PADDY O’BRIEN – Mixing The Punch
New Folk Records NFRWCM0003

Reviewed by Gordon Potter

Paddy O’Brien, originally from County Offaly, is, by any standard you care to mention, one of the outstanding players of the two-row button accordion, with a string of awards to his name. He is also a prodigious collector of tunes, with an ability to retain regional variations and styles, as well as recalling the individual techniques of players who have now left us. He is quoted as saying that he likes musicians who play the nicest tunes even more than those who have technical musicianship – surely the sort of thing that can only be said by someone whose own technical musicianship is an absolute given.

Paddy’s technical playing gives some of the cleanest, clearest playing that you could hope for, but never at the expense of the heart and soul of the tunes. Each set here involves the listener straight away, and you just know that there’s been a lot of thought put into what you’re hearing, so that everything sounds just right. There is a lightness of touch here that is extraordinary and a passion for the music that is evident.

The tune sets take us on a tour all round Ireland, with Paddy’s playing reflecting the regional styles perfectly. Mostly jigs and reels, as you might expect, with hornpipes, polkas and slow airs thrown in for good balance, this selection really is a showcase to treasure.

Teresa Baker provides piano accompaniment, and her non-obtrusive, complementary style should be a lesson to any who aspire to the genre. There’s a guest appearance from fellow-Offaly man Felim Egan as well, to add some extras to this really splendid production. Class this as “essential listening.”

Ireland’s Irish language television station TG4, has honored Offaly-born button accordion icon Paddy O’Brien with its Gradam Ceoil Traditional Composer of the Year Award. Paddy joins a long list of Irish traditional music luminaries with this honor, including previous winners Paddy Fahy, Vincent Broderick, Charlie Lennon, Peadar Ó Riada, and Liz Carroll.

WATCH THE CONCERT VIDEO

GRADAM CEOIL 2012 PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK

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This year’s Gradam Ceoil recipients range over a wide spectrum of talents. Those honored in the various categories include a legendary Donegal fiddler who also spent most of his life in London, a US-based world-renowned composer and scholar originally from Offaly, an Armagh couple whose life has been spend teaching traditional music in that city and county and two young Gaeltacht musicians from Ring and Muskerry who, while still in their early twenties, have already achieved much in their chosen musical disciplines. The full list of TG4 Gradam Ceoil 2012 recipients is:

• Gradam Ceoil (Musician) – Brian Rooney, fiddle
• Ceoltóir Óg (Young Musician) – Caoimhín Ó Fearghail, uilleann pipes
• Gradam Saoil (Hall of Fame) – Danny Meehan, fiddle
• Cumadóir (Composer) – Paddy O’Brien, button accordion
• Amhránaí (Singer) – Nell Ní Chróinín
• Gradam Aitheantais (Contributions) – Eithne agus Brian Vallely, fiddle and uilleann pipes

Gradam Ceoil TG4 2012

This year’s awards were presented at the Gradam Ceoil 2012 Concert at University Concert Hall, Limerick on Saturday 24th March. Recipients were joined by a host of special guests in a concert hosted by Aoife Ní Thuairisg and Páidí Ó Lionáird that was also broadcast on TG4 on Easter Sunday, 8th April 2012. The program included performances from:

• Brian Rooney, John Carty, James Carty & Brian McGrath
• Nell ní Chróinín & Eoiní Ó Súilleabháin
• Danny Meehan, Tommy Peoples, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh & Dermot McLaughlin
• Brian, Eithne & the Vallely Family
• Paddy O’Brien & Tommy Sullivan
• Caoimhín Ó Fearghail, Seán Ó Fearghail, Dónal Clancy & Tomás Ó Gealbhain
• Ceoltóirí Dhámh Chruinne Éireann, Rince & Ceol, Luimneach

For more information about the Gradam Ceoil TG4 2012, visit:  Gradam Ceoil TG4 2012

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About Paddy O’Brien

Paddy O’Brien was born in Daingean, Co. Offaly in 1945. He took up the accordion as a youngster and travelled widely, seeking out older players, honing his craft and carefully building up his repertoire. His formative influences included Joe Delaney and Dan Cleary of Offaly, Galway fiddlers Paddy Fahy and Eddie Kelly, Donegal fiddler John Doherty, Frank Mc Collum of Antrim, Seán Ryan from Tipperary and Dublin’s Tommy Potts. Paddy moved to Dublin in 1969, where he often played with Clare fiddlers Joe Ryan and John Kelly. This experience provided a great learning ground where he continuously amassed a wealth of knowledge on tune settings and much anecdotal background information on repertoire and musicians. Given his penchant for collecting tunes, and his predilection towards unusual settings, it was natural, perhaps, that he would turn his hand to composition.

Paddy has been living in Minnesota since 1983, performing and teaching all over North America and Ireland, and was invited to perform in Moscow in 2008. Several of Paddy’s most popular compositions are ‘The Small Hills of Offaly,’ ‘The Antrim Rose,’ and ‘Sarah’s Delight’ which appeared on two classic 1970s LPs entitled ‘Is It Yourself?’ and ‘Spring in the Air,’ with Dublin-born fiddle maestro James Kelly (son of John Kelly, and TG4 Musician of the Year 2006), and Derry-born guitarist (and member of Altan) Dáithí Sproule. Both classic recordings were combined into a single CD entitled ‘Traditional Music of Ireland’ (Shanachie 34014), which continues to influence Irish musicians worldwide.

In September 1994, Paddy received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts that enabled him to record the 500 tunes that comprise Volume One of  The Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection – A Personal Treasury of Irish Traditional Music, an impressive and a massive undertaking that has been acclaimed worldwide. Volume Two of this collection followed in 2011, with 150 double jigs, 120 hornpipes, 100 polkas,  100 reels,  and 30 slip jigs. This is a unique corpus, the output of a lifetime’s collection of unusual settings and versions, and some original compositions, with detailed notes.

Over the course of his long career, Paddy has composed approximately fifty tunes, spanning many dance forms within the tradition, including 24 reels, 4 marches, 4 polkas, 1 slide, 9 jigs, 4 airs, and 3 hornpipes. Some of these original pieces have appeared on his numerous recordings, and many were included as part of the Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection. Many of Paddy’s compositions have also been received into the tradition, and played in sessions and recorded by well-respected Irish traditional musical groups, including Solas, Téada, Danú, Trían, Nic Gaviskey, The Boys of the Lough, and Altan, among others.

As a musician, Paddy has played and recorded with a number of different céilí bands and groups since the 1960s: The Ballinamere Céilí Band, The Seán Ryan Trio, The Castle Céilí Band, Ceoltóirí Laighean, Bowhand, Hill 16, and currently O’Rourke’s Feast, Chulrua, and The Doon Céilí Band. His just-released second solo CD, ‘Mixing the Punch,’ features Teresa Baker on piano and guest artist (and fellow Offalyman) Felim Egan on button accordion.

Paddy has a well-earned reputation as a walking encyclopedia of Irish music, and as a highly regarded scholar, composer, and source for tunes. It is estimated that he carries in his head more than 3,000 Irish melodies. His previous honors include a 2006 Artist Fellowship from the Bush Foundation of Saint Paul, Minnesota, and a Lifetime Achievement Honor from the Irish Music & Dance Association in 2010, for his contributions to Irish music and culture in Minnesota.

Past Winners of the TG4 Traditional Composer of the Year Award

Gradam Ceoil TG4 recognizes the importance of constantly adding to Ireland’s vibrant dance music repertoire by presenting Gradam an Chumadóra each year. Much of the work of these composers has already become a part of the tradition, regularly played at sessions and recorded by other artists.

Previous Winners

2001 – Paddy Fahy, Co. Galway
2002 – Brendan Tonra, Co. Mayo
2003 – Vincent Broderick, Co. Galway
2004 – Richie Dwyer, Co. Cork
2005 – Josephine Keegan, Co. Armagh
2006 – Charlie Lennon, Co. Leitrim
2007 – Jim McGrath, Co. Fermanagh
2008 – Peadar Ó Riada, Dublin
2009 – Con Fada Ó Drisceoil, Co. Cork
2010 – John & Finbarr Dwyer, Co. Cork
2010 – Liz Carroll, Chicago, IL  USA

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For more information, or to schedule an interview with Paddy O’Brien,

please call + 1 651-698-2258 or e-mail paddyobrien@qwest.net.

