seanquinn

I have submitted 2 of my own compositions to The Session: The High King reel (https://thesession.org/tunes/3185) and Sean Quinn’s reel (https://thesession.org/tunes/17181). Comments appreciated.

I am a piano accordionist (b. 1942) specialising in traditional Irish music. In recent years I have also taken up the B/C button accordion and released a button-box album in 2010. Now trying the concertina! I have long experience playing in céilí bands, most recently with Johnny Murphy (fiddler) and drummer Johnny MacRory in the Trasna Ceilidh Band (3-piece). I was formerly with the Blackthorn, Árd Rí, Eddie Fagan and McElroy céilí bands.

I am based in the Glens of Antrim, attending sessions in McCollam’s Cushendall and O’Connor’s Ballycastle. I also visit in Lisburn Co. Antrim and play at the Tap Room session in Hilden Brewery whenever I can. I formerly ran a small recording studio and record business (Glens Music) and have been in involved in a number of recording projects over the years involving myself and musician friends.

I have been composing jigs, reels, hornpipes and airs for many years and have issued a CD with some of these new tunes called “Keynotes”. In 2016, I published a collection of all my tune compositions spanning 50 years and this was also called KeyNotes (100+ tunes). Copies hav been lodged with the Irish Traditional Music Archive in Dublin, and with the HQ of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann. In 2020 I placed a PDF copy of my book online at www.keynotesirishmusic.com and am currently invloved with putting each tune on its own page with standard notation, abc notation and an audio file of each tune, in order to make the collection as accessible as possible. In this work I have been aided by the American traditional musician Bill Black, who helped with the abcs and the audio files. He has a collection of over 9000 tunes (including mine) at www.http://www.capeirish.com/webabc/.