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PACKIE DOLAN |
highland fling Lasses of Donnybrook  Gearrchailí Dhomhnac' Broc flaing ghaidhealac'
hornpipe The First of May An gCéad Lá na Bhealtine cornphíopa
reel Mullin's Fancy Rogha Uí Mhaoláin ríl
reels The Irish Girl, The Blue Breeches An Cailín Gaelac', Na Brístí Gorm ríleanna
reels The Lady of the House, Ballinasloe Fair Bean an Tí, Aonac' Bhéal Átha na Slua ríleanna
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MICHAEL COLEMAN |
reel Trim the Velvet Maisig' an Veilbhit ríl
set dance The Blackbird An Lon Dubh rince leithleach
reels Dr. Gilbert's, The Queen of May An Dochtúir Gilibeart, Banríon Bhealtine ríleanna
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PADDY KILLORAN Pride of Erin Orchestra |
reels Sligo Maid's Lament, Malloy's Favorite xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
jigs Lucky Penny, Coach Road to Sligo xxxxxxxxxxx poirt
reel Maud Miller, Dublin Lassies' Reel, The Maids Of Galway xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
jigs McPaddin's Favorite, Mist on the Meadow, Jerry Donovan's Favorite xxxxxxxxxxx poirt
hornpipes Sweeps, Fly by Night, ?Heirloom, ? xxxxxxxxxxx cornphíopa
jigs The Girls of Bainbridge, Coleman's Cross xxxxxxxxxxx poirt
jig Cherish the Ladies xxxxxxxxxxx port
reels The Mason's Apron, Langton's Favorite xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
reels Farrel O'Gara, The Silver Spire xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
reels Dwyer's Favorite, The Star of Munster xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
reels Drowsy Maggie, Toss the Feathers xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
reels The Boys of Ballysodare, Five Mile Chase xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
polkas Memories of Ballymote, Gurteen Cross Polkas xxxxxxxxxxx polcaí
reels Down the Broom, The Gatehouse Maid xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
hornpipes O'Donnell's Hornpipe, Maguire's Fiddle xxxxxxxxxxx cornphíopa
highland flings Killarney Wonder (Shannon's Favorite), Highland Bonnet xxxxxxxxxxx flaing ghaidhealac'
jigs Leitrim Jig, Rambling Pitchfork xxxxxxxxxxx poirt
reels The Enchanted Lady, The Holy Land xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
jigs The Gold Ring, Haste to the Wedding xxxxxxxxxxx poirt
barn dances Gannon's, If There Weren't Any Women in the World xxxxxxxxxxx rince
reels Paddy on the Turnpike (Bunch of Keys), Collier's xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
polkas Return of Spring (Decca), Jim Ryan's Fancy xxxxxxxxxxx polcaí
hornpipes Gannon's Favorite, Shoreham xxxxxxxxxxx cornphíopa
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JAMES MORRISON |
jigs Kitty's Wedding, The Rambler xxxxxxxxxxx poirt
reels Irish Girl, Musical Priest, Wellington's xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
hornpipes The Showman's Fancy, The Landmark xxxxxxxxxxx cornphíopa
barndance The Curlew Hills, Peach Blossoms xxxxxxxxxxx rince sciobóil
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HUGH GILLESPIE |
reels Master Crowley's xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
mazurka Irish Mazurka xxxxxxxxxxx masúrca
waltz Versevanna xxxxxxxxxxx xxxx
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JOHNNY DOHERTY |
highland scottische Highland Scottische xxxxxxxxxxx albanac'
slip jig Gusty's Frolics xxxxxxxxxxx portluasca
mazurka An Old Donegal Mazurka xxxxxxxxxxx masúrca
reel Trim the Velvet xxxxxxxxxxx ríl
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PATSY TOUHEY |
reels Steampacket, Morning Star xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
reels Drowsey Maggie, Scotch Mary, Flogging xxxxxxxxxxx ríleanna
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ED REAVY |
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PACKIE DOLAN (1904-1932) Fiddle, singer, dancer, band-leader. (Pacaí Ó'Dubhshláin, "black defiance")
Born at Aghadowry (Achadh Dúire, the hard field), parish of Killoe (Cill Eo, church of the yew) near Ballinamuck (Béal Átha na Muc, ford-mouth of the pigs and site where the French army in aid of the United Irishmen were defeated in the 1798 Rebellion), Co. Longford. map of Packie Dolan's tír dhúchais Dolan was a young and key figure in the 1920s traditional Irish recording and entertainment scene in New York, dying tragically at the age of 28. Packie was the eldest of nine children. His father John was a farmer and fiddler who taught Packie to play. Dolan's region of Longford was steeped in the music. World War I took a terrible toll on the Dolans, and so his parents--John and Catherine--were forced to assist the emigration of their eldest children to United States--eventually, seven of the nine had to leave their native country. Packie left home at age 15, with his sister, Veronica Rose, age 13. They set out by boat from Liverpool in December of 1919. An aunt living in New York took them in, and helped them to complete their high school education. Two musicians that had preceded Dolan's emigration to New York--Frank Quinn and John Clarke--came from the area. As did Paddy Reynolds, who came to New York years after Dolan had established himself. Fiddles and flutes were most common to Longford, but uilleann pipes, tin whistle, accordion, concertina and singing were part of it too. Frank Quinn, John Clarke, Packie Dolan and Paddy Reynolds are the noted Longford fiddlers that would make New York City their home. In 1925, Packie married Briggetta Gaffney, also from Longford, but she tragically diedd one year later of pneumonia. Packie played music at night, and was a plumber by day, and at one point a chauffeur. He was known for his jovial personality, good looks, and fiddling prowess. Dolan recorded for Victor, cutting at least 24 sides in 6 sessions over 22 months . He performed several duets with Michael Coleman, having started his recording career with a duet on Brunswick in 1927. Dolan's first solo album was released by Colombia. Dolan formed "Packie Dolan and the Melody Boys" in 1928, a band which included fiddle master Hugh Gillespie, for the Ballroom circuit. Their style and instrument combination of fiddle, whistle, bones and bodhrán were a major influence on Seán Ó Riada's Ceoltóirí Chualann , and subsequently the Chieftains. He also recorded and performed vaudeville pieces style songs but avoided stage Irish forms, then popular. On one such song "Mother Malone" he sings, dances, incorporates himself into the lyrics and plays fiddle.In 1929 he was able to make an unusual return visit to Ireland for two months, by booking his band as ship's entertainment. He became an American citizen in 1930 and married, in 1931, Marguerite Finneran, from Roscommon. The Wall Street crash in October 1929 and the Depression which followed killed off the Irish recording industry for a time, and so Packie Dolan had to return to his day trade, plumbing. He and his new wife were scheduled to emigrate back to Ireland in 1932, upon the birth of Marjorie, their daughter. These plans were ended when Packie Dolan was killed in an explosion at the age 28. As a plumber, Dolan was working a job on Riker's Island, when the boiler on the ferryboat taking workmen to the building site exploded on the third run across the East River that morning. 125 men were on board, 68 died, including Packie Dolan, a new groom, young father, and revered musician. Packie Dolan's music was released by Harry Bradshaw on his VivaVoce label in 1994, entitled "The Forgotten Fiddle Player of the 1920s." |
