The Crooked Stair

Will comment later.

"The Crooked Stair" was “Cran’”s first CD and I was surprised to find none of their recordings posted.
They are Desi Wilkinson [ flute, whistles, fiddle, Highland pipes and vocals ], Sean Corcoran [ bouzouki,guitar, and vocals ] and Neil Martin [ uilleann pipes, whistles,cello, keyboards and backing vocals ]. A wide variety of tunes, including music from Scotland, Brittany, Corsica, and even Romania, as well as Ireland, and songs in both Gaelic and English. Worth buying for the “Earl’s Chair” reel set played on 2 Clark “C” whistles alone. Not sure if it’s still available these days though, as I believe there’s some dispute with the recording company.

Kenny, this was one of my favourite recordings for a good few years, and I think the CD was stolen out of my car. Drat! I saw Cran at a small concert in Dundalk years back, but unfortunately Neil Martin had already left the band. These three had a chemistry that later cran versions could not match.

I saw Cran open for Coolfin, I think back in 1999, at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. They played from ‘Black, Black, Black’. They were fantastic, and I enjoyed them more than Coolfin. I have been meaning to pick up more of their work ever since. I would see them again in a heartbeat, but hopefully next time in a smaller venue.

Last comment here was 6 years ago, but this was released on CD a few years back.

This recording - along with 3 other releases by "Cran" - can now be downloaded through "iTunes".
Track #10 - whistle duet by Desi Wilkinson and Neil Martin - on "Youtube" :
https://youtu.be/aZsk_Y6THDY

play video

For the record, ‘The Crooked Stair’ was originally released in 1995 on the Cross Border Media label. There’s a contemporaneous article about said label here - https://www.hotpress.com/culture/no-frontiers-467332. CBM subsequently became notorious for not behaving with due diligence towards those with whom it had signed contracts.

Cran reclaimed the rights to the recording and reissued it in 2005 on its own Black Rose label, remastered by Ronan Browne and Ciarán Byrne.

Re. the unlinked tracks above:

1) ‘When a Man’s in Love’ is a well-known night-visiting song;
2) ‘Romanian Rollick’ is a medley of tunes from the country;
3) ‘Tiarna Randal’ is a Connemara version of the slow air;
4) ‘Seán Bán’ comes from the singing of Connemara sean-nós tradition;
5) ‘Corsican Waltz’ is the full title and was learned by Desi while in Brittany;
and,
6) ‘Laugh and Half-Daft’ was learned from the singing of Mary Ann Carolan (a tremendous influence on the Louth song tradition) and is ‘a surreal and mischievous reworking’ of the song ‘Llandaff’, named after a town in South Wales.

RIP Sean Corcoran - track #14 audio on "Youtube" :
https://youtu.be/bGBiAkc6KiM

play video