Senior Side Of The Street 24march2024

This program is sponsored by Forum Connemara 095 4116 Hello, good evening and you're very welcome to our Sunday evening programs here on Connemara Community Radio. You're listening in on 87.8 and 106.1 FM and hopefully some of you as well logged in through connemarafm.com For our program this evening here at this time we're going to a wonderful recording which was done as part of the Clifton Arts Festival in September of 2023 and this was an afternoon concert in the Clifton Town Hall which featured the wonderful musicians Johnny O'Connolly, Kleena Costlow and Paul Thule and in the middle of this concert recording you'll hear a beautiful slow air that was composed by Johnny O'Connolly He'll introduce it when he's about to play it and it was composed during 2016 but it's a wonderful piece to look forward to So I do hope you can enjoy this concert this evening here with us on Connemara Community Radio The group were introduced in Clifton by Kevin Gavin Join us on the stage for a lovely afternoon session as we call it Johnny O'Connolly, Kleena Costlow and Paul Thule Give them a big round of applause when we get them on stage Thank you Thank you very much, Grimagi It's lovely to be here in Clifton, the capital of Connemara Some of you might know I'm from South Connemara away from the mountains and the beautiful lakes and all that We're going to play a mixture of Connemara tunes and songs I've got an interest in playing the Connemara songs as the Shannos the faster Shannos songs as tunes one or two compositions of my own Some of the 1920s music which goes very well with Pelosian and Banjo so myself and Kleena will be playing some of that and Paul Thule on guitar who can back anything at all we play, hopefully So we're going to start off with a few Connemara songs The first one is Me Cannah Wan Wanna which some of you will know which is often played as a tune as well The second song then is Ban Fáidín The third one then is Tom in the Rears which is actually a Munster song and this is actually a minor key version of it more unusual than the usual way that it's the usual setting So we'll give these a go and settle into it then, hopefully Ban Fáidín Tom in the Rears Ban Fáidín Tom in the Rears Ban Fáidín Tom in the Rears Ban Fáidín Thank you We're going to continue with two tunes that are played a lot in Connemara My dad played them a lot and for dancing and that Kids learn the first horn pipes that they learn as well The Boys of Blue Hill So it's a tune that I wouldn't normally have played at a gig or at a concert or whatever but I found a beautiful version played by a second cousin of my dad's Shonny McDonagh who's a wonderfully inventive accordion player who lives in London and he's actually a beautiful version of the Boys of Blue Hill and also on Slacky Norna, Slacky Barley as well So we're going to play these two tunes and my dad really loved Shonny McDonagh's playing as well he used to play the first tune together in Shonny's style So we'll give these ones a go Actually somebody gave out recently about traditional musicians saying we're going to give this tune a go There's actually Nick O'Brien, the piper in Dublin, he was saying to me we were out in America and he said I hate it when traditional musicians go up and do a gig and they say we're going to give this one a go He said just say you're going to play it, you know, be confident about it So I had to catch myself there Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Thank you Thank you very much So we're going to play two reels The first one is called Reel Wartine Hamish Wartine Hamish was an accordion player and trumpet... Yeah, the Jews harp Jaw harp as well And he composed and played a signature tune on Radio Na Gaeilfe which was played at 7 o'clock I think it's at 7 o'clock in the morning every day And with the celebration of 50 years of Radio Na Gaeilfe I was invited to play this tune with the RTE Concert Orchestra which was a daunting experience, I can tell you when you've about 70 or 80 musicians behind you and a conductor and you're in front trying to play a tune It was a great experience and to play an iconic Connemara tune So we're going to play that one I recorded these a few years ago This one and a version of a well-known reel called the Ash Plant So Reel Wartine Hamish and the Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash Plant Reel Ash 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So the first tune is a Gardner Davies and the job, the journey, the work, they were recorded by the Flanagan Brothers back in the 1920s, accordion and banjo again. Gardner Davies Gardner Davies Gardner Davies Gardner Davies Gardner Davies Gardner Davies Gardner Davies Gardner Davies Gardner Davies Gardner Davies Gardner Davies Gardner Davies Gardner Davies Gardner Davies Thank you very much. I'll do a couple of reels. One I got from the playing of Sean Ian McDonagh going back to the same guy as well because this accordion player is probably one of the most inventive musicians I've ever heard and three of us have been hugely influenced by him. He played a couple of tunes at that concert in spittle in commemoration of Johnny Connolly himself and John McCarty probably the first banjo player that I ever heard an actual recording of. So the two of them played this first one, I've no name for it and then I might play Sailor on the Rock after that which is the very first tune on that album that John Carty brought out, The Cat that Led the Candle. The Cat that Led the Candle The Cat that Led the Candle The Cat that Led the Candle The Cat that Led the Candle The Cat that Led the Candle The Cat that Led the Candle The Cat that Led the Candle The Cat that Led the Candle The Cat that Led the Candle The Cat that Led the Candle The Cat that Led the Candle The Cat that Led the Candle APPLAUSE Actually, the man that Cian was talking about, Johnny McDonagh who's the second cousin of my dad has been a great influence on us all and one of the most inventive players, as Cian said but he's also the fastest man I ever saw leaving the stage because he hates being on the stage, hates the limelight or anything like that and it was a tribute to the great Finbar Dwyer great accordion player who died a number of years ago and I just saw him on Facebook, Johnny going up playing his few tunes and Brian McGrath was on the keyboard or whatever and as soon as he finished, he didn't wait for the applause he just jumped off the seat and just ran off the stage I've never ever seen anything as quick in my life this man's over 70 but he's very fit that day I think I've inherited a little of that from him So these two tunes, the first one is called The Flanagans again from the Flanagan Brothers from the 1920s that recorded this and Daytona also recorded this in the 1990s and the second tune, which is called Kimmel's because Kimmel was a German-American who lived in New York played a melody as well and because Irish music was so popular in New York in the 1920s he decided to get in on the act so he started playing Irish tunes and jigs and that but what he started doing was he started adding parts to the already existing jigs and calling them medleys maybe he thought the one tunes weren't interesting enough on their own so he added maybe two more parts to it that came from another tune or whatever so that's what happens in the second tune and there's a kind of virtuosic element as well to Kimmel's playing he was kind of up and down the keyboard and all that so we'll play these two as the penultimate set Thank you very much Thank you very much Thank you very much We're going to finish off with two very traditional Connemara reels again that my dad played a lot Swallow's Tale and Miss McLeod's Reel so if anybody feels like getting up and doing a bit of a dance half set or a Shannos dance you're very welcome to do so and thanks for coming in first of all and staying and listening and thanks especially to the great wonderful Brendan Flynn who invited us and has done such wonderful work over the years here to bring an international festival here to Clifton a wonderful man and inspiration to everybody so thank you very much Aidan on sound, thank you very much and Millie, thank you very much Millie so the Swallow's Tale and Miss McLeod's Swallow's Tale and Miss McLeod's Reel Swallow's Tale and Miss McLeod's Reel Swallow's Tale and Miss McLeod's Reel Swallow's Tale and Miss McLeod's Reel Swallow's Tale and Miss McLeod's Reel Swallow's Tale and Miss McLeod's Reel Thank you very much and good afternoon This is a free national telephone service for older people so if you feel like company today phone us and talk to another older person who's part of our team free phone 1-800-80-45-91 that's 1-800-80-45-91 senior line is open daily from 10 till 10 and we'd love to hear from you This program was sponsored by Forum Connemara 095-4416 Forum Connemara