The following CDs are now available from the Crow Valley Music Store

Niall Vallely - CD Rom concertina tutorial
Niall Vallely - Beyond Words
Niall Vallely, Paul Meehan and Caoimhín Vallely - Buille
Live from the Katherine Cornell Theatre (includes performances by Niall and Cillian Vallely, as well as Paddy Keenan, Tommy Peoples etc)
Armagh Pipers Club - 40th Anniversary Album
Niall and Cillian Vallely - Callan Bridge

edited out

The silence is a bit deafening!

Please review Paul's post about the Buy & Sell Forum, and note the words "It's free," and "free" again, and "donation" -- the latter of which, of course, implies something done voluntarily. Goading someone into a donation is neither sporting nor consistent with the concept.

Since this brief announcement was posted in the General Concertina Discussion, there's a good chance the poster didn't even know about the donation convention.

Moreover, how would the proprietors of this new online shop have a way to identify which sales are attributable to this single message on CNet?

If you click through, you can see that one of the people behind this new store is noted concertina player Niall Vallely--the player on the CDs that were mentioned in the original post. I like to support efforts of musicians to sell their own CDs so they get a bigger net. And lots of players on this board have announced the availability of their CDs without being hectored by other members. Let's give the man a welcome here, not a lecture, and hope that he stays for the discussions.

[edited for grammar and clarity]

Fair enough... I'll add a smiley to my comment which was meant to have a light touch :-)
If the original post had read like something from a contributing member of this board trying to sell one of their own CDs I'd have said hurrah!

But it sounded like a hard sell from a shop
Nothing there to indicate direct involvement of a forum member.

[


Fair enough... I'll add a smiley to my comment which was meant to have a light touch :-)
If the original post had read like something from a contributing member of this board trying to sell one of their own CDs I'd have said hurrah!

But it sounded like a hard sell from a shop
Nothing there to indicate direct involvement of a forum member.
[/quote]hear, hear, SpinDizzy.Dick Miles

Hi Gang,

Keep in mind that, even with free shipping (if that even applies to the US since these folks are in Cork, Ireland), the dollar price of their CDs is $24 +/- given recent exchange rates. You have to really want that CD bad at that price.

Ross Schlabach

Why are we lecturing each other on ethics? Like we don't know already.
Crowtunes has no name, no personal info whatsoever. It's just a soliciting. But it's welcomed soliciting.
The donation remark was sharp, well done. No, there is always someone with hihger morale. Not that I disapprove higher morale, I approve and agree.
I wish we exchanged tunes and music as often as we correct each other on whether our behaviour is acceptabl e to the corrector.
Don't read next part.
---------------------------
Stop! Stop! Stop!







I recently visited recording page and listened through it.
Ghod Allmighty! Except for few bits (and my hat off to Danny Chapman "the Ratface", what a great player he is. OK, OK Danny, not Great, GOOD player, is that better?), yes, except for some few bright pieces, what a dim constallation!
Think of it as a reprimand. Whoever corrects others, should first provide some fresh piece of music, that is improved since last correction.
That's what "I" think. It's getting dangerously close to leaving this concertinaland for good.
Keep the fire burning, improve upon yourself.

I would have thought the addition of one of Ireland's (the World's!) best concertina players, Niall Vallely (and his wife the singer Karan Casey), to this forum would have been more welcome, though admittedly they could have worded it better.

They are indeed trying to sell their own CDs, at substantially lower prices than they are normally sold for in Ireland, whilst FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING ON ALL CDS - FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY! is included in the price...

Perhaps other forum members who promote their CDs here should now be similarly asked to make "donations"?

I grovel and apologise ..... I would hate to think that I've put off anyone from contributing to the forum - where's the wailing and gnashing of teeth smiley when you need it. (but it could indeed have been worded better)

Chris
ps IMHO the knowledgable/controversial/inspiring contributions to this forum from players all over and esp those at the pro. level are donation enough :-)

I'm just grateful for the contact and another source of great CDs. and welcome musicians of such quality and experience to the forums. In these days of downloads musicians have a hard enough time without being hectored or lectured!

Actually there is, if you take the very simple step of clicking on the About Us link:

QUOTE (About Us)

Who are we?

Crow Valley Music is a new record company recently set up by Irish musicians Karan Casey and Niall Vallely.

I meant they are not members of the forum with personal info attached. Don't really care about this forum, just want to use the venue to sell stuff.
Great!

They have no less "personal info attached" as yourself, or many other members...

They do?
Now that's a bizarre concept.

