Michael Sexton Ceili Band

The Band:

Michael Sexton ~ accordion & leader
Caroline Tubridy ~ fiddle
Pat Curtin ~ flute
Brian Morgan ~ flute
Ralph Morgan ~ banjo
George Byrt ~ piano
Martin Garrihy ~ drums
Peter Sheridan ~ drums

Recorded and mixed at ‘Harmony Tow Studio’, Ennis, Co. Clare

Tracks for dance ~

1 - 6: The Caledonian Set

7 - 10: The Connemara Set

11 - 16: The Clare Plain Set

17 - 19: The Newport Set

Another pair of recordings that for some reason someone thought needed a boost. The evidence of this is in the pitch, a half step up from where they’d have been when the band first recorded this. In order to avoid unwanted noise and distortion when someone diddles a tune this way, boosting the tempo, it’s best to let the pitch rise as it would normally, in this case up that half step. What exactly does this mean, well, a tune in D, or any of its relative keys, sounds in Eb instead. With old media, such as the old 78s, this was sometimes done in order to fit more on the disk.

Now, back to the tempo changes, just one track for comparison, here’s the after, as it is on the CD, and the ‘before’, taking it back down to A=440:

Track 1 - reels - “The Caledonian Set”, first figure:

120 bpm ~ on the CD
114 bpm ~ the bands tempo at the microphones, before processing/diddling…

The same thing happened to “Michael Sexton Ceili Band Volume 2: Mad to Dance”:
https://thesession.org/recordings/4415

& something similar here too, though a full step up and consequently a bigger boost to tempos:
“Music for the Sets Volume 1: Round the House”
https://thesession.org/recordings/1028

It wouldn’t be the first time the actions of commercial interests have affected this music, and the dance too.

The tune Kitty Linnanes is also known as “I’m waiting for you”