Who IS that guy?!

You know when you’re playing somwehere and then you have to sit out for 20 minutes whlie the troupe of dancers come out and do their bit… and how in days gone by you would play for the hard jig and St Patrick’s Day and the slip jig for them (inevitably either too slow or too fast…)

Well now when they dance, it’s always to the same CD that they bring along with them, and it’s a guy on a piano accordion with lots of overdubs (drum beats, keyboard, synthesised banjo and so forth), and usually involves Tam Linn at some point. Don’t get me wrong, I actually quite like it - no wonder they love dancing to it!

But who is it? It just seems a shame that he/she never gets any credit for it. And I’d really just love to know who it is!

Have you asked them ?

there’s a reason he doesn’t get credit


because its c-r-a-p

For a few years a lot of weddings I played had a troupe of dancers come on with their Riverdance CD and do their thing. Seemed like it wasn’t a proper Irish wedding unless you had a bit of this old Blarney thrown in. Still, it was very impressive entertainment for the guests. The dancers were all first class I have to say. The phenomenon seems to have faded away because, come to think of it, I haven’t encountered any dancers for a year or so now. I never thought to ask them where they got their music tracks. I just assumed they were using the Riverdance CDs. The dance routines were all carefully choreographed so I guess trusting that a live band could even play Irish music let alone play exactly the sets they wanted was not an option. Much easier for them to bring their own canned music.

Which brings me to a pet peeve about weddings. It’s the norm these days for the best man to hand the band a CD saying the couple want such-and-such a song for their first dance. They’ve gone to the expense of hiring a band and then they want said band to stand idly on the stage while a CD plays through the PA. Why?

hehe, we had exactly the same kind of experience last night, and a few days before, and on many similar occasions. Tamlin on the accordion, lol. good to know we are not the only victims of this.

His name is Satan.

Dean Crouch at a guess! It begins with lots of percussion etc then reels off (pardon the pun) into (inevitably) the tamlin …otherwise known as the Glasgow Reel.

Requests to play CDs when playing “live” at weddings? - Yes, I hate that too:

A couple of suggestions to counter this:

1) Say that you would be happy to play their CD , but unfortunately your PA system doesn’t have the correct connectivity with their CD player.

2) Explain that playing a CD in a public place would be an infringement of someone’s copyright.

Sometimes you get asked to put on a CD as “background” music whilst the food is being consumed. You won’t want to offer to provide live music instead, because you’ll need to be eating then as well!

So just tell them that people like to talk at wedding feasts, and wouldn’t want to have to raise their voices to make themselves heard above the background music. If that ploy doesn’t work, just remind them that the difficulty would be even greater for their elderly guests, some of whom might be slightly deaf. That usually works!

The Glasgow Reel has a high energy feel that works well in a rocked up setting. It’s that classic 6-flat 7-1 chord progression so beloved of rock bands that does it. (For me that’ll always be the Rory Gallagher, Shadow Play progression 🙂 ). Christy Moore’s Ride On is another that fits that category. How many of you have heard that one belted out with 10 minute guitar solos?

I have a feeling it might be this kid:

http://www.deancrouch.co.uk/

He seems to be doing rather well as a feis muso these days. Dean has played at comps over here (in Aus)… He’s a brilliant muso… great dancer… and quite the athlete. I couldn’t imaging sitting for 12 hours a day over a 4 day comp playing tunes on a piano accordion.

Gerry Conlon, Seamus O‘Sullivan and also Liam Bradley are some other names that come to mind and so are Kevin Joyce and Sean O’Brien who are all great at what they do.

I’m definitely not an advocate of using cds to dance to when a Trad band is present tho… but there are plenty of different threads related to this topic!

*She moved through the fair… ah… beat me to it! 🙂

They forgot to put the music in the music…its crap..
IMHO

Strangely enough I was a concert on the eve of St Patrick’s where the troupe of dancers danced to something similar to the CD being discussed. At one point I thought I heard a few tracks from a James Last record that I have in my collection where they play The Big Reel of Callingtown. However I also have a CD in my collection by Colm & Kevin Warren - Called ‘100% Pure CRN’. Its especially for dancers with the different grades such as Bun Grád - Ulimhúhan - Mean Grád - Ard Grad for each particular dance. The whole thing sounds too electronic for my taste. It could be the CD and Yes it has Tamlin on it..

The musicians on my CD are Colm Keogh and Kevin Warren and the are credited with Keyboard and Accordion.

Could be the Bradley Bros or the CD could be this one as mentioned by davydd
- Gerry Conlon (not the Guildford 4 Gerry) Seamus O’Sullivan:
http://www.antoniopacelli.com/irish_dance/cds/change_your_shoes--CD-15
Click on the Mp3 icon above the CD to hear the Glasgow Reel.

I couldn’t identify em all, but one of the tapes the wee dancers used last night was a Lunasa tune, the the others were in a similar vein….