PADDY O’BRIEN WEBSITE:  http://www.paddyobrien.net

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PADDY O’BRIEN —BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

A product of County Offaly in the midlands of Ireland, Paddy O’Brien is regarded by serious players and collectors of Irish traditional music as one of the tradition’s most important repositories. In a musical career that spans nearly fifty years, he has gained an international reputation as a walking encyclopedia of Irish music; it’s estimated that he carries in his head more than 3,000 Irish tunes—jigs, reels, hornpipes, airs, and marches, including many rare and unusual tunes. His mastery of the two-row button accordion has been acknowledged through prestigious awards: he was named Oireachtas champion four times, and All-Ireland senior accordion champion in 1975.

Before emigrating to the United States, Paddy played and recorded in Ireland during the 1960s and 1970s with Dublin’s fabled Castle Céilí Band and Ceoltóirí Laighean. In 1978, he  began playing regularly in the United States, in Washington DC, Saint Louis, Saint Paul, San Francisco, Boston, New York, and many places between. He has been featured on more than two dozen critically-acclaimed recordings, many considered among the classics of Irish traditional music.

(Complete CV and discography at: http://www.paddyobrien.net/about/paddy-obrien-cv/.)

In more than five decades as a professional musician, Paddy has performed all over the North America and Ireland, as well as in France, Germany, and Russia. He has taught at the prestigious Willie Clancy Summer School in Milltown Malbay, County Clare; The Swannanoa Gathering; Catskills Irish Arts Week, Goderich Celtic College, and has lectured and taught all over North America, Ireland, and Europe. He has served four times a master artist in the Minnesota State Arts Board Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. In 1995, he began a project  to record and document 1,000 tunes from his vast repertoire of traditional music; the result of that effort, the Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection: A Personal Treasury of Irish Traditional Music, has received accolades from players around the world. More recently, Paddy has received a prestigious Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship, and project grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Irish Fair of Minnesota Legacy Fund. He was chosen as the 2010 honoree of the Twin Cities Irish Music & Dance Association for his contributions to Irish music and culture in Minnesota.

www.paddyobrien.net

Band member biographies:

Paddy O’Brien, internationally renowned master of the button accordion, known for the depth and breadth of his knowledge about Irish traditional music. He gained that knowledge by spending time playing and talking with master musicians from an older generation in Ireland, and for years has been passing down what he learned to a younger generation of musicians in Minnesota. Paddy does not read music, but carries in his head nearly 4,000 distinct melodies, sometimes multiple versions of the same tune, from regional variations to particular interpretations by individual musicians. He is frequently called upon as a source for musicians around the globe who consult him for historical and cultural background information on Irish music. Paddy has won numerous awards, including multiple first-place awards in the Oireachtas competitions sponsored by the Gaelic League in Ireland, as well as multiple awards in the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil sponsored by the traditional music organization Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. He has served as a master artist in Minnesota State Arts Board Folk Arts Apprenticeship program, and received a prestigious Bush Artist Fellowship in Folk and Traditional Arts. He has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Irish Fair of Minnesota Legacy Fund, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. He is also a member of the internationally-renowned Irish music trio Chulrua, and The Doon Céilí Band. On March 24, 2012, Paddy will be honored as Ireland’s Traditional Composer of the Year by Irish language television network, TG4.

Nathan Gourley held his first fiddle at 2 years of age. With support from his musical family (in particular his father, who is a fiddler), Nathan enrolled in Suzuki violin lessons when he was 5 years old.  He went on to study classical violin with Gene Purdue, former first violin of the Thouvenel Quartet.  In his younger years, Nathan made regular stage appearances as a guest in many of his father’s bands such as Stone Soup, Buffalo Trail and Rosewood Moct. It was during annual trips to numerous fiddle and folk music festivals where Nathan was exposed to all sorts of fiddlers such as Martin Hayes, Liz Carroll, Alasdair Fraser, Brendan Mulvihill, Dale Russ, and Laura Risk. In spite of his classical background and a stint as a member of the University of Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, traditional Irish music has become Nathan’s passion. Now settled in the Twin Cities, he is also a member of The Doon Céilí Band and the Two Tap Trio, and is active in numerous Irish sessions.

Brian Miller started playing Irish music as a 17-year-old in his decidedly non-Irish hometown of Bemidji, Minnesota. Since 1998, he has lived in the Twin Cities where a vibrant and supportive community of Irish musicians has nurtured his developing musicality. County Derry guitarist and singer Daithi Sproule and County Offaly accordion player Paddy O’Brien (both long-time residents of the Twin Cities) have been big influences. More inspiration and encouragement has come from many months spent in his other adopted home of Cork, Ireland. Brian’s primary instrument has always been the guitar and over the years his backing style has earned him a strong reputation throughout North American Irish music circles. Also a strong traditional singer, Brian is the founder of the Traditional Singers Club of the Twin Cities. He added the Irish flute to his arsenal in 2000 while studying Irish music in Cork where he learned his first flute tunes from Conal O’Grada and Padraig Kelleher.  As a member of a number of traditional Irish music groups and duos including Bua, Norah Rendell and Brian Miller, and The Two Tap Trio, Brian has performed throughout the US, and in parts of Canada and Ireland. He has been featured on RTE television and RTE radio in Ireland as well as the Irish language TV station TG4. He has also performed on CBC Radio in Canada and on Minnesota Public Radio.  A diligent student and teacher, Brian has been a guest lecturer on the Irish song tradition at University College Cork and he is currently a flute, whistle, and guitar teacher at the Saint Paul-based Center for Irish Music. In 2008 he was awarded two grants for his work with the songs of early Irish immigrants in Minnesota logging camps.

Paddy O’Brien was honored as Ireland’s 2012 Composer of the Year at the recent Gradam Ceoil Irish Traditional Music Awards in Limerick. The awards are sponsored by TG4, the Irish language television network (now part of RTE, the national broadcasting service).

Paddy joins a long list of Irish traditional music luminaries with this honor, including previous winners Paddy Fahy, Vincent Broderick, Charlie Lennon, Peadar Ó Riada, and Liz Carroll.

VIDEO LINK:  WATCH THE FULL CONCERT VIDEO

GRADAM CEOIL 2012 PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK

BACKSTAGE AT GRADAM CEOIL 2012 ON FACEBOOK

The broadcast kicked off with a bang: several of Paddy’s compositions, SARAH’S DELIGHT, THE WOODEN CITY POLKAS, and THE SMALL HILLS OF OFFALY, as performed by the ensemble from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance! After a short interview, Paddy also performs a couple of his compositions, TINY THE TROOPER and THE TURF CUTTER, with accompaniment from guitarist Tommy O’Sullivan.

This year’s Gradam Ceoil recipients range over a wide spectrum of talents. Those honored in the various categories include a legendary Donegal fiddler who also spent most of his life in London, a US-based world-renowned composer and scholar originally from Offaly, an Armagh couple whose life has been spend teaching traditional music in that city and county and two young Gaeltacht musicians from Ring and Muskerry who, while still in their early twenties, have already achieved much in their chosen musical disciplines. The full list of TG4 Gradam Ceoil 2012 recipients is:

• Gradam Ceoil (Musician) – Brian Rooney, fiddle
• Ceoltóir Óg (Young Musician) – Caoimhín Ó Fearghail, uilleann pipes
• Gradam Saoil (Hall of Fame) – Danny Meehan, fiddle
• Cumadóir (Composer) – Paddy O’Brien, button accordion
• Amhránaí (Singer) – Nell Ní Chróinín
• Gradam Aitheantais (Contributions) – Eithne agus Brian Vallely, fiddle and pipes

Gradam Ceoil TG4 2012

This year’s awards were presented at the Gradam Ceoil 2012 Concert at University Concert Hall, Limerick on Saturday 24th March. Recipients were joined by a host of special guests in a concert hosted by Aoife Ní Thuairisg and Páidí Ó Lionáird that was also broadcast on TG4 on Easter Sunday, 8th April 2012. The program included performances from:

• Brian Rooney, John Carty, James Carty & Brian McGrath
• Nell ní Chróinín & Eoiní Ó Súilleabháin
• Danny Meehan, Tommy Peoples, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh & Dermot McLaughlin
• Brian, Eithne & the Vallely Family
• Paddy O’Brien & Tommy Sullivan
• Caoimhín Ó Fearghail, Seán Ó Fearghail, Dónal Clancy & Tomás Ó Gealbhain
• Ceoltóirí Dhámh Chruinne Éireann, Rince & Ceol, Luimneach

VIDEO LINK:  Watch a short TG4 documentary program about all the Gradam Ceoil 2012 winners.

