Traditional
Irish Music Played on the Fiddle
(Click on the album title above to head straight to the relevant review)
A Tommy Peoples Discography (note that this is a work in progress and not
yet completed)
Traditional Irish Music Played on the
Fiddle
GTD Heritage Trad. HCD 008; 41 minutes; date unknown
Sometimes tracing the provenance of an Irish traditional recording can be a Sisyphean task and take this Tommy Peoples album as a particularly arcane example. According to the date on the CD itself, it was issued by the Galway-based GTD Heritage Recording Co. in 1993. Yet, when Tommy’s last album, The Quiet Glen, was released in 1998 it was generally hailed as his newest recording for more than a dozen years.
Regarding the GTD release, according to Tommy himself, "This was
recorded by Seán Walshe in his attic studio in Galway in '82.At that time he
had a small cassette distribution going in Clare, Galway, and Mayo. I could not
say if he is involved in GTD Heritage, or if it was sold to them. The
accompaniment was added afterwards. Carl Hession on piano, but not sure of the
guitarist, maybe Seán Walshe." 
Of course, this begs even more questions, such as, firstly, the exact date of the overdubbing and, secondly, why this was even done. A fine pianist Carl Hession might be (and the mystery guitarist is not bad either), but such studio tinkering runs against the spirit of the original solo unaccompanied recording. Equally, once aware that it was a later addition, it’s possible to hear the cracks, especially on the King George IV strathspey. A Seán Walsh does figure extensively in the GTD catalogue, but, predominantly, as a Country and Irish singer. The final implication is that Tommy had no involvement in this release once laying down his own unaccompanied tunes.
There is a further mystery. Track 10 features a duet on the reels The Bells of Tipperary with Tommy’s daughter, Siobhán. According to Caoimhín MacAoidh’s Between the Jigs and the Reels, which was published in 1994, Siobhán was “born and raised in Clare just over twenty years ago” which would place her in her late twenties now and about ten or eleven in 1982 when this recording was apparently made. All well and good, but their rendition of The Bells, relatively simple tunes, features some quite remarkable harmonisation and both fiddlers clearly evince the Peoples hallmark, the crisp triplets.
Ah, well, does it all matter in the end? Well, yes and no. Knowing the date of a recording is essential in order to trace a musician’s development. Here, Tommy’s on typically ebullient form throughout, pert and perky on the reels (such as The Star of Munster and Banish Misfortune), characteristically evocative on the slow airs, including Seán Ó Duibhír a Chleanna (unusual spelling there!). Any Peoples album is always welcome and this is another glowing evocation of the man’s sheer virtuosity. It’s economically priced too, at a mere IR£10, but the trappings provide slim fare. What exactly the cover picture is supposed to signify in relation to this wonderful music is beyond credence and there is no photograph of Tommy himself. There are no notes on the tunes and the actual notes on the fiddler himself consist of two brief paragraphs. So, musically, while this will excite and inform, anyone wishing to know more about Tommy Peoples is best advised to seek out Between the Jigs and the Reels.
Fiddler’s
Fancy: Fifty Irish Fiddle Tunes Collected and Performed by the
Irish Fiddle Legend
Waltons WM1341; 55 minutes; 1986
Tommy Peoples turned his back on the record industry shortly after the release of this album fifteen years ago, issued to accompany his companion book of the same name, and recently re-released in CD format. It was not this album specifically which broke the back of Tommy’s camel, but the accumulative effect of releasing a series of albums from the mid-1970s onwards on a variety of labels and seeing little in the way of financial return for his efforts.
