20210724CoyneC.WAV

Seamus Ennis-Mrs McGrath

The Ballad Of Ivor Browne (2024 Edit)

Cuckoo 12.30am Conamara

These are part of a series of recordings made by Helen Creighton at the behest of the Smithsonian. All of these tracks are from the singer Angelo Dornan, who lived in Elgin, NB at the time of recording. He was raised in New Brunswick - but spent most of his life in Saskatchewan, farming. When he was a child, he heard both of his parents singing, and it must have made a deep impression on him, as 60 years later, when he retired back to NB he remembered 125 songs that his parents used to sing when he was a child. Most of the repertoire is from Northern Ireland - as that's where his family came from.

Banks of Claudy

Phoebe

From the David Giovannoni Collection, object ID: DG 78 00-181

DG 78 00-181

Flax in Bloom/Bonny Kate (Reels): Seamus Ennis

What's this one called, anybody?  Thanks Preston O'hIomhair: it is The Hare's Paw..!!!
The old brass Denis Harrington pipes playing in C.  Drones reeded but not regs yet.
Chanter is my C from Peter Hunter (early 80s) – full of attitude and spark!
New hollow stock from Bill Haneman with extremely thin walls allowing the bees to escape beautifully.
Update, May 2014:
I just noticed on the chaffing nipple boards that someone thought that thin walled stocks made no difference – ooooooooh, how wrong can you be...!!!
YAY...!!!

Ronan Browne C Harri. The Hare's Paw Reel

Willie Clancy at Friel's bar, Miltown Malbay, February 1972.
From John Knight's Collection, Tape_063

...

I've been working today to restore this old cassette tape recording of Willie Clancy made at Friel's Bar (now Lynch's) in Miltown Malbay back in the 70's. I'm really pleased with the way it's sounding now!

I inherited John's entire collection of tapes, which he made in folk clubs, singarounds and sessions throughout the British Isles back in the day. He left us about 400 of them! They've been sat in a box untouched since he died in the early 80's, but as of about November last year it has become our project to recover his life's work and make it freely available to those of whom it might be of interest.

There is what seems to be an endless stream of gems amongst this collection and the quality is usually quite incredible given the age of the tapes. The cassettes are often degraded to the point they won't play properly, but the tapes themselves are sound so I've been transferring them into new cassette bodies to get the best out the recordings. Most of the recordings are seriously flat and contain a lot of background noise. If someone planted a pint glass on the table next to the recorder the volume spike is several times louder than the music itself! Clapping is always very raucus, etc. So, as part of the recovery process I perform some basic mastering to tidy things up and I re-tune if needed. This recording was out by a whole key!

It's lovely to now hear this set the way it sounded and to be a fly on the wall in that pub. Enjoy!

John Knight's Tapes, Tape_063

Willie Clancy - Recorded by John Knight at Friel's, Miltown Malbay (February 1972)

Mrs W J Murphy 1975 (2)

A recently found recording from the attic of Denis Murphy’s house  in Lisheen Gneeveguilla. Recorded by Seamus Ennis and with introduction by Denis’s wife Julia Mary. Kindly donated to the Archive by Mick Sheehan a nephew of Julia Mary’s who inherited the house .

Ronan Browne C Harri. The Hare's Paw Reel

Ronan Browne

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Preston Howard Wilde

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