Past Winners of the TG4 Traditional Composer of the Year Award

Gradam Ceoil TG4 recognizes the importance of constantly adding to Ireland’s vibrant dance music repertoire by presenting Gradam an Chumadóra each year. Much of the work of these composers has already become a part of the tradition, regularly played at sessions and recorded by other artists.

2001 – Paddy Fahy, Co. Galway

2002 – Brendan Tonra, Co. Mayo

2003 – Vincent Broderick, Co. Galway

2004 – Richie Dwyer, Co. Cork

2005 – Josephine Keegan, Co. Armagh

2006 – Charlie Lennon, Co. Leitrim

2007 – Jim McGrath, Co. Fermanagh

2008 – Peadar Ó Riada, Dublin

2009 – Con Fada Ó Drisceoil, Co. Cork

2010 – John & Finbarr Dwyer, Co. Cork

2010 – Liz Carroll, Chicago, IL  USA

2012  – Paddy O’Brien, Saint Paul MN  USA

For more information about the Gradam Ceoil TG4 2012, visit: Gradam Ceoil TG4

by Jim Tarbox
The Irish Gazette, March 2012

Although he’s recorded a ton of music, including a pair of hefty collections totaling some 1,000 traditional tunes, this is technically only O’Brien’s second “solo” recording, hot on the heels of last year’s The Sailor’s Cravat. And it is, as you might expect, a sterling set of traditional music played by a master—pure and simple.

Joining forces with Portland (Ore.) pianist Teresa Baker and fellow Offalyman and squeezebox player Felim Egan, Saint Paul’s master of the two-row button accordion here presents thoughtful and engaging tunes that perfectly set the mood. It’s “easy listening” in its most complimentary sense.

The composer of 50 original tunes, O’Brien has compiled some 4,000 tunes over his 50-plus-year career. Conventional wisdom has it that he “carries” 3,000 of them in his head at any given time—I don’t know that I’ve listened to that many songs in my lifetime! Of the 17 tracks on this set, mostly jigs and reels, it’s the slow air “The Flight of the Wild Geese” that made me sit up. It’s the stand-out tune among them all, and will make even the most skeptical listener of the button accordion nearly swoon.

For his many years of championing of traditional Irish music, O’Brien was named this year’s recipient of the prestigious TG4 (Irish language television) Gradam Ceoil honor for composition. He will join five other winners at Limerick’s University Concert Hall March 24. And to cap it all off, he reportedly is working on an autobiography. There will be no shortage of background music for that read.

Irish Music Magazine – August 2011

PADDY O’BRIEN & FRIENDS – The Sailor’s Cravat
New Folk Records
WCM0001, 17 tracks, 49 minutes
www.newfolkrecords.com, www.cic.ie

Not to be confused with his composer namesake from Tipperary, Paddy O’Brien from Offaly is a button-box player with a long and varied musical career. After playing with Dublin’s famous Castle Céilí Band, he fell in with John Kelly Jr. and Daithí Sproule for a while, recording a couple of albums with them before settling in America. As the box-player with Chulrua, Paddy has toured widely in the USA and beyond. On this album he’s joined by Mid West musicians Tom Schaefer on fiddle, Paul Wehling on the ever-popular bouzouki, and Erin Hart who sings 3 songs here. This release is available through CIC in Ireland, and New Folk Records. The website www.paddyobrien.net has plenty of samples.

Squeezing seventeen tracks under fifty minutes, Paddy mostly pairs up the tunes. He’s chosen a number of Paddy Fahy’s and Sean Ryan’s compositions, better-known as fiddle tunes but given a great workout on the button box. The pair of Fahy reels is a fine example, box and fiddle working as one. Unusual tunes abound here: the title reel, closely related to The Humours of Ballyconnell, as well as The Maple Leaf, The Rose of Lough Gill, The Goat in the Garden, and three pugnacious polkas Paddy picked up in America. Along with a few familiar favourites, Paddy adds two of his own compositions: a quirky little jig, and a Fahy-style reel called The Gosling.

Erin Hart is an American with Irish roots, and happens to be married to Paddy. She sings three unaccompanied ballads with a strong voice and stateside accent. The Flower of Magherally and Molly Bawn are well-known, The Generous Lover less so, and all three come from the canon of 19th-century Irish minstrelsy.

Despite occasional florid language, these are dark songs in tone and content: forbidden love, death, betrayal, all the fun of the ballad tradition – and of Erin’s crime novels, for that matter.

— Alex Monaghan

http://www.irishmusicmagazine.com/releases/0811aug/

Paddy O’Brien Talks About The Sailor’s Cravat

by Helene Dunbar

Reprinted from the August 2011 edition of Irish Music Magazine

While many people are predicting the demise of the CD, County Offaly native and Minneapolis resident button accordionist Paddy O’Brien hasn’t given up on them yet. “I’m very much in favor of them as a way to present the music,” he says. “They keep me on my toes.”

O’Brien isn’t just talking the talk. His new CD, The Sailor’s Cravat (New Folk Records in the US, and Cló Iar-Chonnacht in Ireland), has just been released and he has a host of others in the works, none of which he’s afraid of releasing into an uncertain industry. “People know that my recordings will have particular settings of tunes or new tunes. It won’t be any run-of-the-mill stuff that’s been recorded before. But I don’t do it to impress people or to satisfy anybody other than myself. To me, it’s a project that makes me research some of the tunes, that makes me think about pairing tunes together, that makes me more of a disciplinarian.”

You might think that it would be difficult for an artist who, it has been said, had 4,000 tunes committed to memory, to choose tracks for an album but O’Brien isn’t fazed by the task. While he jokes that he chose the ones he “wanted most to get off my chest,” he admits, “I take them from individual solo artists who are, in my estimation anyway, part of the Irish traditional music underground. People who are not high profile, people that play at home, people that compose music.”

As such, this album relies heavily on the compositions of fiddlers Paddy Fahy from East Donegal and Sean Ryan from County Tipperary. “Of course Sean died back in the 80′s but that’s the way with traditional Irish music, I think if people are dead and gone, it gives more credibility to the reputation of the music, in a kind of a funny way,” O’Brien laughs.

Having toured with Ryan and his accordion-playing wife, Kathleen, in the 1960′s, O’Brien says that he had access to some of Ryan’s tunes that have never been heard publicly or recorded before. “Some of this music, I would have it for maybe twenty or thirty years and, during that time, I wouldn’t be playing them all the time but I would keep in touch with them. This album is a result of that.”

In addition to O’Brien, album features Tom Schaefer on fiddle, Paul Wehling on bouzouki and O’Brien’s wife, crime fiction writer Erin Hart, on three sean-nós tracks. Hart and O’Brien met when he invited her up on stage to sing, but, O’Brien laments, “There’s not a lot of opportunity for sean-nós singing because we’re living in a very unforgiving, commercial world. Anything that’s real and honest is being pushed aside in favor of pretentious entertainment. If you get up and sing a song that has a lot of personal input into it, a lot of feeling and expression, it’s hard to do that nowadays with all of this commercial glamour.”

Also on the docket is a solo CD to be called Mixing the Punch as well as new CDs coming from O’Brien’s group Chulrua, and The Doon Ceili Band.

Two other projects have also played heavily on O’Brien’s schedule. The first is a companion to his mid-90′s release, the “Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection,” adding another five hundred tunes to the initial book. “What’s different about this one is that there’s more of a variety of tunes,” O’Brien explains. “So people that are learning new tunes will have a better variety and people who are learning to play an instrument will have a choice because some of the polkas aren’t too hard to play and are a very good choice to introduce one’s self to a musical instrument. Plus it has a book along with the thirteen disks listing of all the titles and the stories and information about the background of the tunes.”

While O’Brien would love to be able to devote more time to tune-collecting he says the economy is playing a part in his decisions. “It’s the same story with everybody these days. We’re just trying to make out as best we can.” At the same time, he’s heartened the music thrives even in a weak economy. “Irish traditional music has always been a social style of music. It has always offered people a chance to come together, and sit around and have a drink and a chat, and do a bit of dancing. And I hear that in Ireland, with the economy the way it is, it’s bringing people together in a more hospitable way, in a more caring way, in a way that is more like how it used to be. A nice kind of understanding of everybody’s plight. The sad thing is that people in Ireland don’t know about all the music going on in the States. This is why I call it the traditional music underground.”