Like both his 1976 recording for Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (An Exciting
Session with One of Ireland’s Leading Traditional Fiddlers) or the
Ovation label’s undated Master Irish Fiddle Player, the recording quality
of Fiddler’s Fancy is abysmal, leading one to suspect that the studio
was a converted swimming pool so trebly and echoic is the mix. And the mix
itself? Well, that’s an interesting one. As the Spartan sleevenotes describe, 
“This
CD is designed so that by adjusting the left or right speakers on your stereo
you may listen to either Tommy Peoples himself or play along with the backing
musician.” In other words, if you know the tunes (or have the book in front of
you), you can bow, pluck or blow away to the delights of the then young Manus
Lunny’s guitar and bouzouki and even wonder sometimes exactly which key he’s
playing in (as it sometimes does not correlate to Tommy’s own) except, of
course, that, Tommy being such an exceptional solo fiddler, there’s no accompaniment
at all on quite a few of the tracks. When Tommy plays solo he takes over both
speaker channels, leaving those who had hoped to hear Manus in the background,
perhaps making a cup of tea, having a quick swim or desperately trying to
retune his instrument, utterly disappointed.
Unfortunately, when he does play, Manus is a complete distraction, so listeners are advised to switch off his channel and go back to mono. At this point you’ll discover that the background echo almost entirely disappears, leaving the possible conclusion that Peoples and Lunny might have actually been recorded at different times and perhaps even that Manus was strumming along with the companion tune book in front of him.
Thus left alone to his devices, Tommy whirls through a startling array of tunes from his extensive repertoire and, unusually, to ears accustomed to the standard session format, all the tunes are played separately (as the tune book format would require). The upshot of this for any aspiring fiddlers is rather akin to a guitarist trying to learn Jimi Hendrix solos from a book, for Tommy, restricted to just a few runs through each tune, packs each with all the fancies of his astounding imagination. Those extraordinarily crisp triplets are there, of course, most notably on The Bank of Turf which is immediately followed by one of Tommy’s tours de force, his incomparably precise, yet ever flowing Laird of Drumblane. Without the presence of Manus this then becomes a sheer master class in traditional fiddling where Tommy draws fully upon all the components of his musical background, his formative years in Donegal (to which he has now returned), his spell in the Dublin melting-pot and, lastly, his many years based in Clare. For those who associate Tommy with greased lightning there’s also an emotive version of Na Connerys offering a notable counterbalance.
The above two reviews were written by Geoff Wallis
for Musical Traditions – www.mustrad.org.uk.
Waiting for a Call
Shanachie 78052; 62 minutes; 2003
The release of a new Tommy Peoples album is always an event,
but this time the occasion is somewhat shrouded in mystery. Waiting for a
Call is the ninth album to bear the Donegal-born fiddler’s name since he
left The Bothy Band in the mid-1970s and the first since 1998’s highly
successful The Quiet Glen. However, the mystery lies in the CD’s
provenance, for eleven of its sixteen tracks actually date from ‘around 1985’
(to quote Don Meade’s rather brief liner notes), while the remaining five are
recent recordings. 
The original tracks were apparently not released in the 1980s because they ‘didn’t amount to a full-length album’, despite them rolling home at around 40 minutes in total. Now this is very strange indeed as Shanachie, the label concerned, had been perfectly happy to release Tommy’s The High Part of the Road and The Iron Man, both of which are shorter in duration.
The tapes then ‘languished unproduced on the Shanachie shelf for almost two decades’ and the identity of the music’s originally intended producer remains unclear (though the presence of one Dónal Lunny on bodhrán might suggest an answer). Additionally, no details are given regarding the recording location (presumably Dublin by the presence of a young Seán Óg Potts on uilleann pipes) while any information regarding the tapes’ more recent re-mastering is equally noticeable by its absence.
However, what is absolutely clear is that this is a parson’s egg of an album with its five new tracks (featuring guitarist John Doyle, once of Solas) interspersed among those original eleven cuts (where Alec Finn of the now-defunct De Dannan provides bouzouki backing). Perhaps, more crucially, of course, this also means that the current Tommy Peoples mingles with a version almost twenty years younger which begs the question why Shanachie did not ask him to record an entire new album and issue the 1980s tracks as a bonus disc! However, perhaps most puzzling is the fiddler’s decision to compare both old and new by offering two versions of the reel The Spike Island Lasses.
