Great Irish player Brian Taheny

[mandofestive]

Although I have been reading posts for years, this is my first post. We run a Celtic Roots Festival (17th year) and a week long Celtic College (15th year) and week long Celtic Kids school (6th year) in a small town in Ontario called Goderich. We have had many wonderful mandolin players over the years, notably Simon Mayor, Emory Lester and Andrew Collins (when you are a mandolin player and the Artistic Director you get to choose something for yourself!)

The absolute best mandolin player of Irish music I have ever heard is Brian Taheny. Brian immigrated to Toronto from County Sligo about 20 years ago and is a multi-instrumentalist playing mandolin, fiddle, guitar, bouzouki, cittern, tenor banjo and more but he has a particular love for the mandolin. He plays at warp speed with incredible lift and constantly changing ornamentation and knows more tunes than anyone I have ever met. He has recorded on over 70 albums, but the only CD on which he plays exclusively mandolin is one called Mando Lore with Andrew Collins.

As Brian has a day job, he is not as well known as I believe he should be, so I wanted to bring him to everyone's attention.

[brianunitt]

Just bought the MP3 from CD Baby. He is quite a player--sweet tone, and tasteful ornamentation. Love the Jerry's Beaver Hat set.

[Jill McAuley]

Sounds good going by the samples on CD Baby - I'll definitely be buying that one, thanks for the tip!

Cheers,
Jill

[Jill McAuley]

Found this clip of Brian Taheny and Andrew Collins on Youtube last night, nice stuff indeed...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY3bIvHXPm4

cheers,
Jill

[brianunitt]

His style reminds me of Martin Reese.

http://www.petercoombe.com/Sound.htm

[whistler]

You can heart a taster of Brian Taheny's playing Aidan Crossey's great site: http://www.paythereckoning.com/thepage.htm

[sgarrity]

MandoLore is a must have mandolin recording! The tunes and playing are excellent.

[BBarton]

I've attended the Celtic College / Celtic Roots Festival in Goderich for the past two years now -- it's a great week (big thanks, mandofestive, for all the good work)!! I've taken Brian's mando, zouk, and tenor banjo courses at Celtic College and heard him perform at other venues. Brian is a superb and versatile Irish musician on multiple instruments, and also a great help with questions about the music, its history, and the instruments used. Indeed, it is surprising that he is not more well known in the genre. PS - I vouch for Mandolore CD as well -- easy-listening, good stuff!

[BBarton]

The You Tube clip is from the Goderich Celtic Roots Festival -- too bad, though, the clip didn't have some of Andrew playing the mandolin too -- as most know, he's awesome mandolin player (Creaking Tree String Quartet, Foggy Hogtown Boys).

[Mike Crocker]

Agreed on all counts. Brian also has great ears for technical stuff, interesting guitar tunings, and great taste in instruments.

Peace, Mooh.