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MICHAEL COLEMAN (1891-1945) Fiddle, step dancer. (Mícheál Ó'Clúmháin, “feather of the dove”)
Born at Knockgrania (Cnoc na Gréine, hill of the sun) or Kilavil (Cill Abhail, ) in what is today known as Tír Uí Chúlmáin--Coleman Country--in the parish of Drumrat (Drom Raite, squealing hillock), barony of Corran (An Corann, the weir, a low dam), near Ballymote (Baile an Mhóta, hamlet of the mound), Co. Sligo, (Slígeac‘, place seashells). map of Michael Coleman's tír dhúchais. In 1974, a monument was erected at Mount Irwin (Sliabh ‘Irbhin), near Michael Coleman’s birthplace. Michael Coleman’s family was musical. His father James was a well-respected flute-player from near the Sligo border at Banada (Beannada, Peak) Co. Roscommon (Ros Comáin, wood of the learned Comán) played flute. The Coleman family settled in his mother Beatrice “Beesey” Gorman’s Knockgrania birthplace. His older brother Jim taught Michael to play, for which the younger always claimed the elder the better fiddler. Jim was regarded in Kilavil as a master fiddler, though he never recorded. Michael was born a twin, though only he survived, and the seventh in a large family. The Coleman home was known as Jamesy Coleman’s Music Hall in a locality already famed for its fiddle tradition. Michael attended house dances all over the area, and soaked up the rich musical styles associated with Philip O'Beirne, P.J. McDermott and later John O'Dowd. Michael Coleman was greatly influenced by uileann pipers, including the traveling Johnny Gorman from Derrylahan (Doire Leathan, broad oak wood) Co. Mayo (Maigh Eo, plain of the yew). Coleman is noted for his incorporation of piping techniques into his fiddle sound. Coleman competed at the Sligo Feis Ceoil in 1909 and in 1910, placing, incredibly, a joint third on both occasions. He left school at the age of 17. Coleman emigrated for a brief stint to England where his older brother Pat lived in Manchester. He returned to Ireland and then at the age of 23, emigrated to New York, with his friend John Hunt. In 1917, Coleman married Marie Fanning from Co. Monaghan, and had one child with her, Mary (now Mary Hannon). He quickly developed a vibrant music career. He began on vaudeville, performing at Keith Theatres, a traveling act, playing venues across the States. Coleman’s first record on the Shannon label was made in 1921, and later he recorded for Vocation. He was on the radio almost daily and recorded prolifically, touring American cities with substantial Irish communities. During the 1920s and 1930s, Coleman would go on to make approximately 80 recordings with major labels. The last to be published were in 1936, with a series made in 1944, never released. Coleman's records were to have a major impact on traditional Irish music. The records became must-have items back in Ireland, and were to exercise an influence on musicians throughout his life and forever afterwards. When the Irish recording industry collapsed in the Great Depression, Coleman continued his work as a teacher, and attempted to set up with fiddler Tommy Cawley, a school for Irish music in 1937. Coleman died at the age of 54, in Knickerbocker hospital, Manhattan, 1945. He is buried in St. Raymond's Cemetry in the Bronx. |
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PADDY KILLORAN (1904-1932) Fiddle, band-leader. (Paidí Mac Giolla Luaighrinn, "son of Luaighreann's devotee")
Born at x (x, x), parish of x(x, x) near x (x, x), Co. Donegal (Tír Chonaill, Land of Conal). (a href="">map of Packie Dolan's tír dhúchais Paddy Killoran Born at Emlagation near Ballymote, Co. Sligo. He emigrated to New York in 1925. where for several years he ran a successful bar at 138th Street in the Bronx. He remained a stalwart of the New York Irish scene all his life and is credited with having composed many standard session tunes such as The Maid Of Mont Cisco. His duets with the Sligo fiddler Paddy Sweeney are regarded as benchmark recordings (Tr.3, CD4) and his Pride Of Erin Orchestra (houseband of the Pride of Erin Ballroom) played live broadcasts on WBBC in Brooklyn for several years. |
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JAMES MORRISON (1904-1932) Fiddle, band-leader. (Paidí Mac Giolla Luaighrinn, "son of Luaighreann's devotee")
Born at x (x, x), parish of x(x, x) near x (x, x), Co. Donegal (Tír Chonaill, Land of Conal). (a href="">map of Packie Dolan's tír dhúchais James "Jimmy" Morrison Born in 1891 at Drumfin near Riverstown, Co.Sligo, Morrison was an enthusiastic and accomplished dancer and showed great promise on the fiddle at an early age. According to another famous Sligo fiddler Michael Gorman, there were four local musicians of great reputations who were a big influence in his formative years: Jamesy Gannon, Thomas Kilmartin, Pat Mannion and Kipeen Scanlon, all of whom had learned from the doyen of Sligo fiddlers - Blind Tom Healy from Grayfort. In the early 20s he emigrated to Boston where he lived with his brother Tom while working nights in a hotel. Shortly after he moved to Brooklyn, New York where he became a regular on many of the 26 local radio stations broadcasting Irish music at the time. Like all the other major Irish American musicians he recorded many sides for a variety of labels and was often compared to Michael Coleman in terms of technique and influence. In his excellent booklet Michael Coleman, 1891-1945", Harry Bradshaw tells us that Morrison and Coleman were boyhood friends in which case each was probably a major influence on the other. Despite rumours that they didn't get on, another great fiddler Lad O'Beirne, the accordion player Tom Carmody and Coleman's daughter Mary Hannon all insisted that the two fiddlers were great friends and had tunes together whenever possible both in public and in private. By the time the Depression hit, Morrison's reputation was solid enough for the record companies to make an exception and continue recording him. However, as times got harder sales hit an all-time low and he was forced to go back to working a day job. Another Jim Morrison (son of the Galway flute player Tom Morrison) reported that he used to see his namesake, the fiddler, working as a "ticket agent on the NY subways. He lived on W96th Street where he gave fiddle lessons to the Irish kids in the neighbourhood". He died in 1947 in the same hospital where Coleman had passed on two years earlier. By a strange coincidence the two fiddle masters and boyhood friends are buried in the same graveyard - St. Raymond's Cemetry in the Bronx. (3 May 1893 - 1947) was a traditional Irish musician known at the Professor who was a notable fiddle player in the "South Sligo style". Morrison was born in 1893 near Riverstown, County Sligo at the townland of Drumfin. Morrison grew up in a community steeped in traditional Irish culture especially music and at the age of 17 he was employed by the Gaelic League to tutor the Connacht style of step dancing at the Gaelic League school in County Mayo.