Certainly, the album inevitably does lead to comparisons between the wild and sometimes desparate dynamism of Tommy’s playing in the 1980s to the more mellow-toned Peoples of today. That’s not to say he’s lost any of the imagination that has always inspired the subtle variations implicit in his playing nor any of its inherent vivacity, as his masterful 2002 combination of The Frieze Breeches and The Lark in the Morning amply demonstrates (albeit posed against a far too prominent guitar), but there’s a sense in which the unexpected has become the norm. The measured quality which served as a bedrock for Peoples’s fanciful flights has diminished in its intensity and a feeling of determined improvisation seems to inspire some of these latest recordings.
Nevertheless, despite these misgivings, while the Tommy Peoples of ‘around 1985’ could knock the spots off virtually every one of his contemporaries, today’s version should still be cherished for all his majesty, making Waiting for a Call not just an event, but a celebration of his continuing powers.
This review by Geoff Wallis first appeared in fRoots
magazine – www.frootsmag.com.
For more information about Shanachie
visit www.shanachie.com.
Master Irish Fiddle Player
Ovation OVA 503 CD; 45 minutes; undated
Now this is a strange one and no mistake. Firstly, like the GTD album reviewed earlier, it is undated, though it is actually a CD reissue of an LP entitled A Traditional Experience with Tommy Peoples: A Master Irish Fiddle Player which first appeared on the now defunct Solo label in 1977. Secondly, the album was released by a small Dublin-based label more usually associated with comedy and showband recordings. The information provided by the liner is minimal and consists of a truncated version of Peter Browne’s original sleeve notes which, in this form, provides only a rather general account of Tommy’s career and music. The final page of the liner includes track listings and the identities of the producer (one Tommy Ellis) and the accompanists (Éamonn Campbell on guitar and Peadar Mercier on bodhrán – the latter also plays bones on the album, but this is not mentioned). However, this page omits all of Peter Browne’s original notes on the tunes.
Equally,
like the aforesaid GTD release, the recording quality is dreadful and
characterized by an excessive use of reverb. Campbell’s guitar is so low in the
mix that he might have been playing in a different room, while, on an untitled
mazurka, the stereo separation of the Peoples fiddle from the Mercier bones is
oddly unnerving. It should also be mentioned that Campbell’s guitar work is
rudimentary, to say the least, and can basically be described as
Certificate-level strumming. Peadar Mercier was an accomplished bodhrán player,
but the listener is certainly left with the abiding impression that perhaps
neither he nor Éamonn was actually in the studio at the time when Tommy
recorded the tunes. (Anyone who has a copy of Paddy Taylor’s The Boy in the
Gap album might be interested to know that Mercier’s bodhrán was added
after Paddy had recorded his music.)
Nevertheless, if one discounts the recording’s dysfunctions, there’s a joyful playfulness apparent in Tommy’s playing here, no better exemplified than the paired hornpipes Cronin’s and The Tailor’s Twist. This track is itself succeeded by a dynamic rendition of The Gander in the Pratie Hole, which, thanks to its turns, twists and triplets, is instantly recognizable as a Peoples version of the tune. There is also a sumptuous solo air, misspelt as Port Na bPhuchai and the album closes with the immaculate playing of the jigs Queen of the Fair and Paddy O’Brien’s, sadly marred by poor production technique which gives the impression that Peadar Mercier was putting up some shelves rather rapidly in the next building.
I’m not sure whether this album is still available and, perhaps, realistically it’s only one for Peoples completists.
Geoff Wallis
2nd November, 2004
Tommy Peoples & Paul Brady
Shanachie 34007; 38 minutes; 1994
reissue of 1976 LP
There are many who reckon that this album is Tommy Peoples’s finest hour and it might seem pertinacious to disagree, but I will (though later in this review). In a sense the album’s cover is the most figuratively illustrative of all of Tommy’s albums and certainly via his unkempt ‘Rocker’ hairstyle and a facial expression which combines last night’s fun with sheer concentration expresses many of his then current demons.
