several years ago. i also have the set-dance one which i purchased on cd baby simultaneously with "the good ear," concertina playing by ormonde waters in australia, all of which recordings i like very much.

i was very struck by the "all ages" ambience in gleeson's of coore. it is like "all colors," "all genders," "all creeds," "all sexual orientations"-----life is richer & more interesting when there is a mix.

Some rural pubs are trying to fight back by organising a minibus service, most are only open in the evenings now and some only at weekends. Many places, including Miltown Malbay, only have half the pubs they did 10 years ago.

What commonly seems to happen is that, as elderly publicans approach retirement age, they find nobody wants to take on the pub they've struggled to keep open almost as a local community service, so they finish up selling the license for a tidy sum towards their old age (around Euro 180,000 was the last I heard), usually it goes to open an off licence, though sometimes it's for a pub in Dublin (which requires the purchase of two rural licenses). But they often don't sell the pub building and they may well continue to live there.


People are certainly tending to feel more isolated, not only with the pub situation, but also with the closure of local post offices, shops and petrol stations, as I mentioned. That only leaves the cattle mart and mass attendance, as places for social interaction...

Three went over the past ten years in town, Queally's, Fahey's and Cleary's all on the Ennis road. Not quite half of what there was, probably not even a quarter. All closures were due to retirement (if you want to include Mullagh in the wider Miltwon area that would add Conway's and Gleeson's and further out O Conor's in Cloonadrum). On the other hand, Friel's about tripled it's floorspace when the new owner extended it, Sean Malone opened in a spacious newly renovated building to replace his fathers old tiny two night a week pub, Looney's in Anagheragh (technically not Miltown at all) re-opened in a most rural setting and a lot of people go to the bars in the Armada and Bellbridge hotels. So you could wonder about how the actual number of drinkers socialising out has changed.

Peter,

OK, I was speaking loosely and maybe that was a slight exageration , however the ones you name were only three of the more recent ones, and without too much effort I can think of at least a couple more - one was the pub on the main street (I can't remember the name of it) near the Central Hotel that used to have all the discos, and more importantly there was Paddy Hennessy's, where the set dancing used to happen. (OK, maybe Hennessy's was a bit more than 10 years ago?)


Yes, I was thinking in terms of "Greater Miltown Malbay", and especially of pubs that welcomed traditional music, but Ollie Conway's is only one of the three that have closed in Mullagh (where the number literally has halved), don't forget Meaney's (where Junior Crehan played in pre-Gleeson's times), and D'Arcy's, leaving only three remaining there, and they seem to be but rarely open. (I was there last night by the way, for a great night with Tom Carey in Moroney's).


Yes, though it seems "the old crowd" stay in the original front bar/kitchen area, and leave the new extension pretty much to "the young crowd", but isn't Friel's nevertheless only open at weekends these days too?


I think the problem is one of being able to drink locally, without having to drive (too far) somewhere, and that is a real concern for those of us who like "a pint or two" at a decent session, indeed I was randomly breath-tested myself (on the way home from Miltown Malbay) only last weekend, but I knew I was well under the limit. No wonder lots of people are drinking at home these days (and with the price of drink), whilst if they do go out it seems to be all at the same time, at a weekend and late in the evening, where formerly it was more spread out both through the day and through the week.

Meanwhile, the rural pub trade is acknowledged to be in serious decline: Pubs Sell Up as Takings drop or Urban-rural divide in pub trade grows

I think the Vintners federation trying to keep the government from bringing the legal limit down to European levels accounts for at least part of the 'local culture down the tubes' articles we've been flooded within recent times.

Rural pubs have always been by and large a secondary income, an aside to something else like a farm, a shop or a pensionable occupation like working for Telecom Eirreann/Eircom. It still is to some extend but with the older generation retiring, the younger one has enough income not need the supplement and having to deal with the hassle of selling drink at night so selling the license for up to 200K, keeping the premises and having the nights off is suddenly an attractive option.

I remember Miltown having 25 or so pubs during the early 80s, the ones left are on average a lot bigger than the ones that were there at the time so I still have my doubts if the actual drinking space has gone down over time.

There are 13 now...

Wasn't this the weekend? Anyone go?

No.

I got a copy of the CD from Custy's: see http://www.custysmusic.com/mall/CustysTrad...uct-3601849.stm. It's a bit expensive from the US, but worth it -- after a couple of listenings I would say that it's one of my favorite concertina CD's in any style.