[1][2] In 1915, at the age of 21, he emigrated to America and settled in New York. In 1918, Morrison won the fiddle competition at the New York Feis. Morrison become associated with other leading Irish musicians such as Michael Coleman, Paddy Killoran who were also from County Sligo. Morrison was one of the leading Irish music teachers in New York in the 1930s and '40s. In addition to the fiddle, he could play the flute and button accordion (and wrote a tutor on the latter) and taught hundreds of young Irish-American students to play traditional music on various instruments. The Influence of James Morrison on Irish Traditional Music Many influences have undoubtedly contributed to the development of Irish traditional music over the past two hundred years, but when the history of this music in the twentieth century is written, the contribution made by the musicians of County Sligo will have a special place of mention. For it was in the southern part of this county that a unique fiddle style emerged in the late nineteenth century which dominated other styles of Irish music for many years and played a major role in influencing the way Irish music is played to the present day. Foremost amongst the musicians who spearheaded this style of playing and gained acclaim by his recordings was a young emigrant from the Ballymote area of Sligo called James Morrison. Many tunes played by Irish musicians are simply called 'Morrison's', an indication of the influence his records had on the last generation. His music has now become part of the standard repertoire with present day musicians like Frankie Gavin, Charlie Lennon and many others, bringing Morrison's music to an ever-growing audience. The Influence of James Morrison on Irish Traditional Music Many influences have undoubtedly contributed to the development of Irish traditional music over the past two hundred years, but when the history of this music in the twentieth century is written, the contribution made by the musicians of County Sligo will have a special place of mention. For it was in the southern part of this county that a unique fiddle style emerged in the late nineteenth century which dominated other styles of Irish music for many years and played a major role in influencing the way Irish music is played to the present day. Foremost amongst the musicians who spearheaded this style of playing and gained acclaim by his recordings was a young emigrant from the Ballymote area of Sligo called James Morrison. Many tunes played by Irish musicians are simply called 'Morrison's', an indication of the influence his records had on the last generation. His music has now become part of the standard repertoire with present day musicians like Frankie Gavin, Charlie Lennon and many others, bringing Morrison's music to an ever-growing audience. Back to the Morrison Story index His Recordings Apart from the few remaining people who heard James Morrison play, his followers today can only appreciate his music through the impressive body of recordings he left behind, eighty- four sides made between 1921 and 1936. On these we hear a supreme artist among traditional fiddlers with an undisputed mastery of the bow coupled with drive, sense of rhythm within a tune, great attack, impeccable taste, and an overall feeling of propulsion and excitement. As well as his solo fiddle records, Morrison made a number of impressive duet recordings with the leading players of his day, and these have seldom been surpassed for their musicality and rapport. The growing commercialisation of Irish music in New York in the late 1920's, led Morrison to form his own band, and with it he played for dancers on the ballroom circuit there for many years. Recordings of this band display a particular freshness and exuberance, qualities which still have an immediate appeal fifty years after the records were made. After initial attempts in 1899, the first serious effort to make authentic commercial recordings of Irish traditional music in America was made in September 1916, when Eddie Herborn and James Wheeler recorded accordion and banjo duets for Ellen O'Byrne De Witt on behalf of the Columbia company. By 1921 several small independent record labels had come into existence to serve the emerging Irish record-buying market, catered for until then chiefly by the Edison, Victor and Columbia companies. It was for one of the independent labels, The M. & C. New Republic Irish Record Company, that Jim Morrison made his first record in New York in 1921. The Provincial Hornpipes and Gardiner's Reels were the titles recorded. Although it is a pre-electric record, made before the great improvements in sound recording in 1925, it gives us a unique opportunity to hear the young Morrison's earliest recordings where he plays with confidence and style. The Gaelic Phonograph Co. recorded two further sides, and then Jim was asked to team up with Chicago-born piper Tom Ennis to record duets, the first selection being released on the New Republic and the second on the Vocalion label in 1922. The pair also made a test recording in June of that year for Columbia, which was rejected, but six weeks later the recording was remade and released. The combination of Ennis and Morrison with John Muller on piano was obviously popular, as four subsequent sessions yielded nine sides for Columbia between November 1922 and April 1923, bringing the total of duet recordings they made to fifteen. Apart from his duets, Jim continued recording as a solo player, cutting discs for the Okeh and Gennett labels between 1922 and 1924. Jim had also taken a job at the Morningside Music Shop on 120th Street where in September 1925 he met a young emigrant from Dromlacht, Co. Kerry, the accordion player Tom Carmody. The pair struck up an immediate musical association and the closeness of playing on the records they later made is remarkable. They also became firm friends, their friendship lasting up to Morrison's death. In March 1926 Jim recorded his first session as a solo fiddle player for the Columbia company, confirming his position as one of the leading Irish musicians of the day. With accompaniment on piano by Claire Reardon, this session produced vintage Morrison tracks like the reel The Flax in Bloom, and the jigs The Lark in the Morning and The Wandering Minstrel. From that same session came the airs The Glen of Aherlow and Master McGrath. These recordings show Morrison's skills to the full as a 'violinist', Jim's command and skill on the instrument allowed him to play in keys which were regarded as unusual and difficult and avoided by most of his fellow fiddle players. One of the most enduring legacies of Jim Morrison's music is a series of duets he recorded around this time which are still regarded as some of the finest in Irish music. In February 1928 he joined forces with the Leitrim flute player John McKenna who came from the same area as his maternal grandfather, and a stream of classic fiddle/flute duets followed. A rarity amid these discs is a duet where Jim plays tin whistle to McKenna's flute. Though Jim was undoubtedly a better fiddler than whistle player, the track is nevertheless interesting and is the only known recording of Morrison playing an instrument other than the fiddle. The Morrison memorial at Drumfin. It consists of the original milestone, which was located outside his house. The milestone was the inspiration for one of his most famous tunes, "The milestone at the Garden", as is seen on the memorial inscription shown below. A year later, in February 1929, Jim recorded with Michael Carney with whom he had lodged in Brooklyn eleven years earlier. From a family of pipers in Dunmacreena near Irishtown, in Co. Mayo, Carney had come to America in 1880. He became paralyzed from the waist down and played his pipes in a wheelchair. A month before this recording was made, Jim had been in the Columbia studio with the accordion player P.J.Conlon who hailed from near the village of Milltown in Co. Galway. The pair recorded two sides together. It is a great pity that the two giants of this age, Coleman and Morrison, never made a recording together that we know of. It has been suggested that jealousy