What album comes to mind when you read "Irish Bouzouki"?

[nkforster]

What album comes to mind when you read "Irish Bouzouki"? What classic recording sums up everything you feel about the instrument? What was it that got you hooked?

Nigel
http://www.nkforsterguitars.com/inst...rish-bouzouki/

[Dagger Gordon]

The Bothy Band first album probably. A toss-up with Planxty's first I guess, but in terms of EXCITED I think I have to say the Bothies.

That's not to say that they didn't go on to be even better, and as time wears on I find I love Planxty more than ever.

But after that Bothy album there was no going back.

[danb]

My my, certainly no one single instrument sums it all up! I would probably need to list at least 10...



As a teenager, The Pogues were my methadone from plain angsty punk to cerebral, angry folk music

These ones particularly:
- Rum, Sodomy & the Lash
- Red Roses for Me
- If I Should Fall From Grace With God

Their B-sides and EP recordings with instrumentals got me wondering what mandolin and bouzouki were. This led me to your old workshop & Stefan Sobell's Citterns pictured proudly on the sleeve of "If I Should Fall..". I sent Stefan a letter as an exchange student at Warwick university- and heard back from him a bit later with his catalog of instruments. This became the pin-up on my wall until I scraped together the $$ for my first order.

A literal browse in a record store and the cover of Gerald Trimble's "First Flight" with it's photos of Sobell Citterns caught my eye.

I got in touch with Terry Woods of the Pogues not impossibly long after this, and heard the name "Steve Owsley Smith" for the first time. Steve had appeared backstage at a Pogues gig and handed Terry one of his mandolins to try.. Terry bought it on the spot and suggested Steve should try his hand at bouzoukis.

For some time Roger Landes and the Toas folk mafia (not a band, my term !) were involved in a creative back-and-forth with Steve too.. Steve made the mandolin Terry plays on quite a bit of the instrumental Pogues cuts, very notably on the "Pogue Mahone" box set that came out a few years ago.

Roger Landes' "Dragon Reels" is a great one to pick up to hear instrumental lead bouzouki.
Chipper Thompson uses Steve Owsley Smith instruments on a variety of his composition, American old-timey, and duets with Roger. Not strictly Irish, but very good stuff too.

While hanging out with Roger in the studio during his "Dragon Reels" recording, I spent time hanging out with Zan McLeod. Zan provided bouzouki & guitar in recordings of "Touchstone", great albums very highly recommded.. Zan was playing a brand new Steve Owsley Smith Octave Mandolin in these sessions- I was quite smitten by it.

By this point I had a 10-string Mandola from Stefan and was using it widely in pub gigs etc.. Steve's 10-string long-neck bouzouki came a bit later, as did one of his fine mandolins.

I'd already gotten this far without being exposed to Alec Finn's playing in DeDannan .. so I was working my way back from rock/fusion to the more "pure drop" traditional, in as much as the recently-borrowed-and-adapted flat back bouzoukis are traditional. Hearing Alec got me very interested in 3-course instruments.. his varieties of instruments included Greek trichordo bouzoukis, Gibson Mandocellos, and many more.

Donal Lunny's instruments of course caught my attention, as did his marvellous playing style. Paul Kotapish in "Kevin Burke's Open House" with his Rich Westerman bouzouki also connected some dots- Rich's instruments also popped up in the hands of Charlie Piggot and other players active and recording in the 80's scene. Open House did some wonderful recordings- Paul's mandolin counterpoint on "Mulqueen's Reel" ("the untitled reel" track on the sleeve) is still a favorite, that setting made it verbatim into the Milwaukee & Chicago music scenes, and I've also infected the London jams with it in recent years. Paul is also a gifted accompanist on guitar/bouzouki, and his work in the SF "Wake the Dead" band is also well worth seeking out

A move to California resulted in a meeting with Phil Crump.. he made various bouzoukis notably used by Michael Holmes of Dervish. Phil's also a really nice guy, and someone I bumped into at concerts in the Bay Area- I really like the sound he creates on his fine bouzoukis too. Dervish spoils us with many recordings, featuring some wonderful interplay between Michael's bouzouki and the old Gibson mandolas played by Brian Mc Donagh.

