Máirtín Ó Connor launches his first book of tunes

Musician and honorary graduate of NUI Galway, Máirtín Ó Connor, will launch his first book of tunes on Tuesday, 22 March at 6pm in the College Bar at the University. It will be launched by Director of the Arts Council, Mary Cloake.

’Inside the Box, Outside the Box’ has been compiled by Máirtín himself and it includes transcriptions of some of Máirtín’s popular tunes as well as some tunes that have not previously been recorded and insights into Máirtín’s style of playing.

Máirtín Ó Connor: “This book has given me the opportunity to write down tunes that I relish in playing, so that other musicians can enjoy them as much as I do. I am delighted it is being launched and I would like to thank Mary Cloake for making the trip to do so. I owe a debt of gratitude to all the wonderful musicians I have worked with down through the years and I am privileged to work with so many of them. I would also like to thank my wife and family for their support and of course to all involved with the book including, Garry O Bríain, Tony Corr and Joe Boske.”

The book is funded by Deis, an Arts Council initiative aimed at supporting traditional music initiatives throughout the country.

Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin & Gugalaí Gug win gold

Diosca óir Gugalaí Gug

Diosca óir Gugalaí Gug (By Futa Fata) – traditional rhymes album goes gold

including the wonderful Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin for the recording of children’s rhymes from the Conamara tradition, Gugalaí Gug. Also getting a disc on the night were actor Tom Sailí Ó Flaithearta, singer Caitlín Ní Chualáin, and young representatives of Scoil Sailearna, Indreabhán and Scoil an Chnoic, Leitir Mealláin.

Peadar Ó Riada’s book on ‘sean-nós’ singing

Peadar Ó Riada has just published a book about ‘sean-nós’ singing, Amhránaíocht Dúchas na nGael.

Peadar writes: “I had to explain background stuff and hope that it makes sense. It is ‘as gaeilge’ -eventually i will do an English version. It surprises me how such a big heap of hassle for me over the last 4 yrs could fit into such a small bundle.”

“Seo leabhar ina ndeinean Peadar Ó Riada iarracht ar míniú do thabhairt ar cad as nó cad é an bhrí atá le “Sean-nós” nó amhránaíocht Dúchas na nGael mar thugaid ar in áiteannaibh éagsúil inniu. 122 leathanach faoi chlúdach cruaig le roinnt pictiúirí agus léaráidí daite nó dubh agus bán. Tá gach cóiop a ceannaíotar tríd an suíomh idir-línne sinithe go pearsanta ag an úghdar.”

You can order your copy for €20 + postage here >>>

Philip King on Dylan

Wilentz recounts Dylan’s notion that the language of folk songs, an old living vocabulary, was a language “that was tied to the circumstances of blood” and of what happened over 100 years ago at the time of secession from the union.

Dylan absorbed more than a century of songs and the history that informed them: standing in an old listening booth, hearing a disc played once and immediately knowing it. Guthrie, Leadbelly, Blind Willy McTell, Doc Watson, Robert Johnson, Memphis Minnie, Bing Cosby, Frank Sinatra, Ricky Nelson, Liam Clancy, Thomas Moore and Paul Brady all found homes in his tower of song.

In Chapter 10, “Bob Dylan’s Civil War”, Wilentz writes: “Listening to the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem at the White Horse Tavern on Hudson Street, Dylan hears other kinds of songs drenched in history where even in a simple melodic wooing ballad, there would be rebellion waiting around the corner.” Rebellion spoke to him louder than death: “He wanted to change over songs like The Minstrel Boy and Kevin Barry to have them fit an American landscape.”

And so, searching for “some archaic grail to lighten the way for his song writing”, he went uptown to the New York Public Library and read about America in the Civil War era: “Not just what the historians had to say but the sources themselves” – primary sources, the heart of the matter.  (Times) >>>

Liz Carroll’s compositions now in book form

The scores of Liz Carroll’s original compositions collected in book form, “what Irish music fans have been clamoring for – for years”, as the publicity material truthfully states is now available to purchase via Liz’s website HERE >>> .

Just published by Liz, with launches at major music festivals throughout 2010 and 2011, 185 tunes are in “Collected,” many of which have been recorded by Liz on her solo albums, and on her recordings with John Doyle, Trian, Cherish the Ladies, and by other artists including Solas, Dervish and Sharon Shannon, and played in sessions wherever Liz’s influence is felt.

You can purchase many of her CDs here >>>

Ultan Cowley’s book ‘McAlpine’s Men — Irish Stories From The Sites’

A new book has shed light on the hundreds of thousands forced to emigrate between the 1940s and 1980s in search of work, just as a fresh generation of young Irish workers considers leaving in search of jobs today.

In ‘McAlpine’s Men — Irish Stories From The Sites’, historian Ultan Cowley focuses on the workers who departed for Britain from the Second World War right up to the 1980s. These thousands of Irish workers were immortalised in The Dubliners’ famous song ‘McAlpine’s Fusiliers’ — which tells of the harsh conditions the migrants endured. (Independent) >>>

Last Night’s Fun, by Ciaran Carson

“Ciaran Carson is a class of centaur-a flute-playing poet and a word-rich musician. Last Night’s Fun is a cracker of a book, pure pleasure, stuffed with anecdotes, memories, wit and humor and deep knowledge of traditional Irish music. The reader is transported into the smoke and warmth of certain rooms in Northern Ireland where a glass of whiskey stands on the table, the black, cast-iron pan sputters on the burner, and a tune falls canted and sly out of the instruments.” –E. Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News

“Last Night’s Fun is an uproar.”–Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times

“This whole beautiful little book is… full of metaphor and observation and side trip and word-juggle and anecdote. It could well be the ideal book to read before a trip to Ireland, offering, instead of maps of highways, a deep drink of what the place is really all about.” –Charles M. Madigan, Chicago Tribune