Seventeen comments
A rough diamond
This delightful recording of Gerard “Gerdie” Commane (concertina) and Joe Ryan (fiddle) is a little rough around the edges (recorded in Gerdie’s house - in one or two tracks if you listen carefully, you can hear the wind roaring in the background) but is certainly a gem.
Some of the tracks are either solo concertina or fiddle, with one or two a combination of the two, concluding with the final track spoken word with a reminiscence).
The roughness might take a few listening to get used to, but it is definitely worth the effort.
Title of CD spelled incorrectly
This wonderful CD is hard to access with the name spelled wrong. It should be: Two Gentlemen (not gentleman) of Clare
It has depth despite some superficial rawness.
Well worth the effort!
A cracking recording.
What it’s all about!
Hats off to Eoin O‘Neill and John O’Connor for producing this wonderful CD. I hope they are going to produce many more like it.
Isn’t this the sort of work that organisations like Comhaltas & the Arts Council should be carrying out as a matter of urgency.
Reading through the sleeve notes I read that Gerdie was born in 1917 & Joe in 1928, which makes me wonder how many ‘tradition bearing’ musicians like these two ‘treasures’ are going to pass on, without anyone bothering to capture the craft that they spent a lifetime learning, developing and saving so we might enjoy it, too?
Listening to this and seeing the photograph of the two men by the ‘range’ you just get the feeling that their might, if you are lucky, be a spare seat for you, there too.
Warm Glow Factor - 10 out of 10
Track 12 is the ‘stand out’ track for me - just magical versions of these three tunes. In my opinion, if you play Concertina, this CD is worth getting for this track alone!
Two unnamed “bonus” tunes on tracks 9 & 10
On this fabulous CD, both track 9 and track 10 have great
tunes after the named ones.
Does anyone know the name of the tune following
Lads of Laoise (track 9)
or after
Piper’s Chair (track 10)
Jeremy Kammerer just taught the 2nd tune on track 9 at
Lark Camp, in Mendocino this past week (Aug 1, 07)
What a tune!
Thanks
Jig identified…
Jig after the “Piper’s Chair” is this :
https://thesession.org/tunes/942
It’s also played as a reel.
Don’t know the reel after “The Lads”, although it sounds familiar. I’ll try to post it in the next day or so.
Un-named hidden reel on track 9
Track 9, 2nd tune is Gerdie Commane’s
Thank you, Kenny!
Milliner’s Daughter
isn’t that the second tune on track 2?
Joe Ryan’s Jigs
anybody recognize these? i play the middle one but don’t know if i’ve ever had a name for it
West Clare Reel
someone help me out - this is a very common tune, i hear it all the time and i can’t for the life of me remember what its more-common name is - i know it isn’t “the west clare” and the link here goes to a different tune altogether
3rd of “Joe Ryan’s” jigs…….
More common name for “West Clare” reel, Track 5
Track 2 = 3 reels
Are versions of “The Steampacket”. “The Bunch Of Keys”. and “The Milliner’s Daughter”.
Track 14…
is actually 3 reels - first is “The Trip To Nenagh” - not sure of the second, and the third is “Scotch Mary”.
track 3 “Joe Ryan’s” jigs
these are Rosemary Lane, Hungry Rocks and one of the Fairhaired Boys. I took the liberty to update the database accordingly