The
album was released not long after Tommy had left The Bothy Band and certainly
features some of his wildest playing. For instance, there’s a sheer ferocity to
the jig The Kid on the Mountain/O’Farrell’s Welcome to Limerick,
combined with flamboyant bowing, which suggests that the fiddler was utterly
straining at the leash at the time of its recording. The Bank of Ireland is
played with remarkable dexterity, but still enough force to suggest that Tommy
was in the process of writing a vehement letter to the bank’s manager. The
Nine Points of Roguery is a powerful, absorbing tour de force
featuring virtually every facet of Tommy’s ability and agility –
double-stopping, unfeasibly rapid triplets and more than the merest hint that
the music is driving him ever onwards rather than vice versa.
The album does suffer from a uniformity of pace and it’s not until the eleventh track, Farewell to Ireland, that the flow of reels and jigs is interrupted. However, the hiatus provided by Tommy’s arrangement of the tune as an air is only temporary, and he is soon back to full velocity by treating the melody as a reel, though, for some reason the tune suffers from an unnecessary fade-out employed by the producers Richard Nevins and Daniel Michael Collins.
Now it’s time to revert to my original qualification. Though Tommy’s playing is unquestionably exhilarating there are two fundamental problems regarding the production of this CD. The first is the tinny sound resulting from the 1994 remastering while the second relates fully to his accompanist, Paul Brady. I believe that this was Paul’s first studio outing and his playing tends to over-egg the pudding. His later releases accompanying John Vesey and Andy McGann reveal more restraint and less of a sense that he’s striving to keep up with Tommy’s imagination (to be fair, that’s possibly an impossible task anyway).
Geoff Wallis
21st March, 2006
Discography (in chronological order)
GROUPS FEATURING TOMMY
PEOPLES
1691 (with Peter Browne, Matt
Molloy, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and Liam Weldon)
Arfolk SB313; 1973?
Reissued as A Way for
Ireland CD 314
1) Lucy Campbell; 2) The
Red Knickers; 3) The First House in Connaught/The Copper Plate; 4) Rinne Me
Smaointeadh/Im Intinn; 5) The Banks of Claudy; 6) The Green Groves/The Flowers
of Red Hill; 7) Ta Mo Chmeamnas Déanta; 8) Once I Had a True Love; 9) One
Starry Night; 10) The Widow’s Lament; 11) The Virgin Mary.
N.B. The tracks are
listed in the order in which they appear on A Way for Ireland.
The Kilfenora Céilí Band
Transatlantic TRS 108;
1974
Reissued as Traditional
Irish Fiddle Music – E2 ETDCD 092; 1998
The band at the time of
this recording consisted of: Tommy Peoples, Tom Hegarty, Michael Kelleher and
Tom Ward – fiddles; Jimmy Ward – tenor banjo; Paddy ‘Organ’ Mullins – flute;
Michael Sexton – accordion; Pat Madigan – bass; Jimmy Leyden – drums; Kitty
Linnane – piano; P.J. Murrihy – guitar and vocals.
1) Kilfenora Reels; 2)
John Joe’s/Bridgie McGrath’s; 3) Rattigan’s/Morning Star/Dublin Porter; 4)
Belfast Town; 5) Mullins’/The Reel of Rio/Paddy Murphy’s Wife; 6) The Flower of
Edinburgh/The Stack; 7) The Flaxen Broom/Dinny O’Brien’s Reels/Come West Along
the Road; 8) Austin Tierney’s/I’m Waiting for You/The Boys of Ballisodare/The
Five Mile Chase; 9) The Humours of Glendart/The Joys of Love; 10) Down the Broom/The
Donegal Reel/Peadar’s Reel; 11) Coming Back to Miltown; 12)
McDermot’s/Tierney’s/Lady Montgomery; 13) The Gold Ring/The Lucky Penny; 14)
The Reel of Body/The Kerry Reel/The Sailor on the Rock/The Lady on the
Island/The Stony Steps.
