As I Carelessly Did Stray…

An exceptionally fine flute album.

The title is from a poem by Ciaram Carson.
Harry Bradley’s Web site is http://www.strayceol.com/

The more i listen to this CD, the more i like it. The tunes are played at their proper tempos, not “as fast as possible”. The sound of the flute is clear and fluid. Beautiful playing.

Harry Bradley is a member of thesession and appears often in the woodenflute email list too.

My first introduction to the music of Harry Bradley was through a welcome visit from Hiro, alias slainte, another member on this site. Out of his box of tricks he pulled out and earlier recording, “Bad Turns And Horse-Shoe Bends”, part of our mutual appreciation of music and musicians. After Hiro left I did my best to try to chase up a copy of that recording, even writing Harry on site here, but no luck. About a month after Hiro’s visit a CD came in the post, this one, and I was puzzled, no information, and I was sure I hadn’t ordered it. It didn’t take long for me to guess the source, Hiro, had it sent direct.

Ever since I’ve had it in the car to keep me company, enjoyed it on the stereo here, full on and through headphones, and it has brought me a lot of cheer and smiles. I admire the variety in tune forms, better than average, including barndances and a highland fling, so, that might be an easy win in my case for starters, but the playing across the board had life and lift, beautiful hornpipes and jigs, a couple of airs, even a polka and march. Now he really has me won over, even though half the tunes are the usual fair, reels, but not usual as Harry takes them, including the variety of instruments he uses, C, D & Eb flute, marching band flute, and a Clarke C whistle, all played with spirit. And the guests do an admirable job too, tastefully done, with interest. The recording, aside from the joy of being an unexpected gift, is a joy to the ears and I have done a little bit of dancing to it too.

Harry’s friends on hand to contribute to this:

John Blake ~ guitar and piano
Seamus O’Kane ~ bodhran
Anthony McGrath ~ bouzouki
Jesse Smith ~ fiddle, track 2
Paul O’Shaughnessy ~ fiddle, track 15
Seosamh Ó Neachtain ~ hard shoe stepdanicng, track 4

D & Eb flutes by Sam Murray
Marching band flute by Short
C flute by Hammy Hamilton

Thanks Hiro/Slainte, and thanks Harry for putting the time aside to create this welcome bit of ear training… 😉

I keep checking with the hopes of finding that other CD, maybe someday…

http://www.claddaghrecords.com/www/product.asp?pID=79&cID=15

While I was a student in Yorkshire, I often listened to this recording on my way to sessions. It still brings back all the memories, and that’s why it’s very special to me. I love Harry’s other recordings though.

It saddens me to discover that this album had been disabled of removed from popular streaming media (e.g. youtube and Spotify). In response I purchased the CD, but that doesn’t solve the regrettable gap in my playlist.

Harry will almost certainly benefit more from your physically purchasing the CD than he ever would have from Youtube or Spotify. Congratulations on supporting a much-respected artist.