For example, he points to the house concerts and sessions that thrive through the US. “There’s still a lot of very decent followers of the music. People who love to listen and people who go to house concerts. It’s a pleasure to play for them. It’s a very intimate kind of setting to be playing at. It suits the type of music and singing even better than getting up on a huge stage where you feel separated from the audience and the only way you can connect with them is to throw a whole heap of bullshit into the microphone.”

As for sessions, he says that finding the right pub is the trick. “Sessions are more successful in smaller pubs. The smaller the pub and the darker the pub, the darker the corners, the more cobwebs that there were, the more music you have. Musicians are very funny that way. They like to feel safe, and secure, and comfortable, and accepted, and when all these ingredients are put together, you’ll have an energy that is very hard to repeat.”

One last project that O’Brien has invested himself in is a memoir, “The Road from Castlebarnagh” which details his early life in Offaly through his move to Dublin in 1968. “We were living in a thatched house,” he explains, “my father, and mother, and four sisters. We had no electricity or water. It was a very scanty existence. But there was a great social life in the countryside. I had a wealth of stuff to write about. It’s a cultural insight into what life was like in County Offaly in those days of 1954-65. It’s a memory, a human statement of how it was, a human presentation from the mind’s eye of a child, and then a teenager, and then, as I got into my early 20′s, my adult self.”

Of his introduction to music, O’Brien tells a tale that is indicative of its time. “When the radio was put in the house in 1956, I began learning bits of tunes,” he recounts. “A peddler and his donkey arrived with a sack of mouse traps, black polish, hair pins, and other items. He unloaded a lot of stuff onto the floor and there were a couple of mouth organs in the mix. I was about eight and I started screaming to my mother to get me one and she did – for about a shilling. And that was my first instrument.”

As luck would have it, the donkey decided it didn’t want to leave. The peddler tried beating it, which upset O’Brien’s mother who was going to try to lure it to move with a bowl full of turnips. Instead, according to O’Brien, “When I started playing, the donkey’s ears reared up and he made a run for the road. It was my first public performance and a huge flop.”

Once would guess that he hasn’t had a similar experience since.

http://www.myspace.com/helenedunbar/blog/543552945

by Yuri Andreychuk

Visiting Moscow, March 2008

Paddy O’Brien from Co. Offaly is not just one of the most famous Irish accordionists in the world but also a man who had developed so many abilities that one can hardly put into practice in a lifetime. He is also a recognized musician, collector, composer and even a poet.

Above all, Paddy is a little bit of a philosopher and a very outstanding figure. In Ireland and in the USA they speak of him like we of Peter Mamonov—“a mystery-man.” But everything he got from life – from his name to the instrument he wanted to play—could have made his career very difficult from the very start. It is not a big secret that an accordionist called Paddy O’Brien could have become a prominent and influential figure in Irish music just as well as Ivan Smirnov in Russia, for example. More to say, due to the irony of fate one of the most elder famous accordionists had the same name and surname.

Paddy O’Brien was born September 13, 1945 in Castlebarnagh, Co. Offaly. He started learning accordion on his own. When he was young, Paddy traveled Ireland a lot playing sessions with various older musicians, to name a few prominent: legendary fiddler from Donegal John Doherty, fiddler from Co. Antrim—Frank MacCollum and Paddy Fahy as well. A good experience that proved useful in creating his own manner of play was his cooperation with some pipers, for example, Tom Nolan. From the older musicians he tried to get a special attitude to music—not to look at it as a job but to consider it to be a lifestyle. And he surely managed to remember dozens of dances from those musicians. At the late 1950s, and the beginning of the 1960′s in Ireland, the radio played a great part in stimulation of interest in traditional music. Paddy was especially keen on programs like «Céilí House» and «A Job of Journeywork».

Paddy O’Brien first played in public in 1966, when he was in a band with Peter Kilroe, Dan Cleary, and others from Ballinamere.

In 1968 he decided to go on his first trip to America and toured the eastern United States with Seán and Kathleen Ryan. They played traditional music in community halls and clubs. After returning in April 1969, being already experienced, Paddy moved to Dublin to attend regular pub and club sessions with fiddlers: first of all—John Kelly and Joe Ryan, and also Seán Keane from Chieftains and Tommy Potts. James Keane, who later moved to the USA, was the accordionist who influenced O’Brien most of all. For Paddy all that seemed kind of informal lessons, augmented by various stories about the music and the people who played it. Those lessons were a great value to him. Bars became his universities, as for the majority of Irish traditional musicians. He still speaks about session rules as a good training saying, “lots of bartender girls turned hard of hearing in my lifetime.” Young Paddy O’Brien got much good advice, important records, etc. Living in Dublin, like the majority of the musicians, above sessions, in order to develop his sense of rhythm and to feel dancers on stage, he began playing in ceili-bands at large Irish dancing parties. It was the time when Paddy finally managed to settle down on Dublin music scene. For several years he played with two bands at the same time—the famous Castle Céilí Band since 1969 and Ceoltoiri Laighean (or ‘Leinster Musicians’) since 1971. Each of the bands made records, which were a success with the critics. Both groups were active on TV, radio, gave numerous concerts in Ireland and abroad.

Then O’Brien’s recognizable style of accordion playing was already coming forward. “The way I’m playing is not very delicate,” he says. Many would agree that Paddy O’Brien’s music is remarkable due to its simplicity, clarity and confidence in every phrase. There is time for every note in every ornament under moderate tempo even in the fastest dances, which however doesn’t make them less danceable and slow, but even clearer, stable and especially rural. And that also gives a feeling of the continuity of the dance. In that skill of “hustling unhurriedly” without any bustle and unnecessary notes, as Paddy puts it, is hidden the connection with the old masters’ art, with the very thing they left us with the dance tunes.

It is probably not a fortuity that considering such an attitude in combination with perfect knowledge of the origins of the Irish tunes, the music performed by him was added to the book «Dance Melodies of Ireland» (Ceol Rince na hÉireann) by Breandán Breathnach – the foremost scholarly work on the Irish music. Tearing up with the famous scientist and collector brought Paddy lots of new records.

In the early 1970s Paddy worked his way up to professional Irish musician from amateur—by way of regional contests and festivals. His skill of playing two-row accordion or as they call it in Ireland, “button box”, was rewarded: he won many contests—for example, the Oireachtas—four times. The main goal for every Irish musician or dancer is always a victory in the open championship of Ireland (All-Ireland), in fact the most difficult, and not proclaimed all over the world championship, which gathers together the best artists once a year. It opens the way to new prestigious contracts and gives a professional status. Also a victory in All Ireland or Fleádh Cheoil championship in Ireland stays with the musician forever, like the Olympic champion title. The All-Ireland of his own Paddy O’Brien of Offaly won in 1975, in Buncrana.

His further career, as well as many other famous Irish musicians, who hadn’t found any funds for traditional music projects at home, no support and understanding from cultural officials, is connected with America. The interest towards Irish music was growing constantly in the USA. But its standard still stayed rather low. Paddy never pinned any hopes upon America: “Yes. They want to play Irish music but the question is the way they are doing it.” Living in two houses, being rather poor, Irish musicians were to put Irish music and its idea to new high standards in the USA. And they partly succeeded.

In 1978 Paddy returned to the USA to make an album «Is It Yourself?» for Shanachie with fiddler James Kelly, John Kelly’s son, and guitarist Dáithí Sproule. The trio became known as «Bowhand». They gave plenty concerts, played at different festivals in Washington, Saint Louis, Saint Paul, San Fransisco, Boston, New York and others—all over the United States. «Bowhand» recorded the second record «Spring in the Air» in 1980 and several times appeared at National Public Radio in Saint Paul. The project lived about 5 years, was recognized among Irish music lovers all over the world and is surely worth another article.

In 1983 Paddy O’Brien settled in Minnesota. He began touring the USA with Cork banjo player Seán O’Driscoll and Saint Paul singer and guitarist Tom Dahill. That group, known as «Hill 16», released an album of the same name in 1984.

From the middle of 1980s Paddy toured with different musicians. In 1988 he made his first solo album “Stranger at the Gate” on the Green Linnet label along with Dáithí Sproule. Various dances were included in the album: not only jigs and reels but also marches and “highlands” (an Irish version of Scottish dance ‘strathspey’). Many dances that Paddy has written perfectly match the traditional tunes of the musicians of the past.

