Via Trad Connect: Award-winning concertina player and innovator Cormac Begley has just released his debut solo album to critical acclaim.
This is also the first solo concertina album in traditional Irish music to feature bass, baritone, treble and piccolo concertinas.
Legendary concertina player Noel Hill recently said that Cormac "has created a new, energetic and exciting style of music on the concertina. He injects his body and heart into his music in a way that enables us to experience it at a very deep level. This is the music of passion and optimism, a music that reverberates with the soul of an ancient place, with its geography, its history and its emotion." All of that and more is on display on this debut.
Cormac is from a well-known West Kerry musical family, and founder of the award winning Tunes in the Church live concert series in Galway. In 2014, he was awarded the prestigious Sean O Riada Award for concertina playing. The Irish Times described his playing as ‘a masterclass in timeless musicianship’. To date, he has featured on two acclaimed recordings – the first with fellow concertina player Jack Talty (Na Fir Bolg’) and the second, Tunes in the Church, featuring his sister Clíodhna (viola) and Páraic Mac Donnchadha (banjo).
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Regarding the opening track (listen to it above), Cormac says: "I was drawn to The Yellow Tinker after hearing a house recording of Paddy Canny (1919-2008) from Feakle, Co. Clare. Elsewhere, Ríl Mhór Bhaile an Chalaidh was part-composed by Sean Ó Riada (1931-1971) and features on the album Ó Riada sa Ghaeity, published by Gael Linn in 1970. Composer Peadar Ó Riada explained that his father Seán had learned the first part from Nell Kane from Clochar, near Ballyferriter, West Kerry, and when she couldn’t remember the second part, he wrote one to fit."
In addition to his solo work on this album, Cormac also plays in a number of other duets with the likes of Liam Ó Maonlaí (Hothouse Flowers), Caoimhín O Raghallaigh (Hardanger D’Amore), Rushad Eggleston (Cello Goblin) and Libby McCrohan (bouzouki). He is also a member of a trio (entitled Concertina) with Noel Hill and Jack Talty, and plays in the band Ré featuring Liam Ó Maonlaí, Maitiú Ó Casaide, Eithne Ní Chatháin (Inni-K) and Peter O Toole (Hothouse Flowers). He was also involved in the acclaimed dance production by choreographer Michael Keegan Dolan, entitled Rian.
"I have sourced previously unrecorded music, other tunes within the tradition and I have written some of the music that features on the album," he says.Each track was captured in one take, and recorded in St. Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, Galway, featuring one concertina - Cormac stresses that all tracks are free from any studio manipulation.
The album also comes in a limited edition form that has been receiving high praise online! It is hexagonally shaped and designed to emulate the bellows of a concertina. As you open the album, you see the layers and the mechanics of this complex instrument. Begley explains that "creating the limited edition was one of the most enjoyable parts of the process" and he is "delighted that everyone involved, from the photography, recording, mixing and mastering to album artwork, were concertina players!"
of his acclaimed (and eponymous) solo debut album.
Cormac Begley is now on general release and is available from his official website, with digital copies available via Cormac's Bandcamp page. For all the latest trad tunes and news visit Trad Connect.
