Hello folks,
I just wanted to invite you all to come hear some samples from our first CD at http://www.cdbaby.com/culchies . The samples are only two minutes long, but you should be able to get a good idea what it is we do. Please let me know what you think. Thanks!
Great new album. I like trio music, and it is difficult now to find much of it. I like the way you kick things off with “the Nine Points of Roguery” set. Good team work, and nice deep tone bodhran. “Come with Me Over the Mountain” is fine “naked fiddle.” Forgive me if my favorite Cuckoo’s Nest is still DaDanaan. Whatever you do, don’t ever sing the lyrics. You will scare the tourists and celibates away. “The Kitchen Girl” set has some nice synchopation toward the end of the music clip. I even liked “The Old Bush” set despite being traumatized by the “Bush” word. It seems like a good new album that needs public exposure. The very best of wishes!
Thanks for the kind words!! I’m really glad you enjoy the music!
As for ‘being traumatized by the “Bush” word’… Um… we’re simple country folk and think first of vegetation before any geopolitical or … (ahem) personal definitions that more sophisticated people may experience.
LOL!!
stv
None of the sound sample links worked.
Hmm, they work fine over here. Windows Media Player or Realaudio should be able to handle them. Ceol Cairdeas: thanks for listening.
It only opens a new window, which is blank. Then…. nothing.
Sorry Tunes! I’m not sure why you’re having problems. Anyone else having any difficulty?
I like your CD, flatland. Great energy! I’ll probably further burden my credit card with a visit to CDbaby….sigh…
Hey! Bloomington was my home for a while back in the ’70s and 80s; I can’t remember a whole lot of Irish music in town at that point. Something obviously changed….
Hi Batlady,
There was some great Irish music here back then, and there were also lots of other kinds of international music, too. Grey Larsen (flute & concertina) and Malcolm Dalglish (hammer dulcimer) were playing Irish and making albums. One is “Thunderhead,” another is called “Banish Misfortune” and “The First of Autumn” and with Pete Sutherland they called the band Metamora and recorded “The Great Road”.
A bunch of other musicians were not Irish specialists but played Irish well, along with Indian (east), balkan, Scots, French, French Canadian and so on.
Tom Sparks, who now teaches violin making at Indiana University was here from NY/NJ where he had played with some of the greats of Irish music in NYC as a teenager and he was an amazing Irish player then. He’s just begun to play again this year, after some decades off and now that some hand injuries have healed up and he’s -still- amazing!
Jamie Gans (fiddle) and Sam Bartlett (tnr banjo, mandolin, etc.) have played Irish around here for a long time. Sam has a new album out called “Evil Diane” (and several previously) and Jamie’s latest CD was made with Paddy O’Brien of Chulrua and Daithi Sproul, and is called “Snug in the Blanket.”
From those folks, after a bit of a fallow period in the ’80s, came a new generation of session players in the mid-90’s, many taught by Dr. Chris Smith (tnr banjo) in his slow sessons. Eric Merrill and Erin Schrader (both fiddlers) were here then, and playing in sessions, and Danny Novek (guitar) and Dave Kidd (fiddle) played regularly here, too. I’ve probably left some folks out…
That next generation has tried to keep it going since… ‘94, I think, & now we have three sessions a week here, and folks come and go to sessions in Indianapolis, Louisville, Cincinnati, and so on. At festivals in Louisville, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Dublin, Ohio, and so on, there are often large contingents of Hoosier players. Bette Conway and our female ’Irish fiddle marines’ have made a grand impression on the folks camping at the Philly Folk Festival! <GG>
There has just been a bit of a turnover in the cycle. Some great players have moved on and some new people are joining in, so it’s a good and amazing time. We owe a lot to those folks who played before and taught us so much!
It’s a very good time for Irish music here!
Thanks for the nice words about our CD, and I hope you enjoy it a lot!
stv
Nice stuff, guys! I’ve put it on my gift-list.
Hmmm, stv, in those days I guess I was so busy killing brain cells and going caving that I wasn’t paying attention. I remember hearing Grey Larson and Malcolm Dalglish playing around town, but I guess I was more into old-time music at that point (my banjo (aargggh!) days…). Bloomington was such a great music town that was hard to take in everything. It’s probably better that I don’t live there any more, as I would have to deal with serious sensory overload. I can’t stay up all night roaming anymore!
Cross-post, Sara! [Waves] Three weeks to Martin Hayes! I’ll be in your neck of the woods the week following; we can slobber over the concert together! ;-]
Hi Batlady!
I know; I’m rarin to be there! And it’s right after the spousal unit’s book release party, so I will be in a merry mood on arrival. 🙂
We’ll have to plan to get together while you’re here!
Hey, I know this thread is 3 years old but I just came across it and wanted to say I love your CD. Excellent musicianship & great energy!