Paul Brady's "Out the Door and Over the Wall"

[zoukboy]

Here is a tune of Paul Brady's that is great fun to play: "Out the Door and Over the Wall" from his 1979 solo album Welcome Here Kind Stranger. It's in F minor and Paul plays it in GDAE capo'd to the first fret.

The tune starts at about 3:15 in this clip:



Here it is transcribed in Em (capo I for Fm):



and here it is the way I play it in GDAD (capo III for Fm):



Enjoy!

[Bernie Daniel]

What an awesome video -- positively loved the Hank Williams song - I did not see that coming!!! What was the year of this concert do you think? Thanks for posting!! Sorry just saw it is 1976. I was teaching biochemistry at the OSU medical school that year and had no idea that Paul Brady existed -- my loss. He reminds me a bit of Tom O'Brien

[Ray(T)]

This video has set me thinking and I'm wondering if it represents an early use of the bouzouki in this form of music.

I first came across Paul Brady when he was part of an outfit called The Johnsons some 8 or 9 years earlier. (In those days he played a Yamaha FG180, an old Hagstrom 12 string with an impossible action and, occasionally, piano.) He went on to work solo and in the video posted he is playing one of the Greek bouzoukis which were the only type available on this side of the pond in those days - there seemed to be one hanging in most music shops but nobody ever seemed to play one! I don't recall ever seeing one of the standard CBOM bouzouki you see nowadays which leads me to suspect that this may represent something of a transitional moment.

[zoukboy]

Ray: To the best of my knowledge Johnny Moynihan, Andy Irvine, and then Dónal Lunny got there before Paul Brady. As Andy tells the story, Johnny, who developed GDAD - what we now know as Irish bouzouki tuning - on the mandolin while playing with Andy and Joe Dolan in Sweeney's Men in the mid 60s. In 1966 he traded his mandolin for a Greek bouzouki and started playing it in that tuning (Greek 4 course bouzouki tuning being CFAD with the C and F courses in octaves). Andy said that at first he and Joe didn't like it much but it grew on them and Andy eventually was given a Greek bouzouki by Johnny.

A year later Johnny was in London at a party at John Pearse's flat (yes, THAT John Pearse) when he noticed a flat backed bouzouki hanging on the wall. Pearse had commissioned the instrument from English guitar maker John Bailey to replace a Greek bouzouki that was coming apart (apparently Bailey refused to do a staved back). Pearse was not too taken with the instrument and he gave it to Moynihan, who has it to this day.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...2843863&type=3

So the Bailey instrument probably represents the first flat backed bouzouki built in the UK, although I wouldn't say that it's the first Irish bouzouki, FWIW, since it was built to replace a Greek instrument, and as far as I know John Pearse had intended it for Greek tuning. A few years ago right after his death someone on the web was claiming that Pearse had "invented the Irish bouzouki," which is not quite right. If any one person did then it was Moynihan, who conceived of the tuning and its application, which was picked up by Irvine and Lunny and many, many others. I think it remains that the first purpose-built Irish bouzouki was the one Peter Abnett built for Dónal Lunny in 1970.

[Colin Lindsay]

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...2843863&type=3

So the Bailey instrument probably represents the first flat backed bouzouki built in the UK, although I wouldn't say that it's the first Irish bouzouki, FWIW, since it was built to replace a Greek instrument.

I’ve heard so many versions of the origin of the Oirish Basucai that I could line them all up and the view / history / truth would depend on the origin / age / politics of the poster… even Andy Irvine makes fun of it with his wonderfully tongue-in-cheek line “Well he brought the bouzouki to Ireland you know”…
If neither the shape, nor the stringing, nor the manufacture is uniquely Irish… what makes it the IRISH bouzouki? Other than Irish music is played on it, in which case I’ve got an Irish clarinet… and an Irish hurdy-gurdy… it’s a bit like saying Alec Finn is a Greek musician, as he plays the Greek bouzouki...
I’m now waiting for the story of the guitar to be rewritten in that someone took two strings off a bouzouki one day in Dublin… and the rest is history…

[zoukboy]

I think intention is a big part of it, as it is with any aesthetic endeavor. Neither Pearse nor Bailey were thinking of Irish music, apparently, so it is at least disingenuous to say they had anything to do with it conceptually. Moynihan's contribution of a tuning schema is very significant, foundational even.

[sgrexa]

Very nice. He and Tim O'Brien could have been separated at birth. What an awesome duo they would make and I for one would love to see a collaboration and an album.

Sean

[Amanda Gregg]

Sean, ever hear Tim's version of "Down in the Willow Garden" on "The Crossing?" That's Paul Brady on lead vocal. Perfect separated-at-birth brother duet.

[PseudoCelt]

This video has set me thinking and I'm wondering if it represents an early use of the bouzouki in this form of music...
I don't recall ever seeing one of the standard CBOM bouzouki you see nowadays which leads me to suspect that this may represent something of a transitional moment.

Rather than showing an early use of the bouzouki in Irish music, it may represent the end of the reign of the round-backed Greek bouzouki in Irish music.

In the early/mid 70s, Donal Lunny (Abnett) and Johnny Moynihan (Bailey) were possibly the only two prominent players of flat-backed bouzoukis. Andy Irvine says on his website that he was given a Manson bouzouki in 1977, the year after the video in the first post - I think this was his first flatback. At around the same time, Stefan Sobell's citterns were gaining a reputation and other builders like Fylde and Joe Foley were producing flat-backed bouzoukis.

