Sleeve
Notes
"The
singing and playing are so moving, so wonderfully executed
with such technical brilliance and beauty.. that they actually
bring tears to one’s eyes"
Irish Music
Magazine
"Music of fire and brilliance from
the high-wire act in traditional music"
The Irish Times
1. Pheasant Feathers
We first heard this great tune on Scottish harper Wendy Stewart’s
t 992 solo recording, About Time, It was composed in 1989 by Andy
Hornby of Lancaster. We've had a lot of fun with this track and
have used the tune as a basis for several solos - in Chris’s
case improvised; in Máire's case not!
Chris: acoustic
and electric guitars, mandolin, electric bass Máire:
harp Roy: drums
2. The Triplet Horn pipe
Composed by Scottish fiddle-player, composer and dancing-master
James Scott Skinner (1843 1927). Máire found this delightful
and surprisingly little-played tune in The Harp and Claymore,
published by Skinner in 1904.
Máire:
harp Chris: guitar, bouzouki, mandolins
3. Bright Falls the Air
Most musicians get a huge buzz when they get their hands on a new
instrument. Having something with a different sound and feel
is quite an exciting experience and can encourage the player
to try something new. That was certainly the case for Chris a
couple of years ago when he bought a brand new Collings guitar
from our friends at Dusty Strings in Seattle: this composition
was the result. Máire named the tune ‘Bright Falls
the Air' as it reminds her of frosty mornings in early summer...
Chris: guitars
Máire: harp
4. Pé in Éirinn
(Whoe’er she be)
Composed by Liam Dall Ó hlfearnáin (1720 - 1760)
of Shronehill, Co. Tipperary. It’s most probably an allegorical
Jacobite aisling or vision poem (in which, typically, the poet
faints or falls asleep in a wild, remote place and encounters a
beautiful vision-woman with whom he falls instantly in love; she
later reveals herself to be a personification of Ireland and foretells
the coming of a Stuart savior). However, the poet’s use of
the aisling genre may here simply be a device with which to conceal
the deeply felt expression of a secret love. Caitlin Ní Uallacháin
is Liam Dall's’s most famous Jacobite poem - due mainly to
the popularity of J. C. Mangan’s translation, whose anglicised
title Cathleen Ni Houlihan gained wide currency as a synonym for
Ireland.
Please note that the translation provided does not pretend to be
poetic! (It’s difficult accurately to convey a sense of the
highly ornate nature of Liam Dall’s verse...)Máire:
vocals, harp Chris: acoustic guitars, electric bass
5. John Potts, Jig / O’Callaghan’s
Jig
There are a number of versions of both of these tunes. The first
jig is named after uilleann-piper John Potts, grandfather of whistle-player
Seán Potts (formerly of The Chieftains) and great-grandfather
of another Seán Potts, one of the best pipers of the current
generation. The second tune is normally played as a slide - i.e.,
very fast - but we prefer to play it more like a double jig.
Máire:
harp Chris: guitar, octave mandolin
6. Molly St George
This affecting air was composed by harper-composer Thomas Connellan,
who was born c. 1640 in Cloonmahon, Co. Sligo and died some time
after 1717. (He travelled widely in Scotland and was made a Burgess
of the City of Edinburgh in 1717.1 ‘The Dawning of he Day’ is
probably the most famous of his compositions. He and his brother
William were celebrated and prolific composers. According to
harper Denis Hempson, Molly was a Connacht heiress, daughter
of a Colonel St George. She married a Captain Manshear, "a
Munster man of good estate" towards the end of the seventeenth
century.
Máire has created a new setting
of the air - an amalgam of those versions published in John and
William Neal’s Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes
proper for the violin, German flute or hautboy (1726) and in Volume
1 of Edward Bunting's Ancient Music of Ireland (1796).
Maire: harp Nollaig:
fiddle
7. Big Sciota
Chris learnt this pretty old-time tune (also called Big Scioty)
at a session in Seattle a couple of years ago. It’s associated
with the fiddle-playing of Burl Hammons and is named after the
Scioto River, which runs south down the middle of the state of
Ohio to join the Ohio River. We first met Cathy Fink in New Zealand
in 1995 and have always wanted to feature her playing on one
of our recordings, so we’re absolutely delighted to have
managed it this time! She’s as good a frailing banjo player
as you’ll ever hear.
