Books for the Holidays

[Steve Bliven]

I'm getting the usual requests from family, "What can we get you for the holidays?"

Looking for recommendations about Irish Trad music that I can put on the list. Any suggestions?

Thanks, best wishes, and happy holidays.

Steve

[Mr.Gumby]

Bernard Flaherty's The Trip to Sligo has been re-printed, if you don't already have it.
Nigel Boullier's Handed Down is a beautiful, if hefty, piece of work centered on the musicians of a small local area up North.
Ben Lennon : The Tailor's Twist is a lovely book edited by Fintan Vallely with outstanding pics by Nutan.
The Collected wrtings of Tom Munnelly, The singing will never be done are a good read, centered mostly on the song tradition.
Going to the Well for Water, the translation of Séamus Ennis' collecting diaries from the 40s is great, if you're in to that sort of thing.
A bit older, Susan Gedutis' See you at the Hall about the Boston Dancehall scene is a nice read.
Kate Thompson's young peoples fiction The New Policeman for the young at heart maybe?
The Otherworld, folklore and music (with recordings on CD) around 'the other crowd', the fairy world is a lovely collection of items from the archives of the folklore commission.
Gary Hastings' With fife and drum for an insight into the world of Northern flute and fife bands
Hidden Femanagh by Cyril Maguire and Sharon Creasy for music and musicians fro mthat county.
Barry Taylor's Music in a Breeze of Wind about West Clare in the 20th century.
if into tunebooks Ritchie Dwyer's In creative Mood (with CDs), his collection of 90 of his own compositions may fit
And there's Free spirits : Travelers and Irish Traditional Music with loads of detail on musicians from the traveling community

If you want photobooks Tony Kearns' Music and Light may fit the bill (Barry Taylor and Tony's book on the Willie week, A touchstone for the tradition is a nice read as well), Con Kelleher's arís! is a lovely collection of B&W portraits and the old Blooming Meadows with interviews by Fintan Vallely and Charlie Piggot with Nutan's images is still recommended as well.

Probably a few more that will come to me in a bit. But this will get you started anyway.

[Tunborough]

If you want photobooks ...

Mind you, the finest photos of Irish trad players I've ever seen have yet to be collected in a book.

[sfmans]

I'd add Cairan Carson's Last Night's Fun, which is the best book I've read about any traditional music for giving you the feel for what playing the music means to the players, the social and musical setting that adds depth and meaning to the tunes.

[Mr.Gumby]

FWIW, I tried to (mostly, there were a few exceptions) list books that are fairly recently. I avoided the wellknown classics that are well over a decade old.

[Steve Bliven]

Thanks folks (and any future additions—keep 'em coming, there's always Groundhog Day gifts), especially Gumby for the extensive inventory of his bookshelves. Now to hope that at least some of these are available on this side of the Atlantic. And that my list will avoid extending the years of socks and ties...

P.S. I don't mind decade old books at all.

Happy holidays to all.

Steve

[Mr.Gumby]

I don't mind decade old books at all.

Ofcourse not, I included a few but I avoided a few Very Well Known Ones at the same time.

Just as I avoided going all too specific into minority interests.

Caoimhin MacAodh's The Scribe, documenting Francis O Neill's music writer James O Neill is very informative and the same author's Between the Jigs and the Reels if you're into things Donegal. Tansey's writings are a scream too. And there would be a bit of nuts and bolts stuff too. A lot of these things are catering for very specific interests.

[An Draighean]

I enjoyed "As We Met..." by Brid Talty.

[Mr.Gumby]

if that's your thing, there's a collection of poetry called 'Session' by Pete Mullineaux. And Dennis Winters' Micho Russell offering.

And to

Mind you, the finest photos of Irish trad players I've ever seen have yet to be collected in a book.

I could say Oidreacht an Chlaír may still have the poster of shots of Clare musicianers that might scratch an itch.

They also offer a bunch of other stuff, including CDs and books (some mentioned above) : OAC Shop

The shop at ITMA has a few items worth loking at as well.

[Steve Bliven]

At the risk of responding to my own request....

Here are a couple more that have been suggested in the past. Thought it might be good to get them all together in one thread on the chance that someone else might be looking at some time in the future.

- The Living Note: Heartbeat of Irish Music by Christy McNamara & Peter Woods. Gumby mentioned this in another thread some time back. Very nice read and some great photos.

- Recollection of a Donegal Man by Packie Manus Byrne

- Blooming Meadows: The World of Irish Traditional Musicians by Fintan Vallely & Charlie Piggot.

Hope lots of folks get good reading material out of this growing list. Perhaps it should evolve into a sticky....

Best wishes.

Steve