From this time onwards, the flat-backed "Irish bouzouki" seems to have taken over and it became much less common to see a prominent Irish musician playing a Greek bouzouki (the obvious exception to this was and is Alec Finn).

Patrick

[zoukboy]

Rather than showing an early use of the bouzouki in Irish music, it may represent the end of the reign of the round-backed Greek bouzouki in Irish music.

In the early/mid 70s, Donal Lunny (Abnett) and Johnny Moynihan (Bailey) were possibly the only two prominent players of flat-backed bouzoukis. Andy Irvine says on his website that he was given a Manson bouzouki in 1977, the year after the video in the first post - I think this was his first flatback. At around the same time, Stefan Sobell's citterns were gaining a reputation and other builders like Fylde and Joe Foley were producing flat-backed bouzoukis.

From this time onwards, the flat-backed "Irish bouzouki" seems to have taken over and it became much less common to see a prominent Irish musician playing a Greek bouzouki (the obvious exception to this was and is Alec Finn).

Patrick

Except that Lunny's Abnett wasn't flat backed. :-)

And it's inteesting that the Greek bouzouki is gaining ground in Irish music. Mick Conneely, Ruairi McGorman, and Jonas Fromseier are all playing the Greek trichordo a la Alec Finn.

[Mike Anderson]

Except that Lunny's Abnett wasn't flat backed. :-)

And it's inteesting that the Greek bouzouki is gaining ground in Irish music. Mick Conneely, Ruairi McGorman, and Jonas Fromseier are all playing the Greek trichordo a la Alec Finn.

This is really interesting - after decades of development of a unique new instrument specifically for ITM, we see the circle closing and ITM players adopting the original that inspired it! I have to admit, I've been thinking of getting one myself.

[Marty Jacobson]

Sean, ever hear Tim's version of "Down in the Willow Garden" on "The Crossing?" That's Paul Brady on lead vocal. Perfect separated-at-birth brother duet.

Wow. I had no idea. It is a perfectly executed version of the song, I've listened to it hundreds of times. The dobro is beautifully integrated, too.

[zoukboy]

This is really interesting - after decades of development of a unique new instrument specifically for ITM, we see the circle closing and ITM players adopting the original that inspired it! I have to admit, I've been thinking of getting one myself.

It is a different sound and if you like what Alec Finn does with it then the only way to get that particular sound is with that particular instrument.

I like to split the difference between the usual flatback Irish bouzouki and the Greek -- I have had Herb Taylor build me two bouzoukis with staved three piece backs now and have been very happy with them both (although for me the smaller bodied one has the edge over the larger one, which I sold).

[Marty Jacobson]

Roger, I saw one of those at Herb Taylor's table a couple weeks ago. It is an excellent instrument, and beautifully crafted.

[Mike Anderson]

Except that Lunny's Abnett wasn't flat backed. :-)

And it's inteesting that the Greek bouzouki is gaining ground in Irish music. Mick Conneely, Ruairi McGorman, and Jonas Fromseier are all playing the Greek trichordo a la Alec Finn.

Just wanted to thank you for the post Roger, since it inspired to me to track down Jonas Fromseier and now have the two Mórga albums. Great stuff, highly recommended!

[Maunus]

I thought that was an Andy Irvine tune due to the weird rhythm signatures and balkan influence. ANd that is some really nice steel guitar playing by Arty Mcglynn!

[zoukboy]

I thought that was an Andy Irvine tune due to the weird rhythm signatures and balkan influence.

It's definitely Paul's tune. I didn't ask him what his influences were but here is what he wrote in the liner notes to the record, which was released in 1978:

"Out The Door and Over The Wall
3 bouzoukis, Tin Whistle
Bass bouzouki: arranged and played by Dónal Lunny.
This piece began almost in an exercise in compound time, but by the beginning of the second part it took on a life of its own and became a tune. It's no accident that it sounds vaguely Balkan as I used what I took to be harmonies, time signatures, and chordal changes frequently employed in that region. Beyond that it is entirely a work of the imagination and its musical structure doesn't conform to any existing one that I am aware of."

[Eddie Sheehy]

So what's the size, stringing, and tuning, of a Bass Bouzouki?

[zoukboy]

So what's the size, stringing, and tuning, of a Bass Bouzouki?

Eddie,

I am not certain, but my guess would be that "bass bouzouki" refers to Dónal's Manson 10 string bouzouki that he tuned CGDAD. If you go to YouTube and search for "Planxty" and narrow the results for the 1980s you will find some clips of Dónal playing that very large bodied 10 string.

[ollaimh]

i love the fantastic music made on instruments that may not be the best. there is a certain amount in the player.

i have player greek bouzoukia from the beginning. i found a wierd late fifties funky greek bouzouki in a pawn shop in Courtney british Columbia in around 1990, and never looked back . it has a great funky sound. i like the lower tension of greek bouzoukia and the twang. i also play modern ones, especially a couple of citterns, which allow me to go up the neck with the extra high string, with out having to go up the neck. both have a role.

i would like to try a stave back. i tried to get abnett to make me a stave back cittern but he isn't making five course instruments any more, so maybe when we have the time my local luthier and i will design and make one. we are both impressed with the design and sound of the vega cylinder back instruments, so that's the design we are thinking of right now, for a 20 to 22 inch scale five course instrument.

but i love these old you tube videos of great players making magic on funky ethnic instruments.