and acrimony existed between the two, but the opposite seems to have been the case as attested by Tom Carmody and Hughie Gillespie who knew both men well. Perhaps the strongest denial of ill feeling between them came from Michael Coleman's daughter Mary Hannan. She had this to say: "No, no, that's not true! People said that, but it wasn't true. They were great friends and got along fine together. And James Morrison was in my house many many times, and him and my father would play music together, sure, all the time". The James Morrison band first recorded in 1929 and the session yielded perhaps Jim's most bizarre recording "Rambles Through Ireland". Parts 1 and 2 is a musical travelogue using a contrived script to link various popular tunes of the day around the hornpipe The Stack of Barley. Tightly and cleverly arranged and well played, this piece of stage Irishness must be seen in the context of the time from which it came. Jim seems to have disassociated himself from the record and, instead of using his name, Columbia credited the performers as The Wandering Minstrels. A point of particular interest today about Jim's recordings is the great variety of tune types he used. With the reel predominant over all other types today, it is worth noting that Jim's records reflect the wide range of rhythms popular in his time, with reels, jigs, hornpipes, polkas, barndances, airs, waltzes, schottisches, set-dances and two-steps being played. David Lyth, in his book Bowing Styles in Irish Fiddle Playing, published in 1981, presents an analysis of Morrison's intricate bowing. Much of the music played and recorded by Morrison appears to have come from the written collections available at the time like O'Neill's and Cole's. Scottish tunes seem to have had an attraction for Morrison and among his recorded selections are hornpipes, reels and strathspeys from the Scottish repertoire. Apart from written music, Jim also absorbed music from the musicians he played with and appears to have been always receptive to a good tune. Tom Carmody tells this story: "Jim was up at my house the night before we were to go to the studio, and I played him this jig. Jim asked me where I had got it from and I told him it was my father's jig called "The Stick Across the Hob". Jim asked me to play it again and he wrote it down as I played, then he got the fiddle and played it off. "I will put that on record tomorrow", he said, and we'll call it Maurice Carmody's Favourite". One of the remaining unsolved mysteries of Jim Morrison's recordings is the unidentified second fiddle player on his later discs. Free as a Bird is a good example, where a skilled fiddler plays a delicate complementary part on this intricate tune. The final recording sessions by Jim's band, called on record The James Morrison Instrumental Quartet, took place in the Columbia studio with producer Sandor Porges in January and April 1936. The line-up was Jim and Tom Carmody, with Tom Banks on piano and Italian-born Martin Christi on guitar and banjo. A wide variety of solo fiddle tunes and band tracks was recorded, ranging from the commercial-sounding Wreck of the 99 to fiddle tracks like The Turnpike and Maurice Carmody's Favourites which show Morrison's fiddle playing at its exciting best. Jim's final commercial recording, the reels McFadden's and The Blackberry Blossom, was made with an almost 'swing' backing on 14 April 1936 Jackie Roach, James Morrison and Paddy Sweeny New York circa 1938 Back to the Morrison Story index The Early Years James Charles Morrison was born on 3 May 1893 at Drumfin, a townland on the Sligo-Dublin road near the town of Collooney. The house in the foreground stands on the exact spot where the Morrison Family home once stood. The birthplace of James Morrison. A short distance from the Morrison Memorial. His people had been in that part of Co. Sligo for a century and a half. His grandfather, Pat Morrison, farmed thirteen acres in Drumfin in the 1850's, and Pat's son Frank, James' father, also farmed while making his main living as a builder and carpenter. Frank married Margaret Dolan from Lackagh, the next townland, in 1879, and James, known as Jim, was the second youngest of their eleven children, five girls and six boys. It is said that music came to Jim and his brothers principally from their mother's people the Dolans. Jack Dolan, Jim's grandfather came originally from Drumkeerin in Co. Leitrim, an area noted for its musicians and dancers. These skills were passed on to Jack's son Charlie Dolan, the "returned Yankee', who was the dancing master in the area and Charlie taught dancing to his nephews the young Morrison boys. Charlie Dolan's house in Lackagh was a well known meeting place for dancers and musicians and it was here that Jim and his brothers had their introduction to the music of the area. It was in this house also that Jim met a boy of his own age who took occasional dancing lessons from Charlie when on visits to his aunt nearby. This boy was Michael Coleman from Knockgrania near Killavil,Co. Sligo. All that remains of Charlie Dolan's house in Lackagh is now "but a stone upon a stone". This is where the young Jim Morrison and his brothers had their first introduction to the music and dancing of the areat The Morrison children attended Kilmorgan school where the local priest, Father Bernard Creehan, recognising the boys' musical talent, encouraged them with lessons and instruction in reading and writing music. Jim's brothers Tom and John were particularly musical and played flute and fiddle. It was on Tom's concert flute that the young Jim made his first tentative efforts in music. When he reached the age of thirteen, Jim's parents gave him a fiddle as a present. His sister Ann later recalled to her son Kevin Quigley that; "in the middle of the night, he would wake up with a tune in his head and he'd get up and practice it over and over, keeping the rest of the house awake. At times, he had to play the fiddle under the bedclothes so as not to annoy the rest of the family." Back to the Morrison Story index Early Influences Young Jim Morrison did not have far to look to find musical inspiration and encouragement around Drumfin. House dances in his uncle's home in Lackagh and at their neighbours, the Mulligans, were where good music was most often heard. It was common for two house dances to be held in one townland on the same night and a dance was not considered a success unless the best players attended. The noted musicians of those days are still remembered in Drumfin today. Fiddle players like Ned Killeen of Ballymote and the Sheerin brothers from Riverstown. There was also Paddy McHugh from Freehen, Tom Conlon, Dennis O'Connor, and Batt Henry, the schoolteacher from Emlanaughten. Occasionally a melodeon was heard, but the instrument most popular after the fiddle was the concert flute, with players like Peter Bereen from Ballymote; Brian Luby; Mr. Gilroy; and the man remembered as the finest flute player in the area, Willie Snee from Carrowcusacly, a nearby townland. Younger players closer to the Morrisons' age were John Joe Gardiner from Corhubber; Barney Conlon, a fiddler from Geevagh who would later make records in America; and, on occasional visits, the young Michael Coleman. Apart from these players, two musicians in particular were said to have had a major influence on Jim's early music. Tom Johnston was one. A noted fiddle player from Drumfin Cross, he put great emphasis on technique and the importance of good tone production. The other was Johnny Gorman, the blind travelling uilleann