Farewell to Lissycasey: The Traditional Music of County Clare
Ossian OSSCD 79; 64 minutes; 1995
Surprisingly, this
compilation of music and song from County Clare was overlooked in the recent IRTRAD-L
Favourite Albums survey, receiving not a single vote. However, this is an
excellent anthology well worth tracking down, especially as it includes
material not currently available in any format.
The album draws together material from the Topic label,
much of whose Irish traditional material Ossian was licensing at the time of
this album’s release, alongside independently released recordings by Kevin
Griffin, Mary Custy and Eoin O’Neill, and Terry Bingham, plus recordings made
by Smithsonian/Folkways, GTD, Mercier Press and Ossian itself (sadly, the last
includes tracks from Bobby Gardiner’s The Master’s Choice where he is
ill-served by grossly inappropriate synthesizer accompaniment).
Overall, however, the
quality of musicianship on offer here is outstanding, but that should hardly be
surprising when the cast list includes Willie Clancy (on no fewer than six
tracks), Micho and Gussie Russell, Vincent Griffin, John Kelly (the elder),
Bernard O’Sullivan and Tommy McMahon, and Tom Lenihan. A fair balance has also
been struck in the choice of instruments on offer, although perhaps the fiddle
is under-represented in terms of the contemporary session scene in the county.
The title track itself, Farewell
to Lissycasey, is one of the four songs on this compilation and also one of
the best tracks overall, a song sung perfectly by Siney Crotty. This track
(along with Nora Cleary’s The Bold Trooper) comes from the Topic
collection The Lambs on the Green Hills which really ought to be
reissued in CD format.
Liner notes are provided by
the journalist Pat ‘Herring’ Ahern (of The Four Star Trio) and include a brief
account of County Clare’s music as well as short biographies of all the singers
and musicians appearing on this collection.
This is an original review by Geoff Wallis.