The Bothy Band – 1975 (with Matt
Molloy, Paddy Keenan, Dónal Lunny, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill and Mícheál Ó
Domhnaill)
Mulligan LUN CD 002;
1975
Polydor Super 2383 279
1) The Kesh Jig/Give Us
a Drink of Water/The Flower of the Flock/Famous Ballymote; 2) The Green Groves
of Erin/The Flowers of Red Hill; 3) Do You Love an Apple?; 4) Julia Delaney; 5)
Patsy Geary’s/Coleman’s Cross; 6) Is trua nach bhfuil me in Éirinn; 7) The
Navvy on the Line/The Rainy Day; 8) The Tar Road to Sligo/Paddy Clancy’s; 9)
Martin Wynn’s [sic]/The Longford Tinker; 10) Pretty Peg/Craig’s Pipes; 11)
Hector the Hero/The Laird of Drumblaine (strathspey and reel); 12) The
Traveller/The Humours of Lissadel; 13) The Butterfly; 14) The Salamanca/The
Banshee/The Sailor’s Bonnet.
SOLO ALBUMS (OR THOSE BEARING
TOMMY’S NAME)
An Exciting Session with One of
Ireland’s Leading Traditional Fiddlers
CCÉ CL 13; 1976
Unaccompanied
1) Jackson’s Reel/The
Oak Tree; 2) Port na bPúchai; 3) The Salamanca/Lucy Campbell; 4) Doctor
O’Neill’s; 5) The Green Hills of Tyrol; 6) Mulqueeney’s Hornpipe; 7) Jenny’s
Welcome to Charlie; 8) Farewell to Ireland; 9) O’Callaghan’s Hornpipe/Galway
Bay; 10) The Green Fields of Glentown; 11) Bovaglies Plaid/The Highlander’s
Farewell/The Boyne Hunt; 12) The Bank of Ireland/The Shaskeen Reel; 13) The
Geese in the Bog; 14) McCahill’s/Danny Meehan’s Reels.
The High Part of the Road (with
Paul Brady, guitar)
Shanachie 34007; 1994 CD
reissue of 1976 LP
1) The Oak Tree/The
Pinch of Snuff; 2) The Kid on the Mountain/O’Farrell’s Welcome to Limerick; 3)
The Wheels of the World/Toss the Feathers; 4) Ard an Bhothair (The High Part of
the Road)/Port an Bhrathar (The Monk’s Jig); 5) The Bank of Ireland/The Dairy
Maid; 6) The Nine Points of Roguery/Bean an it ar lar (The Mistress on the
Floor); 7) The Green Groves of Erin/The Pigeon on the Gate; 8) Port Shean
Tseain (Old John’s Jig)/The Queen of the Fair; 9) The Salamanca/Lucy Campbell;
The Silver Slipper/Old Hag in the Kiln; 11) Farewell to Ireland; 12) McCahill’s
Reels.
A Traditional Experience with
Tommy Peoples: A Master Irish Traditional Fiddle Player
Release
Records SOLO 7012; 1977
(reissued
by Ovation as Master Irish Fiddle Player, OVA 503; undated)
Accompanists:
Eamonn Campbell (guitar) and Peadar Mercier (bodhrán and bones)
1) The
Bunch of Keys/The Merry Harriers; 2) Pat Burke’s/The Lark’s March; 3) Mazurka;
4) The Providence/The Skylark; 5) Cronin’s/The Tailor’s Twist; 6) The Gander in
the Pratie Hole/Langstrom’s Pony; 7) The New Policeman/The Maid Behind the Bar;
8) The Drunken Sailor/The Norfolk; 9) Port na bPúchai; 10) Gusty’s Frolics; 11)
Sherlock’s/The Floggin’; 12) Queen of the Fair/Paddy O’Brien’s.