piper, who visited Drumfin every year. In the area he was kept for periods up to a month in Mulligan's of Coolteen, where "people from miles around used gather to hear him play."' Jim's ability to write music brought him to the attention of the piper, who took a special interest in his progress. It is remembered that as Jim's fiddle playing improved, he and Johnny would play together for hours on end, much to the delight of all. James Joseph Mulligan stands beside the old Mulligan household at Coolteen/Lackagh where James Morrison played music in his youth. It was in this house that the blind piper Johnny Gorman taught the young Morrison many tunes. (Note the plaster line on the gable of the shed. This was the line of the original thatch on the single story dwelling house.) The role played by Johnny Gorman, or Jack the Piper as he was also known, in spreading music throughout North-West Connacht was considerable. From the townland of Derrylahan on the Roscommon-Mayo border, he was a well known figure at the turn of the century, playing his pipes in music houses and at fairs in these counties as well as throughout neighbouring Leitrim and Sligo. By all accounts, Gorman was a highly respected and accomplished piper. In 1902, he made what must have been the arduous journey to Dublin to win the Feis Ceoil piping competition. Two years later he was awarded first prize in piping at the Oireachtas, but the hardships and gruelling life of a travelling piper finally overtook him in 1917 when he died tragically and was buried in a pauper's grave in Co. Leitrim. Johnny Gorman left his stamp on the repertoire and style of music played in this region, particularly in the Ballymote area and its surroundings. By taking 'the near cut' over Cloonagashel, Ballymote was four miles from Jim Morrison's home and he is known to have often played at dances in the area. Musicians abounded around Ballymote at this time, and in particular the neighbourhoods of Bunnanadden, Doocastle, and Gurteen were especially rich in fiddle players. Back to the Morrison Story index Morrison's Early Career When Jim Morrison left Kilmorgan school about the age of fifteen, prospects for him in the Sligo of 1908 were bleak. The Morrison children were remembered as good scholars, "grand smart people and good dancers". Mary, the eldest, had emigrated to America in 1900, and over the following years she assisted her brothers and sisters to follow her in search of a better way of life. Pat, the eldest boy, became a policeman and served for four years in the Royal Irish Constabulary in counties Monaghan and Clare before leaving for America in 1907. In fact two of Jim's other brothers also joined the RIC. A local account tells that Jim also may have tried to become a policeman. Patrick Madden, a son of Jim's cousin, remembered his mother telling of Jim sitting the entrance examination in Sligo and on his second attempt being called to the force in 1911. The documents, which would have confirmed if Jim had in fact applied to become a policeman, do not exist, having been destroyed when the R.I.C disbanded in 1922. However, Jim's life and career followed a completely different course. He decided to follow in the footsteps, literally, of his Uncle Charlie Dolan and became a dancing master. This came about with the help of Jim's old friend Father Creehan, now an official of the Gaelic League, the movement for the revival of Irish language and culture which was then sweeping the land. The 1911 prospectus for the League's Irish language college in Tourmakeady, Co. Mayo, lists the teaching staff and includes these lines: Seamus Morrison of Drumfin, who teaches the best tradition of Irish dancing. And so at the age of seventeen, Jim became a youthful dancing master. The League's colleges were then in their infancy, with classes being held only through the Summer months. For the remainder of the year Jim earned his living as a dancing master around Drumfin, and when no pupils were available, he worked as a farm labourer for wages of eighteen pence a day. Father Creehan took Jim's career a step further in January 1912 when he assisted the young dancing master to begin dancing lessons in Sligo town, with Jim announcing himself in the local newspaper as Professor Morrison, the name by which he would become known many years later in America. He also became a member of the Ballymote branch of the Gaelic League and was soon a fluent Irish speaker, and this led later in 1912 to his being appointed "muinteoir taistil" or a travelling teacher of Irish and dancing. Employed by the League and based in the Co. Leitrim town of Manorhamilton, he travelled a circuit of schools and halls in the district, instructing up to two hundred children and adults. Taking lodgings in Manorhamilton, Jim worked in the area for two years, but managed to keep up musical contact with his friends around home, regularly cycling the eighteen miles of punishing mountain roads to spend musical weekends with John Joe Gardiner and his sister Kathleen in Corhubber. On one such visit he was introduced at a house dance to Teresa Flynn of Knockadalteen who would later follow him to America and become his wife. His first known appearance as a fiddle player was in St. Claire's Hall, Manorhamilton, where the concert programme advertised that Mr. Morrison will give exhibitions of Irish dancing in his own masterly manner. He is also to sing and contribute violin selections. Jim's first major success as a fiddle player came in April 1915 when he won the senior fiddle competition at the Sligo Feis Ceoil. His prize was ten shillings. The liner fare from Queenstown to Boston was £5. Back to the Morrison Story index The Emmigrant Trail In 1915, at the age of twenty-two, he sailed for America. Five of Jim's brothers and sisters were already in Boston, and on arrival he settled in the home of his married sister Margaret, in the suburb of Peabody. His first job was in a shoe factory but he soon found a position with better prospects in the Essex Hotel on Dewey Square. His brothers Tom and John were prospering in Boston and had their own band. Tom, as well as playing the flute, had now taken up the uilleann pipes and was also a dancing teacher. But Jim's stay in Boston was to be a brief one. In 1918, Teresa Flynn followed him to America and settled with her brother in New York. Jim moved there and got lodgings in the home of Michael Carney the piper who lived in the Navy Yard district of Brooklyn. This area had a large Irish community with many fine musicians who regularly got together for sessions in Carney's basement. Jim heralded his arrival in fine style by winning the New York Feis in November 1918. Prospects were obviously good and in the following April, Teresa and he were married in New York. Morrison could not have picked a better time to arrive in New York as the city was teeming with Irish musicians of extraordinary ability. Michael Coleman, Patsy Touhey, P.J. Conlon, Tom Ennis, John McKenna, and many more would leave their stamp on Irish music for many years to come. Back to the Morrison Story index Morrison in New York Jim had also begun to teach music, and one of his early pupils was Paddy Killoran who had arrived from Ballymote in the early 1920s. Paddy also lodged in the Morrison household, and within a few years the two were playing professionally as a fiddle duet around New York, but sadly, they do not seem to have recorded together. The opportunities open to Irish musicians in New York in these years were many, with an almost insatiable demand for good musicians in the