Elizabeth Crotty. Concertina Music from West Clare. RTE 225 CD.
This originally appeared in the Newsletter of the International Concertina Association.
I don't know at what stage of my Concertina playing I became aware that what mattered most to me was style - traditional style. It remains my view that this is the single most important element that divides Traditional Music (wonderful) from Folk Music (dreadful). I tried to develop within the style of Southern England and not just because of the accident of birthplace and geography. I don't know if I could have learned an Irish regional style (can a blue man play the whites?); I do know that I cannot play an Irish tune so that it sounds Irish.
Living in London in the 70's, 80's, early 90's I was able to enjoy a superb array of excellent Irish musicians playing regularly every night of the week; Bobby Casey, Jimmy Power, Paddy Malyn, Tommy Healey and many more of that generation as well as excellent younger players, like Dermot Kearney, Danny Meehan, Sean Casey, who continued to play in what Reg Hall simply and conveniently calls 'the old style'. It was clear that the Trad/Folk distinction existed also within Irish music with the 'Celtic Twilight' valuing an ostentatious virtuosity for its own sake in a way that was totally absent from the playing of the old style musicians although they were every bit as technically brilliant.
Interestingly many Irish musicians are unaware of the existence of the English Concertina and the few that are often refer to it as the Wheatstone concertina and often, hearing that I played in the English style, made the mistake of thinking I played the English system. But when conversations turned to the concertina it was only a matter of minutes before someone mentioned Mrs Crotty. Tommy McCarthy had, of course, known her well and spoke very highly of her playing as did many others, but although rumours abounded of people who 'probably have some recordings' she was (like Scan Tester in England) a name and a reputation that was inaccessible to the record buyer.
At last a CD is available and it is hard to imagine any denial that it was worth waiting for. This is breathtaking music. Largely solo playing but occasionally in company with others, and with one song as well, here is a magnificent example of a traditional musician in full control. On occasions the tunes dazzle with trills and rolls (e.g. The Wind that Shakes the Barley, The Battering Ram, The Green Fields of America, The Dublin Reel), impossible without superb bellows control, but equally impressive is the restriction of such enhancements on tunes where they would be out of place (e.g. The Stranger, An Gabhairin Bui - with some fine octave playing) while the steady pace of jigs like The Green Groves of Erin is yet more evidence that traditional Irish music is not dependent on breakneck speed. The CD has extensive documentation from Michael Tubridy to add to 31 tracks of music; there can be no criticism of value for money, and any release that brings music of this quality to a wider audience deserves the highest praise. I hope what I have written helps place the music in context as that too is part of a real appreciation and understanding of the wonders of Traditional Music.
I am pleased that our newsletter is now publishing reviews, but I hope that we will avoid any veneration of the critic as 'expert'; may I therefore admit my ignorance and invite comment on the history of the Lachenal Anglo. Mrs Crotty plays a Lachenal and I cannot believe that it can have been one of the basic run-of-the-mill ones that I usually associate with that name. I have once - and once only - seen and heard a Lachenal that could respond at the speed Mrs Crotty achieves. Have many Lachenals been reduced to ordinary quality because their cheapness made them available to learners (I learned on one!) or were there just a very few high quality ones and a lot of very basic boxes?