Molloy/Brady/Peoples (with Matt Molloy, flute, and Paul
Brady, guitar)
Mulligan LUNCD 017; 1977
Green Linnet GLCD 3018; 1985
1) Matt Peoples; 2) The Creel of Turf/Tom Billy’s; 3) The Crosses of Annagh; 4) The Newport Lass/The Rambling Pitchfork; 5) Shamrock Shore; 6) Munster Buttermilk/The Connachtman’s Rambles; 7) Speed the Plough/Toss the Feathers; 8) The Limerick Lasses/The Foxhunters; 9) Mick Finn’s/The Blackthorn; 10) Feargal O’Gara/The Cloon; 11) Mulqueeney’s/Out on the Ocean; 12) The Rainy Day/The Grand Canal; 13) The Scotsman Over the Border/The Killavil; 14) John Brennan’s (Silver Spire)/Drag Her Round the Road; 15) The Graf Spee.
Traditional Irish Music Played on the Fiddle
GTD TRAD.
HC CD008; 1993 (actually recorded in 1982)
1) King of
the Clans/The Star of Munster; 2) Ban Chnoic Éirinn Ó/Trip to Durrow; 3) The
Musical Priest/McFadden’s; 4) Kit Mahoney’s/John Blessing’s Delight; 5) Lament
and strathspey; 6) King of the Pipers; 7) Boy in the Gap/Cronin’s; 8) The
Echo/The Queen of the West; 9) Seán Ó Duibhir a Chleanna; 10) The Bells of Tipperary
(with Siobhán Peoples); 11) Drumnagarry/King George IV; 12) Banish
Misfortune/The Cook in the Kitchen.
The Iron Man (with Dáithí Sproule, guitar)
Shanachie
79044; 1985
1)
Reavy’s/Merr Sisters; 2) Tom Billy’s/Out on the Ocean; 3) Sunny Brogan’s Favourite/Drunken
Landlady; 4) Kit O’Connor’s; 5) The Iron Man/William Marshall’s; 6)
Carrigaline/Belles of St. Louis; 7) Crowley’s/Sweeney’s Dream; 8) John
Doherty’s Fancy/Brogan’s Ferry; 9) Tell Her I Am/Chorus Jig; 10)
O’Dowd’s/Chicago Reel; 11) Woman of the House/Morning Star; 12) Kitty O’Shea;
13) O’Callaghan’s/Scarta Glen.
Fiddler’s Fancy: Fifty Irish
Fiddle Tunes (with Mánus Lunny, guitar and bouzouki)
Waltons
WM1341; 1986
1) The
Norfolk; 2) The Queen of the West; 3) Shaun Maguire’s [sic]; 4) Coleman’s; 5)
Grainne’s Jig; 6) The Star of Munster; 7) Mulhaire’s; 8) The Kilfenora Lass; 9)
Boys of the Town; 10) The Bank of Turf; 11) Laird of Drumblaine; 12) The
Fisher’s Rant; 13) John Doherty’s; 14) The Morning Dew; 15) Na Connerys; 16) Brian
Boru’s March; 17) Feargal O’Gara; 18) Sheehan’s; 19) King of the Clans; 20) The
Skylark; 21) Chief O’Neill’s Favourite; 22) The Tailor’s Twist; 23) Dowd’s No.
9; 24) Ciarán Ó Raghallaigh; 25) Lisdoonvarna; 26) The Rights of Man; 27)
Kitty’s Wedding; 28) The Salamanca; 29) The Colliers; 30) The Lark on the
Strand; 31) Eavesdropper; 32) The Musical Priest; 33) The Doon; 34) The Wind
That Shakes the Barley; 35) The Maid on the Green; 36) Jackson’s Morning Brush;
37) Jackson’s; 38) The Drunken Landlady; 39) Maudabawn Chapel; 40) Out on the
Ocean; 41) The Green Flag; 42) The Echo; 43) Little John’s Hame; 44) Castle
Kelly; 45) The Shaskeen; 46); Corofin; 47) Coleman’s Favourite; 48) Lady
Gordon’s; 49) Larry Grogan’s; 50) The Merry Sisters.
