![[audio]](/images/mediatype_audio.gif) | Michael Coleman-Lord McDonald/Ballinasloe Fair - Michael Coleman
This was recorded in 1927 with Michael Coleman on the fiddle and Ed Geoghegan on piano. The selection is a medley of Irish reels. Michael Coleman was considered the pre-eminent traditional Irish fiddler of his time. Don Meade writes that "[t]he impact of Coleman's records was so great that his County Sligo style and repertoire became for many years a de facto national standard."
Source: 78rpm>CD>MP3
Keywords: Music; Acoustic; Celtic; Instrumental; 78rpm
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| Girls of Bainbridge, Cherish the Ladies - Michael Coleman
Fiddle solo, recorded privately on aluminum acetate. Coleman recorded four sides for a collector towards the end of his career, two of which are on the Coleman CD The Enduring Magic. This medley of jigs was duplicated by Longford/NYC fiddler Paddy Reynolds on a CD released shortly before his death a few years ago. Girls of Bainbridge is a tune from O'Neill's, also recorded by Paddy Killoran and His Pride of Erin Orchestra; Cherish the Ladies is here heard in a two part version which was called t...
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle
Downloads: 538
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| Harvest Home - Michael Coleman
Fiddle solo, John Muller - piano, Columbia E7396. Muller charmingly doubles the melody in the second part of the Harvest Home, which Coleman plays in a very distinctive Sligo setting, chock full of his rippling variations. It is a shame the recording is so scratchy, and that he wasn't a bit closer to the microphone. The second tune was recorded by Coleman's student Hughie Gillespie as Parker's Fancy...
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle
Downloads: 786
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| The High Level, McCormack's (solo acetate) - Michael Coleman
Fiddle solo, recorded privately on aluminum acetate. Coleman recorded four sides for a collector towards the end of his career, two of which are on the Coleman CD The Enduring Magic. This recording duplicates a medley Coleman recorded on 78 in 1936, but played much more fiercely, and without Kathleen Brennan's surreally awful piano. The 78 can also be heard on this site. McCormack's is better known as the Newcastle hornpipe, the title given to it by its composer, James Hill.
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle
Downloads: 617
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| Kid on the Mountain - Michael Coleman
Fiddle solo, Kathleen Brennan - piano, Decca 12067. Also recorded by Morrison/Muller. Francis O'Neill wrote that this tune was a favorite of the great piper Patsy Touhey, but no recording of him playing it exists as far as I know. Coleman's variations are relatively simple, for him. His earlier sides tended to feature more blatant digressions with the melody.
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle
Downloads: 879
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| Miss McLeod's, Phillip O'Beirne's Delight - Michael Coleman
Fiddle solo, Kathleen Brennan - piano, Decca 12085. A marvelous fiddle setting of the classic reel, replete with staccato bowing, a very lively rhythm, and a run down to the fiddle's low G. This is followed by a fiddler's tune named after one of Coleman's instructors, whose son James "Lad" O'Bierne also emigrated to New York City. He was a marvelous fiddler in his own right as evidenced by a set of acetates recorded privately, and became friends with Coleman when he arrived...
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle
Downloads: 624
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| O'Rourke's, The Wild Irishman - Michael Coleman
Fiddle solo, Kathleen Brennan - piano, Decca 12080. The titles were apparently reversed on this disc, leading subsequent generations to call the first tune O'Rourke's. Coleman plays it in A but flute players and pipers set it in D. Various Wild Irishmen resembling this first tune are found in books and field recordings. The second tune was recorded by fellow Sligoman James Morrison as The Irish Girl; in O'Neill's it is called the Daisy Field.
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle
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| Paddy Clancy's, Trip to the Cottage - Michael Coleman
Fiddle solo, Kathleen Brennan - piano, Decca 12076. Patrick Clancy was a Tipperary fiddler who made a few 78s in the late 1910s, and is possibly being honored here. Tom Ennis's piping recording of the Trip to the Cottage is also included on this site. Coleman sometimes utterly flew through jigs, but the tempo here is lively but not berserk, and he gets in some nice variations in ornaments. Unfortunately Brennan continues to play one of the five piano chords she seemed to know all through the set...
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle
Downloads: 543
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| Tell Her I Am, Richard Brennan's Favorite - Michael Coleman
Fiddle solo, Kathleen Brennan - piano, Decca 12085. Coleman had recorded both of these jigs previously, Tell Her I Am in 1927 and Richard Brennan's in 1922. His setting of Tell Her I Am is now universal, although Patsy Touhey recorded a fascinating piping setting on a wax cylinder, and O'Neill's has another version from another great Irish American piper of those times, Barney Delaney. Richard Brennan was a Sligo fiddler a bit older than Coleman, and the jig named in his honor was also recorded ...