I dislike terms like,Irelands [or the worlds best].
Niall is a highly acclaimed Anglo player in the Irish style,is ,I think a better description.
who is to say Niall is better than Noel Hill,or Chris Droney,or Mary Macnamara,or John Kirkpatrick,or Bertram Levi or Paul Davis or anyone else.
In the end the person who makes the decisions on what happens on this forum must be the owner of the forum .

I think it is, but it takes more typing and wouldn't have made my point as forcibly, which is that we're not talking about a hard-sell by some anonymous shop, but two of Ireland's leading professional musicians who are offering their CDs at advantageous prices to us, with the profits going to them rather than some "bucket shop" seller on Amazon etc.

That seems like a mutually advantageous proposition to me, and I know that I (for one) would rather see them personally benefit from the transaction if I'm buying their albums (and likewise you, if I'm buying yours!) After all, it's hard enough to make a living as a concertina player as it is...


So do I, which is why I didn't say that, but rather "one of...". You surely wouldn't deny him that?


Absolutely, and I didn't. In fact he wouldn't be my personal favourite amongst those you name...

By the way, I think Niall would be delighted to be spoken of in the same context as Paul Davis, as it seems that he was inspired to take up the concertina (as a child) by Paul's visits to the Vallely family home and the Armagh Piper's Club that his parents ran. The concertina would have been an unusual instrument around Armagh at the time.


I don't recall you advocating that before Dick, but I trust you're not suggesting that concertina players should be prevented from promoting their albums on Concertina.net?

Its not my decision to make.
The Forum does not belong to me,
Yes, your argument is quite logical.
on the other hand,...most other people who promote their merchandise do contribute to the forum as well,passing on tips to beginners,or helping other concertinists with their problems,on FURTHER reflection,I am not bothered either way,but would love to see Niall passing his expertise to others on this forum ,that would be a definite improvement to the forum.

Give the guy a chance, and a welcome, and maybe that could happen, but if I was him I'd be feeling thoroughly disheartened at this stage...

On old accordion forum there was a movement. Professional players were slowly, but surely leaving it.
Of all that left only Ralph and Gary Dahl were submitting more or less regularly. Most of their "guidance" was beyond comprehension of 99% of members.
It can be the same here. Professional musicians, I noticed, don't participate in amateurs' forums.
Imagine Niall (what is the pronunciation, btw?) answering quesions about triplet, or how tight should be wrist strap. How long will it take for him to get bored? Esp. when most of his suggestions will come in one ear and right out another.
But if they are eager to sell here, they might drop in from time to time, just out of courtesy. I wouldn't hold anything against, if they don't though.
What's better, type about how to play triplets, or play them in front of large gathering?
P.S.
To me, Niall IS the best Anglo player to date. But who am I to say this? Not that I care much about who I am.
I'm just saying it, how's that?

Like the announcer says it in this clip: Niall Vallely - Malfunction Junction - The Highland Sessions

By the way, regading Crow Valley Music, it may be worth adding that Valley of the Crow (Gleann an Phréacháin) is the title of a tune composed by Niall.

n

Niall,can be pronounced neal or niall,it depends what part of Ireland you are from.
one native gaelic speaker informed me that the pronunciation nile for niall is an anglicisation,and that it should be pronunced neal.
she said, it is similiar to the pronounciation of Niamdh[ni being pronounced ne].
in irish gaelic, Niall means of the clouds.
my stepson is called Niall,and we pronounce it neal or neill,as in o,neills 1001 tunes,his classmates pronounce it Niall[but this is a non irish speaking area].
his father whose family were form Donegal,was insistent it should be prononuced neal or neill.
when he was a baby,the local GP,asked this same question,aware that it could be prononuced both ways.

It can indeed be pronounced like the English name Neil, and the Niall who I know best pronounces it that way, but Misha's question was about how Niall should be pronounced in Niall Vallely's case, which is like the announcer says it.

Mind you, it's Mícheál Ó Raghallaigh's surname that I'm most weary of hearing pronounced wrongly (and often by people who really should know better). His father is from Connemara, where the blas is O'Reilly, and not O'Rahilly, but I guess he's more than used to it by now!

The Internet Cello Society has a forum that, iirc, has quite a few professionals contributing, so it can work.

Thanks to all for explanations.
I'm happy for Cellists, who can be guided by pros.
Russian 7 string Guitar forum also has a number of humble professionals, whose contributions are priceless.
But I have the weary feeling they are leaving one by one. Whatever it means.

Perhaps the amount of contributions is inversily proportional to the amount of musical professionalism of concertina.net members?!
My god, this is my 96th contribution! (Better not submit for a moment)

In my case, that could be true...

But we do have some professional, and semi-pro contributors - or at least, we did!