Here's to Clogherhead !

REVIEW FROM IRISH MUSIC MAGAZINE, June 2011

JIM MacARDLE, EILIS QUINN AND MICK DUNNE

Madam, I’d Like To Be Tossin’ Your Hay

LLM024, 17 Tracks

www.louthlouthmusic.ie

In the 1970’s, the Louth musician, Jim MacArdle spent many hours in the company of fellow concertina player, Mary Ann Carolan. The concertina tradition of Louth was little known then, Mary Ann’s father, Pat Usher had been recorded by RTE in 1962 when he was 93 years old, he played the German concertina, a two row instrument set up in C/G, he had a store of tunes that were ideal for the local set dances and he passed these down to his daughter.

MacArdle, Quinn and Dunne are steeped in those traditions, the trio come from a tight geographical area bounded by Laytown and Drogheda and this album is an homage to their musical home place and their mentors of the 1970’s and 1980’s. No mention of this part of the country would be complete without a respect to Carberry’s pub in Drogheda, a music pub for 150 years and still in the family, the cover shot shows the trio having a few tunes in the bar.

Those tunes are indeed unusual, this is music that comes from a dance tradition not dominated by reels and jigs, as such it is both surprising and refreshing. Sometimes the tunes are rather English in character (especially on the Polkas which begin with Mary Ann Carolan’s, The Lass of Gowrie) but we should temper that thought by noting that the quadrilles and flings were dances popular on both sides of the Celtic Sea in 1900.

The songs are good also, T Stands for Tommy, I Suppose is a local variant of P Stands for Paddy and is here given a relaxed treatment with clear tenor vocals making every word ring out. This is followed by a slow paced set called Peter McArdles, the notes for which are sadly incomplete in the liner. Another fine song is about an errant Welsh woman The Laff and Half Daft, which sounds as if it began on the music hall stage as the Lass of Llandaf. Then there is a remnant from blackfaced minstrelsy, Young Bob Ridley a jaunty song in the musical vein of the more famous Old Dan Tucker. The final track, on autoharp and button box, A Tune for Joe, a tribute air to the late Joe Ryan, deserves to be played everywhere. It would be a lovely bookend to any pub’s late session and I’m sure it is a firm favourite in Carberry’s.

This is a lovely album, full of hard to forget melodies, many set in the rounded key of C, from a corner of the country and a country pub where the local tradition is still cherished.

Seán Laffey

The Album is available from cdworld.ie - look it up under J.... 

Tí Chairbre (Carberry's Pub)

Tí Chairbre (Carberry's Pub)

We are playing regularly in the Drogheda Area, mostly in our home from home, Carberrys Pub on the North Strand