They're not all gone

[Peter Laban]

RTE broadcast a program by Paula Carroll featuring three characters of Clare music, Mary Ellen Curtin, Tommy Browne and Des Mulkere. Both Mary Ellen and Tommy play the concertina.

 

Downloads here

 

or, separately:

 

Mary Ellen Curtin

 

Tommy Browne

 

Des Mulkere

Edited January 13, 2011 by Peter Laban

[Dan Worrall]

RTE broadcast a program by Paula Carroll featuring three characters of Clare music, Mary Ellen Curtin, Tommy Browne and Des Mulkere. Both Mary Ellen and Tommy play the concertina.

 

 

Thank you for posting this, Peter. Very nice to hear Mary Ellen Curtin. My first impression is that her style seems fairly different from that of Kitty Hayes...which is odd in that they were friends and contemporaries. Do you hear that difference too? Clearly, you have heard much more of Kitty's playing. Kitty seems to have played in an older style, at least in a few of her tunes, when she played in C and partly in octaves. Any thoughts on that?

 

Cheers,

Dan

[Peter Laban]

They're completely different players.

 

When they were in their teens Mary Ellen was getting around a lot, playing at dances and she had a much better concertina than Kitty had too. Reading between the lines of what Kitty told me I think Mary Ellen was among the reasons Kitty gave up eventually, a button went wrong on her concertina and ME had the nicer one, I think that discouraged her a lot at the time.

 

They stayed in contact though. I remember her telling me Mary Ellen phoned to say her children had given her a concertina for her eightiest so she could do what Kitty had done, get back on the horse. They played for eachother over the phone at times but Kitty said, and I think there was a little satisfaction in it, that Mary Ellen couldn't make a fist of it.

 

But that was only at the very start, they met occasionally and played the few tunes they shared (Kitty still in C and Mary Ellen in concert pitch). They played together at the grave of another concertinaplayer, Joe McCaw. They all went back to the days of the housedances and he had asked them to play him out. Joe was a nice old player too.

 

In Kitty's playing I always hear strong echoes of people like Mary Haren, the same poweful rhythm. I don't know Mary Ellen well enough to know where her music came from.

[michael sam wild]

Thanks Peter and a nice insight into the social dynamics of musicians! By the way can you save these broadcasts and if so how?

Edited July 1, 2012 by michael sam wild

[Dan Worrall]

They're completely different players.

 

When they were in their teens Mary Ellen was getting around a lot, playing at dances and she had a much better concertina than Kitty had too. Reading between the lines of what Kitty told me I think Mary Ellen was among the reasons Kitty gave up eventually, a button went wrong on her concertina and ME had the nicer one, I think that discouraged her a lot at the time.

 

They stayed in contact though. I remember her telling me Mary Ellen phoned to say her children had given her a concertina for her eightiest so she could do what Kitty had done, get back on the horse. They played for eachother over the phone at times but Kitty said, and I think there was a little satisfaction in it, that Mary Ellen couldn't make a fist of it.

 

But that was only at the very start, they met occasionally and played the few tunes they shared (Kitty still in C and Mary Ellen in concert pitch). They played together at the grave of another concertinaplayer, Joe McCaw. They all went back to the days of the housedances and he had asked them to play him out. Joe was a nice old player too.

 

In Kitty's playing I always hear strong echoes of people like Mary Haren, the same poweful rhythm. I don't know Mary Ellen well enough to know where her music came from.

 

Thanks, Peter...that helps me understand.

Dan

[marshall]

Mike - try a right click on the link then choose "Save Target As .." - this should save the MP3 file. Chas

 

 

Thanks Peter and a nice insight into the social dynamics of musicians! <BR><BR>By the way can you save these broadcasts and if so how?

Edited January 15, 2011 by marshall

[michael sam wild]

Thanks Chas I'm such a technohoper!

[michael sam wild]

I just revisited the recording . Mary Ellen Curtin seems to play single note style and across the rows as well.