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RATING: ****
"...The Music Of The Piper..."
England's Beat Goes on Records (BGO to us in the know) have been going at Irish, English and Scottish Traditional Folk Music (and huge swathes of Country too) for much of the Naughties – and often with blinding results.
As well as obvious touch-points like Steeleye Span, The Dubliners, Finbar and Eddie Furey, Dave Swarbrick (of Fairport) and The Incredible String Band - they have reissued deep dive stuff like Sweeney's Men, The McCalmans, Hamish Imlach, Dave Cartwright, Mr. Fox, The Young Tradition, Mike Cooper, Bob and Carolanne Pegg (with Nick Strutt), David McWilliams and The Johnstons (featuring Paul Brady) to name but a few (I have reviewed most all of them) – not exactly artist names that trip off the Sainsbury's Top 50 chart tongue.
But there has been a part of me that wants BGO to go at the likes of The Bothy Band or Planxty or even the early Clannad and Chieftains albums. Well maybe we can get near them and their sound because blow my Uilleann Pipe up the wrong trouser leg, but they have only dug down deep and gone for The Poets – or NA FILÍ to you and I (roughly pronounced - Naw Philly). It's first time on CD too.
So, once more unto the jigs and reels my finger-in-the-ear lowbrow people of the wastelands (well North of Skegness anyway)...
UK released 4 August 2023 (delayed from July) - "Chanter's Tune" by NA FILÍ on Beat Goes On Records BGOCD1497 (Barcode 5017261214973) is a straightforward Remaster and Reissue of a November 1977 Traditional Irish Folk LP onto CD. It plays out follows (40:29 minutes):
1. The Maid At The Spinning Wheel [Side 1]
2. Ceol An Phíobaire (The Music Of The Piper) /Michael Murphy's Slide
3. Mo Mhuirnín Ban (My Fair-Haired Darling)
4. Give Us A Drink Of Water / Hunting The Hare
5. Na Connerys (The Connerys)
6. Chanter's Tune / An Samhradh Crua (The Hard Summer) / The Green Fields Of Rossbeigh / Murphy's Reel Medley
7. Inis Dhún Ramha (Inis Doon Rawa) / Paidin Ó Raifeartaigh [Side 2]
8. Maidin Ró-Mhoch (Early One Morning)
9. The Trip To Athlone / Pat McGillarney
10. Sweet Williamstown
11. Cait Ní Dhuibhir (Kate O'Dwyer) / The Flannel Jacket / John Dwyer's Reel
12. The Top Of Maol / Dan Coakley's Polka / The Ballydesmond Polka
Tracks 1 to 12 are their fifth studio album "Chanter's Tune" – released November 1977 in the UK on Transatlantic TRA 353.
NA FILÍ (Gaelic for The Poets) are:
TOMAS Ó CANAINN – Uilleann Pipes and Vocals
TOM BARRY – Whistles and Flute
MATT CRANITCH - Fiddle
Producer VICTOR GAMM had roots in Folk and Folk Rock stretching back to the Jethro Tull 1968 debut album "This Was" on Island, the Tom Paxton 1971 album on Reprise Records called "How Come The Sun", the second Stackridge album "Friendliness" from 1972 on MCA Records, the Folk-Prog sound of Magna Carta on their 1973 LP for Vertigo "Lord Of The Ages" and onwards to Mick Greenwood (much of Fotheringay were on his 1971 debut) and his third album in 1974 - "Midnight Dreamer" on Warner Brothers. I say all this because this is a gorgeous recording – his work here is clean and clear but not dampened down – beautifully present. When the trio go into the four parts of the title track that ends Side 1 – it’s near seven-minutes of piping, fiddling and whistling is practically audiophile as far as Traditional Irish Music goes.
There is a pleasingly in-depth 16-page booklet by noted writer and Folk Enthusiast JOHN O'REGAN where his history lesson on the three lads includes their early years in Fifties and Sixties Southern Ireland where the Fleadh and the Guinness blended and blurred into one. They disbanded in 1979 but are remembered with deep affection (his liner notes are exemplary, researched and imparted with heart and savvy). O'Regan also says that this reissue restores the album to its former glory and dropping a weary lughole on the stunning Remaster by ANDREW THOMPSON from original Transatlantic master tapes indeed confirms this. "Chanter's Tune" is a gorgeous sounding CD with a clarity and warmth that is bound to thrill those who have held on to this rare late 70s vinyl artifact for fear of never getting a clean copy again. Well fear no more, because BGO's resident Audio Engineer genius has pulled off a goodun. The card slipcase too of course lends it an air of class. To the mostly instrumental music...
This most Traditional of Irish Music LPs opens with 2:15 minutes called "The Maid At The Spinning Wheel" – a lovely but short Pipes and Whistles jaunt. Tomás Ó Canainn takes us into Gaelic Story territory with his distinct lilt on "Ceol An Phíobaire (The Music Of The Piper) / Michael Murphy's Slide" – the first part sung about money and piping whilst the jog plays it out. "Mo Mhuirnín Ban (My Fair-Haired Darling)" is a beautiful 2:15 minutes Penny Whistle instrumental where you can literally hear Tom Barry drawing breath – just him and the melody. That's quickly followed by a Fiddle and Whistle doubling up for "Give Us A Drink Of Water / Hunting The Hare" which is soon joined by Tomás Ó Canainn with his Uilleann Pipes drone (another instrumental).
Plaintive would describe the "Na Connerys (The Connerys)" – a gorgeous double Uilleann Pipes melody that is layered with Whistle and Flute – the kind of instrumental that would filled Braveheart with even more soul. Tomás Ó Canainn sings for the second time on Side 2's combo of song and reel - "Inis Dhún Ramha (Inis Doon Rawa) / Paidin Ó Raifeartaigh" featuring all instruments and a sweet jaunt to its happy ending. A tonal dark fiddle note plays in "Maidin Ró-Mhoch (Early One Morning)" and its lone instrument unaccompanied sadness stays that way throughout – beautiful and haunting as its subject matter no doubt was.
The 'chanter' (as the liner notes inform us) is part of the Uilleann Pipes instrument that wavers and alters its sound and tone.
Well this "Chanter's Tune" is a sweetheart of a reissue. Top marks to Beat Goes On of England (BGO), Music Historian John O'Regan and Engineer Andrew Thompson for seeing it presented beautifully and sounding sexier than a buxom maid at a spinning wheel with a glint in her eye and a big yarn on her knee (you go girl)...
