Who to listen to

Whistle
1

:astonished: Hello
With all the great players out there, who would you suggest I listen to, to better acquaint myself with style of Tradional Irish Music (jigs, reels and dance)?
Also do you know of any who give an example of tunes with a slow rhythm and also normal light speed. :confused:
Do you have any suggestions on some that can be easily played along with?
Thanks,
Freddo


He is Risen!

2

Same answer as in another recent thread:
Windy Gap by Laurence Nugent- fills all your reqirements.
Cold Blow and the Rainy Night by Planxty.
Chieftains 1 through about 9. (#5 is my favorite)
Gaelic Roots- compilation of live performances 2 cd set.
May Morning Dew by Mick O’Brien
Steam by John Williams
Bothy Band Live

You’d get a nice variety from this collection. Authentic Irish. (Nugent uses electric bass as a backup. May upset the purists. Gaelic Roots has the odd bluegrass or Scottish tune.
Tony

3

I like when posts like this come up. Reminds me a of session and tune swapping when people ask: “Well, who are y’all listening to right now?”

I can’t think of many whistle-specific recordings stuff that aren’t fast, but off the top of my head:

  1. From the flute world, any recording by Catherine McEvoy or Mike Rafferty.
  2. “Music at Matt Molloy’s.” Recorded sessions. A bit fast and some of it is played in Eb, but lots of nice stomp.
  3. Bothy Band, especially “Out of the Wind, Into the Sun”. This is a good one if you like power chords churned out on the bouzouki. Kind of Trad-Folk, but man, if it isn’t some of the best trad-folk!
  4. Slightly more slick but still traditional in that obscure tunes but not too fast kind of way is Lawrence Nugent: “Traditional Music for Irish Whistle and Flute”, or “Two for Two”. Lots of whistle, lots of it on a C-whistle, but whistle none the less.
    I’m sure others will chime in; there’s just so much good stuff out there.
    BTW, a friend of mine lent me this really cool CD of Joe Burke playing flute “The Tailor’s Choice”. I had no idea he played flute. Good stuff, that.

Mike

4

Hi Freddo! :astonished: :laughing: :wink: It’s nice to meet you.

I am just beginning to listen to Irish traditional music myself so I will just tell you a few CD’s I have been enjoying a lot. I have read about them or heard experienced people talk about them and I believe they are all considered very good by knowledgeable people. You can buy them at a number of places. The websites I give are just the ones that happened to have good descriptions.

SEOLTAI SEIDTE - SETTING SAIL - FORTY-THREE HISTORIC RECORDINGS

"The Irish label Gael-Linn is celebrating its Golden Jubilee and has commemorated the event with the release of this magnificent collection, comprising all the recordings (43 in all) which the label released on twenty 78rpm discs between 1957 and 1961. Remastered to perfection by Harry Bradshaw, this collection is presented on two CDs, in a handsome DVD-style box, with a 96-page companion booklet authored by Irish Traditional Music Archives head Nicholas Carolan. The booklet, almost a book really, contains the detailed story of how the original records came to be made, comprehensive notes on all the performers and on each track, in particular with the full lyrics in Gaelic and English translation of the sean-nos songs which constitute about half the recordings. "
http://celticgrooves.homestead.com/CG_Various_Seoltai_Seidte.html
This is the CD set I got that introduced me to many of the old time musicians. The sound quality is excellent, no worries about it being from older recordings. The instrumental performances are on all the traditional instruments and are all solos by some of the greatest musicians. They are playing dance tunes (“dance tunes” includes jigs and reels) and slow airs. Alternating between each instrumental track is a sean-nos track. The sean-nos (it means “old way” I think) style of singing is very, very different from anything I had heard. At first I did not like it. I decided not to “try” to like it, but I played these two CD’s every night after I went to bed and just let my ears get used to the style of singing. After a while I started to really love the songs. I’m just telling you this because it is such an important part of the music to be exposed to and learn about but it might take getting your ear accustomed to because it is so different and you could feel a little shocked and disappointed the first time you listen to this singing. But I would really recommend that you listen to it in a relaxed (not straining to “get” it) and undistracted way over and over to allow your ears to get used to the sounds.


MICK O’BRIEN & CAOIMHIN O’RAGHALLAIGH: KITTY LIE OVER
Mick O’Brien: uilleann pipes, tinwhistle
Caoimhin O’ Raghallaigh: fiddle, tinwhistle

"kitty lie over is the new album from Mick O’Brien and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh.
It contains 15 tracks of traditional music from Ireland on uilleann pipes, fiddle and whistles. "
http://www.kittylieover.com/tracklist.htm
I just love this CD. It is pretty new but very traditional. There are times when you almost go crazy, it is so exciting. I’m not a very good record reviewer :laughing: ! You can hear some sounds clips at the above website.


