New Paul Kelly projects in the works

[mad dawg]

With his permission, I wanted to share an email from Paul Kelly:

Hi Jim

Many thanks for your kind words. I hope to do another album very soon. This one will concentrate on Irish traditional tunes only. I have also recently compiled 110 tunes for a mandolin book and CD which is published by Waltons here in Dublin. It will be available in a few months. As far as I know Waltons have good distribution in the States so it shouldn't be too difficult to find.

Best Wishes

Paul

Great news for all of us Paul Kelly fans here, eh?

[mad dawg]

For those not familiar with Paul, he has an outstanding mandolin album out entitled A Mandolin Album. You can check it out at his web site here, as well as listen to samples of all of the tunes on the CD. This instrumental CD has a variety of original tunes and trad tunes from various cultures, and it is one of my favorites in my CD collection.

(Note: I have no financial nor personal ties with Paul -- I'm just a fan.)

[RolandTumble]

Thanks for the note, and a second on that album. Great stuff....

[GBG]

IMHO Paul Kelly is the best in this genre.

[mad dawg]

I just received an update on both projects:

The tune book and companion CD's will be available at waltonsmusic.com in December

Paul's new studio CD has been delayed until sometime next year, and will be available on his own label at malgamu.com

[mad dawg]

An update from Niall Walton:

"Yes we are indeed doing the book and cd of 110 tunes arranged for Mandolin by Paul.

"We are bringing out quite a few in this series and they will be available in mid May...It always takes longer than you expect to get published."

[Jim MacDaniel]

An update from Paul on each project:

"The mandolin book has been delayed, through no fault of my own but i have been informed (today!!) by Waltons that it will be published before Christmas. But as they say over here; 'I'll believe it when I see it!!'

"No progress on the album either I'm afraid as I am caught up in so many other peoples projects that I can't find time for my own! #But I will be touring with David Munnelly next Spring so if you get to Felton for the show there, please come up and say hello. I have got myself a myspace page so if you look at www.myspace.com/paulkellymando you'll know what i'm up to."

Note: regarding the David Munnelly tour, they start a tour here in the US this month, with Paul in the lineup. (Link to tour dates.)

[Jim MacDaniel]

Great news -- Niall Walton recently sent me an email to say that Paul's Book/CD set of 110 ITM Tunes for mandolin has been released. If you are in or near Dublin, it is now on Walton's store shelves; if not, here are the links:

110 Irish Mandolin Tunes Vol. 1 Book

110 Irish Mandolin Tunes Vol. 1 CD

[Steve L]

Let us know how you like it Jim. I wish the website selling these would list at least some of the tunes.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Hi Steve -- I'll be happy to post a review once I receive it, as well as provide a list of the tunes from the TOC.

[rjb]

Details of the tunes and a few examples can be seen on this UK web site: http://www.mally.com/details.asp?id=741

The copy I ordered arrived yesterday, it is a well laid out book with an interesting selection of tunes. The book just contains the printed tunes there is no accompanying text.

The CDs have all the tunes played by Paul Kelly on mandolin and Gavin Ralston on guitar, as you might expect to fit all the tunes on they are only played through once pretty much as written. The tune arrangements are fairly bare-bones, some ornamentation has been added but this doesn't detract from being able to pick up the tune.

Richard

[Steve L]

Thanks for that link, Richard. Looks pretty good! Looking forward to jim's review.

[John Goodin]

I went to hear the David Munnelly Band today at the La Crosse, WI Irish Fest expecting to hear Mr. Kelly and was sorely disappointed that he wasn't there. Anyone know the story on that? Did he not make this tour with the band or did he just miss this particular gig?

Not having Kelly to concentrate on I took advantage of the opportunity to study the amazing guitar work of Tony Byrne. Really amazing stuff.

John G.

[DeamhanFola]

Anyone in the States bought 110 Irish Mandolin Tunes (with CDs) & if so, where'd you find it? It's difficult to find Waltons gear (Amazon.com usually doesn't stock it) & I won't be back to Ireland until next summer.

I'm sure it could be had through Waltons' website, but I was trying to avoid international shipping costs. Cheers.

[Jeff Hoelter]

I second the request from DeamhanFola - any USA ordering info?

Thanks.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Walton's has a US distributor, but I received no response from my email inquiries, so I ordered mine directly from the Waltons.ie site that I linked above. #(I received them in about ten days from placing the order, but haven't had a chance to check it out in detail yet; I'll post my feedback once things settle down after the weekend.)