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Ceol Aduaidh

By Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh And Frankie Kennedy

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Nineteen comments

Ceol Aduaidh: A Timeless Recording of the Donegal Music

I got it just a few weeks ago in Ennis.
In music shops I usually look through most of the CDs in the traditional music section, but it was the first time for me to come across this album by the two influencial musicians from the northern tradition.

Still I cannot believe that this recording was done nearly twenty years ago, that is, before the band was formed. The sound is amazingly crystal-clear, and the music is so pure. Nothing is added in the recording, and it’s just a persuasive playing of a fiddle and a flute with soulful songs.

Full of rare materials, I think. Even Atholl Highlanders appears.

I love the quality of this recording. I need to find a copy, I borrowed it from the library and checked it out twice. Much less slickly produced than the later stuff, and feels so perfectly right…

Zina

According to the liner notes, the following musicians also appear on this recording. Ciaran Curran plays cittern; Fintan McManus plays bouzouki; Gearoid O’ Maonaig plays guitar.

And Eithne Ni Bhraonain on synthesizer. Yes, she’s that world famous singer Enya.

This is, in my opinion, the best recording they ever did… I can’t recommend it more highly… I have it in it’s first incarnation as an LP - and as a tape - and as a CD - and I’ve given it as a gift to at least half a dozen people, including a ‘stranger’ in passing…

Tune name search

On Ceol Aduaidh by Frankie Kennedy and Mairead ni --- track 7 is called The Heathery Cruach, but there is a quick reel which preceeds this (on the same track) and I wonder if anyone out there can name it for me. Thanks

Re: Tune name search

I have it as “The Glory Reel”. It’s actually listed on the track list for Island Angel in the recordings section of this web site. Haven’t played this one in a long time.

Don’t think so………….

The “Glory” reel – see link below – is not the tune which starts track 7. It’s not on this album at all.

https://thesession.org/tunes/1268

From what I remember – [ I don’t have the LP any more ] - the “Ceol Aduaidh” sleeve note list Track 7 as 2 reels, the first being “The Heathery Cruach” followed by “John Mhosai’s”. The confusion arises because “Altan” re-recorded the tune called “John Mhosai’s” on this recording, on “Island Angel”, and called it “The Heathery Cruach”, for some reason.
I don’t think the tune called “The Heathery Cruach” on “Ceol Aduaidh” is in the database, but I’ll post it for you tomorrow, “andreal”.

Or maybe the band misnamed the tune when they re-recorded it. Each of their recordings always contains a couple of mistakes in the tune listing.

Track 8 - Poirt An Fathach Éireannach

I will add my praise for this album, one of my favorites also - timeless!

Does any one know of a transcription of the middle jig on track 8 - Poirt An Fathach Éireannach?

On “iTunes”

Happy to report that this recording in now available through “iTunes”.

Re: Ceol Aduaidh, track 9

The first two tunes of track 9 are at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn12ns2XzwQ

It just notes: “Frankie Kennedy and Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh play two germans which Mairead learned from the fiddle playing of her father Proinsias Ó Maonaigh from Gaoth Dobhair in County Donegal. 1983”
On my copy of the original cassette (1983) this is track 2 of Side B, and the liner note just says: “Germans”.

Track 12, Shoe The Donkey

16 settings of ‘Shoe The Donkey’ already posted at
https://thesession.org/tunes/2320
but I couldn’t see the setting played on ‘Ceol Aduaidh’. Sorry if I missed it somewhere, but have added a basic abc take on it as X:17.