bars, restaurants, clubs and ballrooms frequented by the large emigrant population. There was also a constant demand by the record companies and, by the early 1930s, no fewer than twenty-two radio stations broadcast programmes for the Irish audience in Greater New York. Orchestras were the fashion of the day so Jim formed 'The James Morrison Band' with Tom Carmody on accordion and a pool of other players whom Jim called on to suit the occasion and venue. Somewhat unusually, Jim decided to add a second fiddle to his line-up and although many would have welcomed the opportunity to play in this prestigious band, he offered the job to a little-known Sligo fiddler whom he heard playing at a party in 1928. This man was John Donagher from Carrigeenboy who, although flattered by the offer, turned the job down as he had married the year previously and needed steady work. Paddy Killoran, who led one of the most popular bands in later years, would seem to have been the obvious choice as Jim's second fiddle player, but unfortunately the two musicians had parted company over a difference of opinion. Back to the Morrison Story index From 1930 to 1947 By the early 1930, Jim's career was at its height, but his marriage was not having the same success. Teresa and Jim had five children. Margaret, James Jnr ., Vincent and Aileen. They temporarily separated around 1930 when Jim shared an apartment with his friend and one-time pupil, the Mayo musician John McGrath. The couple reunited and a sixth child, Sheila, was born, but, sadly, she died in infancy. Another daughter Theresa was born afterwards, but the couple parted permanently in the mid- 1930s. Teresa and the children lived on Columbus Avenue while Jim lived in various apartments around the 96th Street district from where he carried on his music teaching. Morrison was regarded as a highly intelligent and widely read man. He kept his faculties sharp by sitting various state examinations, simply it seems for the challenge of doing so. His success rate was supposedly high, but he never accepted any of the positions he had won. As word of Jim's achievements in examinations spread, candidates for similar tests came to him for tuition and his reputation in the educational and musical fields led to his being known among New York musicians as "The Professor" as he had been in his youth in Sligo. Jim was much sought after as a music teacher, giving instruction on the fiddle, flute, banjo, and accordion. Joe Cunningham, a former pupil says: "He wasn't an expert on all these instruments but he could sure show you how to play them." Joe Cunningham also remembers some of the puzzles and stories, which were given to him by James Morrison, such as: 1. If this and that, plus half of this and half of that equals 12, what plus this and that makes 15? Answer 2. Punctuate: That that is is that that is not is not is that not so Answer Jim Morrison told the following story to Joe Cunningham in 1929. Bart Henry was the master at a school where Jim Morrison attended. He had a very flowery command of the English language. A neighboring woman gave a tea party one afternoon and had Mr. Bart Henry as guest of honour. She made sweet cake for the occasion. All the guests partook of the cake, except for the honoured guest. The hostess asked him 3 times why he was not eating the cake. I don't remember what the first two answers were, but I will never forget the third answer, as Jim told me during one of our lessons in 1929. He said , "Madam, the superfluity of the sugar content renders the flavourity diabolically obnoxious to my digestive organs!!" When the Meisel Publishing House decided to add an accordion tutor to their range, the result was the book: The Meisel Method for the Irish Accordion, written by "Professor James Morrison" This is the preface of this book: By the late 1930's, music teaching had become Jim's main occupation. However he made occasional appearances with a band, at a concert, or on a radio programme. After joining forces with the Kerry-born dancing master, James McKenna, the self-styled "professors" became the most successful teachers of Irish music and dancing in New York. Jim also took a job with the Transit Authority, working on the night shift as a ticket seller at the 92nd Street railway station. Like many of his fellow musicians of the time, Jim became a heavy drinker, and in his final years pupils remembered how he would disappear from circulation for a few days two or three times a year while he was 'under the weather'. He would then reappear and return to the straight and narrow, always impeccably groomed and turned out. Tom Carmody says: "He was a real gentleman, very jolly, you know, and good company. If Morrison came into your house and started playing the fiddle, you could sit down 'till morning listening to him." Just five months before his death, Jim had a meeting in his sister's house in New York with his newly-ordained nephew, Father Martin Quigley from Doorla, near Drumfin. Father Martin said: "He asked me a thousand questions about the old place, the living and the deceased friends of the family, the area, everything that I could possibly offer an emigrant who still had a great love for the old country, but somehow never had returned... He brought along two violins and that afternoon I heard a torrent of Irish music from a man I could see was a perfectionist and a genius in his own right". In 1947 Jim Morrison was found in a collapsed state in his apartment and removed to the Knickerbocker Hospital in Manhattan where he died on 11 November 1947 at the age of fifty-four. His grave is in St. Raymond's cemetery in the Bronx. An anecdote from his old friend Tom Carmody can perhaps provide us with a fitting epilogue. One of Jim's friends, on hearing that he had turned down yet another well-paid job to pursue his first love, music, remarked. "With the jobs you turned down, it would have been better for you when you came out on the liner, if you threw that fiddle into the ocean!" No doubt, a promising career and prosperous life would have rewarded James Morrison if he had chosen to apply his talents in another walk of life. But it would have deprived the followers of Irish music of the priceless legacy of one of its finest and most versatile performers. By kind permission of Harry Bradshaw, who compiled this account from interviews with: Kevin Quigley, Father Martin Quigley, Patrick Madden, Charlie Madden, Pascal Morrison, John Tonry, Paddy McDonagh, Joey Flynn, Joe Cunningham, Tom Carmody, Teresa Carmody, Alice O'Sullivan and Mary Hannan, |
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HUGH GILLESPIE (1904-1932) Fiddle, band-leader. (Paidí Mac Giolla Luaighrinn, "son of Luaighreann's devotee")