In June 1992 Paddy O’Brien was invited to appear on a traditional music showcase «The Pure Drop» on Irish national TV. Along with other musicians, like Clare fiddler Martin Hayes and Dublin piper Pat Broaders, Paddy O’Brien in between times became one of the anchor musicians for “John D. McGurk’s” pub in Saint Louis, the only pub in the USA that could boast Irish traditional music seven nights a week. Since the very day not a single large Irish arrangement in Saint Louis could do without them. But having linked himself with the USA, he hadn’t become an American at all and continued to carry out many interesting projects—not only in the States but also in Ireland.

In 1993, Paddy published two poems dedicated to the legendary pipers, Seamus Ennis and Willy Clancy, in Dal gCais magazine in Co. Clare (associated with the Willie Clancy Summer School).

In 1994, Paddy succeeded as a teacher. He conducted a weeklong workshop at the prestigious Willie Clancy Summer School in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare. He also made an education program for the school. There he also gave concerts. That year he organized a concert tour all over Ireland, which was a great success.

Among musicians and Irish traditional music collectors Paddy O’Brien was and still is one of the most important keepers of the tradition. During his almost 40-year career he collected more than 3,000 different jigs, reels, hornpipes, marches and slow airs, among which there are lots of rare and unusual ones, and many famous ones exist in different versions. Not so long ago his collection hasn’t been recorded at all—with a perfect memory, Paddy simply remembered every one by heart! In autumn 1994, Paddy got a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to record and annotate more than 500 jigs and reels from his wide repertoire in a compilation called “The Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection” (unfortunately not in Ireland, but in the USA).

Afterwards he spent the rest of the fall and the most part of the winter to record 500 selected tunes to be added to “The Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection.” It was released in July 1995 and at once has been hailed as a precious and indispensable resource by Irish musicians on both sides of the Atlantic. In late 1995, along with the famous fiddler Martin Hayes and Aidan Brennan Paddy gave a tour and a series of master-classes in Alaska.

Soon afterwards Paddy made a band known as Chulrua (as the legend goes, that was the name for one of Finn MacCumhaill’s dogs from the Irish myths). He plays with them to this day. The project is Irish-American again. It includes guitarist and singer from Tipperary Pat Egan, and American uilleann piper Tim Britton.

Paddy O’Brien is untiring. That man was destined to be the embodiment of the living Irish tradition. He had enough attention, perfect ear and memory, and supple fingers as well to collect and adopt the legacy of the musicians and collectors of the past times. He had skillful mind, kindness and sensitiveness to give all that to young generations in different countries in the modern language and to let them know that every traditional music is not a set of inert standards and techniques, but a whole world, alive and following its own rules. And here it seems quite natural that there is a place for an author to appear, not to keep within the strict borders, to bring something bright and individual, and at the same time not to destroy the law with excess experiments, to value that inner integrity that keeps Irish music alive for so many generations. Each and every generation of Irish musicians has its way. But in fact it is the one and only road. One for all. Critics and listeners often quote Paddy O’Brien. And we will follow the tradition choosing the most popular and clear one as our epigraph.

[i] That is why Paddy O’Brien is known with the additional name from his native Co. Offaly or «Paddy O’Brien Jr.». All that – in order to distinguish him and legendary accordionist Paddy O’Brien from Co. Tipperary («Paddy Senior»), long passed away. But, as it goes for the elder and younger, two Paddies’ ages vary a lot, and they are not relatives but only namesakes. It is interesting that Paddy O’Brien Jr. of Offaly is more or less known here—both solo and in compilations of “Celtic music,” and also for his Bowhand albums, his name is almost common and means “Irish accordionist,” while the senior one is not known at all, despite the fact that he was the man to develop and improve manner of playing Irish two-row accordion and became epochal figure in Ireland.

by Tom Clancy
reprinted from The Old Blog Node

The Sailor’s Cravat
Paddy O’Brien – Button Accordion
Tom Schaefer – Fiddle
Paul Wehling – Bouzouki
Erin Hart – Vocals
New Folk Records / Clo Iar-Chonnacht, WCM0001

Paddy O’Brien is one of the great keepers of the flame in Irish traditional music. Despite –or paradoxically because of – living outside Ireland for many years, he has retained a profound attachment to the music and cultivated a deep and fertile furrow around St Paul, Minnesota, with his playing, mentoring and teaching. He is held in high regard by his fellow-musicians and is one of the great Irish tune collectors with many rare and unusual tunes lodged in his head.

This album has been knocking around in O’Brien’s world for a while. He gave me a copy when I interviewed him some years ago and it has never been out of my listening rotation. Some of his insightful quotes from that interview are included in this piece. When I visited O’Brien and his partner Erin Hart, I found that we shared a love of baseball: he roots for the Twins and I’m a long-time supporter of the Oakland A’s. (Baseball, a team sport that revolves around a series of one-on-one contests, provides some of the best cultural insights into the United States. And, like traditional music, it does not easily yield its secrets.)

O’Brien’s story is all the more remarkable because he did not grow up in one of the Irish music hotbeds. A native of County Offaly, he had to travel far and wide in search of the music, spending time with older players and absorbing the companionable oral traditions.

I myself clicked into the music the first time I heard it when I was nine years old. I couldn’t let go of it–still can’t.

His early influences included, among others, Joe Delaney and Dan Cleary in Offaly, Donegal fiddler John Doherty, Paddy Fahy and Eddie Kelly from Galway, Frank McCollum of Antrim, Seán Ryan from Tipperary, and Johnny Henry from Mayo. One thing he learned well from listening to and playing with the older masters was how to prune notes so the tune could blossom and bloom.

I have for years been doing things with the tunes, never really accepting them the way they were just because I never heard them played any other way. I try various things as I develop individual tunes, especially tunes I know a long time. There’s always something new to discover.

I had that experience with The Sailor’s Cravat where I seemed to hear some new combination, harmony or turn every time. Music enters our consciousness in a complex way (at least five parts of the brain are involved, according to current theories). And, with O’Brien’s music the heart and the brain are instantly engaged.

Paddy Fahy’s subtly complex melodies feature strongly on this collection along with a sprinkling of Sean Ryan tunes and O’Brien’s own compositions. He opens with a fine tune pairing, The Singing Kettle /Sean Ryan’s, a ramped-up reprise from the Chulrua album of the same name. He follows with two Sligo jigs, Michael Coleman’s / The Rose of Lough Gill, and you hear the first of many compelling “turns” from one tune to the other. The title track comes next, The Sailor’s Cravat / The Maple Leaf, a couple of rousing reels and another smooth switch.

A couple of tracks offer robust hornpipes, The Groves and Murdoch Henderson / The Low Level. O’Brien clearly has the measure of these memorable melodies supplying just the right amount of momentum. On another track, Kitty, who took a clinking in a previous tune title, takes a solid, rambunctious ramble before two of Paddy Fahy’s twisty tunes take over. There’s a fierce blast from the Sliabh Luachra side with three rattling polkas, The Peeler’s/Joe Bane’s/Dick Tobin’s, each more intricate than the one before.

Two more perfectly paired reels are McCollum’s / The Gosling while The Cat in the Corner / Paddy O’Brien’s are another crafty combo. He closes the album with The Silver Spire / Sean Ryan’s, a lively pair of reels with sweetly-executed turn.

It’s the choice of tunes, and how they are matched together, really, that determines the pace and speed at which they should be played. This in turn allows the notes to breathe, or make their musical statement. If tunes are played too fast, it can choke the phrasing, if you’re not careful. It’s all about interpretation, which is so important in getting the feel and emotion out of Irish traditional music.

There are three big songs on the album with Erin Hart demonstrating a fine set of pipes on The Flower of Magherally-o, The Generous Lover and Molly Bawn. And the accompaniment from Tom Schaefer on fiddle and Paul Wehling on bouzouki are both sensitive and compact.

Paddy O’Brien plays with exquisite specificity. His tunes turn in unison, reciprocating and accommodating like long-term partners. He reminds me of those experienced, cagey baseball catchers calling the pitches, subtly signaling his colleagues, and controlling the dynamics from behind the box. And, he’s just as quotable but a tad less enigmatic than the most famous of all catchers, Yogi Berra.

Music on the Boil: A Singing & Dancing Kettle from Chulrua

by Tom Clancy

Originally published in Irish Music Magazine, January/February 2008. Reprinted with permission.

The glowing reviews of Chulrua’s new album, The Singing Kettle, are steaming in. It’s a strong brew, rich and sweet, like a good pot of Irish tea. Chulrua is one of the musical combinations graced with the presence of box player Paddy O’Brien.

