Peter Laban

The first port of call should probably be the Wheatstone ledgers to see what they say about the serial nr.

The Musical traditions photopage used to have soem nice old pics of concertina players but I haven't checked it recently. You may find some other period images there though for inspiration. Good luck.

Ofcourse Mick Kinsella does it in the same way, which takes away a bit from the 'unique' aspect of it. Great stuff either way though.

Frank, I thought you missed the reason for bringing up this thread, and maybe you still have, and I tried to draw your attention to that. But if, as it seems, your need to comment on the CD trumps the need to pause moment and spare a thought at the time of the player's death, I am sorry about that.

There are more than a few of these going around the Irish market under the caption 'we believe it's a Crabb, they made stuff for Jeffries so it's nearly an actual Jeffries' I have one myself and over time I have moved towards thinking 'Shakespeare'.

Maybe read the last part of the thread Frank.

I was looking for a recording of that set I have somewhere. In 2007 we played the saturday night concert at the Feakle festival (we = Kitty, myself, Mick Kinsella and guitarist Maurice Coyle) and we hit a particular nice and clear relaxed rhythm that night. Unfortunately I have as yet been unable to find the tape, there a whole stack of unlabelled tapes there with bits and pieces so it's a bit of a needle in a haystack. If it helps I can play/record you a slow single line basic version for you the way we used to play it and you can take it from there.

They're not miles away from the common versions (for the Galway Rambler she by and large follows the same version Paddy Canny played on the 'Champions' recording). Try your ears, the tunes shouldn't give you much problems. And it's good practice.

I have brought up this thread after yesterday , elsewhere, the following sad news was posted :

You're probably about right. Not sure about 'revival', more a case of changing fashions and tastes I suppose. You mentioned the 'pre-famine repertoire' of pipers and fiddlers earlier. I was a bit uneasy with that, again I'll mention Martin Rochford, who was considered a storehouse of 'old music'. At some point I realised Martin's repertoire actually held a very large portion of recent compositions, Larry Redican, Ed Reavey, Sean Ryan, Paddy O Brien and many other 20th century composers featured prominently in his fiddle repertoire. At the end of the day he just liked a good, unusual, tune. He'd chase them down until he had them. As for pipers, I have little doubt they also followed the musical fashions of the day (and still do). An Piobaire (the Na Piobairi Uilleann newsletter) recently published a notation of a waltz by Leo Rowsome, which I thought fitted in nicely with your expose on repertoire set out during your talk at the cruinniú. Review, programmes and descriptions of early 20th century performances point in the same direction. Which ofcourse doesn't mean there wasn't also a pocket of pre-famine music surviving along the popular repertoire of the day. You have to be careful with the 78 rpm era records though, I have seen interviews with relatives of both Michael Coleman and John McKenna, who both recorded a good deal of polka and related repertoire, saying they were given these pieces by the record company, learned them for the recording but 'didn't think much of them'. Which indicates that they were stepping outside their regular repertoire.

I just thought it interesting to note the opinions of a few musicians of that generation. Maybe that generation just grew tired of playing those popular tunes while the current musicians are perhaps getting back to them just to have something different to play. I don't get the impression people around here are averse to a a night of jigs and reels but I am not sure that's a matter of 'refinement'. The set usually danced locally is the Caledonian, all reels, jig and a hornpipe to finish. Towards Kilrush you get the Plain set occasionally which used to include a polka but not anymore at this time as far as I remember. Perhaps that plays a part as well. Mind you, when playing for dancers in Gleeson's of Coore we always played a few waltzes for the old ladies to dance ('Time for an old time waltz. And no shifting').

Perhaps it is interesting to note some opinions of older generation musicians I have known. Kitty Hayes could come up with the odd waltz (which she invariably called 'airs') , polka or other 'unusual' tune. Yet often when we played, at home or at concerts, and time was limited she'd say 'Peter, let's not waste time on jigs or airs, let's go straight to reels' . Another man I knew was piper and fiddler Martin Rochford from Bodyke (and note that Mary Mac would have spent time with him and learned tunes from him). He'd be of the same mind, although he was probably one of the loveliest jig players I have ever met, reels were the business. There's one story he told often about the first visit to East Clare of Johnny Doran. All musicians flocked to hear Doran but as Rochford often told it, the local music teacher, Paddy Poole, was there asking Doran to play all sorts of tunes ('set dances and that sort of stuff he had heard in America') to the frustration of those present. As Rochford often said 'we wanted to hear him play reels'.

I'd say it would be along the same lines as 'Irish Flute' or 'Irish Whistle' or even 'Irish Mandolin'. Guff.

No, I don't think so (scratches head). It's standard 3:2 like the old 36x24 of the 35mmm film cameras as far as I can see. Nikon DX format.

I had seen the instrument in the window at some point while driving through the street at some point. At a glance I thought it was a (metal ended) Wheatstone and went to check it out two weeks later for a friend who could have been interested. As it turned out it was a Crabb. I tried to memorise the number but wasn't completely successful and only had a sort of outline of it by the time I got home. If it wasn't a 15 it was a 13. But I said, it may still be in the shop if anyone else in the area wants to check.

There was a Crabb English (serialnumber 1588x-ish, possibly 15886 but that's from shaky memory) in Honan's antiques in Ennis Co Clare a few weeks ago. May still be there.

Learn it in all three keys? (again FWIW, I don't think I have ever come across it in D but I may be mistaken ofcourse)

It's often played in A as well, FWIW.

Two years ago I walked into the chipper after one of the concerts (as you do, it's Willie week) only to run into Eamonn Cotter who just said: 'Ah there's the man with the vuvuzela'.

This year's Willie week was one of glorious sunshine, a once in a decade stretch of summer weather (which is still continuing without budging). After too many dark and bleak winters and non existent summers it's a great boost for mind and body. In fact it was too warm or just too nice to spend much time indoors at concerts, lectures or indeed playing. I did however take some snaps, as usual. They're here, for anyone interested: Willie Clancy Summer School 2013 : pics

A bit like the Cruinniú; then, but two months later and twenty miles or so to the east. OK, never mind, just got a bit of the back story.

He has his shop on the Ennis Road now. I am not sure he is still using concertina.net actively. Also remember it's Willie Clancy week and Miltown Malbay is having the best week long slice of summer in at least a decade so for the week responses may be slow.

Stuck somewhere after being robbed I suppose? That one has been doing the rounds for years. It's a virus that highjacks addressbooks. I got several from Irish pipers some years ago and similar messages get flagged on the Mudcat forums with some regularity. [edited to add] Just received the message myself.

Will this do? It's a full marching band score but you can get it all on screen and you may be able to work it at bit. You need the Sibelius Scorch plug-in (available here)to read it on screen and play the MIDI. IMSLP/Petrucci Library is usually a good source of free scores, they don't have this one unfortunately. Sometimes a Google image search can throw up sheets like: but you may/may not be able to lift a full score