Joanie Madden Nomination for Greatest Whistle CD

[PhilO]

Ok, that's the kind of playing that turns me on. She's the best; and not as in virtuosity or traditionalism or whatever, but rather like 45 years ago when I was young and certain music just put me in a different wonderful place.

Listen to "Song Of the Irish Whistle" - The Legacy Jig is exhilarating and heart pounding and is followed by a heart stopping version of Roison Dubh (The Black Rose) which is so soulful I almost can't bear it.

God Bless Joannie and I can ALMOST keep up with her on Legacy.

We are in a place now where we need to be taken somewhere else and she does it for me.

Vote Madden!


Philo

[swizzlestick]

Classic CDs, amazing performances and a great sense of humor.

She's got my vote too. And she is WAY overdue for a new whistle CD.

[Sorry you need to be transported elsewhere, Philo, but Joanie certainly is a good pathfinder.]

[PhilO]

[Sorry you need to be transported elsewhere, Philo, but Joanie certainly is a good pathfinder.]

Didn't mean to create the wrong impression; this is mortgage/moving type stuff and not illness, divorce, etc. Thanks.

Philo

[RonKiley]

I asked on her facebook page when we would get a new one perhaps with Mary Bergin. I haven't had a reply yet.

Ron

[narrowdog]

It's funny how tastes within one genre can differ so much,
I like some of what Joanie madden has done but
"Song Of the Irish Whistle"
I gave my copy to a charity shop.
I think my vote's going else where.

[PhilO]

So true Narrowdog; I guess for me, she plays the type of music I can sit down and listen to for awhile. While I can appreciate admire and learn from say Micho Russell, I just can't sit and listen to his CD for more than a couple of tunes at a time and it just doesn't "send" me in the same way. They're both great and probably simplistically put at opposite ends of the spectrum. They're both inspiring (for me) too but again in totally different ways. In the words of my now long gone tae kwondo teacher (Tiger Sang Soo Kim), many different ways.

Philo

[kenny]

http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/24

[narrowdog]

So true Narrowdog; I guess for me, she plays the type of music I can sit down and listen to for awhile. While I can appreciate admire and learn from say Micho Russell, I just can't sit and listen to his CD for more than a couple of tunes at a time and it just doesn't "send" me in the same way. They're both great and probably simplistically put at opposite ends of the spectrum. They're both inspiring (for me) too but again in totally different ways. In the words of my now long gone tae kwondo teacher (Tiger Sang Soo Kim), many different ways.

Philo

Interesting you should mention Micho Russell,
I listen to his recordings quite a lot and a great inspiration
but if we're going to vote Sean Potts' 'Number 6'
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/3764
does it for me every time

[Steve Bliven]

Interesting you should mention Micho Russell,
I listen to his recordings quite a lot and a great inspiration....

What recordings have you found of Micho Russell's playing?

The ones I've come across include "Micho Russell:Traditional Country Music of County Clare" on Free Reed, "Micho Russell; Ireland's Whistling Ambassador" from The Pennywhistler's Press, and some cuts on "Totally Traditional Tin Whistles" from Ossian. Are there others?

Best wishes.

Steve

[MTGuru]

What recordings have you found of Micho Russell's playing?

Steve, the listing in the Whistle Recordings sticky is fairly comprehensive.

Russell, Micho - Russell Family of Doolin, Co. Clare, The
Russell, Micho - Ireland's Whistling Ambassador [19/22]
Russell, Micho - Limestone Rock, The
Russell, Micho - Man from Clare, The [10/20]
Russell, Micho - In Our Own Dear Land
Russell, Micho - Traditional Country Music of County Clare [11/19]

Of course, there are also some nice annotated examples on Brother Steve's site:

http://www.rogermillington.com/tunetoc/index.html

[Mr.Gumby]

Micho also toured Germany during the seventies with a travelling festival. Double lps were made of each year's tour, he is on several. Unfortunately I have lost most of those somewhere along the way, in the early 80s.

amazon has most of them, as CD or download. here's two of them:

Irish Folk Festival 1974

1975







Plenty of 'tapes' in circulation as well.

[straycat82]

It's funny how tastes within one genre can differ so much,
I like some of what Joanie madden has done but
"Song Of the Irish Whistle"
I gave my copy to a charity shop.
I think my vote's going else where.

Agreed. Her playing is well enough but I wouldn't vote for an album so full of synthesizers as the greatest whistle CD (or greatest anything CD for that matter). I saved a few of the digital tracks off it when I ditched the CD years ago but as I found myself skipping most of them when they would come up in the shuffle, I ended up just deleted them from the hard drive. I don't hate her playing but the production was very sappy--like what I'd expect to hear coming from a "world music" kiosk in WalMart or Target.

[Nanohedron]

I don't hate her playing but the production was very sappy--like what I'd expect to hear coming from a "world music" kiosk in WalMart or Target.

I was gifted SOTIW when I was newish to the music but along far enough to be jealous for the Pure Drop and hold definite ideas as to what accompaniments/arrangements least trampled on it. All the same, I have to say that I truly found myself delighted with the Lord Mayo track, over-the-top as it was with its cinematic "Gaels on the High Chaparral" soundtrack quality. Every time I played it, in my head I saw a tense, gripping Western movie clip complete with tumbleweeds, a lone tree by an adobe hut, and a young man - immigrant Irish - who comes home to find his parents hanged - cue the pipes - and rides off to avenge them. Gnarly.

Whatever else you say about it, it is what it is, and I think it was well done.

[amar]

So true Narrowdog; I guess for me, she plays the type of music I can sit down and listen to for awhile. While I can appreciate admire and learn from say Micho Russell, I just can't sit and listen to his CD for more than a couple of tunes at a time and it just doesn't "send" me in the same way. They're both great and probably simplistically put at opposite ends of the spectrum. They're both inspiring (for me) too but again in totally different ways. In the words of my now long gone tae kwondo teacher (Tiger Sang Soo Kim), many different ways.

Philo

A powerful looking fellow that was...




(this is the tae kwondo master, not micho russell)

[PhilO]

Amar - Thank you so much for enhancing an incredible series of memories. He appears quite young in the photo. I remember sparring (well, I was sparring; he was teaching) and never seeing but only feeling what I got hit with. His "show" stuff was cutting the tops of Coke bottles off with his hand (knife hand strike). In person, I have never seen anyone more adept at martial arts or more powerful. An incredible martial artist, may he rest in peace always.

Philo