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"Madam, I'd Like to be Tossin' Your Hay"


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Jim McCardle is a concertina player (ok, he plays the guitar, too) from Drogheda, County Louth. I met him during a Willie Clancy Week in 1985, and recently became re-acquanted with him via interest in the concertina music of Mary Ann Carolan. Jim has had Arts Council funding to work on a CD of tunes of the mid-Louth region, an area that has not gotten a lot of attention on the Irish scene. I've attached a poster for the launch of the result...at the Seamus Ennis Centre in Naul, Co. Dublin, 8 pm, Tuesday June 15.

 

Jim became acquanted with concertina player and traditional singer Mary Ann Carolan (ca 1902-1985) in the 1970s, and spent many hours and days learning from her. She and her father, Pat Usher (b. 1866 and recorded by RTE in 1960) played the concertina in the regional style of the Louth area, the repertoire of which was quite distinct from the general Irish repertoire of jigs and reels--they played mostly for the old ballroom dances: Quadrilles, Single Jigs, Flings, Polkas, mostly tunes which were played for the set. Both of them played the German concertina, typically in C, in a lovely octave manner. Jim attempts to replicate that repertoire and sound on the album.

 

Jim and his group also draw on other old-time Louth musicians: among them Petie Curran, Pap Usher (Mary Ann's brother), Tommy McArdle, and Mick Clifford, fiddlers and singers all.

 

I wish I could be there! I've been listenting to both Carolan and Usher lately, having purchased a copy of old recordings of their music from RTE archives. Amazing stuff very well played (especially in that Pat Usher was 93 when recorded in 1960). Usher is the earliest-born German/Anglo-German concertina player to have been recorded--he is tied with Australia's Fred Holland there--and both Usher and Holland (as well as Carolan) played the old ballroom dance repertoire, in octaves.

 

Those within range of Naul who are interested in Ireland's fast-disappearing regional repertoires would do well to check this out.

 

Cheers,

Dan

 

Edited by Dan Worrall
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  • 2 weeks later...

Sounds good Dan, any idea of how to get the album?

not a clue, I'm afraid...but I'll eventually find out from Jim McArdle, I hope, and will post it here.

 

I'VE GOT MINE! :D

 

A good friend of mine was actually at the launch & kindly got me a copy, which I just received at the session last night, so I've only had time to listen to it once through & I reckon it's a wee sleeper i.e. the more I listen to it, the more I'm going to enjoy it.

 

Lots of nice wee unusual tunes for learning too, which is always a bonus.

 

I lived in nearby Slane for a year & actually played in Carberry's in Drogheda, Co. Louth a few times too, so it's nice to be able to make the connection between the place & these musicians.

 

Sorry, but I've no idea where folks can get a copy.

 

Cheers

Dick

 

P.S. Here's a nice link. At the last session I was at in Carberry's, Dolores Keane was amongst us & as well as singing a few ol' songs, she also played a few tunes on the Concertina ....... in C! B)

Edited by Ptarmigan
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  • 1 month later...

Jim MacArdle and his new CD were launched in Drogheda Co. Louth last Sunday night on Drogheda's LMFM radio. Here is a podcast:

http://www.lmfm.ie/music/podcasts-list.aspx?show_guid=586332b3-08fb-4f9c-901c-71fd8edc4bdc

 

The announcer, Aine Carberry, interviews Jim, who plays some of the cuts on that CD plus from another new CD from Drogheda session musicians. Very nice music and songs, well played. They also interviewed yours truly (I seem to be what passes for an expert! :o ), tying in my book and some discussion about Mary Ann Carolan (1902-1985), one of the old octave-style players who in her youth played the house dance/set dance repertoire of quadrilles/set dances, polkas and flings/schottisches (and she was a tremendous traditional singer as well). She played the old German concertina.

 

Both Jim and I are very taken with her music (he learned tunes from her in her later years). For my part, recordings of her add voice to all the old accounts of house dances--what sort of dancing and music was going on. Very different than the typical traditional repertoire played by many in Ireland today....lean on jigs and reels. And very similar to the social "house" dances and tunes and concertina playing in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and England at the time--it was a global pop music and dance phenomenon. The only available recordings of her that I know of are in RTE's archive. Jim and his group have brought some of those tunes to life again on this CD.

 

Cheers,

Dan

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