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** 101 of John Vechey's favorite #IrishMusic **
I play #IrishTraditionalMusic and naturally love listening to it.
This is the start of thread of 101 of the albums I've most loved, have influenced me the most, or I just find particularly wonderful.
I am going to take my time and write this over a period of months.
So please enjoy, I'm happy to take suggestions of new things to listen to, and no offense to anything that doesn't make the list.
Let's go!
1) Scully's Fest 2015
I discovered this album after posting on thesession.org (the online hub of #IrishTrad musicians) asking for some contemporary Sliabh Luachra music.
Scully's is a bar in Newmarket Co. Cork. About 40 years ago a weekly session got started by Jackie Daly and other local players.
In 2009 a festival was started there. By 2015 it had grown in local stature.
There is no album where I feel a closer connection to a time and place of the tradition.
2) Star Above the Garter
Outside of having the best cover art in #IrishTraditionalMusic the Star Above the Garter is probably the most famous album of Sliabh Luachra music.
Created by siblings Julia Clifford and Dennis Murphy and recorded in 1969.
The Murphys are some of the most famous students of famed Sliabh Luachra teacher Padraig O'Keeffe.
You'll hear lots of drone notes, and on many tracks they're playing a half step down.
An album of pulse and blue notes.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-star-above-the-garter/1573284112
3) Live in Seattle
Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill's 1999 live recording from Seattle is an example of two musicians being completely in tune with each other.
With the tradition of Co. Clare behind him, Hayes has spent his whole artistic journey meshing a melodic foreground with the pulse of dance music.
Cahill, hailing from Chicago where they met, pioneered a minimalist, almost zen-like guitar accompaniment approach to the tradition.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kzqeh5lwjoD7-LvFVvHHOoKGsEVtBaYqE
4) The Livelong Day - Lankum
This is the third #folk album from modern Irish folk band Lankum.
The first track, Wild Rover, is an #IrishTrad song that's been played countless times, often as a drinking song.
Lankum's haunting version is instead a warning of destroying ones life through the drink.
With a mix of traditional music and their own creations, this album brings a haunting sound due to the prolific experimentation with instruments and tuning.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-livelong-day/1476801050
5) Kerry Fiddles
Padraig O'Keefe, Denis Murphy, Julia Clifford
Classic Sliabh Luachra album, and one of the few albums of an aging O'Keefe.
O'Keefe was a hugely influential fiddle teacher in the region, walking on foot to give lessons or join in the local pubs.
He had created his own form of tabs for fiddle and box and taught an incredible number of amazing students.
In this album he plays with two of his most well known students, the Murphys.
https://rushymountain.com/2017/06/23/kerry-fiddles/
(Message me for MP3s)
6) San Patricio
Chieftains and various Mexican artists
Produced by Ry Cooder, it tells the story of the San Patricios, an all-Irish brigade who fought for the US during the Mexican-American war.
During the battles they saw commonality between how poorly the Americans treated both the Irish and the Mexicans. With an act of solidarity, they defected and joined the Mexicans.
I’m listening to this while in MX right now!
https://music.apple.com/us/album/san-patricio-feat-ry-cooder/1442610809
7) Tranquility in Tureencahill
Brian O’Leary, grandson of box player Johnny O’Leary, released his debut album of originally composed tunes a few years ago on the newly formed Sliabh Luachra label.
It’s easy to forget that #IrishTrad is a living tradition made up of so many people with through lines of relationships and melodys.
This album has an aged quality that can only of come from one versed in both. @irishtrad
https://sliabhluachra.bandcamp.com/album/tranquility-in-tureencahill
8) Éistigh Seal
Matt Cranitch - an album of slow airs and one of my top-five most listened to.
Slow airs are songs "sung" on the instrument. Sad and lamenting, they often speak of what was lost and now unobtainable.
It was one of the first #IrishTrad albums I listened to and I remember bursting into tears. Fittingly, the music brought forth a yearning for a connection to the culture of my ancestors that had long since been severed.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/%C3%A9istigh-seal/1637848784
9) The Liffey Banks
Tommy Potts was a Dublin fireman haunted by tragedy, driven by faith, with a heartbeat of a very personal expression of #IrishTrad.
