Tag Archives: Brendan Begley

Breanndán Ó Beaghlaoich, Tommy Peoples, Laoise Kelly touring

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Music Network writes: “Brace yourself for a clash of the titans as a trio of trad’s finest join forces for this unmissable tour. With three distinct regional styles going head-to-head, every tune promises to be something of an adventure. Representing the Dingle Peninsula is genial giant Breanndán Ó Beaghlaoich, whose fiery button accordion playing and heartfelt singing echo the stormy beauty of the West Kerry coastline. With three highly-acclaimed solo albums to his name, Ó Beaghlaoich is also held in high esteem for his work with the groups Boys of the Lough and Beginish and his collaborations with the Chieftains and fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh.”

Music Network writes: “Winner of the first ever TG4 Traditional Musician of the Year Award, trad legend Tommy Peoples brings the rabble-rousing Donegal fiddle style to the party. After recording classic albums with the Bothy Band, Matt Molloy and Paul Brady in the 1970s, Peoples’ compositions and solo performances have inspired a generation of fiddle players. Equally influential is virtuoso harpist Laoise Kelly, who has breathed new life into the national instrument with her reinterpretation of the O’Carolan canon. Though Kelly has toured the world, collaborating with everyone from Seamus Heaney and Kate Bush to The Chieftains, Sharon Shannon and Dónal Lunny, don’t be surprised to hear her Mayo roots to the fore as she gets those feet a-tapping!”

Tour:

SATURDAY 17 SEP, CLOUGHJORDAN, CO. TIPPERARY

  • St. Kieran’s Church
  • 8pm, €15 / €12
  • 0505 42123
  • Promoted by Cloughjordan Community Development Committee

SUNDAY 18 SEP, CLIFDEN, CO. GALWAY

  • Station House Hotel
  • 10pm, €12/10
  • 095 21699
  • Promoted by Clifden Arts Society

TUESDAY 20 SEP, DUBLIN 2

WEDNESDAY 21 SEP, BRAY

THURSDAY 22 SEP, LISTOWEL, KERRY

FRIDAY 23 SEP, WATERVILLE, CO. KERRY

SUNDAY 25 SEP, CLONASLEE, CO. LAOIS

SUNDAY 25 SEP, MAIN ST, NEWBRIDGE, CO, KILDARE

Siobhan Long on A Moment of Madess

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Siobhan Long reviewing Brendan Begley and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh’s Le Gealaigh/A Moment of Madness IrishMusic.Net Records: “The pair’s approach to this collection of polkas, slides, marches and slippery jig (a variation on a tune borrowed from the great Paddy Cronin) would put fire in the belly of a corpse. It’s a picaresque expedition into the unknown, with feet, fingers and the wily spirit of two passionate players lighting the way ahead… Ó Raghallaigh’s hardanger fiddle finds remarkable solace in Begley’s bellows-deep box … The accordion wails and blows like a whale while Ó Raghallaigh’s fiddle darts and dives, propelled by the sheer force of Begley’s fiery rhythms.” (Times) >>>

Earle Hitchner review of Begley & Ó Raghallaigh’s A Moment of Madness

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Without accompaniment, which is a seemingly growing trend in Ireland that I identified in prior “Ceol” columns, Begley and O Raghallaigh deliver the full power of their joint music on “A Moment of Madness.” Their use of dynamics and their control of tempo–descending into whispery softness or ascending into bright boldness, slowing the pace or accelerating it–are as deft as they get in Irish traditional music, and the passages of improvisation are so rich in invention and detail that each subsequent close listening provides further, deeper disclosures. Binding their techniques in service of the tune is unadulterated jubilance.

The tangy, eminently danceable, Sliabh Luachra flavor of “The Humours of Lisheen / The Munster Jig / Sean Coughlin’s” summons images of Johnny O’Leary, Padraig O’Keeffe, Denis Murphy, and Julia Clifford sitting in a session together. The swing in Begley and O Raghallaigh’s box-and-fiddle playing is infectious.