First Sobell was sold during my first F5 mandolin craze.. and a near-identical 21" 10-string popped up for sale on ebay a few years later, so I bought that one.

Recent years I've listened to Ale Moller's "Skandola" or "bass drone mandola", which is a hybrid or multiple scale-length instrument. I tried an Aiden & Ekvall (spelling?) 10-string with multi-scale and really enjoyed that too. You can Hear Ale Moller and Aly Bain on at least 2 recordings of scandanavian & shetland music, also highly recommended.

[Reinhardt]

Has to be the Bothy Band Nigel. Their first album released in 1975 was a life changer for me.The driving rhythms got the heart racing and Donal's beautiful counterpoint playing enhanced every track. I've been trying to emulate him ever since, still haven't got there 40 years later but I wont stop trying!!!!!

Close second was De Danann's first album. Alec Finn has a totally different style but equally beautiful. Alec's style is very diffiicult to copy correctly . a lot of up strokes which kinda doesn't feel natural when your playing but sounds fantastic. I dont think he even knows how he does it himself!!

John

[zookster]

Greetings to all Cafe members from Western North Carolina. I've no doubt had a love affair with Irish bouzoukis for a longer period of time than most here. In college during the early 70s, a friend of mine turned me on to Irish music, and loaned me two albums: The Chieftains 2 and Well Below the Valley. I was intrigued by the back cover of Andy and Donal. What are those instruments??? Naturally not a lot of information around (no internet!), but the sound wouldn't leave my head. I already played guitar, so I went out and found a dilapidated bowl back mandolin, just so I could try and learn Kid on the Mountain. Years later, when I met Andy, I told him he was responsible for my mandolin/bouzouki addiction!

In short order, along came Alec Finn, The Bothy Band, Planxty's next album with Johnny Moynihan, along with Jamie McMenemy on the first Battlefield Band recording. It took a while to finally acquire an instrument, and by that time, Gerald Trimble had issued his masterpiece of a recording. The world was realizing a musical phenomena had occurred!

[JeffD]

OK the very first album, that started it for me, was called Playing with Tradition, by a band called Wicky Sears. I heard them live at a coffee house.

In a very short time I was buying albums from The Bothy Band, Silly Wizard, Planxty, The Chieftains, De Dannan, Boys of the Lough, Battlefield Band, Kornog, Malicorne, and then it began to get a little crazy. I started to look for individual musicians, whatever band they were in, and I went to Scotland and played music and collected music and went to Ireland and played music and collected music, and... and...

Somewhere in there, while in Scotland, I bought a Stefan Sobell bouzouki. I think it was the playing of Gerald Trimble that did that one.

It was glorious. I was soooooo into it.

I have since wandered a bit from Scottish and Irish music. I still play in jams and sessions, but the old time bug bit me hard and I have since gone through a similar obsessive streak with that.

For another thread.

[catmandu2]

The "bouzouki" is my more prevalent connection with the mandolin world too. I've had my periods playing bluegrass/OT mandolin. But I became intrigued by long-string course instruments several decades ago - just by seeing them in gear catalogs - and had already learned ITM repertoire on guitar, hammered dulcimer, double bass long before ever acquiring my first long-scale 'mandolin' instrument. So I'd already established my preference for long, droning, lush, buzzing vibrations before ever acquiring any mandolin .. in fact, in 1980 when I was really into Oregon (Out of the Woods; Roots in the Sky) I "inferred" (incorrectly): hearing Colin Walcott's sparse rhythmic figures, flourishes, and low string drones on HD, i imagined a bouzouki - having neither seen any photos nor any knowledge on the matter back then - so 'twas likely a HD long ago in part or much more compelled me toward playing bouzouki decades later. It's the zook that got me into mandolins, and Irish music that got me into other trad instruments and trad music from the Isles - all possessing a sort of primordial/ancient sound - airs, laments, pibrochs from the middle ages on old instruments like clarsach, woodwinds, oud..