Chris: acoustic
guitars, mandolins, electric bass Máire: harp
Cathy: banjo Roy: drums
8. An Buachaillin Bán (The Fair-haired
Boy)
Máire’s setting of this evocative air is based on
the version that she learnt as a child from her mother’s
copy of Pádraig Breatnach’s Ceol ár Sinsear,
a wonderful collection of songs published in 1913 and long out
of print. Breatnach noted the tune from a Mrs Diarmuid O’Connor
of Sunday’s Well in Cork City, who said she’d learnt
it as a girl “from the old people" He chose to marry
it to a poem entitled "An Buachaillin Bán" which
was written by Éamonn Ó Donochadha, a contemporary
of his own from Carrignavar, Co Cork. Máire used to play
this tune a great deal in the 1970s and it became very popular
among the Irish harpers of the time. She first recorded it on a
compilation album made by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann
in the early 1980s and thought it was time to give it another airing.
Máire:
harp
9. The Lost Summer
July 2006 brought a fantastic spell of warm sunshine. All we saw
of it, though, was from the window of the studio, and by the
time these recordings were completed the leaves were starting
to fall and the barometer was dropping. This composition was
Chris’s attempt to create a make-believe world of swimming
pools and sun loungers. Maybe next year...
Chris: acoustic
guitars, mandolins, electric bass Máire: harp
Nollaig: fiddles Roy: drums
10. Bruach na Carraige Báine (The
Brink of the White Rock)
This is one of a number of interesting songs collected in Munster
by Liam de Noraidh of Kilworth, Co Cork in the 1940s and published
by him in Ceol dn Mumhoin. Máire learnt it as a child: her
mother has had the book (sow our of print) in her possession since
its publication in 1965. De Noraidh noted the song in June 1942
from Dónal Harrington of Adrigole, a beautiful area of the
Beara peninsula in Co Cork Macaronic song is a feature of societies
that are on the point of becoming bilingual and this example, featuring
verses in both Irish and English, probably dates from the nineteenth
century. The verses in English are intended to provide a translation
of the Irish, but in this instance the poet has an uncertain grasp
of what is clearly a language new to him, so Máire has taken
the liberty of partially re-writing them to reflect the meaning
of the Irish words more closely. However, the last line of verse
1 has been toned down a little: what the girl actually says is “Where
do you live’ which, as an opening gambit, is a little bald!
We first recorded a rather mournful version
of the song for our 1991 album Out of Court, but it didn’t
make it onto the final CD. This new interpretation has a contemporary
feel more in keeping with the light- hearted nature of the words.
Máire:
vocals Chris: acoustic guitars, octave mandolin, electric
bass Nollaig: fiddle Roy: drums
11. Ginny’s Waltz
Composed in the 1 980s for his sister Ginny by Chris’s old
friend and playing partner Paul Buckley. Formerly a stalwart of
the Leeds music scene, Paul has been living in Rathmelton, Co Donegal
for many years. We’ve always loved this wistful and haunting
tune and are happy finally to have got around to recording it.
Máire:
harp Chris: acoustic guitars, mandolin, fretless bass
12. Slides
Máire first heard these great tunes played at a session
a few years ago in An Teach Beag, Clonakilty, Co. Cork by her fiddle-playing
sister Mairéad and Mairéad’s regular session-mate,
accordion-player Pat Murphy. Slides and polkas are regularly played
for set-dancing and listening in Counties Cork and Kerry, but rarely
elsewhere in Ireland.
Máire:
harp Chris: mandolin Nollaig: fiddle
13. Reel for a Water-diviner
Máire wrote this tune in honour of her late father, who
numbered the extraordinary ability to find water among his many
talents. We wanted the arrangement to be light-hearted and full
of fun - just as he was.
Máire:
harp Chris: acoustic and electric guitars, mandolins,
electric bass Ray: drums, percussion
|
A
wide variety of music from a 17th century solo harp air to bass-drums-Stratocaster
tracks. A couple of songs, a few sets of traditional dance tunes
and guest appearances from Nollaig Casey (fiddle), Cathy Fink
(banjo) and Roy Whyke (drums & percussion)