The band had a successful tour of Ireland in August and September, including performances at the Masters of Tradition festival in Bantry. There’s something beautifully pristine about the music on this second Chulrua recording–it leaps into life every time. O’Brien has an unyielding respect, even reverence, for the melody. He insists that you hear it in its purest, most memorable form. Not a single melody on the album sounds rushed–the reels have a definite, delicate forward momentum, the jigs jog along delightfully, and the hornpipes are deftly played. In Patrick Ourceau and Pat Egan, O’Brien has found two like-minded collaborators.

Ourceau plays the reels of the title track solo on the fiddle with memorable, maple-syrup sweetness. He seems to reach in and bring out the heart and soul of the melody for our consideration. It’s paired with “Gooseberry Fair,” a tune delightfully ornamented with a round of chiming double-stops.

I asked O’Brien to take us inside the making of the album. Where does that vivid, vibrant sound come from? “Our sound has a lot to do with the combination of the warm tone from the fiddle (Patrick plays a wonderful instrument) and the accordion specially tuned to blend with the fiddle tone. It’s the choice of tunes, and how they are matched together, really, that determines the pace and speed at which they should be played. This in turn allows the notes to breathe, or make their musical statement. If tunes are played too fast, it can choke the phrasing, if you’re not careful. It’s all about interpretation, which is so important in getting the feel and emotion out of Irish traditional music.”

O’Brien also talks about “…tuning the tune.” What does that mean, I wondered? “It helps the phrasing knowing the tune very well, so you can develop the melody for more appeal, i.e., the inclusion of certain variations, as in “The Gander at the Pratie Hole.” There are nice ‘filler notes’ in “Wellington’s Advance” which give it a better flow and more body, and the few variations enhance the melody. I do this kind of thing as I developed individual tunes, especially tunes I know a long time. There’s always something new to discover. I didn’t develop “Wellington’s Advance” just for the CD; I did it over a long period of time because I enjoyed the tune, and later decided to use it on the recording. I believe Patrick does the same with some of his tunes, e.g., “Eddie Moloney’s/Roll Her on the Mountain.” That selection I learned from Patrick.”

The version of “The Morning Dew” is especially brilliant. “There is an old three-part version of “The Morning Dew” recorded by Michael Coleman. The version on The Singing Kettle is a two-part version from Joe Cooley. Where he got it, I’ve no idea. These two Morning Dews are an example of two settings of the same tune.”

I love their version of “The Drunken Sailor;” what’s the modern history of that piece? “”The Drunken Sailor” is usually played in G minor, however, I play it in A minor. The original five-part version is in O’Neill’s. Tommy Potts made the tune his own; he played it in G minor, and put in little variations here and there that enhanced it greatly. He was the one who composed the sixth part that I play solo on the recording, and much of the way I play it is from Tommy Potts.”

Patrick Ourceau is a lovely fiddle player. His solo on the title track is a very fine bit of playing. I particularly like the tight unison playing on those tracks where you and he go note for note. Where does he get those chops from? “Patrick Ourceau is no doubt a great fiddle player, and has a great sense of melody. He is very good at honing into the notes and settings of tunes from East County Clare players like Paddy Canny and people like Joe Bane.”

How do you go about selecting tunes and combinations/sets for a recording? “As far as the selections are concerned, I usually come up with a basic outline, and we each choose our own solo material. Sometimes we record more than we need, so we’re able to pick and choose the best tracks. We do the layout of the tunes in order as part of the mixing, and I do it according to how I feel about the selections. They’re all in my mind as I work, and I try to create a mood and a sense of life throughout the album, a sense of movement from one selection to the next. It’s a matter of trying to keep the energy of the album up at a certain level. This is not a crowd-pleasing energy I’m talking about now, but the natural energy of the tunes themselves and the way they’re played.”

O’Brien is also on record stating that not every jig or reel can be used in track selection. Often a lot of research is involved to find the right tunes. You’re looking for a tuneful blend and older tunes are often better because they may be less contaminated by outside influences.

Pat Egan handles the songs with grace and conviction. Egan is a great collector with a magpie’s eye for shiny little gems. He has two fine songs from Dubliner Mick Fitzgerald. One, “Asha, Asha” turns the old childhood rhyme into a meditation on aging and dying. The other is “The Ballad of Capel Street”–a street that’s heard a lot of ballads over the years, now has one of its own. That song is plucked from Fitzgerald’s brilliant 2003 album, Light Sleeper, but delivered in a more straightforward version. It’s a modern Dublin song with a little Molly Malone tribute in the chorus. “Ashfields in Brine” is from the pen of Archie Fisher, the outstanding Scottish singer-songwriter. And, on the less serious side, a Percy French song, “Bridget Flynn” is given a lively makeover.

Paddy O’Brien is like a seasoned worker who has toiled in the vineyard for many years. His musical journey took him from Offaly to Dublin, London, New York and many other places where the old players plied their trade. In time, he settled in Saint Paul, Minnesota where he became the custodian of a large section of the vineyard that he has tended faithfully over the years. One thing O’Brien learned well from listening to and playing with some of the older masters was how to prune and preserve notes so the tune could bloom and blossom. And he believes in putting old wine into fine, antique glasses. The Singing Kettle is another hearty harvest, another O’Brien vintage.

IRISH MUSIC MAGAZINE
November 2007

Chulrua • The Singing Kettle
Paddy O’Brien, Accordion
Patrick Ourceau, Fiddle
Pat Egan, Guitar and Vocals
17 tracks; 54 minutes
Shanachie Records

by Sally K. Sommers Smith

Paddy O’Brien has long been known and celebrated for his encyclopaedic knowledge of Irish traditional repertoire. He is adept at finding unusual tunes and variants, and in celebrating the individual voice in the flow of traditional practice. On this, his newest recording, he offers a tasty mélange of carefully chosen gems from a wide variety of sources. Tipperary fiddler, Séan Ryan, is recalled in the title track, a duo of the reels “The Singing Kettle/Gooseberry Fair.”

An unusual setting of “Drowsy Maggie,” credited to Mrs. Crotty but also known as “The Reel With the Birl,” appears alongside a resurrection of a fine old tune that was a favourite of Clare fiddler John Kelly.

Paddy O’Brien’s fondness for the music of one of the most original of traditional musicians, Dublin fiddler, Tommy Potts, is evident in his six-part version of” The Drunken Sailor.” The inclusion of “Wellington’s Advance,” a fine jig associated with the playing of the other Paddy O’Brien (from Tipperary), is a welcome addition to this collection.

Although Paddy’s splendid playing and deep immersion in the tradition form the sturdy backbone of Chulrua, Patrick Ourceau contributes soulful, stylish fiddling, and Pat Egan’s excellent guitar accompaniment capably supports their melodies. Pat also possesses a wonderful singing voice, but it is shown to less advantage than it could be by the choice of almost uniformly doleful songs, which strike a somewhat lugubrious note in contrast to the exuberance of the dance tunes. The pace of the playing is relaxed enough to underscore the trio’s masterful variations and ornamentations, and serves as a graceful reminder that we often move too fast to appreciate the measured, cyclic passage of time. In its recalling of past masters, in its thoughtful and well-crafted performances, this recording is at once a wakeup call and a reminder of the things that matter in Irish traditional music.

CD Roundup

by Susan Gedutis Lindsay, Boston Irish Reporter

Chulrua — The Singing Kettle

Chulrua (pronounced cool-ROO-ah), translates from the Irish as “red back,” and was the name and distinguishing feature of the favorite wolfhound belonging to ancient Irish hero Fionn MacCumhaill. It’s also the name of the musical trio fronted by button accordion player Paddy O’Brien, with fiddler Patrick Orceau and guitarist Pat Egan.

The Singing Kettle is Chulrua’s third album, and features beautiful and instinctive duo work on a rake of traditional tunes. Their playing together is stellar; it’s like listening to a conversation between old friends, backed throughout by the no-nonsense rhythm guitar of Pat Egan.

The recording features unusual versions of familiar tunes as well as a number of less-often-heard pieces, reflective of the enormous repertoire for which O’Brien has become well known. A native of County Offaly in the Midlands of Ireland, O’Brien now makes St. Paul, Minnesota his home. He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant to record and annotate 500 dance tunes—a small fraction of his repertoire. Like O’Brien, fiddler Patrick Orceau is an avid student of the old masters and a virtuoso fiddler in the Clare and East Galway style. Originally from France, he has toured extensively in Europe and North America, and taught at many respected Irish traditional music schools. Though they live in cities thousands of miles apart, they think alike musically, according to O’Brien.

