Peter Laban

In true serendipitous manner I just stumbled into a version of this tune, called The Slipper hornpipe. It did have a different second part.

Roly Browne's article on Lucy Farr, at Musical Traditionas My first reaction was to think of Tommy MCarthy but I have no way of telling, I never got hold of the recording.

I don't know, 'John Kelly's Concertina reel' The one Breandán Breathnach collected and published he probably named that way because he got it from John, playing it on the concertina. It was also on the Topic lp but I am not sure how, if at all, it was named there. The other one likely got it's name the same way. It's a handy enough reference for a tune found without a name. I think Paddy Glacken may have recorded the same one that's on Na Fir Bolg under that name, I am a bit sketchy on that but I have heard it before. Here are the two anyway, not necessarily exact as played on the concertina) T:John Kelly's concertina M:4/4 L:1/8 R:Reel K:DDor AddB ABcB|AEGE DEFG|AddB ABcB|AEGE DEFG:|! AddB cdec|dcAB cAAB|AddB cdec|dcAB c3 B|! AddB cdec|dcAB cAAe|~f3 d ~e3 d|cAAG d2 :||! T:John Kelly's Concertina M:4/4 L:1/8 R:Reel K:G D |:G3F GABG |AGEG GABd |d2 gd edBd|d2 ed dBAE |! G3F GABG |AGEG GABd|d2 gd edBG |1A2 G2 GBAF:|2A2 G2 GABd||! e3d edBc |d2de dBAB| c2ec B2dB |BAAG AGEG|! G3F GABG |AGEG GABd|d2 gd edBG|A2 G2 GABd:|!

Joe Bane was a whistle and fluteplayer from the Feakle area. He sounded like this. If I recall correctly, the one the lads play as 'John Kelly's Concertina Reel' is not the one usually connected with the name, or at least the name as it was first used in Breandan Breatnach's Tacar Port to identify one of Kelly's many nameless tunes.

I was trawling for hornpipes in it recently and came across the one that is known in Ireland as 'The Humours of Castle Bernard'. Ryan had it as 'Bernardo's Favourite'.

Paul de Grae has done extensive research int othe origins of the tunes in O'Neill's collections. Many tunes the good Captain used came from Ryan's Mammoth. And Levey's and many other collections, O'Neills took them where he found them.

In fairness, Mick Kinsella does pretty much the same as Rick and they play together often. As for the argument with the 'anglo for irish only brigade' as you prefer to call it: both Rick and Mick only play very simple chordal accompaniment on the concertina to the harmonica playing, what type of cocnertina they use is hardly relevant to that particular debate.

Considering the location, Sligo, my guess is Rick Epping is the more likely suspect

There's a DVD that was done as a project by students of Scoil; Mhuire in Ennistymon. They were sent out to talk to older people an get some of their experiences. One of the girls from Miltown, Catriona Killeen, went out to Mary Ellen, played tunes with her and talked about the house dances and all those things. lovely to see if you can get your hands on it. Mary Ellen was from this area originally. Kitty Hayes used to tell me about her, Mary Ellen was a few years older than Kitty and when both were in their teens had the better concertina. From the stories you could sense a rivalry that existed at the time. Anyhow, when Kitty came back to the concertina and got known for her playing Mary Ellen became interested again and her children bought her a concertina for her eightiest birthday. She phoned Kitty and they played for eachother over the phone. 'She can't make a fist of it now' Kitty said. They met up several times after that and Mary Ellen put in the work and got going well quickly. On one memorable occasion they both played together at the funeral of a fellow concertinaplayer and friend fro mthe time of the house dances, Joe McCaw, who had asked them to play when the time came. They were mad for music and got great joy from it.

Sorry to hear. She had a good run though.

Direct link

Did you try the Cois na hAbhna archive in Ennis? They have at least in more recent years made an active effort at recording the older players.

That is a fragment from Ciaran MacMathuna's 'Job of Journeywork' for RTE. I have that on tape and had completely forgotten it had Stack Ryan in it. I recall the whole series was available commercially at some point. I have not come across any copies of the Stack Ryan recordings floating around. I do have a good stretch of Kathleen Harrington in duet with Lizzie Crotty and have even managed to find a copy of the recordings Ciaran Mac made here of Paddy Killoran during his visits here. Which is probably most notable, in a concertina sense, for the appearance of Mrs Crotty in duet with Josie Hayes. RTE, according to reports, has lost their original copy of that one. Mick Tubridy found a copy of that track, on acetate disc, in the home of Lizzie Crotty after her death but lost it.

And it is red too : here

My son started off learning with Edel (who was fifteen herself at the time). After a few years doing that, he went to Noel Hill every second week for another two years. It depends a bit on what stage your playing is at but I'd say each will offer you a good learning opportunity.

In fairness, it's 'Musician of the year'

Just one thing I noticed about the Speedshifter whe n I tried it yesterday : at some sample rates it seemed to flatten the pitch by a semi tone. Which was easily compensated for BUT you may want to check the correct pitch before you start so you're certain you aren't learning a tune in an unnecessarily difficult key. I am impressed with the sound quality the software maintains at slow speed, compared to other slow downers I have tried.

This was posted elsewhere: ABRSM Speedshifter From the body that runs the UK music exams. Shifts both speed and/or pitch. It's free. Added: I just tried one track and the quality of sound, even at maximum slow down rate, is very nice.

File>open

Earlier this week the postman delivered a little package from Ken Lynam. The DVD of the documentary. I would expect it to be in the shops shortly.

I attach a copy of a photograph from Harry Franken's book. Plenty of reeds in it, but you won't find a concertina. (if anyone is keen there's a first edition copy of it for sale here for a measly €12 and it's worth it, if you're into that sort of thing). I had a few thoughts about Terschelling having a 'rich' musical tradition but that is probably beyond the scope of the forum.

Dan, there aren't many collections of music from the Netherlands. Jaap Kunst's 'Terschellinger Volksleven' has a lot of songs but a few tunes that were taken down from accordeon and fiddle players. In the same vein there's Elsche H.E. Korf-Schroeder's 'Terschelling Danst' which contains mostly descriptions of the dances of the island but with a basic outline of the tunes given. There's also a collection 'Terschelling zingt!' but that obviously only contains songs. There's a photograph of accordeon player Jan Bakker on the cover though. Some manuscript collections from Friesland and Achterhoek as well as Brabant have been published but basically there just wasn't a lot in the way of instrumental music. Maybe the names of a few of these will come to me, can't think of them straight away. I do remember a study of two manuscript collections from Frieland by Joan Rimmer, the musicians who compiled the manuscripts were fiddle players and their repertoires were eclectic and international. Most Dutch revival groups lean all too heavily on older collections like 'Oude en Nieuwe Hollantse Boerenlieties and Contredansen' and stuff collected in Flanders. They used to anyway, I have not heard anything recent. Harrie Franken's 'Liederen and Dansen uit de Kempen' is probably worth mentioning too but again the number of instrumental tunes in it is limited. Worth a look though for the woodcuts and photographs (of accordeon players mostly) used to illustrate it alone.

I think we can safely assume that