The Quiet Glen/An Gleann Ciuín
TPCD 001; 1998
Accompanist: Alph Duggan (guitar)
1) Jocelyn’s Fancy/My Granny’s Hieland Hame; 2) Kitty Come Down to Limerick/Mamore Gap; 3) The Green Fields of Glentown/La Cosa Mulligan; 4) The Mouse in the Attic/The Fat Cat; 5) Hector the Hero/The Coffin Ships; 6) The Blooming Meadow/The Rose on the Heather; 7) The Cup of Tea/Beautiful Gartree; 8) The Quiet Glen (air and jig)/The Gortree; 9) Black Pat’s/Bonny Kate; 10) Don’t Touch That Green Linnet/Dooish/Gráinne’s; 11) Mayor Harrison’s Fedora/The Bird on the Bush; 12) The Green Fields of America/The Battering Ram; 13) The First Day of Spring/The Kinnycally Klansmen.
Waiting for a Call
Shanachie
78052; 2003 (11 tracks recorded in 1985, but previously unreleased)
Accompanists:
1985 – Alec Finn (bouzouki), Seán Potts (uilleann pipes) and Dónal Lunny
(bodhrán); 2003 – John Doyle (guitar)
1) John Blessing’s Delight/Australian Waters/Kit O’Mahony’s; 2) Waiting for a Call/The Spike Island Lassies; 3) Ard Baithen/The Mooncoin/The King of the Pipers; 4) The Bunch of Green Rushes/Carmel Mahoney Mulhaire; 5) The Monaghan Jig/The Ship in Full Sail/The Blarney Pilgrim; 6) Miss Ramsay/Launching the Boat; 7) The Wishing Well/The King of the Pipers No. 2; 8) The Frieze Breeches/The Lark in the Morning; 9) The Colliers/Bob McQuillen’s/The Spike Island Lassies; 10) Dúlaman na Binne Buí/Tommy Peoples/Jenny’s Wedding; 11) Hardiman the Fiddler/Give Us a Drink of Water/Heels Over Head; 12) The Drunken Landlady/The Fisherman’s Island; 13) King George IV; 14) Páidín O’Rafferty/The Langstern Pony; 15) Drumnagarry/Drumnagarry Reel/Miss Crawford; 16) The Fairest Rose.
COMPILATIONS and OTHER ALBUMS (in chronological order)
Bonnie Kate
CCÉ CL2; 1970
Tommy plays solo on side 1, track 6 – the reels Caher Rua and Na Gleannta – and on side 2, track 3 – the set dance The Princess Royal.
Paul Brady – Welcome Here Kind
Stranger
Mulligan LUN 024; 1978
Tommy plays on three tracks: side 1, track 1 – Don’t Come Again; side 1, track 3 – Jackson and Jane; and, side 2, track 4 – The Boy on the Hilltop/Johnny Going to Céilidh.
Irish Festival
Mulligan LUN 042; 1980
Side 2, track 3 (title needed).
Fiddlesticks: Irish
Traditional Music from Donegal
Nimbus NI 5320; 1991
Reissued as part of the From a Distant Shore boxed set, NI 1752; 1999
Tommy appears on these tracks:
3) Farrell O’Gara/Ciaran O’Reilly (with Séamus Gibson, fiddle); 4) Two Jigs; 8) The Jug of Punch/John Stewart; 14) The Silver Spire/The Boys of Ballisadare; 17) The Fantastic Reel/McFarley’s Reel/Miss Ramsey (with other fiddlers); 18) The Jig of Slurs/The Irish Washerwoman/The Atholl Highlanders (general session); 19) The Wise Maid/MacLeod’s Reel/The Boys of Malin (general session).
Maiden Voyage: Live Irish
Traditional Music Session from Pepper’s Bar, Feakle, Co. Clare
Celtic Music CMCD 062; 1991
Tommy features on the following tracks: 1) Jim Donoghoe’s/Gorman’s Galway Rambler (general session); 3) The Rolling Waves/Maid at the Spinning Wheel (with Pat Marsh); 9) Gan Ainm (with Siobhán Peoples and Pat Marsh); 12) Tommy’s Selection (with Pat Marsh); 16) Crib of Perches/Trip to Durrow (with Pat Marsh).
