80 Years in the Making

The first solo album from the veteran accordionist and radio broadcaster, a treasure trove of old tunes. Many of the tunes were learned from mid-20th century immigrants to Rochester, NY, and from his extensive collection of 78s. On this album he’s joined by longtime friend Seamus Connolly on fiddle and Gabriel Donoghue on accompaniment. He plays a 2-row Beltuna in C#/D, not his longtime signature Hohner 3-row in BCD. The album is available through CDBaby at https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/tedmcgraw.

First slide on Track 4 is listed as Gan Ainm in the track listing, saying it was from one of Bulmer’s books. It’s similar to Stiamh’s Jackie Daly-based setting of Johnny O’Leary’s (Gale Bridge) though Ted uses Bs in place of C#s in much of the B part.

Someone modified the linkage I had set to the two Quaker tunes, so I just changed them back. The first, which Ted calls “Merrily Kissed the Quaker’s Wife,” is very close to Hetty’s setting of Gates of Derry at https://thesession.org/tunes/8247#setting19412 , with the parts played without repeats. The second, “The Quaker,” is an ABB setting I posted at https://thesession.org/tunes/70#setting33638 because it was most similar to a setting Ceolachan had posted there.