“Patrick and I are on the same page about the music—we respond to the same musical instincts. We like the music played not overly fast with a lot of expression and we have a particular taste in kind of tunes we like to play together. We’re very close as musicians and we think very much the same way.”

Most of the tunes selected for this recording are from the southwest of Ireland, mostly from East Clare, West Clare, and North Tipperary. Among the thousands and thousands of Irish tunes, there are varied degrees of recognizable melody, so O’Brien and Orceau chose catchy tunes with their listeners in mind.

One of the most interesting on the recording is also O’Brien’s personal favorite, a colorful take on the wellknown jig “The Gander at the Pratie Hole.” Originally a piper’s tune, Chulrua’s version here was influenced by the wildly experimental—in Irish traditional terms—Tommy Potts, a Dublin-based fiddler who passed on to the Big Session in the Sky in 1988. While O’Brien lived in Dublin, he was a neighbor of Potts and this version of the tune, O’Brien says, is inspired by learning the tune Potts-style—with melodic variations that suggest a different underlying harmonic vocabulary. Typically a two-part tune, the version here is played as a three-part tune, though the “third” part was played by Potts merely as a variation. “My version is kind of half from memory and half from my own feelings about the tune. I made up what I could not remember and just ended up making that third part.” The way they play the tune is not the way one would recognize it necessarily, and includes a number of subtleties that give the tune unique color. “That give you an idea of the way we think of the music,” O’Brien says. (Shanachie Records)

by Bill Margeson
Irish Music Magazine, July 2004
Reprinted with permission

The music. Button box wizard Paddy O’Brien gets it. Really gets it. “What I like in a musician now,” states Paddy, “is the one who plays the nicest tune, even more than the technical musicianship.”

In that one sentence the legendary Offaly-born button box player encapsulates a life spent in the center and soul of Irish music. And that center is the music itself. Not the current fashion. Not the current “hot” group. Not “the buzz.” The music. Period. Full stop.

Born in Offaly in Castlebarnagh, he remembers his first instrument being a mouth organ purchased for him by his parents. Fondly recalling his Mother taking him to local ceilis to hear the music, even as a young lad he knew he had a natural love, memory and understanding of the reels and jigs cascading forth in the local venues. This memory was to serve him well. His parents again bought him another critical instrument—his first button box, a single row Hohner. Receiving it at age 12, Paddy remembers, “The idea of buying an accordion would be a real luxury!” Getting these precepts in hand is critical to understanding the foundation that led to one of the truly encompassing personalities and foundations in traditional music. It starts there. The knowledge. He could hear it. And, as he says, “there was a sweetness inside me for it.”

Employment with the national peat board, Bord na Móna in Boora, Co. Offaly and other efforts never took him far from the music. He didn’t ever want to be far from the music. The early gigs revolved around fondly remembered stints with fiddler Dan Cleary and The Ballinamere Ceili Band in Offaly, and then a transitional moment when Paddy joined The Castle Ceili Band upon moving to Dublin in 1968. It was around this time that he had his first tour with Sean and Kathleen Ryan. He laughingly recalls, “I got stung by the American bug.” Along the road, he found the button box still closest to his heart. It is a Paolo Soprani, tuned to B/C, “before Christ,” laughs Paddy. It is one of the rarest—the gray model, made in 1948, when the company still made them by hand. It originally belonged to the well-remembered and regarded Sonny Brogan.

Needless to say, the amazing amassing of tunes in that memory had become fully formed, and they kept pouring in. Much more on that particular encyclopedia later. He moved to America and New York full-time in 1978 with fiddler James Kelly and guitarist/singer Dáithí Sproule. Their first regular gig was in the famous Dubliner Pub in Washington D.C. This is the fond stuff of memory. A gifted musician meets America and the Irish community there, loves it and makes a career of it.

That would surely be enough for most. We are the beneficiaries of these musicians’ talents. That is really all that is necessary. But not if you’re Paddy O’Brien.

Here comes the “memory thing” again. Brace yourself. It is no exaggeration to say that there are over 4,000 tunes inside his brain and musician’s hands. 4,000. And, he good-naturedly corrects the acolytes who refer to him as a “collector.” Most would consider that he would be listed among the great collectors such as O’Neill, Frank Harte, Breathnach, and the Clancys. But Paddy does not see it that way. Paddy says: “I don’t collect. I accumulate.” The difference? He continues, “I’m not a collector. I never set out to collect in an academic sense. I’m not a crusader. Never planned on a book or anything like that. I guess I’m an accumulator. I’m surely a student. I love the tunes. Maybe it is that easy.” Well, love or not, 4,000 is a staggering amount. Oh, he had his idols as a young player, all right. Joe Burke and Tony MacMahon come quickly to mind. But again and again as one speaks to this musician, there is a quick shedding of the personal, the introspective. If you want Paddy O’Brien to talk, ask him about the music. “There are still geographical, stylistic differences within Ireland but they are disappearing. That is sad. I fear a lot of the music is coming out of books today, and is not being heard and understood before being played. This music takes time; it’s a long-term listening process. Simply playing notes is not enough.”

Asked what styles, or tunes still hold him Paddy shares another insight gained from the decades with those tunes. “A lot of the tunes were originally simple. Dance tunes. Then there were some wonderful pipe players and fiddlers who got hold of those tunes, as an example in West Clare, and actually added variations, phrasings, and filigrees and turned them into masterpieces. I especially love the West Clare way of playing jigs.” Does he still hear a tune that really hits him that he hasn’t heard before? “Well, not often, but sometimes. That is great, really great when it happens. You also hear wonderful and different styles of playing the same tune. Those tunes change titles so often. I first heard a famous tune as, ‘Around The World For Sport,’ but then years later Matt Molloy played it for me and titled it, ‘The Sword In The Hand.’ That also is fascinating.”

We caught up with him just back from a national tour in America. He had returned to his home in Minneapolis and reflected on his group, Chulrua. It includes Patrick Ourceau on fiddle, and Pat Egan on guitar and vocals. Chulrua’s first album was 2000’s, “Barefoot On The Altar” on an independent label. The group was picked up by Shanachie for its second album, “Down The Back Lane,” released six months ago.

“We really want to do a new one and we will release it sometime next year. I also am working along on a solo album, but that is still a ways off.”

So, then, there it is. All done, all down. Wrong! There is so much to say, and the main new plan comes forth in an excited rush. “What I’m really working on now is an ongoing project with Patrick Ourceau. He is a really marvelous fiddler, wonderful. He has such a deep knowledge of the music and he also favors the East Clare style of fiddling. He really is extraordinary, how he deals with a tune, how he deals with the sensitivity he has with the heart of a great tune. What we are really into now is melody making. It is our goal to play the music by putting the expression into it that is normally only offered by a solo musician. This is really difficult, but we feel deeply it is worthy of the music, if we do it right. We are going to do a CD, and we are also touring Ireland in September and October of this year.”

If traditional music is anything like it is thought to be; if it is respectful of its history, if it is sharing with other players, if it is important, then it is worthy itself of people like this. No hype. A love of the sharing with other musicians. Need help? Need a tune? A note? A grace? There are these fountainheads. The aforementioned Frank Harte. Kevin Henry in Chicago. Thank God, there are still these men and women around. Musicians come and go. Styles do, too. Everything changes. But to the Paddy O’Briens of the world, before anything else—albums, money, tours, teaching, learning—there is one light over the whole adventure. The notes. The tunes themselves. The music.

Alpha and omega.

by Jim Walsh, Music Critic
Saint Paul Pioneer Press
Friday, March 10, 1995

In the 1500s, during the time of the Gaelic chiefs in Ireland, there were people populating the Emerald Isle known as “carriers.” They possessed extraordinary memories and communication skills and, as such, were entrusted with passing down stories, tunes and folklore to the next generations.

Paddy O’Brien is such a person. Among his many credits, including world-champion accordion player, recording artist and perhaps the most respected player on the Twin Cities traditional Irish music scene, O’Brien has an ability to recall thousands of traditional Irish tunes. Over the years, this transplant from Ireland has amassed a staggering repertoire of material, and many of his contemporaries see O’Brien as a modern-day carrier.

“I don’t know why, but I’ve just always been like that,” he said the other day, sitting in the South Minneapolis apartment he shares with his wife, writer Erin Hart. “I woke up this morning thinking of a way to play a tune. I was just five minutes awake, and I was pondering this jig. I’ve always been taken with this stuff. It just flows through me, like blood.”

