The Stores Page
Where to
buy Irish traditional music CDs and publications
The number of actual record shops is
diminishing rapidly as local retailers fall foul of online sales companies such
as Amazon and an increasing number of rogue peer-to-peer sharing sites offering
free downloads.
All recommendations for new outlets are welcome,
especially for stores in countries not covered by these listings. When recommending a store please supply its
snail, email and web addresses plus information on any specialist services.
If you’ve found a broken link, please
let me know – brokenlink ‘at’
irishmusicreview.com (please replace the ‘at’ with the @ symbol).
Northern Ireland England Scotland
Republic of Ireland
DUBLIN
Claddagh Records
Retail: 2 Cecilia Street, Dublin 2
Mail order: Dame House, Dame
Street, Dublin 2
Tel: 01/677 8943
Fax: 01/679 3664
Website: www.claddaghrecords.com
Email: mailorder@crl.ie
The best traditional music shop in
Ireland (and, possibly, the universe).
Co. CLARE
Retail/Mail
order: Cook’s Lane, O’Connell Street, Ennis
Tel: 065/682
1727
Website: www.custysmusic.com
A fine musical instrument shop with a grand range of CDs and lots of good advice about the best local sessions.
Doolin Music Shop
Retail/Mail
order: Fisher Street, Doolin
Tel: 065/707
4911
Website:
A fine musical
instrument shop with a grand range of CDs and lots of good advice about Magnetic Music
Retail/Mail order: Fisher Street, Doolin
Tel: 065/707 4988
Website: www.magnetic-music.com
Retail outlet for Peter Pandula’s
Magnetic Music label, though stocks some other items; also has a café.
Co. DONEGAL
The Dunlewey Lakeside
Centre/Ionad Cois Locha
Retail: Dunlewey
Small range of CDs, but often has local
items hard to find elsewhere – note that the centre is closed from early
November until St Patrick’s Day.
Melody Maker
Retail: Castle Street, Donegal town
Tel: 074/972 2326
A general record store with a good stock
of traditional music.
Co. GALWAY
The Four Corners
Retail: Shop Street, Galway.
Tel: 091/562295
Otherwise
known as Powell’s, this is a musical instrument, printed music, art supplies and
recorded Irish traditional music shop and has all the right stuff in the line
of CDs. (Thanks to Ronan Browne for this information).
Co. KERRY
Dingle
Record Shop
Retail: Cook’s
Lane, Green Street, Dingle
Tel: 087/298
4550
Website: www.dinglerecordshop.com
The best place in Kerry for locally-released albums.
A fine musical
instrument shop with a grand range of CDs and lots of good advice about Lee Records
Retail: 11, The Mall, Tralee
Tel: 066/27589 (Tralee)
Siopa Ceoil an Daingin
Retail/Mail order: Main Street, Dingle
Tel/Fax:
066/915 2618
Website: www.siopaceoil.ie
Email: info@siopaceol.ie
Co. LONGFORD
The Lost Chord
Retail/Mail order: 16–17 Earl Street,
Longford
Tel:
043/49907
Fax: 043/42077
Sells musical instruments and a range
of CDs, books and tapes.
Co. TIPPERARY
McQuaid’s Traditional
Music Shop
Retail/Mail order: 38 Pearse Street.
Nenagh
Tel/Fax: 067/34166
Sells musical instruments and a range
of CDs, books and tapes.
WEB-BASED
Irish Music Mail
Website: http://www.irishmusicmail.com
Reckons to stock more than 3,500
titles on CD, DVD and VHS.
Mad for Trad
Website: www.madfortrad.com/home.htm
Producers of innovative CD-ROM
instrument tutorials.
Northern Ireland
BELFAST
Cultúrlann MacAdam Ó
Fiach
Retail: 216 Falls Road
Tel: 028/9096 4180
Small range of CDs and music books but
often has hard to find items.
Co. ANTRIM
Glens Music
Retail/Mail
Order: 86 Knocknacarry Road,
Cushendun, BT44 0NS
Tel: 028/2176 1291 or 028/9094 8240
Website: www.glensmusic.com
E-Mail: sales@glensmusic.com
Stocks a small, but perfectly formed
range of CDs by Northern Irish traditional musicians and singers, mainly from
the Glens of Antrim, and is run by accordionist Seán Quinn.
Co. DERRY
Sounds Around
Retail/Mail Order: 22/22a Waterloo
Street, Derry.
Tel: 028/7128 8890
Mostly second-hand vinyl and CDs, but
well worth visiting – often has very hard-to-find LPs by musicians from the
Derry and Inishowen areas at very reasonable prices and regularly sells on
eBay.
