Various
Traditional Irish Music in
America - Chicago
Rounder 82161-6006-2; 40 minutes; 2001
Ed Reavy
The Music of Ed Reavy
Rounder 82161-6008-2; 41
minutes; 2001
Originally issued in 1978 and 1979
respectively, these two albums are now available for the first time on CD,
repackaged as part of a series focusing on the wealth of Irish traditional
music played in the USA in the latter half of the last century. Both are
accompanied by elegant and lengthy booklets, packed with information, though,
surprisingly, no additional archive material has been unearthed to bolster
what, in the CD age, are relatively short albums.
Chicago was, of
course, the place where an immigrant from County Cork, one Francis O’Neill,
settled and rose through the ranks of the city’s police force to become its
Chief in 1901, at the same time collecting a mass of music from the city’s
Irish musicians. O’Neill’s Music of Ireland and the subsequent The
Dance Music of Ireland remain hugely influential in traditional circles and
contain many tunes still played today. It is appropriate, therefore, that the
first five tracks on the Chicago collection feature the exuberant uilleann
piping of Joe Shannon, who actually met O’Neill in 1934, and remains a prominent
figure in the city’s music. The 1970s saw a major revival of interest in Irish
music in the Windy City and this album includes several key figures from that
time, such as the fiddler John McGreevy and the button accordionist Terry “Cuz”
Teahan from the older generation, while the now well-known fiddler Liz Carroll
and the piano accordionist Jimmy Keane represent youthful vigour.
Carroll also features on The Music of Ed
Reavy, a tribute to the Cavan-born fiddler (1898-1989) co-ordinated by the
banjo-player and singer, Mick Moloney. Ed emigrated to Philadelphia with his
parents in 1912 and made his recording debut in 1927, playing two solo reels,
and revealing the strong influence of the Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman in the
settings (the original track can be found on another Rounder collection Milestone
at the Garden). It was around this time that Ed began composing his own
tunes, later making homemade recordings, but he stopped writing in 1969, at a
time when his influential tune collection, When the River Shannon Rises,
was being prepared for publication.
The album includes
twenty-four of Reavy’s compositions, six played by the man himself, including
his popular reel The Hunter’s House, and the remainder by musicians
recorded on Moloney’s travels around the USA, including the fiddlers Paddy
Cronin and Eugene O’Donnell (now both back in their native Kerry and Derry
respectively). It’s a sparkling collection from the pen of a prolific writer
many of whose compositions have been absorbed and adapted by the tradition.
This review by Geoff Wallis was originally written for Songlines magazine – www.songlines.co.uk.
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