[Mike Anderson]

It was just the same for me Dagger, including loving Planxty more and more.

[Tom Wright]

The first Bothy album not only got me interested in bouzouki, it got me much more interested in Celtic music. It also added to my general interest in simply getting great sounds out of various combinations of instruments---a Celtic band with guitar and harpsichord (and bouzouki). I haven't heard anybody else get quite the same huge sound.

[kmmando]

This fellow certainly inspired me hugely, along with Andy Irvine and Planxty. And Brian McNeill of the Battlefield Band in the late 1970s and Dave Richardson in The Boys of the Lough with their early Sobells. Superb music on those albums of that time. Not so fashionable now, seems to have been replaced with rock guitar stylings and full drumkits, not really to my taste.

[John Kelly]

Gaun yersels, boys, as we might well say over here in the West (of Scotland)! Great empathy there from two guys who know each other's playing so well.

[Bren]

For me, Planxty's Well Below the Valley.
It was the first time I remember hearing fretted instruments playing Irish music in that way.

Have since caught up with Sweeney's Men and of course Kevin's work with Alec Finn.

[mandocrucian]

First three Planxty albums: Planxty and Well Below the Valley with Donal Lunny, Cold Blow with Johnny Moynihan.

[Frogstar]

I can't say I've got one, honestly don't think I even know what a bouzouki was until just a few years ago (after I took up mandolin). Even after that, I've still only skimmed the surface of Irish/celtic music, with The Pogues' "Red Roses for Me" being the gateway drug to Makem & Clancy, The Dubliners, The Irish Rovers, and so forth. Only recently even heard of Planxty.
But recent circumstances did lead to me obtaining a Fylde Octavius from the classifieds here, and I'm certainly enjoying it. So I'll have to keep an eye on this thread to broaden my bouzouki horizons.

[CES]

Ya'll are old. Chris Thile playing his Flatiron in the Smoothie Song video. Duh.

J/k with the sarcasm, don't really mean it. That, legitimately, was my first real exposure. I was born in '74, and thus missed the boom of the 70s. Growing up I listened mostly to country and rock/pop, because that's what I could get on the radio in rural South Carolina. As cliche as it is, Nickel Creek, O Brother, and Ricky Skaggs coming back to BG started my obsession with BG/old time, which then delved back into IT and Celtic Rock, so to speak.

I finally bought an OM 4 or 5 years ago, recently traded it for a Collings MT, but am really missing having that voice. Still playing the music on mandolin and guitar, but it's not the same. I wish I'd discovered this great music and these awesome instruments sooner

[theCOOP]

I turn immediately to Sweeney's Men.

[CelticDude]

Any Dervish album. Michael Holmes on the Crump bouzouki is about as good as it gets, plus the mandola player whose name I'm spacing on. Also some of the Andy Stewart albums with Manus Lunny, mostly 'cuz I was lucky enough to meet them both after a couple of concerts. And yes, there's one particular Bothy Band set (last set on Out of the Wind Into the Sun) where it's just flute, fiddle and bouzouki on the last tune, and both feet just start moving.

[RJMFry]

I'm gonna cheat a little: the first time I heard Andy Irvine play was "My Heart's Tonight in Ireland" off of his '96 album Rain on the Roof. Granted that isn't technically a bouzouki song, the album itself holds a special place in my heart and it just happens to be a real cracker jack of an album. That being said, that song was what led me to his '82 collaboration with Dick Gaughan on Parallel Lines. First time I ever heard him play the bouzouki was on "The Lads O' the Fair". There's something intrinsically funny about an English-born Irish musician playing a historically Greek instrument on collaboration with a Scotsman. It almost sounds like the setup for a joke.

