Is Liam O'Flynn the greatest living Irish musician?

NicoMoreno · Post by **NicoMoreno** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 10:30 am

The short answer to your question is: no.

fancypiper · Post by **fancypiper** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 11:49 am

Whose playing made you want to buy regulators?

It was Ronan Browne, for me, durn his hide!

djm · Post by **djm** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 12:44 pm

Fancy, absolutely!

When I started with a half-set everyone was quoting Ennis about laying off the regulators. Then Ronan came to town and stayed on the regs almost the whole night. It was fantastic playing, and I've never heard anyone quibble about regs again.

djm

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Sun May 02, 2004 4:57 pm

djm wrote: When I started with a half-set everyone was quoting Ennis about laying off the regulators.
djm

In fairness, what Ennis said was that regulators should not be used as a mindless percussion instrument. And his own regulatorplaying, which is at times brilliant, is there to prove it.

In the documentary 'Planxty regrouped' which was just now aired by RTE Christy Moore said :

I would not call Liam the greatest piper ever, I won't even go there [...] but of all pipers living or dead, he'd be the one I'd listen to

I think we can agree that to put it like that would settle this whole thread, OK?

Seanie · Post by **Seanie** » Mon May 03, 2004 5:17 am

Hello

One of the more interesting asides from the Planxty regrouped program was Andy Irvine explaining how he used to have to hover over Liam's shoulder during the playing of Sheebeg, Sheemor and, at the appropriate time, switch off Liam's drones. Apparently Liam was unable to do this at the time (switch off his drones while still playing the chanter).
At the subsequent concert footage in Vicar Street they played Sheebeg, Sheemor and Liam switched off his drones himself. His progression on the pipes has been duly noted

Regards

John Moran

Bloomfield · Post by **Bloomfield** » Mon May 03, 2004 12:23 pm

That's cute about Irvine and the drones.

I have recently gone back and listened to the old Planxty stuff again: it's what got me started, really. Very interesting to listen to it now with much more developed ear for the style. And to my delight, I don't listen to it and find it uninteresting or thin. Of course there are different things now that I listen for, and speaking of Andy Irvine, one of the things I really love about the Planxty sound is Irvine's mandolin playing. You hear him playing very intricate counter-points to the melody line. Also the sound they achieve with the zook and the mandolin and how the mandolin drifts in out of the melody: it's brilliant.

You can hear a clear example of this on P Stands for Paddy, where Irivine plays very beautiful lines around the melody. Great stuff.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Mon May 03, 2004 12:44 pm

Seanie wrote:
One of the more interesting asides from the Planxty regrouped program was Andy Irvine explaining how he used to have to hover over Liam's shoulder during the playing of Sheebeg, Sheemor and, at the appropriate time, switch off Liam's drones. Apparently Liam was unable to do this at the time (switch off his drones while still playing the chanter).

That's interesting. I've heard that in Patrick Street, Jackie Daly had to kick Andy Irvine up the Khyber whenever it was time for him to stop playing harmonica.

Dai · Post by **Dai** » Tue May 04, 2004 11:35 am

Quote from Peter Laban

[''In the documentary 'Planxty regrouped' which was just now aired by RTE Christy Moore said'' :]

I would not call Liam the greatest piper ever, I won't even go there [...] but of all pipers living or dead, he'd be the one I'd listen to

Thanks Peter for posting the above quote from Christy Moore. Who could be better placed to comment on what is music or muzak? No contest really.

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue May 04, 2004 12:40 pm

Dai, you have a pathetic way of twisting what I said earlier. What I noted as muzak was the specific album you quoted, The Given Note. I also noted that I think he did some of his best work with Planxty. Have you tried any of the other O'Flynn albums I suggested? I even recommended to you the ones closest to The Given Note to suit your tastes, i.e. Out to Another Side and The Piper's Call. Sorry if its beyond your grasp that we may not all agree with your tastes.

djm

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue May 04, 2004 1:47 pm

PeterL wrote:In fairness, what Ennis said was that regulators should not be used as a mindless percussion instrument. And his own regulator playing, which is at times brilliant, is there to prove it.

Agreed, but it was being overused to the point that us newbies were thinking regs were a bad thing. Fortunately, exposure to fine playing, like Ronan's, soon educated us to the possibilities.

I have an old recording of Ennis playing Casadh an tSúgáin that I'm sure must have been a strong influence on Ronan's playing. I am told that he (Ronan) used to spend hours with the headphones on listening to nothing but Clancy and Ennis to get it right.

djm

Dai · Post by **Dai** » Tue May 04, 2004 1:59 pm

djm wrote:Dai, you have a pathetic way of twisting what I said earlier. What I noted as muzak was the specific album you quoted, The Given Note. I also noted that I think he did some of his best work with Planxty. Have you tried any of the other O'Flynn albums I suggested? I even recommended to you the ones closest to The Given Note to suit your tastes, i.e. Out to Another Side and The Piper's Call. Sorry if its beyond your grasp that we may not all agree with your tastes.

djm

djm

It is not a question of your being at odds with my tastes, you would not be alone in that. No, what mystifies me is the inconsistency in your assessment of O’Flynn’s work. You are utterly contemptuous of his recordings where they have a barely discernable backing of synthesiser or keyboards and on the other hand you gush enthusiastically over his work with Planxty and when playing unaccompanied. It’s the same guy playing the pipes and I cannot, for the life of me, see why anyone should profess that the former style is so vastly inferior. A slight preference for the unaccompanied style would be understandable but to dismiss the whole CD as “ musak” is frankly ridiculous.

I cannot say that I dislike any of O’Flynn’s recordings, I have fond memories of seeing him perform “ The Brendan Voyage’’ live in Lorient Brittany. I have that and many other of his fine recordings.

I have been a fan of Irish Traditional Music since the 60’s and I am no newbie needing guidance from 'experts' on a message boards.

djm · Post by **djm** » Tue May 04, 2004 2:07 pm

Okay, Dai. Let's take an easy example. Since you have all the recordings it should be easy for me make my point: compare track 1 on O'Flynn's The Given Note to track 3 on Planxty's The Well Below the Valley. The version of the Wet Pussy on the Planxty album is ITM. The version on The Given Note is Muzak. Others may choose to disagree. Case closed, as far as I'm concerned.

djm

P.S. Surely you're not trying to suggest that the Brendan Voyage has the remotest association with ITM?

Dai · Post by **Dai** » Tue May 04, 2004 2:22 pm

djm

P.S. Surely you're not trying to suggest that the Brendan Voyage has the remotest association with ITM?[/quote]

I would have said that it has a slight leaning in that direction, perhaps the
slightest of nods toward the genre if only in the presence of the pipes and
a decidedly jig like tempo to some of the pieces.

djm · Post by **djm** » Wed May 05, 2004 8:32 am

Dai, another CD that may be very much to your tastes is Ancient Voices of Ireland, with piper Mick O'Brien. Check it out.

djm

Dai · Post by **Dai** » Wed May 05, 2004 2:14 pm

djm wrote:Dai, another CD that may be very much to your tastes is Ancient Voices of Ireland, with piper Mick O'Brien. Check it out.

djm

Thanks, I'll look for it.

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Is Liam O'Flynn the greatest living Irish musician?

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