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The Stone In The Field

By Tommy Reck


  1. The Fairy
    The Donegal
  2. The Rose In The Heather
    The Wandering Minstrel
  3. The Kilfrush
    A Trip To Durrow
  4. The Cook In The Kitchen
    The Langstern Pony
  5. Tommy Reck’s
    Maggie In The Woods
  6. The Queen Of The Rushes
  7. The Ash Grove
    Sonny Brogan’s
  8. The Merry Blacksmith
    The Cameronian
  9. The Blackthorn Stick
  10. The Tailor’s Twist
    The High Level
  11. The Maid In The Cherry Tree
    The Mistress Of The House
  12. The Cat That Ate The Candle
  13. Sean Bui
    Jackson’s Morning Brush
  14. The Dear Irish Boy
    The Stone In The Field

Four comments

Tommy Reck

This LP, maybe rereleased as CD is one of my favourites in the category of pipes solo.
I’ve heard Tommy twice maybe 10 years ago, he was an elederly person and had a break in piping of many years before. He played the tunes very laid back, but full of energy and emotion, just grat!!

I think this was recorded in the mid-seventies. 1977?

Patrick Sky posted the following on the Chiff & Fipple web site January 12, 2005:

I first met Tommy Reck at Seamus Ennis’ and Liam O’Flynn’s apartment located in Ballsbridge, Duiblin around 1971 ( my dates might be incorrect but they are generally accurate). Over the next year we became friends and I asked Tommy if he would be interested in making a recording for my record label. He said that he would, but his pipes were not going. That was the main reason that the other record companies did not get to record Tommy. I asked him to give me the pipes and I spent the next week making reeds and getting them going. When I returned the pipes Tommy was delighted.

At the time Paul Brady had an apartment, also in Dublin, which I used to make Tommy’s record. On the appointed day Tommy showed up with a manuscript of tunes that he had collected over the years. Tommy was an excellent sight reader. We spent a couple of days going through tunes and recording, with Tommy and the microphones sitting in a stairwell in Paul’s apartment.

One funny thing that I remember was that after the recording was over Tommy and I went out for a pint. While standing at the bar I gave Tommy an envelope containing $500 (at the time $450.00 pounds) in cash. Tommy was stunned and said “Jaysus, I didn’t know that I was going to be paid”. 450.00 pounds was a lot of money at that time, when the average weekly pay was around $100.00 pounds,

I must say the recording and just being with Tommy was one of the high points of my life. Tommy and I remained good friends over the years until his death a while back.
Tommy by far had the sweetest, easygoing and at the same time, complicated styles of piping that I have ever heard. I sure do miss him.

All the best,
Patrick Sky