LONDON
Copperplate Mail Order
Mail order: 68 Bellevile Road, SW11 6PP.
Tel: 020/7585 0357
Website: www.copperplatemailorder.com
Email: copperplate2000@yahoo.com
Copperplate specialises in
hard-to-find independent releases or those issued on small labels, so you can
find albums such as John Vesey’s Sligo Fiddler, Tommy Peoples’ The
Quiet Glen and releases from
Bowhand, Veteran and Cló Iar-Chonnachta. Prices are usually £12.99 for a single
album and p&p charges are very reasonable.
Ray’s Jazz at Foyles
Retail/Mail order: 113-119 Charing Cross
Road, WC2H 0EB.
Tel: 020/7437 5660
Website: www.foyles.co.uk/
Often stocks releases unobtainable in
the chain stores.
GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Kane’s Records
Retail/Mail order: 14 Kendrick Street,
Stroud GL5 1AA.
Tel: 01453/766866
Website: www.kanesrecords.com/
Musical Traditions
Records
Mail order: 1 Castle Street, Stroud GL5
2HP.
Tel: 01453/759475
Website: www.mtrecords.co.uk
Offshoot of the Musical Traditions magazine
which releases “music which might never achieve commercial publication to the
small audience which values it”, including the collections From Puck to
Appleby and The Hardy Sons of Dan.
Sounds Good
Retail/Mail order: 26 Clarence Street,
Cheltenham GL50 3NU
Tel: 01242/234604
Website: www.soundsgoodonline.co.uk
SHROPSHIRE
Fish Records
Mail order: PO Box 148, Shrewsbury SY3
5WQ
Tel: 01743/231546
Fax: 01743/354354
Website: www.fishrecords.co.uk
SUFFOLK
Veteran Mail Order
Mail order: PO Box 193, Stowmarket, IP14
3WZ.
Website: www.veteran.co.uk
Releases its own CDs and cassettes of
English, Irish and Scottish traditional music and song as well as offering the
works of other specialist labels and publishers.
Coda Music
Retail/Mail
Order: 12 Bank Street, Edinburgh EH1 2LN.
Tel. 0131/622 7246
Website: www.codamusic.co.uk
According to the person who submitted
this entry, Coda is “an excellent shop for Irish traditional music, as well as
Scottish, Country, blues, jazz, etc.”
Tradmusic.com
Mail Order: Flat 1, Ellangowan House,
Cunninghame Terrace, Newton Stewart DG8 6LX
Tel: 01671/401 363
Website: www.tradmusic.com
A web-based site which sells not only Irish
releases but a range of music from other countries.
Italy
Retail/Mail Order: Via Terrasanta 69, 90141
Palermo, Sicilia,
Tel. (+39) 091/306912
Stocks plenty of Irish music.
MultiKulti
Retail/Mail
Order: S:t Paulsgatan 3, SE-118 46 Stockholm
Tel. /
Fax: (+46) 864/36129
Website: www.multikulti.se
Email: multi.kulti@swipnet.se
A world music specialist with a range of
Irish material.
The USA
Celtic Grooves Imports
Retail/Mail
order: 170 Fleetwood Terrace, Silver Spring, MD 20910
Tel: 301-565-0648
Website: www.celticgrooves.com
Email: philvar@erols.com
If it’s available, Philippe will have
it, and if it’s not available, he’ll still probably find a copy!
Down Home Music
Retail/Mail order: 10341, San Pablo
Avenue, El Cerrito, San Francisco Bay area, California
Tel: 510-5250-2129
Website: www.downhomemusic.com
Excellent stock of Irish recordings,
including many used CDs. They also sell used LPs and cassettes.
Elderly
Website: www.elderly.com
The person who submitted this entry
wrote to me that he had purchased from the store on many occasions and “They
have a surprisingly good selection of lesser-known pure-drop, and their prices
are without question the best of any online retailer. Shipment and service are
always first-rate.”
Ossian USA
Retail/Mail order: 118 Beck Road,
Loudon, New Hampshire, NH 03307.
Tel: 603-783-4383
Fax: 603-783-9660
Website: www.ossianusa.com/
Wide-ranging stock at reasonable
prices.
Two stores based in the Chicago area:
Rampant Lion Celtic
Traders
Website: www.rampantlion.com/rlhome.htm
Paddy's
on the Square
Websites: www.longgroveonline.com/merch-pages/paddys/paddys.html
Large, deep stock. Prices commensurate with their station as an
Irish
boutique shop.