I have been playing along with track #1 of the recording "In Good Hands" by Paddy Murphy. When I first purchased and received the disc I was blown away with the tight playing, and have finally started to "listen to learn". On track #1 The Five Mile Chase starts the medley. His use of driving triplets is the first thing you notice. Second for me was the high note figure at bars 4 and 8. The second half of the tune is also a fascinating variation of the common melody. He almost displaces the beat by using ascending triplets on beats 2 and four, then a pattern of notes climbing to the 4th bar again. Wow, what a tune, what a setting, what amazing playing. The playing of the second tune in the medley is the First House in Connaught. I again am totally immersed in trying to pick out the subtleties of this tune and will report back when tackled. All three tunes in this set are considered to be standard, but the variants of Paddy Murphy's recording from 1958 will now be my norm for these. I have been able to pick up many of the triplets and cuts by playing the track slowed down a little in quicktime on my computer.
As no surprise Gearóid ÓhAllmhuráin also recorded the Five Mile Chase / First House in Connaught on his Traditional Music of Clare and Beyond Cd. The two tunes seem to just fall into each other. He chose to play as a single reel, which also sounds great, but with Paddy's playing doing the tune with repeats makes a very nice choice.

Larry, I have been intrigued by this record as well - this is where today's technique comes
from, where Noel Hill was started - and in an interview from 1997 with Frank Ferrel, he says:

"I was very influenced by the concertina player closest to me, and that was a player called
Paddy Murphy. I was influenced by him. And like any young eight or nine year old you just
try and play what you hear as innocently as you can, as you would do by pure nature."

Etc, etc...

/Henrik

ha, i was just comparing the paddy fmc "fmc" with the one on the elizabeth crotty cd...yes, she also recorded it. i find paddy's ornamentation to be sometimes florid & ornate, though very traditional & tasteful. mrs. c. is much cleaner and it suits me, but i love the pm record, actually just listened to it yesterday after taking a break for a couple of months.....actually, it reminds me of the diff between bobby casey's ornamentation vs. junior's....they're both great, but bc is very ornate, junior's a little plainer....i find paddy murphy's ornaments even at their thickest to have a rippling, fluid sound that is very different from the drier, more percussive snaps you hear these days....

Hello Larry

I too have been playing this set of tunes for a few months now. Terrific arrangement. Many other tunes on the CD are great also.

Hope to see you in March if not before

Not too long ago I added a fairly accurate version of Paddy Murphy's setting of both The Five Mile Chase and The First House in Connaught to Tune-o-Tron.

here is PaulDavis,who also learned from PaddyMurphy.
http://www.soundlantern.com/UpdatedSoundPage.do?ToId=3527

hi Dick,

nice playing from Paul Davis. Do you know the names of the tunes? Thanks

Dirk

I'm a Paddy Murphy fan too, since the few tracks on the Free Reed record ( now reissued in The Clare Set on CD).
So I was pleased to get 'In Good Hands'.

It was interesting in the interview on the CD where he talks about starting with a 24, or was it 26 button, Wheatstone concertina the local priest helped the band to buy just before WW2 made it difficult to obtain them.