The Banks Of The Shannon

One of the most influential recordings in Irish music from the great innovator on the accordion Paddy O’Brien, and master fiddler Seamus Connolly

A funny thing about this album:
Half of it is a reissue of an LP produced in 1973.
The solo fiddle tracks were recorded in 1990.
The accordian/ piano duets,though…
The accordian was recorded in 1954, and the piano overdubbed in 1990!
The thing is, Chas Lennon did such a good job it almost sounds like they recorded it together.
Despite the strange assemblage of parts, the album as a whole is really great.

A minor correction to the above.

The album consists of three Paddy O‘Brien 78s recorded for the Columbia label in 1954 and released in 1955, the CCÉ album ’Banks of the Shannon‘ LP (CCÉ CL 6 recorded by Paddy and Séamus in 1973) and one unaccompanied track. ’The Rambling Rake’, recorded in 1990.

Charlie Lennon was, apparently, a very reluctant over-dubber.

For those confused by the two Paddy O’Briens, this is the Tipperary one.

A copy of the original EP sold on eBay UK the other day for £26.59. Phew! Luckily you can hear the CD here for free: http://comhaltasarchive.ie/search?q=recording_id%3A851&sort=track_number More cuts of Paddy R’IP at the Archive too, look around. He was first and foremost on that B/C box! Criminal that you can’t buy 2 CDs of him, or 3, or 4…

Even the CD of this record costs $50 and up used.

I wish there were an easy way to download the streaming from that link…

@Kevin, that Comhaltas link only gives you samples of each track, not the whole album.

This classic recording has been re-mastered and is available from Custy’s in Ennis for 15 euros [ +P&P ].