Born at x (x, x), parish of x(x, x) near x (x, x), Co. Donegal (Tír Chonaill, Land of Conal). (a href="">map of Packie Dolan's tír dhúchais Hugh Gillespie Hugh Gillespie was a fiddler from Donegal who played and recorded in the United States for much of his career, settling in Boston, Massachusetts. Along with contemporaries and fellow expatriates Michael Coleman, James Morrison and Paddy Killoran, Gillespie (who was much influenced by Coleman) was one of the most influential fiddlers of his generation. Hugh Gillespie was a Donegal man who emigrated to New York, where he joined a community of Irish musicians. A fantastic fiddler, he was soon well known and began recording 78s in the late '30s. Born in Ballybofey, Co. Donegal in 1906. His father was a fiddler, but it was his uncle Johnny, rated as a great fiddler, who influenced young Hugh's music. In 1928 he emigrated to New York where, within four days, he was introduced to Michael Coleman who immediately took him under his wing. Over the next few years he broadcasted fiddle duets daily with Coleman on local radio shows. He also worked regularly with Packie Dolan's Melody Boys and his cousin Jim Gillespie, a fine accordion player. One of Jim's band's regular spots was in a Polish section where the Versevanna (Tr.13, CD2) and the Mazurka (Tr.6, CD4) were in great demand. On these recordings , Gillespie was accompanied by Mark Callahan on guitar. Most traditional Irish musicians of this era favoured vamping piano accompniment, but Hugh preferred the tone of the guitar for backup. On subsequent sessions he was backed by a guitarist Jack McKenna whose choice of chords was occasionally unorthodox but whose percussive rhythm paved the way for the stringed instrument backing which has been developed to a fine art by many of today's guitar and bouzouki maestros including Paul Brady, Donal Lunny, Arty McGlynn and Steve Cooney. Of the many Irish musicians who aspired to move back to Ireland with the 'fortune' they made from music, Gillespie was one of the few to achieve that goal, and ended his days on a Donegal farm. |
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JOHNNY DOHERTY (1904-1932) Fiddle, band-leader. (Paidí Mac Giolla Luaighrinn, "son of Luaighreann's devotee")
Born at x (x, x), parish of x(x, x) near x (x, x), Co. Donegal (Tír Chonaill, Land of Conal). (a href="">map of Packie Dolan's tír dhúchais John Doherty, c1895-1980 ALTHOUGH now an iconic figure of Donegal fiddle music, as a musician John Doherty was very much an individualist. But more than any other musician, he did draw attention to that county's distinctive fiddle style. The musical lineage of the Doherty and McConnell families goes back many generations of Travellers that alternated between settled and life on the road, and includes Turloch MacSweeney, 'An Piobaire Mór'. Johnny Doherty's grandfather Simon played the fiddle, uilleann pipes and highland pipes. John Doherty was born in Ardara, Co Donegal around 1895. His father Mickey Doherty, played fiddle. He married the singer Mary McConnell, also from a musical family - her brothers, Mickey and Alec, were well-known fiddle players and made tin fiddle makers - and they had nine children, six of whom played the fiddle. John was the youngest on the boys. His brothers Mickey and Simon and his nephew, also Simon, were fiddle players. He once told Padraig O Baoighill during a Gael-linn recording session in the 1970s that he started to play the fiddle in his teens, and that he practised out in the barn . He said that he had to return to that barn again and again until his father was pleased with his playing of Bonny Kate. Although he greatly admired the Scottish fiddler and composer James Scott Skinner (1843-1927) whose recordings he had heard, according to his niece, Frances Rohleder of Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, John's favourite fiddler has always been his own father. Brother Mickey Doherty, on the other hand, was influenced by the Sligo style of Michael Coleman. Bag of tools He was a travelling tinsmith - a tinker, the term was not generally used in the derogatory sense then in rural Ireland - travelling on foot from place to place with his bag of tools making pots, mugs and buckets for local farmers. He seldom carried a fiddle with him, knowing that one would be provided at any house where he stopped for the night. He wasn't too keen on playing in pubs but was always in demand for house dances. South-west Donegal, particularly around Kilcar, Glencolmcille, Teelin and Ardara, is known for its rich fiddle music, particularly that of John Mhosey McGinley, Frank and Con Cassidy and Francie and Mickey O'Beirne. He spent nearly all his life in County Donegal. However he travelled to Dublin to compete in the Oireachtas Championships, winning the fiddle category, with Aggie White of the Ballinakill Ceili Band from Co Galway coming second. He also travelled to Belfast to record for the BBC who were the first to note his distinctive style. In his later years he stayed at O'Byrnes pub in Carrick where many young musicians joined him in summer evening sessions. The Dublin fiddler Paddy Glackin first met him in 1965 and Doherty and his music was to make a lasting impression on him. Single bowing Though Bonny Kate was most associated with the playing of Michael Coleman, Glackin observed that in Doherty's playing of it "all the embellishment is here executed with the bow, so that throughout the tune there is a great amount of single bowing." In his book Between the Jigs and the Reels, Caoimhín Mac Aoidh has this to say about John Doherty's style: "From early on John appears to have adjusted his bowing style away from his father's and his brother's Mickey's style to adopt the more dramatic staccato style and by almost totally ignoring the strong Scottish and lesser Irish dotted rhythms. He continues: "This appears to have been much closer to the old style of playing in Glencolumbcille which can be heard in the playing of James Byrne. "It may well be that Paudí Bhilí na Rópaí, whom John would have met in his youth, exerted an influence on him. At any rate through his approach, John Doherty brought fiddle playing to new heights of mastery within the Donegal context." As well as being a musician and tinsmith, John Doherty was a native Irish speaker and carried a large store of folklore and stories. He also carried on another great Traveller tradition, that of bringing new tunes from parish to parish in a time when radios and gramophones were a rare luxury. His compositions include Planxty Reel. UTV made a documentary about him called "Fiddler on the Road." He died on January 26, 1980. Discography Bundle and Go, Green Linnet The Floating Bow, John Doherty, Claddagh Taisce - The Celebrated Recordings, John Doherty, Gael Linn 1977 Johnny Doherty, John Doherty, CCE 1974 See also Between the Jigs and the Reels: The Donegal Fiddle Tradition, by Caoimhín Mac Aoidh. Drumlin Publications, 1994. The Northern Fiddler, Allen Feldman and Eamonn O'Doherty, Blacksraff Press (out of print) |
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PATSY TOUHEY (1904-1932) Fiddle, band-leader. (Paidí Mac Giolla Luaighrinn, "son of Luaighreann's devotee")
Born at x (x, x), parish of x(x, x) near x (x, x), Co. Donegal (Tír Chonaill, Land of Conal). (a href="">map of Packie Dolan's tír dhúchais Patrick J. Touhey (1865 – 1923) was a celebrated American player of the uilleann pipes. His innovative technique and phrasing, his travels back and forth to play on the variety and vaudeville stage, and his recordings made his style influential among Irish-American pipers. To a great extent, he can be seen as the greatest contributor to a distinctive American style. [edit] Life "Patsy" Touhey was born in February 1865, near Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland. His father James and his uncle Martin were accomplished local players. The family arrived in Boston around 1868, and his father arranged for Tuohey's instruction from Bartley Murphy of County Mayo. However at the age of ten Patsy lost his father and a while later he laid the pipes aside. In his late teens he strayed into a Bowery music hall where John Eagan, the "White Piper" of Galway, was engaged. Enthralled by Eagan's virtuosity he took up the instrument again, and under the instruction of Eagan and Billy Taylor of Philadelphia, he soon became a master. He toured the Eastern United States with Irish variety and theatre, including Jeremiah Cohan's Irish Hibernia, in which he played for the step-dancing of young George M. Cohan, and William Powers' Ivy Leaf company. At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago he played at the Irish Village, one of two rival Irish pavilions, and was later engaged for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis (Louisiana Purchase Exposition). He starred in vaudeville skits, trading jokes with his wife Mary and their partner Charles Burke. The shows included slapstick, low-brow gags, Irish nostalgia, and a piping finale to which Mary Touhy danced. Chicago Police Chief Francis O'Neill, the prominent compiler of Irish dance tunes, called him, "the genial wizard of the Irish pipers . . . A stranger to jealousy, his comments are never sarcastic or unkind, neither does he display any tendency to monopolize attention in company when other musicians are present." Touhey lived on Bristow Street in the Bronx, New York City, and maintained a summer house in East Haddam, Connecticut. He died on January 10, 1923, and is buried in St. Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx. [edit] Playing Style Touhey played left-handed, in a mirror image of the typical position, using concert-pitch instruments made by the Taylor brothers of Philadelphia. In performing dance music, he played fast but deviated from strict tempo to bring out the character of the tune. He used the regulators (three keyed pipes lying under the heel of the hand) not to keep the rhythm, but to emphasize the broader structure of the piece. He combined legato passages with "tight" (staccato) ornaments -- runs, triplets and backstitching -- as well as crans, all executed with the highest proficiency. However, he didn't employ certain ornaments in common use today, such as raising the chanter off the knee to swell a note's volume and intensity. In these ways his style contrasts with the prominent influences on current piping who stayed in Ireland -- Willie Clancy, Johnny Doran, Seamus Ennis, John Potts, and Leo Rowsome. On some surviving recordings Touhey would switch smoothly from a jig to a reel. Another device was to end his performance with a well-known American piece, like "Turkey in the Straw", performed in piping style. "He takes the audience by storm," wrote Captain O'Neill, "even when composed of mixed nationalities." His music can be heard on three 78rpm sides recorded by Victor in 1921: two medleys of reels and one of jigs. A fourth medley comprising the Stack of Barley and other hornpipes was recorded but not released. Two of his 78 recordings may be heard on the two volume CD The Wheels of the World, which focuses on early recordings of Irish-American musicians An earlier negotiation with Edison had fallen through over money, but Touhey advertised a list of 150 tunes and recorded the cylinders one by one at home, filling orders at $10 per dozen. Several dozen of these survive, and a few more examples of his playing can be heard on cylinders made by Captain O'Neill. The two sources can be differentiated as either Touhey or O'Neill's voice introduces the player and the piece. It was one of O'Neill's cylinders that prompted the Gaelic scholar Father Richard Henebry to declare, "[Touhey's performance] has the life of a reel and the terrible pathos of a caoine. It represents to me human man climbing the empyrean heights, and when he had almost succeeded, then tumbling, tumbling down to hell, and expressing his sense of eternal failure on the way. The Homeric ballads and the new Brooklyn Bridge are great, but Patsy Touhey's rendering of 'The Shaskeen Reel' is a far bigger achievement." Some others, notably Brother Gildas O'Shea of Kerry, disdained Touhey's style as outside the piping tradition. Asked whether Touhey's recordings had influenced his own playing, Gildas replied, "No, I was learning the pipes at the time." However generally pipers were in awe of Touhey's playing; Séamus Ennis, writing in the liner notes of Dublin fiddler Tommy Potts's Liffey Banks LP, said that he and his father considered Touhey's playing "hyper-phenomenal," and that he considered Touhey "the best of the men who came before my father." Touhey He left no progeny but several pupils, including Michael Carney and Michael Morris. His style can be heard in the playing of many others, most of whom were either born in or spent considerable time in the United States, including Michael Gallagher, Paddy Lavin, Tom Busby, Tom Ennis, Hugh McCormick, Eddie Mullaney, Joe Shannon and Andy Conroy. Tom Busby was a student of Carney's and described the style of these pipers in various articles and letters printed in An Piobarie, the newsletter of Na Piobari Uilleann. This close-fingered way of playing Busby always described as the Connaught style of piping. The style of these American-based players does differ in various ways from that of players recorded in Ireland, but the possibly unique features of an American style are hard to discern now, due to the lack of recorded evidence. [edit] Discography Solo album * "The Piping of Patsy Touhey" (2005) Various artists including Patsy Touhey * "A New Dawn" (1999) * "The Wheels of the World Vol 1" (2000) * "The Wheels of the World Vol 2" (2000) * "Farewell To Ireland" (2005) |
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ED REAVY (1904-1932) Fiddle, band-leader. (Paidí Mac Giolla Luaighrinn, "son of Luaighreann's devotee")
Born at x (x, x), parish of x(x, x) near x (x, x), Co. Donegal (Tír Chonaill, Land of Conal). (a href="">map of Packie Dolan's tír dhúchais Ed Reevy Born 1898 at Barnagrove near Cootehill, Co. Cavan, he emigrated to Philadelphia in 1912. Not only was he a superb fiddler (Tr.10, CD3), he also composed a number of tunes such as The Hunter's House which have passed into the standard traditional repertoire. He was a longtime member of Tommy Caulfield's Erin's Pride Orchestra (Tr.2, CD4). For over 60 years he played an active part in the local music scene in Philadelphia where he died and was buried. |
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PADDY KILLORAN (1904-1932) Fiddle, band-leader. (Paidí Mac Giolla Luaighrinn, "son of Luaighreann's devotee")
Born at x (x, x), parish of x(x, x) near x (x, x), Co. Donegal (Tír Chonaill, Land of Conal). (a href="">map of Packie Dolan's tír dhúchais |
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PADDY KILLORAN (1904-1932) Fiddle, band-leader. (Paidí Mac Giolla Luaighrinn, "son of Luaighreann's devotee")
Born at x (x, x), parish of x(x, x) near x (x, x), Co. Donegal (Tír Chonaill, Land of Conal). (a href="">map of Packie Dolan's tír dhúchais |
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PADDY KILLORAN (1904-1932) Fiddle, band-leader. (Paidí Mac Giolla Luaighrinn, "son of Luaighreann's devotee")
Born at x (x, x), parish of x(x, x) near x (x, x), Co. Donegal (Tír Chonaill, Land of Conal). (a href="">map of Packie Dolan's tír dhúchais |
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PADDY KILLORAN (1904-1932) Fiddle, band-leader. (Paidí Mac Giolla Luaighrinn, "son of Luaighreann's devotee")
Born at x (x, x), parish of x(x, x) near x (x, x), Co. Donegal (Tír Chonaill, Land of Conal). (a href="">map of Packie Dolan's tír dhúchais |
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PADDY KILLORAN (1904-1932) Fiddle, band-leader. (Paidí Mac Giolla Luaighrinn, "son of Luaighreann's devotee")
Born at x (x, x), parish of x(x, x) near x (x, x), Co. Donegal (Tír Chonaill, Land of Conal). (a href="">map of Packie Dolan's tír dhúchais |