Recently, his lifeblood has been flowing with a focused sense of purpose. With the help of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, O’Brien has just finished recording 500 reels he has been playing for most of his life. The Minnesota Folklife Society and Irish Music and Dance Association are co-sponsors of the project.

“Over the years, individuals have been urging me to record these things, for fear that they will get lost,” he said. “Because there’s always the worry that things like that – since there are so many of them – will get lost. A lot of great songs are buried in Ireland, literally, in some graveyard somewhere. And that’s a shame. I think music is worth saving.”

Thanks to O’Brien, some very important music will be saved. For most of last December and January, he was holed up in his apartment with a reel -to- reel field recorder on loan from the Library of Congress. The reels he recorded – 500 is only the tip of O’Brien’s iceberg – will be released by an independent patron in the spring and will be available only through folk clubs and Irish music associations.

In this project is a perfect illustration of why arts funding is essential – not only to further the current landscape of arts and music, but to maintain archival material. Still, the 50-year-old O’Brien contends that the $6,500 grant he received from the NEA barely covered basic recording and production costs.

“The money I got wasn’t even close enough to pay me for my time and effort,” he said. “And as far as having the arts cut off from federal money – it’s wacky, it’s crazy. They can’t be given enough money, in my opinion. I could do another project of a thousand tunes, but I need money to do it.”

After the recording process was completed, O’Brien set about the task of writing an accompanying booklet, which contains stories about the reels vital as the music itself. “I felt like I was writing `War and Peace’ or something,” he said. “It just seemed to go on forever.”

Thanks to O’Brien and the NEA, some significant music will be preserved and passed on to the next army of carriers.

“This is the way we always learned tunes in Ireland; we never bothered with sheet music or anything like that,” he said. “We learned by ear. And the tunes here are chosen fairly carefully. They’re chosen with the idea of either reviving the interest in a worn-out tune, or making people go at a different interpretation of a tune they already know. And there’s a lot of tunes that’ve never been heard before; probably the vast amount of them have never been recorded before.

“There’s a younger generation who’ve not heard these tunes at all,” he said. “They’re in New York, St. Louis, Boston, St. Paul, San Francisco and Ireland, and I know who they are, because I was just like them. They can’t wait to get their hands on this, because they’re crazy for a new tune. A new old tune. And I’d be the same, if I was in their position. I would have been first in the queue. I would have camped out all night to get these tapes.”

Paddy O’Brien photo by David Aronow

O’Rourke’s noble fare
Will ne’er be forgot
By those who were there
Or those who were not.

Reels – Dan Breen’s-A Fair Wind-The Beauty Spot
Harp tune – Planxty O’Flynn
Jigs – Kiss Me Sweetheart-Lanigan’s Ball
Air – The Shores of Iona

___________________________________________________________________

The members of O’Rourke’s Feast include:

Paddy O’Brien, internationally renowned master of the button accordion, known for the depth and breadth of his knowledge about Irish traditional music. He gained that knowledge by spending time playing and talking with master musicians from an older generation in Ireland, and for years has been passing down what he learned to a younger generation of musicians in Minnesota. Paddy does not read music, but carries in his head nearly 4,000 distinct melodies, sometimes multiple versions of the same tune, from regional variations to particular interpretations by individual musicians. He is frequently called upon as a source for musicians around the globe who consult him for historical and cultural background information on Irish music. Paddy has won numerous awards, including multiple first-place awards in the Oireachtas competitions sponsored by the Gaelic League in Ireland, as well as multiple awards in the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil sponsored by the traditional music organization Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. He has served as a master artist in Minnesota State Arts Board Folk Arts Apprenticeship program, and received a prestigious Bush Artist Fellowship in Folk and Traditional Arts. He has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Irish Fair of Minnesota Legacy Fund, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. He is also a member of the internationally-renowned Irish music trio Chulrua, and The Doon Céilí Band.

Amy Shaw plays the wooden flute in Barra, a St. Paul band that performs traditional Irish music.  She can frequently be heard playing for Irish dances, sessions, and other events around the Twin Cities.  A librarian at St. Catherine University since 1994, she holds master’s degrees in music librarianship from Indiana University and music literature from the University of South Dakota.  She became interested in the wooden flute after researching 19th-century English flutes for her thesis at USD.  She was surprised to discover that these early classical flutes are much sought after today by players of traditional (folk) music, especially Irish music.  Eventually, Amy bought her own wooden flute from contemporary Canadian flute maker Peter Nay.  It’s been her ticket to exploring the musical traditions of Ireland, Scotland, French Canada, and Nova Scotia, and is her constant traveling companion.

Nathan Gourley held his first fiddle at 2 years of age. With support from his musical family (in particular his father, who is a fiddler), Nathan enrolled in Suzuki violin lessons when he was 5 years old.  He went on to study classical violin with Gene Purdue, former first violin of the Thouvenel Quartet.  In his younger years, Nathan made regular stage appearances as a guest in many of his father’s bands such as Stone Soup, Buffalo Trail and Rosewood Moct. It was during annual trips to numerous fiddle and folk music festivals where Nathan was exposed to all sorts of fiddlers such as Martin Hayes, Liz Carroll, Alasdair Fraser, Brendan Mulvihill, Dale Russ, and Laura Risk. In spite of his classical background and a stint as a member of the University of Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, traditional Irish music has become Nathan’s passion. Now settled in the Twin Cities, he is also a member of The Doon Céilí Band and the Two Tap Trio, and is active in numerous Irish sessions.

Suzanne Rhees is an accomplished flute player with a broad and deep repertoire of traditional tunes and more than twenty-five years experience playing in formal and informal settings in the Twin Cities and elsewhere. She and husband David Rhees (fiddle, banjo, guitar) moved to Minneapolis from Philadelphia in 1992; they have played for ceilis, contradances, the occasional party or festival, and are regulars at many sessions around town. Suzanne is an urban planner, currently working on park and trail planning for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and is happiest when her work takes her to a city with a good session, or a bike trail.

Danielle Enblom began playing the fiddle at age 10. She was fortunate to learn from many of the local musicians and fiddle players and to reap the benefits of the local session scene. In 2005 she shifted her focus from dance to music. This brought her to Ireland where she earned a Diploma in Traditional Irish music at University College Cork. During a year of study in 2005 and 2006 at UCC Danielle studied fiddle under Connie O’Connell and also learned from musicians such as Bobby Gardiner and Matt Cranitch. Since returning to Minneapolis in 2006, Danielle has completed a degree in Urban and Sustainability Studies at the University of Minnesota. Other previous and current performances and collaborations include step dancing with Riverdance singer, Katie McMahon’s Christmas tour, sean nós dancing with Liz Carroll and Daíthí Sproule, sean nós and Cape Breton step dancing with Scottish singer, Julie Fowlis, as well as mixtures of the various traditions with the Brock Mcguire Band and numerous Twin Cities musicians. Danielle currently teaches Irish Step Dancing at the O’Shea School of Irish Dance in Saint Paul and fiddle at the Center for Irish Music. She has also expanded her personal lesson offerings, teaching adults and children in private and group settings as well as offering summer camps and workshops throughout the year.

Ann Sandberg has been playing violin and fiddle for most of her life. She fell in love with traditional music on her first trip to Ireland 15 years ago, came home, dusted off her violin, and has been playing ever since! She regularly attends Irish traditional music sessions in the Twin Cities. She loves to sit in with fellow musicians while traveling, and was a regular at Irish music sessions in Rome when she lived there. In addition to Irish music, Ann has a great interest in French Canadian and Cape Breton music, and plays old-time and Irish tunes at home with her husband Tom. Ann taught elementary school for more than eight years, and also has over 15 years of experience leading and assisting with liturgical music. She holds a B.S. in Education from Miami University in Oxford, OH and a M.A. in Catholic Studies from the University of St. Thomas.

Sherry Ladig has been writing and making music all of her life as a pianist, arranger, composer and music historian. Sherry earned a degree in music composition from the University of Minnesota with an unofficial minor in music history. She writes arrangements for and plays piano in several Celtic traditional bands for concerts and dances; she also researches music of many eras, and writes instrumental and choral music for small and large ensembles (including, occasionally, a new piece in traditional Irish or Scottish styles). Sherry is a composer-in-residence for the Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra and writes a new piece for them annually. She currently performs with Dunquin (traditional Irish), Night Scotsman (Scottish), The New Pearl Button Players (mid-to-late-19th century American), and Thistledown (Scottish dance). She has also made appearances in other bands including The Doon Céilí Band.