DENIS MURPHY & JULIA CLIFFORD: THE STAR ABOVE THE GARTER
Denis Murphy: fiddle
Julia Clifford: fiddle

“Classic recording of this brother-and-sister duet, whose names are synonymous with the Kerry-Cork Sliabh Luachra tradition. Many of the tunes played here, in particular the polkas and slides, are typical of the local repertoire and have become well known through this and other recordings featuring Murphy, Clifford, and their famous teacher Padraig O’Keeffe.”
http://celticgrooves.homestead.com/CG_Murphy_Clifford_Star.html
I learned about this CD from the notes to kitty lie over. It is a re-issue of a recording made in 1969. I think the CD cover is quite unfortunate myself, but the fiddle music is very wonderful. It was different than I was expecting. I think because what I have heard is mostly music that has been altered to suit more modern audiences or something—I’m not sure. Anyway, the music on this CD is sort of complicated or complex, not sure how to describe it. Every time you listen you hear something new or you start to understand something a little better. And the two fiddles seem to do different things sometimes and the same thing other times. It will stay interesting for many, many listenings.

Since you posted on the whistle forum I guess you are learning to play the whistle. So here are two all-whistle recordings:


IRELAND’S WHISTLING AMBASSADOR
Micho Russell: whistle

“Ever since the earliest days of the folk revival in Ireland, people have been visiting the tiny village of Doolin in Co. Clare to hobnob with the celebrated Russell family, purveyors of a vast repertoire of tradional songs and music. Not least among them was the legendary Micho: singer, flutist, whistle player, raconteur, joke teller and altogether a unique individual. Here’s the first and only digital recording of one of Ireland’s singular treasures.”
http://www.elderly.com/also/recordings/items/PWP80001.htm
I don’t have this CD :blush: yet but I have seen it mentioned many times as one of the best whistle CD’s.


Tobar an DĂşchais
Brid O’Donohue: whistle

“The music on the CD was selected for it’s associations with the people Bríd learned from, in that sense it’s a very personal recording, here she plays the tunes learned when growing up. It is often said Irish traditional music is the music of people and places.”
http://www.bridodonohue.com/tobar_main.php
I do have this CD and it is very wonderful. It is quite new. You can go to the above website and hear some sound clips from it. They are toward the bottom of the page, so just scroll down.


All the dance tunes (that includes jigs, reels, polkas, hornpipes, etc.) seem very fast on the CD’s. The slow airs are not something a person can really copy or start out with. I know many people use some kind of software to slow down recordings without affecting the pitch. Some of the software is free. One is called the Amazing Slowdowner, I think. Someone also said once that Windows Media Player has a slow down capability. I have not advanced to the point of needing to do this so I don’t know much about this.

Many tutorial books come with a CD that has tunes played slowly on it, starting with simpler ones.

5

I can recommend A couple with tune collections which I find very useful: “Ireland´s best Tin whistle Tunes vol. 1” and " Irelands Best slow Airs" (compiled by Clair McKenna). Both collectiones contains 110 songs (a totals of 220 songs!) and you can buy a CD with all to each book. Both books are published by Waltons. “Ireland´s Best Tin Whistle Tunes” is graded by difficulty for everyone from beginner to advanced player. Many reels and jigs are in medium tempo. The tunes on the CD:s are just examples, if you really want to hear the tunes performed in an artistic way by famous musicians I suggest you buying some some CD:s with, for example, The Chieftains, Paddy Molony, Mary Bergin and the other great irish performers.

6

I can’t believe no one has mentioned Joanie Madden yet. :boggle:

I second the Mike Rafferty reccomendation.

7

I just finally got chieftains 1-4, and I must say I love it. Good tunes. Awesome music. I have like 12 other albums, and I still need a few more to complete the collection.. Guess I’m a chieftains freak. If you’re good with your ears, or can find the sheet music, or both, I’d say listen to these guys. They’ve played LOTS of traditional tunes.

8

If you have music in mp3 format, you can use a plugin for the winamp player that slow/speed songs without changing the pitch. This may be a great help when learning to play, at least for me it is.

The one I use is:

http://www.ronimusic.com/winamp.htm

9

:smiley: :smiley: :smiley: Wow, I look forward to checking these out.
Thank you Tony, Mike, Cynth- glad to meet you too, falk beer, unseen122, key of d and ermio.

Peace,
Freddo

10

Typically with those things you can change the pitch in fine increments, too, meaning you can learn those C whistle tunes on your D whistle.

11

OK. I have looked and looked for months, based on everyone’s recommendations, for Larry Nugent CD’s I cannot find anyone who sells them. Does someone have a link to a place that sells them?

Thanks

12

If all else fails, try Amazon.com
using the name Laurence Nugent

13

you can download them here.

or you can get the CDs here or here.

14

Thanks, very much.

15

of coursePlanxty, Bothy Band, early chieftains and (a bit off the beaten track) Teada “Give us a Penny and Let us Be Gone” – good stuff.

16

You are right Jeff, I just was telling about the speed, but you can change the pitch too if you want.

17

Hey you forgot Lunasa and Dervish!

18

You are so bad, Az.