"An English-born Irish musician and a Scotsman walk into a recording studio..."

[kmmando]

Haha! Indeed, it sounds bizarre! It gets worse! Here am I with a Greek bouzouki, playing an Irish melody, accompanied by Finn on an American made Irish bouzouki! There's a joke in there somewhere too!



Incidentally, Andy Irvine was born in England too, as were dozens of other Irish musicians with Irish ancestry, just like Alec .... and Andy's father was Scottish, so he could easily be referred to as a Scots Irish bouzouki player!!!!!!!!

"Andy Irvine was born in St John's Wood, northwest London on 14 June 1942 to an Irish mother from Lisburn, County Antrim, and a Scottish father from Glasgow.[5]:35 His mother, Felice Lascelles, had been a musical comedy actress[7]:400,418[8][9][10][11] and Irvine would later say that "she may have given up the stage, but she never stopped acting!".[5]:35–36"

[zoukboy]

That was a great evening in Taos there wasn't it, Kevin?

[kmmando]

That was a great evening in Taos there wasn't it, Kevin?

Yes, a wonderful time, courtesy of your efficient and welcoming team at Zoukfest, really memorable, and still a thrill to see the concert videos some 14 years on. Funnily enough, I spoke with Alec the other day and he had found a 2014 Dekavallas trichordo in Dublin recently, which he seems very pleased with, so hopefully we will hear more of his magic soon somewhere! The cd with Aidan Coffey, "The Cornerhouse set" is a corker!

[Mike Anderson]

Yes, a wonderful time, courtesy of your efficient and welcoming team at Zoukfest, really memorable, and still a thrill to see the concert videos some 14 years on. Funnily enough, I spoke with Alec the other day and he had found a 2014 Dekavallas trichordo in Dublin recently, which he seems very pleased with, so hopefully we will hear more of his magic soon somewhere! The cd with Aidan Coffey, "The Cornerhouse set" is a corker!

+1 on the Corner House album Kevin. And what's this about a new trichordo - had he lost his principal instrument, or is this an addition?

- - - Updated - - -

We don't say "old" CES - the correct term is "wise."

[kmmando]

Additional, the other one has seen a lot of use! Its also a Dekavallas....

[Wesley Turner]

What album comes to mind when you read "Irish Bouzouki"? What classic recording sums up everything you feel about the instrument? What was it that got you hooked?

Nigel
http://www.nkforsterguitars.com/inst...rish-bouzouki/

First thing that pops into my head is Donal Lunny droning the intro to kesh/give us a drink/flowers/famous ballymote... so the first Bothy album would be mine as well. And this track specifically sticks out for me as well.

What hooked me was the drone, and the way it fit in with the other traditional instruments... to me, it felt like the piece that had always been missing. Especially with Lunny playing it.

[Richard Singleton]

yes to all the great names mentioned! In the late 70's early 80's I discovered this music and was fortunate to see many of these musicians at the Towne Crier Cafe when it was in Beekman NY. JeffD, I also had the Wicky Sears album and caught them at the Crier and at a local folk festival. Also listened to a Canadian group called Barde who had bouzouki on their albums. I had started on sixties folk as a youth and discovered bluegrass in the early seventies, which led me to Irish and Scottish traditional music as well as British and Irish folk rock after that. Had a mandolin for years ,but after hearing all the zouks, which really grabbed me, I eventually had to seek one out for myself and bought my 84 Flatiron 3k zouk/om from Elderly in 84. Had seen and heard Sobell's instruments but couldn't afford one, but was greatly inspired by How to Change a Flat Tire, a NY band playing Irish music. Jim Cowdery of that band had a Flatiron zouk/om and he or another band member also had a Westerman I think. Jim also put out a booklet and cassette, Exploring the Bouzouki with Front Hall, who also put out their 2 records.