Good Cds For Irish/Celtic Mandolin

**Mikeyb** · Oct-23-2010, 2:27pm

Hey guys, I'm looking to play Irish songs on the mandolin but i have one problem: I don't know many songs.

What are some good compilation CD that have alot of well-known traditional Irish songs?

**Jim MacDaniel** · Oct-23-2010, 3:46pm

Walton.ie's "Ireland's Best" book/CD series can provide a good taste for you, but nothing beats attending local sessions to learn what's popular in your area. If you want to try a Walton's set or two, 110 Irish Mandolin Tunes, featuring well-respected Paul Kelly is a good one, or their multi-instrumental "Ireland's Best Session Tunes" Vol 1 and Vol 2.

**Jill McAuley** · Oct-23-2010, 4:38pm

A great source of irish trad tunes would be the Foinn Seisiún series of CD's - I think there's four of them out now, and they have like 100+ tunes on each of them (in trad music we differentiate between "tunes" which have no words, and "songs" which do have words). The Foinn CD's would be strictly tunes, no songs at all - if you're looking to sing songs and accompany yourself on the mandolin I'll bet you could probably find some CD's of that type of stuff from the Elderly website.

The Foinn stuff is all available on iTunes as well, which is quite handy. I second Jim's excellent advice to attend any sessions that are local to you so that you can get an idea of the tunes that are particular to those sessions, as they do vary from one region to another. Finally, here's a link to a great resource as regards sets of fairly common tunes - it provides mp3 versions that are both slowed down to learner speed and then sped up a bit more to a more normal pace:

http://www.rileyirishmusic.com/modul...ndex.php?id=14

Cheers,
Jill

**Loretta Callahan** · Oct-23-2010, 10:24pm

Thanks, Jim ... the 110 Irish Mandolin Tunes looks great. I'm totally with Jill. I found 3 Foinn Seisiún CD's. I use them for reference; they're very helpful. Thanks, Jill, for the school website. I'll check them out.

There used to be a lot of Irish sessions around Portland, OR ... but they seem to have disappeared

The Song of the Week group here at the Cafe is another great resource. I'm currently very inspired by Jill's version of The Wind that Shakes the Barley. The day I can do a triplet like that ... I'll be very happy!

I'd also recommend finding a group or musician you like, and play the music a lot. It's the best way for finding things you enjoy and learning how they sound. If I can't hum it, I can't play it .... even though I can read music.

There's so many good groups. Altan was the first group I couldn't get enough of! A group I discovered here, Three Mile Stone simply knocks my socks off! You might enjoy Eileen Ivers, Solas and Lunasa as well. I've been listening to a lot of Martin Hayes lately.Even though he's a fiddle player, he plays very clean and soulfully ... the way I want to play mandolin someday.

**harihari** · Oct-25-2010, 12:54pm

Step 1: go to www.thesession.org, look around in your area,

Step 2: go to a sess, listen, and if a tune sounds awesome, get the name.

Step 3: get the sheetmusic or dots, from thesession.org or elsewhere. learn 5 tunes.

repeat.

There are BILLIONS of awesome trad recordings...one of my favorites is Dervish's SPIRIT, and youtube has great vids of most common tunes, many of which are played slowly for beginners.

Five tunes (no words) that will get played, guaranteed, at any session in North America:

Joe Cooley's
The Swallow's Tail (reel or jig)
Maid Behind The Bar
Red-Haired Boy
Banish Misfortune

**dmcginnis** · Oct-26-2010, 1:27pm

Originally Posted by Loretta Callahan

Three Mile Stone simply knocks my socks off! You might enjoy Eileen Ivers, Solas and Lunasa as well. I've been listening to a lot of Martin Hayes lately.Even though he's a fiddle player, he plays very clean and soulfully ... the way I want to play mandolin someday.

I completely agree - Marla Fibish from Three Mile Stone is a fantastic mandolin player - I got to sit next to her at a session at the Sebastopol Celtic Festival - and although I was playing bodhran, I was REALLY listening to her playing....marvelous. And Martin Hayes - what can one say, he is more than amazing and soulful.

**EdSherry** · Oct-26-2010, 8:01pm

Are you talking "songs" (with words) or "tunes" (instrumentals)?

For mandolin playing behind "songs," check out recordings by Planxty.

For Irish "tunes" on mandolin, I second the suggestion for Marla Fibish (Three Mile Stone) and would also suggest you check out Dan Beimborn's work (see http://www.mandolinarchive.com/dan/). Jill's suggestions are spot on.

**mandoNC** · Oct-31-2010, 6:36pm

Take a look at David Surette's "The Green Mandolin" The CD of celtic tunes is available for purchase, and corresponding TEF mando notation is free at his website.
http://www.burkesurette.com/madrinam...nmandolin.html