I suppose it will have to made public at some stage:

While waiting for some of the text in the cover booklet to be finished before we can go to print it's safe to say this side of Christmas we'll see the launch of:





Kitty Hayes (concertina) and Peter Laban (pipes, in C): 'They'll be good yet'

named after a comment Jackie Daly regularly made when we played a regular spot in Gleeson's of Coore on the sundaynights the CD was recorded late september by Martin OMalley of Malbaystudios in Kitty Hayes' kitchen. It's rough and ready, with a strong 'live' feel to it, a product of the kitchen rather than of the studio. We played like we always do, whatever came to mind.
The introduction in the booklet is written by Tom Munnelly.

Kitty is a concertinaplayer living in Shanaway West, Miltown Malbay. Born in Faha between Miltown and Ennistymon, in the early part of the last century she grew up hearing her father play in the kitchen with their neighbour Gilbert Clancy. She remembers many tunes from those days. Learning the concertina from her father during the 1930s she was influenced by the music of fluteplayers Jimmy Hogan and Pappy Looney who played at the housedances she used to frequent as a teenager. By the late 1940s she married a musician , fluteplayer Josie Hayes (Packie Russell came to play at the wedding) who had a lifelong musical partnership with Junior Crehan. Josie and Junior's music was another big influence on her. While raising the family Kitty was forced to give up the concertina but she was never far from the music: during the 1950s Josie's brother in law fiddle player Paddy Killoran stayed long periods in their house while visiting from the states. One day I played Seamus Ennis' version of 'The Master's return', whcih ENnis named in honour of Killoran, for her to see if I could jog her memory. She immediately knew it was a Killoran tune and she told me the story of how Ennis came to the house several nights during the late 50s to play with Killoran 'and he learned that tune right on the spot you're sitting now', and then went on to air her annoyance at how the racket the pipes made kept the children awake.
During the late 1990s Kitty picked up the concertina with a vengeance retaining the basic 'on the row' style of the 'German' two row concertinaplayers of her youth. She plays a strong local style very reminiscent of the recordings of Mary Haren who lived in fact in the next townland from where Kitty was born.

It's gives great pleasure playing music with her. We've been playing regualrly for the past six or seven years. We always regretted there was no room for the pipes on Kitty's 2001 recording 'A Touch of Clare' and we've always thought we should make up for that. And so we did eventually.

The CD will be on general release in due course, a website will go upwith more information and an option for on-line buying. Details to follow. Launch in a week or two if all goes well.

Tracklist:

1. The Newport Lass, Mist on the Meadow, The Legacy (jigs)
2. The Concert Reel, The Hare’s Paw, Garret Barry’s Reel (reels)
3. The Humours of Tulla, Tear The Callico (reels)
4. The Girl that broke my Heart, The Sligo Maid [concertina solo](reels)
5. The Wandering Minstrel, Fasten the Leg in her (jigs)
6. Hills of Coore, The Stack of Oats (hornpipes)
7. The Pigeon on the Gate, The Drunken Landlady, Sporting Nell (reels)
8. Winnie Hayes’, The Rose in the Heather (jigs)
9. Corney is coming, An Bhean Tincéara, The Collier’s Reel [pipes solo](reels)
10. Na Ceannabháin Bhána, Hardiman the Fiddler (slip jigs)
11. 'Ar Éirinn Ni 'Neosfainn Ce Hi [concertina solo] (Slow Air)
12. John Egan’s 1 and John Egan’s 2 (jigs)
13. The Porthole of the Kelp, The Maids of Mitchellstown (reels
14. Lost and Found, The Haunted House, The Luthradán (jigs)
15. The Mountain Top, Tom Ward’s Downfall, The Honeymoon Reel (reels)

YES!!!

...waiting...waiting...waiting...

Susan

Congratulations! Wow.

Out of curiosity, what's the tuning on her concertina? And your pipes?

Kitty plays the usual C/G angl but plays mostly on the row effectively transposing a tone down.

Does that mean you are playing in (logical) D and A (on the C pipes, so it comes out in C and G)?

I'm trying to figure out the angles on playing along with a C/G accordion.

Cool, Peter. Keep us posted. I really enjoyed your segment of the Spanish Point concert broadcast.

With the chanter you'd finger the keys of D and G, they're always referred to as such regardless of the actual pitch - with a C chanter D and G come out a tone lower - C and F. (Pure cane sugar, that's Hawaii! No wait, that's C and H...) The C row on a C/G would be a cakewalk, where do you get your Bb though? I'm not up on 'tina tech...
Congrats Peter! I've heard a few snippets of these two - great music.

Hello

I am looking forward to finding out what Peter does with 'The Porthole of the Kelp'. This tune is not renowned as a piping tune.

Regards

John Moran

She plays a three-row now, and Peter says she plays "mostly" on the row, so it's certainly possible she's grabbing a Bb from the third row to play in F. But I would have thought it more likely she is actually playing in C and G for the most part, which is why I asked the question.

WooooHooooo! Kitchen music sort of, around the room and mind the dresser! Really looking forward to this Peter. These are the recordings that I really appreciate, simple, straight forward and honest (in the sense that there isn't a sound engineer at work.

Please keep us posted when the CD is ready for procurement!

MarkB

Hello

Any word yet? Is it available?

When can we buy?

Regards

John Moran

There were a few (infuriating) delays in the design/printing process so we missed the launch date we had in mind by a few days. I am pulling the final threads together though.

Yesterday I was picking up the covers at the printer's only to find they used a wrong plate for the back so fonts meant to come out red came out green. Not the biggest of deals but it didn't look quite right either. They are re-printing that today I'll have to go to ENnis again t ocollect them. I did a limited first edition with the wrong font colours last night and this morning I spent sending off review copies and leaving a few in the local shops.
But last night I had the first copy sitting on the mantlepiece:






Kitty was delighted with it.

The website: www.theyllbegoodyet.com should go up shortly for on-line buying (recommended really), Custy's will get their copies tomorrow at the latest, NPU will be taking some and OssianUSA will have them in due course. Hurley's in Miltown Malbay has a few copies for sale as we speak. Further distribution to be confirmed.

[Edit: Claddagh will be closing for the Christmas but requested a batch for whe nthey open for business again on jan 3d. That's another one so]

Anything travelling through the postal system so close to christmas will be slow though, so it will take some time before even the review copies reach the distributors. It's probably best to keep an eye out for the website and listen to the clips: as soon as it goes up I'll post a message.

Well done, Peter, glad you finally succumbed. Look forward to hearing it.

Woo hoo!

Thanks for the distribution information, and of course, thanks for the tunes.