Msgr. Charlie Coen
By admin | March 11, 2009
A few days after the New Jersey Kitchen Session, I had the pleasure of sitting down for a more leisurely chat with Msgr. Charlie Coen and I recorded a few easy-going tunes from him too. Now in his seventies, he has spent twice as much time living in the USA as he ever did in his native Woodford, Co. Galway. America is where he escaped to, to save his asthmatic lungs. America is where he finished his schooling and studied for the priesthood. He has spent most of his life living in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. Yet it is the musical accent of his native Sliabh Aughty Mountains that sings out through his music, even now. We started by talking about the Woodford people he got his first music from. Have a listen
Topics: Willie and Siobhán Kelly, New Jersey |
TG4 2009 Musician of the Year, Charlie Harris, on The Kitchen Sessions
By admin | March 4, 2009
Here’s a little memory from one of last year’s Kitchen Sessions - Mickey Naughton’s in Kilclaran, Feakle. It features - among other things - Charlie Harris who has been selected as winner of this year’s TG4 Musician of the Year. Sometimes they get it so right. This is one such time! Charlie was born in Kilfinnan, Co. Limerick, but is a longtime resident of Ardrahan, Co. Galway. He has been travelling the high roads with musical companion Des Mulkere for a long time now. Last year they graced one of our Kitchen Sessions. Have a listen to these two selections from Charlie and Des. The piece opens with the ever-exuberant Des Mulkere talking about Joe Cooley whom he used also play with. Tom Neilan - from Knocklawrence, near Gort - also chimes in with stories and music. There’s less chat from the more retiring Charlie. But oh! the music they make…
Topics: Series 2 |
Series 2, Programme 6: Pakie Malley of Glendree
By admin | February 26, 2009
Here it is: the last in the series. Enjoy it. To see pictures from the night while you listen, click here.
Topics: Pakie Malley, Glendree, Podcasts, Series 2 |
Dan Gurney
By admin | February 21, 2009
Here’s a little something to keep you going till the next (and final) Kitchen Session this Sunday. Dan Gurney is a young accordion player from upstate NewYork, who learned the nuts and bolts from Fr. Charlie Coen. He gave us some great music in the Boston Kitchen Session along with his musical companions, Maeve Flanagan (fiddle) and Jimmy Noonan (flute). Now a music student at Harvard (where “they don’t really get the box”!), I caught up with him just after the Kitchen Session to record more music and a bit of chat. I started by asking him why he had chosen the accordion. Have a listen.
Topics: Gerry Dunleavy, Boston, Podcasts, Series 2 |
Of Jetlag and Electric Fences
By Paula Carroll | February 18, 2009
Jetlagged for sure! I arrived home the Monday after Willie and Siobhán Kelly’s wonderful session in New Jersey (the passion with which people have talked about the quality of the music in that Session is lovely to hear.) I slept a fair bit that day, and thought I was fine on Tuesday and Wednesday. Got back to work and the usual routine. Then for the rest of the week I was floored! Is it possible to get a relapse of jetlag?!! Anyway, I did get it together for the Session in Glendree, Tulla last Sunday with that gentleman Pakie Malley - son of fiddler Bill, and our genial host (see pic below).
But the local electric fences got the better of our high speed digital broadcast line!! Pakie and I spent the day going up and down the top road in Glendree getting all the neighbours to turn off their electric fences. We even turned off a few ourselves when we couldn’t find anyone at home! But one of them eluded us, and made a live broadcast impossible that day. Technology, how are you! Never mind. Tune in next Sunday 22 Feb for the final Kitchen Session - when Glendree will have been purged of electric current, and livestock may be found roaming the parish of Tulla, kicking their heels up to the music from Pake Houlihan’s kitchen! (Pakie has chosen to host the programme in the kitchen of Pake Houlihan (now deceased) because Pake Houlihan’s was so well known for decades as a great rambling house and centre of music
in Glendree)
Topics: Series 2 |