Recorded live at the Lab in Dingle, “An Buachaill Caol Dubh / On Book Hill: Quail Dove (or Debut Kill) / I Wish I Had a Kerry Cow” begins hauntingly with Begley’s solo button accordion playing and then switches in tempo to a brisk blend of box and fiddle for the next two tunes. This track has so much in it–Brendan plays the box with nimble slyness while O Raghallaigh plays pizzicato on fiddle at one point–that it demands re-listening, preferably under headphones. (Irish Echo) >>>

Brendan Begley & Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh’s recording ‘A Moment of Madnes’

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A Moment of Madness Brendan Begley & Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh

Brendan Begley & Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh’s recording ‘A Moment of Madnes’ is now available to purchase on CD Baby.

The track list is as follows:
1. Dhá Pholca Dálaigh
2. Cronin’s Slippery Jig
3. Seán Keane’s / The Ardgroom Polka
4. An Chéad Mháirt den Fhomhair / Na Gamhna Geala
5. The Humours of Lisheen / The Munster Jig / Seán Coughlin’s
6. Tá Dhá Gabhairín Buí Agam / The Glen Cottage / I’ll Tell Me Ma
7. Máirseáil Uí Shúilleabháin or O’Sullivan’s March
8. Eileen O’Neill / The Chancellor or Father Dollard’s / The Frisco or Walshe’s Hornpipe
9. An Buachaill Caol Dubh / On Book Hill: Quail Dove (or Debut Kill) / I Wish I Had a Kerry Cow
10. Tonn Cliodhna / An Seanchaí Muimhneach
11. The Green Cottage / The Glin Cottage / Julia’s Norwegian Polka
12. The P&O Polka
Record Label: IrishMusic.Net
The sleeve notes are a real gem; written, I’m guessing by the references to Brendan’s talents, by Caoimhín:

“One grim grey November morning, a certain schoolteacher in a sad suburb of Dublin opened the newspaper and did something he never does: he read his horrorscope. Follow your heart, it said. A moment of madness is better than a life of logic. “Goodbye”, says Brendan Begley, standing that very day outside the door of his school, “For Ever”. Away he drove, down to Dingle, there and then, never looked back.

Tunes, too (as well as stories), can have a life of their own, and there are a few right quare hawks hiding here on this album: you might find an extra third of a beat or two lurking around the arse end of the first part of Cronin’s Slippery Jig, so called for being nearly a slip jig, but not, and coming as it does from the bow of Paddy Cronin, master of the slippery, the elegant, the beautiful; and as for that strange bird, the Quail Dove, with the three legs too many, well, it certainly has a curious way of walking. But it seems happy, all the same, its heavy breathing aside, and there’s a certain charm to its ‘unique’ way of dancing with the Kerry Cows, the whole lot of them cavorting together on the slopes of Book Hill of a pale moonlit November’s night.

Music is a funny thing, and there are tunes that you just want to play over and over and over, again and again and again, like the P&O Polka (of Christy Leahy’s invention), which seems able to handle any way you’re feeling. The Begley version of O’Sullivan’s March, too, seems perfectly put together: built like a tank, it’ll survive forever.

All this music here stands as a tribute to the great music men of the past, foremost among whom are the merry figures of Johnny Leary and Denis Murphy, those two heroes of humour and the music of Sliabh Luachra. From them come The Chancellor and The Frisco, The Green, Glen and Glin Cottage Polkas, An Seanchaí Muimhneach, The Humours of Lisheen and The Munster Jig.

When playing with the Force of Nature that is Brendan Begley, every note is an adventure, every tune a rollercoaster. It feels a little like sliding down the snow-covered slopes of Mount Brandon, mid-winter, on the threadbare seat of your pants. It’s raw, it’s wild, it’s alive. It’s a lot of fun. Take that night in Airfield House, for example, when friends, family and followers all lifted our spirits: in the middle of Julia’s Norwegian Polka, not content with a mere turbo boost, Begley takes to the chair and belts the boards with his bare-toed sandals, thundering out some manic time. Don’t try this at home, he says. Be warned!”