Kevin Burke In Concert

I have this album and love it. I wish Kevin would record more solo live albums. Its rather hard to find recordings of the “naked fiddle.”

-Max

I think that ‘The Bank of Ireland’ is missing as the last tune on track 8.

On track 9 of his CD, “In Concert,” Kevin Burke with Martin Hayes plays two jigs. They are identified only as ‘Sean Ryan’s Jigs.’

The second one is ‘The Nightingale.’ The first one sounds really familiar but I can’t put a name to it. Can anyone help?

Thanks,
H&Ks,
~g a

See here:

http://www.irishtune.info/album/KB+IC/

this has to be the 2nd most useful site on the net.

tis the castle jig

This CD is confusingly also known as “Solo Fiddle” or “Solo Fiddle (Live)” - great all the same!

I can’t remember what they used to call those flourescent crushed ice drinks, mostly sugar and some naff artificial flavouring in a flourescent pink, orange, green or purple, or was it blue? If you are unfamiliar with the bow of Kevin Burke don’t start here. Instead get one of his earlier recordings, “If the Cap Fits”, “Sweeny’s Dream”, or one of the two he did with Mícheál O‘Domhnaill, “Portland”, “Promenade”, or the one he did with Jackie Daly, “Eavesdropper”. However, while I’m no fan of Martin Hayes, for the duets alone it’s worth the price, tracks 9, 10 & 12 though I wish they’d have loosened up a bit more and done some octave playing. I say I’m no fan of Martin Hayes, well, that’s why we’ve avoided adding this recording to our library, because of his presence, but in this case the duets are a plus on what to my sense seems at times a quite slurpy album in a flourescent overly sweet and artificial flavouring kind of way. The opening track sucks and has to be one of the worst takes on that poor abused “Butterfly” I’ve ever suffered through. And, I do not blame dear Tommy Potts for that, though Kevin credits him as the inspiration for his wanderings through that melody. Kevin’s take no it is dire, and any other negative modifier I could possibly dig out, clumsy, choppy, weird, silly, and, could it possibly be worse than that awful vibratoed monstrosity the Celtic Chicks produced? Possibly? What he does to “The Blackbird” ain’t so great either, and the barndance/hornpipe "Kitty O’Shea is lacking, but Kevin’s sense, understanding and respect for dance in general is poor, and shows here, again, slurpy…

Oh yes, the Martin Hayes thing, while we’re not fans in this house we’re not violently against how he uses the bow, his take on this music. While it isn’t for us, we readily acknowledge his abilities, and we didn’t trash the albums we’ve had, after giving them a more than fair treatment. There’s no problem finding folks that appreciate his ways, and we gave our recordings of him away to someone who likes that kind of playing, along with their appreciation of things like “River Dance” and “Lord of the Dance” and Michael Flatley. So those recordings are now in appreciative hands and our friend enjoys dancing around their kitchen to Martin’s take on it all. It’s just a bit too slick and slurpy for us. There does seem to be something of that here too, and something not quite right about rhythms, a certain sloppiness in Kevin’s playing, along with some slurpy slime, like the poor “Butterfly” and that awful take on “Itzikel”…

There are enough other tracks worthy of time on the ears, 2, 4, and 6 through 8, not forgetting the duets, 9, 10 and 12, that make it a keeper. So, it’s in no way a waste of space, but his earlier recordings are in our minds far superior to this affected show. But that’s my opinion, shared with my wife. Others have sung its praises and will continue to do so… It’s sad really, as I love solo anything, and very much violin, and on the whole we both like Kevin’s playing, but this isn’t among our most appreciated listens in these respects. But, all said, and while I won’t listen to it as much as other recordings Kevin has made, this will remain in the library and will occassionally get time given to it, if possibly skipping over some bits and choosing to focus more on others… It is also always possible I may change my mood and notions of this in the future…

Clarification with regards to Martin Hayes and his recordings, exchanging ‘treatment’ for the more important ‘listen’ - - -

“ ~ after giving them a more than fair ‘listen’.”

“ It’s just a bit too slick and slurpy for us…”
That is just the way I feel about your rambling posts and your endless posting of minor variations on tunes. Brevity is a virtue.

PS-- When standing on the shoulders of a giant it is impolite to piss on his head.