Take me tender...

[learnthegrip]

Wow, reminds me of the 2011 Southern California Tionól, sitting and listening to this guy, JOBM, tell stories of his early days on the pipes. What a great storyteller he is!

[Paddy Conneely]

Just got word that the 'Take Me Tender' CD is available on CD baby at http://cdbaby.com/cd/jimmyobrienmoran

for anyone who would rather the download.
Best wishes
Paddy Conneely

[ennischanter]

Listened to all the samples. Fecking magical!

[Brazenkane]

A time of frustration in some ways but the best of times in others.

...Hear, Hear!

[Sam L]

As of 4pm Yorkshire time it seems that demand for Jimmy has crashed the entire CDbaby site!

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

Lovely as always, tuning's bang-on. Is that a Colgan chanter, or the Coyne? The liner notes just say Colgan pipes. How's the Reid these days? Haven't gotten the disc yet, just listening to the samples. Looking forward to hearing all of Stad a Rógaire, Stad, is that a piece version of When the Cock Crows? Years ago I made up (gasp!) my own piece version of Paddy O'Rafferty, which was one of the few tunes mentioned as receiving the "piece treatment;" the other was the Gobby O, Breathnach mentioned a handful of tunes treated as such in old manuscripts. It seemed like a formula you could apply to whatever tune, just follow Willie's lead, 3/4, very rubato, graces, runs. Having a print source would be great of course but I've never seen transcriptions of what was in those old manuscripts.

Most of these tunes would be unique to Conneely - tunes that didn't survive in the tradition. I did perk up my ears when I got the NPU DVD with Jim on it and he played Conneely's slip jig Kiss in the Shelter; I learned that from an old record of flute player Tom Morrison, who called it My Old Clay Pipe. Tom was a Galway man himself - played the pipes too.

[Paddy Conneely]

Hi Kevin
It is the old Colgan. Benedict made a very lively reed which died in Boston in 2008 but was retied by Michael O'Donovan at the Minneapolis tionol and hasn't looked back. It has a bark and a croak which is audible on one of the airs. The 'Stad a Rogaire' aka 'When the Cock Crows' has Conneely's 'variations' which are interesting in that they appear to be in the style of divisions - double the number of notes in the bar - this is why the tempo is so slow.
Morrison was great. Ed Geoghegan, the piano player, was having a bad day or simply was unfamiliar with the tunes. Close enough version.

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

Kudos to Ben and Michael!

Geoghegan was Bill Evans compared to some of those guys. Actually the author of the Melodic Traditions of Ireland book made a very good case that pounding out two chords ad nauseum or infinitum is kind of, well, sort of a traditional music thing, innit? His comparison was with the pedal points you hear in things like Hungarian piping. I'm luckily blessed with the ability to just zone out things like that, although the sides of Morrison where he's almost in Eb while PJ Conlon is in D still sting. Or the Sean Dempsey records where he's just out of tune, then in the 10 seconds between that and the next take he tried to retune, resulting in utter chaos.

Try the Morrison record of the Tenpenny Bit, where the lady pounding the ivories held down the damper pedal. Result is sort of one half in the bog and the other half on the astral plane...

[ennischanter]

I saw it said Recommended if you like pipers like Ronan Browne, Seamus Ennis, and Willie Clancy.

Am I the only one who thinks he should add Tommy Reck?

[Paddy Conneely]

"I saw it said Recommended if you like pipers like Ronan Browne, Seamus Ennis, and Willie Clancy."

Ennischanter, do you think it sounds like Tommy Reck? Also, the site only allows three choices...

[An Draighean]

It's now on iTunes; downloading mine at this moment.

[ennischanter]

It's now on iTunes; downloading mine at this moment.

I am going to do that right now!



I just downloaded it, and am listening to the fifth track as of now.


Did Benedict Koehler restore the set?

[Paddy Conneely]

Benedict made the chanter reed quite a few years ago and in 2008 he restored the bass drone which was leaking badly. He also restored another Colgan chanter in ebony which had been badly mauled in the throat and below it. That chanter has a lovely bright sound, quite different to the fruitwood Colgan on the CD.

[PadraigMI]

I received the disc in the mail about two weeks ago.
I've listened to it about a hundred times, no exaggeration.
Very simply, it's great.

[JR]

Fantastic album. So much richness in the music.

I have to say my favourite part so far is the clacking of the back C key during the Flogging Reel. Beautifully idiosyncratic.

Music is spot on, love the interpretation, and as mentioned before, great to hear some 'new' piping tunes.

Also, congratulations on the recording & mastering, it sounds exactly how a piping record shoud.