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle
Downloads: 506
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| The Banks - Barndances - Michael Coleman
Fiddle solo, Eileen O'Shea - piano, Decca 12056. It is curious that these hornpipes would be labeled as barndances, which have structural and rhythmic features which distinguish them from other 4/4 tunes. The slow pace and flat keys of these tunes stand out from Coleman's usual playing of hornpipes, but otherwise they're played in his usual manner. The first tune is called the Souvenir de Venice in Ryan's Mammoth Collection, published in the 1880s...
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle
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| The High Level, McCormack's - Michael Coleman
Fiddle solo, Kathleen Brennan - piano, Decca 12076. These are both compositions of Newcastle fiddler James Hill, who called the second hornpipe the Newcastle, appropriately enough. Hill was a pioneer or trend setter in composing "clog" hornpipes in flat keys, with runs and arpeggios that take advantage of the fingering dictated by playing in Bb, F, C, etc. Coleman's friend Lad O'Bierne also recorded the High Level on a homemade acetate, with a third part of his own composition which has become s...
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle
Downloads: 410
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| Wandering Minstrel, Fasten the Leg on Her, Coleman's Cross - Michael Coleman
Fiddle solo, Micheal (Whitey) Andrews - guitar, Decca 12015. This is the flipside of Coleman's well-know medley of reels, Bonnie Kate/Jenny's Chickens. The Wandering Minstrel has become popular with pipers, through the playing of Seamus Ennis, who wrote that his earliest memory of hearing it was on this record. Fasten the Leg (in) Her was recorded by Patsy Touhey on cylinder. Earlier printed versions of the tune were titled "Fasten the Leggin," suggesting that it was corrupted over time...
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle
Downloads: 589
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| The Beauty Spot, The Sunny Banks - Michael Coleman and Michael Walsh
Fiddle and flute, Arthur P Kenna - piano, New Republic 2333. Two old reels played at a relaxed pace. The Beauty Spot was a popular tune with pipers, and one of Coleman's major influences was the pipes, most prominently being influenced in his youth by travelling piper Johnny Gorman, and in NYC by Michael Anderson. Unfortunately no recordings exist of either musician. Coleman takes a solo for the first time through the Sunny Banks, a nice feature.
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle; Flute
Downloads: 604
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| The Lark on the Strand, The Primrose Vale - Michael Coleman and Michael Walsh
Fiddle and flute, Arthur P Kenna - piano, New Republic 2333. Two lively jigs from these Sligo musicians. As on the reels on the flipside of this recording, Coleman takes a solo for the first time through the Primrose Vale, a device which was common on duet recordings by his fellow Sligoman James Morrison.
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle; Flute
Downloads: 599
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| Old Man Dillon, Kerrigan's Fancy - Michael Coleman and Paddy Finlay
Fiddle and piccolo, Ed Geoghean - piano, Brunswick 68002. Old Man Dillon was better known from James Morrison and PJ Conlon's recording. Tom Kerrigan was a Leitrim piper who emigrated to New York City, where he ran a public house featuring his piping backed up by a piano player, and waiters who could dance a step or sing if called upon. Kerrigan gave lodgings to the Taylor Brothers, pipemakers from Drogheda, who developed the high volume pipes in concert pitch, as distinct from the older, quiete...
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle; Flute
Downloads: 1,332
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| Prohibition Reel - Michael Coleman and Tom Gannon
Irish fiddle duet, Ed Geoghean - piano, New Republic 2330. Gannon was a friend of Coleman's from Sligo who made a pair of 78s in 1927. The first tune is set in the key of G in Ryan's Mammoth Collection under the strange title "The Ladus." Coleman and Gannon play these reels in A, however. The second tune is known as the Contradiction, its title in O'Neill's. Older books have it as Miss Gunning's Delight, and a history of the tune and the Gunning sisters has been written by Andrew Kuntz for Fiddl...
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle
Downloads: 919
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| Heights of Alma, All the Way to Sligo - Michael Coleman and Tom Morrison
Fiddle and flute, unknown - piano, Columbia 33069-F. Tom Morrison's son James recalled Coleman and his father recording some tunes for Columbia, "including a polka, and they thought no more of that record than they would of a cigarette butt in the street." They were quite a bit more enthusiastic when they got paid, though. Columbia was a good deal more well-heeled than other companies, it seems. The polkas played here are the Rakes of Mallow and the Rose Tree...
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle; Flute
Downloads: 443
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| Humours of Ballyconnoll, Captain Rock - Michael Coleman and Tom Morrison
Fiddle and flute, unknown - piano, Columbia 33068-F. The Humours of Ballyconnell is an O'Neill's tune, named after a Cavan town. Captain Rock has become well-known under its Co. Clare title, the Old Bush. Coleman and Morrison give it a spirited old-fashioned treatment, with fewer rolls than might be expected. Coleman's persistent A/F# double stop in the first part sounds like emulation of a piper's regulators, this being one of the five standard chords available for the piper.
Keywords: Irish; Celtic; Folk; Oldtime; 78rpm; Fiddle; Flute
Downloads: 406
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