While he was often derided for his interpretation of the music Potts was hugely influential to many of the modern day greats.
His friends forced him to record this album. I first listened to it early but candidly, didn't understand what was happening.
I now listen to it when in a musical funk to gain inspiration.
10) Irelande (live)
I discovered this live album this year. A trio consisting of Frankie Gavin (fiddler), Artie McGlynn (guitar) and Aidan Coffey (box).
Outside of it being the most foot-tappin' heart-pulsing album, Gavin's spoken intro really brings you into the feeling of intimacy with the tradition.
Gavin's playing honestly doesn't let up. It is the #IrishTrad equivalent of Art Blakey's Night in Tunisia.
Hup! Boy-o! Go listen!
11) Gloaming 2
This Irish band was formed of already established artists. Seasoned veterans Martin Hayes, Dennis Cahill and Iarla Ó Lionaird (vocals). Trad "experimentalist" Coimhín Ó Raghallaigh on the hardinger fiddle and Thomas Bartlett, aka Doveman on piano.
This #TradIrish album is often haunting, often conveys a strong emotional sense of the blue note.
Track Cucanandy conveys much with the line "I wouldn't trade my pipes for all the wives in town".
12) Jackie Daly & Séamus Creagh
This is a rollicking collaboration of Sliabh Luachra #IrishTrad tunes between box player Daly and fiddler Séamus Creagh.
Track 6 includes two polkas, with the 2nd one being Britches Full of Stiches.
Britches was the first Irish tune I learned and continues to be one of my favorite to this day, with polkas being one of my favorite tune types.
I'd also say my family wishes that weren't true as they heard it a LOT with poor rhythm and intonation.
13) The Dancing Kiln
by Paudy, Karoline, Ben & Christine Scully
This was a recently recorded album. While the recording quality is a bit less than the other albums due to them using only one microphone, the music is just great and oozes Sliabh Luachra.
I'm particularly fan of their Ducks in the Oats [jigs] and Johnny O'Leary's [polkas] tracks.
https://scullysfest.bandcamp.com/album/the-dancing-kiln
14) As it was in Toureendarby
Timmy O'Connor
Born around 1935, Sliabh Luachra box player Timmy recorded this album in his mid-70s.
Timmy grew up playing in crossroads dances in the country, and this album was him recollecting the way the auld fellows played when he was young.
A very rare glimpse of #IrishTrad from the past. It's interesting to note that he's playing much more simply than today, almost more like a fiddle.
https://scullysfest.bandcamp.com/album/as-it-was-in-toureendarby
15) Dance Music from the Cork-Kerry Border
Johnny O'Leary
Rockin' in at 15 is a new discovery of mine.
O'Leary (taught by O'Keefe) is considered one of the great box players of the region.
This recording is just amazing.
It really shows how much of Sliabh Luachra music is rhythmic improvisation and accenting.
It also show cases how much dancing is an integral part of the music as many recordings have the sound of dancers.
@PlasticJohnny @irishtrad
Kind of monophonic? Interesting that the traditional #accordion technique has changed so much
Added to the #AccordionBandcamp wishlist to play on @accordionnoir Radio
Yah. Supposedly he recorded and people were commenting on its simplicity and then he explained what he was doing.
@PlasticJohnny @irishtrad @accordionnoir
There was a point in the 1930s where they might have known people who were first or second generation from the very first box players in the tradition. So they were knowing the original playing techniques right there. It doesn’t hardly go back further than that
#accordion #IrishTrad
@AccordionBruce Wow that's a really great point. It's a pretty special album.
@PlasticJohnny
I don’t actually know that much about Irish music, but I studied up to write about it for my accordion book and one of the things I noticed is that the 
tradition wasn’t really that old compared to other parts of the music
@AccordionBruce I read that the accordion went form zero-sixty once people started playing it in Ireland.
I forget where, maybe one of Matt Cranitch's text.
@PlasticJohnny @irishtrad @AccordionBruce
Wow... there are some real gems in there! Brings back memories of a magical day in my life at the Mill Inn parking lot. Thanks for sharing!
@stujames @irishtrad @AccordionBruce please do tell more if you want!