Clare Tradition
GTDH 082; 1993
One track: 4) Trip to Durrow.
Grianán – The Maid of Erin
West Winds WWCD004; 1993
Tommy joins his daughter Siobhán for a duet on track 4, a set of reels consisting of Jug of Punch/John Stewart’s/Humours of Westport.
Celtic Dawn
GTDH 128; undated
One track: 12) King of the Pipers (with Eugene Kelly, guitar and piano).
The Bowhouse Quintet – Live in
Ennis
Lochshore CDLDL 1291; 1999
Tommy is part of a quartet of fiddlers (the others are Siobhán Peoples, Michelle O’Brien and Michael Queally) who join the Quintet’s own fiddlers, Liam Lewis and Tola Custy, for track 10 – Mulhaire’s No. 9/The Holly Bush/The Miser’s Pocket.
The Chieftains – Water from
the Well
BMG/RCA Victor 09026 63637 2; 2000
Four members of the Kilfenora CB (fiddlers Michael Hynes and Tommy Peoples, flute player Séamus Hynes and pianist Mary Corcoran) join The Chieftains for track 12, The Kilfenora Set.
Kevin Crawford – In Good
Company
Green Linnet GLCD 1211; 2001
Tommy duets with Kevin (backing supplied by Arty McGlynn) on track 7 – Jimmy O’Reilly’s/Doonagore/The Bellharbour Reel – and track 15 – Tommy’s Mazurkas.
Doolin Point: Best of Divers’
Nights 1992-1999
No catalogue number; 2002
Tommy plays on one track: 2) College Groves/Gan Ainm/O’Dowd’s Number Nine [sic] – recorded 26/11/1992.
Toss the Fiddles: The
Philadelphia Céilí Group’s 27th Annual Festival of Irish Music and
Dance
No number; 2002
Accompanied by Seán Tyrrell on guitar, Tommy appears on track 5 – When Sick is it Tae You Want?/Gan Ainm/Humours of Ballyloughlin – and track 6 – Lawson’s Favourite/Christmas Eve.
Cairde: A Celebration of
Friendship and Life
The Friends of St. Luke’s Hospital, Dublin; 2002?
One track: 16) Frieze Breeches/The Lark in the Morning.
Kevin Moyna – The Back of Beyond
Moy 001;
date unknown
Tommy
appears on tracks 1, 3, 8 and 14 (titles needed).
BOOTLEGS AND UNRELEASED MATERIAL
Live in
Limerick 1981 (source unknown)
1) The
Merry Sisters/The Fisherman’s Island; 2) Out on the Ocean; 3) The Thatched
Cabin (?); 4) Air/Jig/Mazurkas; 5) Kitty O’Neill; 6) McFadden’s Handsome
Daughter/The Boys of Malin; 7) Hector the Hero/Laird of Drumblaine; 8)
Langstrom’s Pony/Tom Billy’s Jig; 9) Green Fields of Glentown; 10) Port na
bPhúcai; 11) The Kerry Reel/The Trip to Durrow; 12) Two Reels; 13) The Chicago
Reel/Mullingar Races; 14) Dr. O’Neill; 15) The Morning Star/The Foxhunter’s
Reel; 16) Two Reels.
Unreleased
duets with Matt Molloy (date
unknown)
1) Matt
Peoples’s Reels; 2) Farewell to Ireland/Green Fields of Glentown; 3) Merrily
Kiss the Quaker/Munster Buttermilk; 4) The Rainy Day; 5) Unknown; 6) Humours of
Ballyconnell/Humours of Lissadell; 7) Unknown; 8) The Foxhunter’s Jig; 9) The
Wheels of the World/Jenny’s Welcome to Charlie; 10) Garrett Barry’s Jig; 11)
Mulqueeny’s Hornpipe; 12) The Pinch of Snuff/The Oak Tree; 13) The Gold Ring;
14) The Bucks of Oranmore; 15) Unknown/The Pinch of Snuff