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Ten Great Tracks from Contemporary Players
Here, in no particular order, are 10 great moments from great fiddle players of today.
In this jukebox format, you will only be able to listen and NOT download these tracks.
Also note that this player will shuffle tracks, but you can turn that feature off. You may also
click on any title at any time.
Frankie Gavin
From the 1985 album, Anthem, here is James Byrne's and Dinkies. Frankie Gavin on Fiddle. Both Jackie Daly and Martin O'Connor are
listed as accordion players on this album, so I don't know who to credit, but he rocks!
It's tuned up a half step as Frankie often does, and you don't realize how
fast these guys are until you try to play along!
Dezi Donnelly
From the recording Familiar Footsteps. Anything from this recording would be suitable for a top
ten list, but I chose a set with piano accompaniment. The move from one tune to the next, and one key to the next
is a pleasant surprise even after you've heard it a hundred times.
Mick Conneelly
(from Selkie)
For me, Mick Conneelly came literally out of nowhere. I had been receiving "New Issues" of fiddle recordings from
Clo Lar Connachta in Galway. So I opened the package and out came this CD called Selkie from someone I had never
heard of. This set of 2 hornpipes immediately put him on the map for me! The first I suppose is well known through
Killoran, or Morrison, the second I didn't know at all.
Gerry O'Connor
(from Journeyman, 2004)
Like I said about Dezi Donnelly's album above, any track from this CD could go on this list. I chose
this track that opens the album. The bright, bold key of A helps and the power and control Gerry has, combine
let you know this is going to be good!
Here's a quote from Geoff Wallis:
"Journeyman, therefore, arrives as a welcome surprise, a much appreciated confirmation
that O’Connor’s talents remain unsullied, and a reminder that the man remains one of
Ireland’s premier fiddlers. Gerry’s fiddling incorporates both a tone immediately
recognizable by its sheer plangency (in the ‘ringing’ and ‘resonant’ sense) and a
bowing style whose flow at times seems unstoppable." - Geoff Wallis - Irishmusicreview.com
Maeve Donnelly
My friend Matt Ward (great singer)has helped me along the way by always telling me about
fiddlers I "HAD TO HEAR". Maeve Donnelly was one of those names that kept coming up. Matt was right!
My favorite quote about Maeve is from a review:
"She has perfected the art of making the complex sound simple." - Pat Ahern - Irish Examiner
Manus and Seamus McGuire
From Manus McGuire's 2000 release, Saffron and Blue. What can you say about this? The two McGuire brothers starting with a Reavy tune and ending with a perfectly matched
original by Manus. A great combination!
Martin Haye's
(from Under the Moon 1995) What can you say about Martin Hayes that hasn't already been said? If anyone has a right to mess around with tradition
it would be him. Here's two tunes he probably learned as a youngster, imitating the great ceili bands of Clare
and the playing of his father, P.Joe Hayes. In this rendition however, he is really fancy and freewheeling with the bow.
Stuff you don't hear from just any Irish fiddler.
Paddy Glackin
(from In Full Spate, 1994)I can remember the day this recording arrived in a package from Ireland. It was gray and cold and rainy and
I put this on and everything else faded away and was overwhelmed by two words that always come to me when I hear this guy play; power, and clarity.
This is the last track of the album.
Shane McAleer
What I DON'T know about Shane McAleer could fill a book, but I DO know that he played on two Dervish recordings, Harmony Hill and
At The End of The Day. Before Tom Morrow and Seamus O'Dowd, but after Martin McGinley.
In any case, the first time I heard this set Dervish calls, "The Touching Cloth" I had to play it over and over.
I know the opening reel as, "The Roscommon Reel"
Tommy Peoples
Tommy gets better all the time! From the album, The Quiet Glenn(1999)?
Here's Tommy's liner notes:
"The first tune I named after my first cousin, Patrick Peoples, affectionately known as "Black Pat",
due to his hair colour in his younger days, not his temperament. At all times he shows great heart.
Tom Hegarty a lovely fiddle player, who played with the Kilfenora Ceili Band,
always played this tune, Bonny Kate in C, as I do here. I dedicate this tune to my
first grandchild, Roisin Kate."
So that's it!
Yeah, I know, where's Cathal Hayden? Oisin MacDiarmada? The Kane sisters? James Kelly?
John Carty? Both fiddlers in Altan.......umm yeah this list can go on.
They'll all have to be in 10 Great Moments Volume 2!