What got you hooked to 'our' music?

Sliabh Luachra · Post by **Sliabh Luachra** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 12:26 pm

I was given a ticket to see Paddy Keenan about 16 years ago. After that I bought "After Hours" from the Bothy Band, and I haven't been the same since.

Mark

Montana · Post by **Montana** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:56 am

I can't remember exactly since it's gotten all intertwined. But I think I fell in love with Ireland first, my grandmother being Irish even though it was rarely mentioned. When I was little, I loved the Celtic culture/stories, all the stuff having to do with fairies and magic. Then at some point, that early love was augmented by the music. But I don't remember if it started when a friend of mine tried getting me interested in the bagpipes (granted - they are Scottish) or if it really sunk in when I went to Ireland. Either way, it was established after the Ireland trip. However true appreciation didn't come until after I started playing ITM. Once that started, I was hooked for sure...

AaronMalcomb · Post by **AaronMalcomb** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:15 am

For me it was Gaelic song. Embarrassingly it started off with Enya and Clannad... where's a boy from North Dakota to start? But then I got into slightly more traditional stuff with Altan and Capercaillie.

Capercaillie got me into Scottish music which got me into the Highland pipes (preceded by a brief affair with the whistle and a Matt Molloy tape). A piper friend's low whistle got me buying the Dixon Duo which got me playing the flute (also influenced by that Matt Molloy tape).

The flute got me interested in more and more traditional Irish music to where my tastes are nearly 180º from where I started. Even my GHB tastes have become counter to where they started although starting border pipes pushed me from 180º to about 270º.

Cheers,
Aaron

seisflutes · Post by **seisflutes** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:22 am

I heard a Welsh music band playing Irish music on St. Patrick's day in a bookstore. I just had to learn to play Irish music after that for some reason. I started buying CDs and learning as much as I could. Oddly enough, that same Welsh band now wants me to play Welsh music on the uilleann pipes for thier next CD that they're recording. I've agreed to do it, but I think it's weird.

meemtp · Post by **meemtp** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 12:14 pm

For me it was growing up with my dad. He's a 2nd generation Irish-American who got interested in the music about 1974. He played button box, mandolin, flute and whistle. House sessions, dances, gigs that he played with forum member David Levine. Plus all his LPs we used to listen to at night, The Bothies, Planxty, Tommy Potts, Paddy Carty etc. Funny though, I didn't actually start playing the music until my late 20's, so there was almost a 20 year delayed reaction. The nice part is that when I did start playing, I already knew a lot of tunes! Sadly, my dad stopped playing altogether after he went back to grad school ("no time"). But, he's been inspired to start playing the whistle again and we've finally gotten to have some tunes together.

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 6:16 pm

seisflutes wrote:I heard a Welsh music band playing Irish music on St. Patrick's day in a bookstore. I just had to learn to play Irish music after that for some reason.

Heheh. I'm saying nothing in case Tyler's around...

Steve

Henkersbraut · Post by **Henkersbraut** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 6:01 am

I'm not really sure anymore. It was always there, I s'pose. The first ever CD I bought, just around the time when CDs started to be sold, was the Chieftains (An Irish Evening), but I still have those old Silly Wizard and 5 Hand Reel tapes somewhere... though nowadays I prefer my Folk with some rock, metal or punk in the mix.

blackhawk · Post by **blackhawk** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 2:01 am

For me it was hearing Eoin Duignan playing Dance of the Gypsy Queen in the Small Bridge Pub in Dingle, Ireland. That moment changed me. He was playing an Overton low D.

Charlene · Post by **Charlene** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 10:21 am

Actually I got the 45 first, then the album later. And when I saw the Irish Rovers in concert in 1970 - that did it! Then I got a few Clancy Brothers albums when I ran out of Irish Rovers albums to buy around here, then got some albums by other groups, went to some other live concerts by local artists - and it's just become part of my life.

Mitch · Post by **Mitch** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 7:40 pm

For me it was Alan Stivell. I was 17, I was in a place called Armidale, a university town where i'd gone to join a rock band. Someone played Stivell on a record player in a little place called Kentucky (No idea what I was doing there, there were lots of hippies and hash). A tune from "renaissance" (Exiles Jig) stuck in my head. I learned to play it on the harmonics on my guitar strings. I never new the name of it and no one could tell me. Later I started a music store and stocked "Topic" label records - still searching for more music like that tune, went to folk clubs - lots of crazy folks singing haunting shanties you could smell the salt and feel the sea heaving, bush-bands and trad Australian ballads, some wierd instrument with bellows and plumbing all over the place (would have been comical if it weren't for the stirring magic it made). My rock band started going well so I shut the store and got swallowed by the "Pop industry", then corporate computing, management untill I got so soul sick that I quit. The thing that is now leading me out of that sickness is that tune. I now have a name for it and I won't let it go again.

TonyHiggins · Post by **TonyHiggins** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 11:32 pm

Barney McKenna playing Kitty Come Down From Limerick. An uncle came visiting from Dublin and gave my dad a Dubliners album: The Patriot Game. My dad didn't like Irish music so he let me have it. That was 1973 or so. The timing of the slip jig totally confused me and I loved his triplets on the banjo. I've since transferred the scratchy old vinyl to cd. It has a really slow fiddle version of King of the Fairies, a mournful mandolin solo of The Cuilin (sp?), and various great reels on banjo- My Love is in America and Mason's Apron come to mind, not to mention some boisterous pub noise.
Tony

Tia · Post by **Tia** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 1:44 pm

I also grew up with the music, mostly the clancy brothers I also did irish dancing for while, now I just love playing the music and listinting to it, currently my favourite group is the Cottars.

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 3:17 pm

The Dubliners were my introduction to Irish music.
The version of "King of the Fairies" that Tony Higgins refers to was the first tune I learnt on the Fiddle.

Slan,
D.

eskin · Post by **eskin** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 4:49 pm

My parents had a Finbar Furey piping LP on the Nonesuch label that they used to play when I was a kid, I never imagined that someday I'd be playing the pipes semi-professionally...

feadogin · Post by **feadogin** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 7:42 pm

Bothy Band. Wish I had been around when they were together...Ok, I was around, but very wee, as those Cavan people say.

You going to Seattle, Michael?

J.