| Reviews. |
Irish Times Review of Turloughmore Ceili Band "Seven Streams"
TURLOUGHMORE CÉILÍ BAND
Seven Streams Tig Na Coille ***
Hup now. Around the house, and mind the dresser. Clare's Turloughmore Céilí Band are the Jack Dempsey of céilí music:
ferociously muscular and unapologetically pugnacious.
Their inclusion of Pearl O'Shaughnessy's Barndances is the licence they need to give full reign to their spacious, roaming
ensemble playing. And that's what sets this céilí band apart: the air pockets that circulate between the downright funky
piano introduction of the jig set, Lark in the Morning and The Lilting Fisherman, is proof enough that not all céilí music has
to be strangulated and over-populated by attention-seeking players. Even their treatment of the stalwart The Rights of Man
is refreshingly louche and unhurried.
Dance music that'll satisfy the palate of dancer and listener alike.
Siobhán Long
Link to original article - http://www.ireland.com/theticket/articles/2006/0811/1154691568834.html
Irish Philadelphia Review of recent Turloughmore Ceili Band Tour of USA
Ceili Band Brings a Bit of Clare to Philly
The world-famous Turloughmore band kept local dancers up and on their feet for a long, exciting ceili mor.
By Jeff Meade
The Turloughmore Ceili Band from County Clare might be the musical equivalent of a perpetual motion machine. OK, they
must have taken a break at some time during their appearance at the Philadelphia Irish Center on Sunday. But mostly they
just played on and on and on, and the 120-plus dancers who wore out shoe leather all afternoon and well into the night
managed to keep up with them.
For one of the organizers, Marianne MacDonald, Kevin McGillian
and his fellow local ceili band musicians will always be the favorite.
Still, she says, it’s interesting to hear another group. “Just to hear a
big ceili band is very exciting,” she says. “Their timing is just
extraordinary."
And it was nice to finally hear them.
The first time Turloughmore’s passed through town, it was last February.
As luck—bad luck—would have it, the date of the ceili mor coincided with
a massive snowstorm. “They had done a workshop for us at the Mermaid,”
Marianne recalls. “And then we got 18 inches of snow.”
Not long afterward, the band was scheduling gigs in the U.S. and realized
they would be able to play in Philadelphia in August. They contacted Fiddling with a fury
Marianne and arranged for a return visit—sans snow.
(Only the tail end of a major heat wave.)
In the air-conditioned ballroom, a sizzling, humid city in the Mid-Atlantic
states seemed far away. And cool County Clare, that much closer.
Link to Original Article - http://www.irishphiladelphia.com/ST-turloughmore081206.html
Feedback from recent tour to Australia
Everyone has still been talking about your visit. I wonder if you have any idea what it means to us out here to have
musicians of your calibre make the long journey to Australia. We mostly dance to recorded music so the opportunity of
dancing to your brilliant music was certainly not to be passed up. As I said, you saved us an airfare to Ireland!! Yes, it
WAS that good!
The four musicians you brought were obviously delighted with their trip 'down under'. I am sure you will be welcomed
back with open arms should you decide to make a return trip.
The cd is a great reminder of dancing to you 'live' and is almost worn out already!
Best wishes to all
Margaret Winnett
www.SydneyIrishCeiliDancers.com.au
Australia
Claddagh Records:
The Turloughmore Ceili Band - Seven Streams
Turloughmore Ceili Band,from Co.Clare, are one of the top Ceili Bands in the country these days. This ten-piece band has
been together since 1999 with a line up featuring three Fiddles, two Flutes, Uilleann Pipes, Concertina, Accordion, Piano
and Drums. This CD (their second release) is called "Seven Streams" and has fifteen tracks of top class music ranging
from classic marches to the six-part Derry Hornpipe and the old Copperplate reels. The entire recording is based on the old
traditions of Clare dance music with the inspiration coming from the older generation of musicians in Clare. Turloughmore,
however, now have their own highly individual stamp on their music with some wonderful variations and nuances sprinkled
right through their performances, even on the live takes on tracks 13,14 and 15. This is a connoisseurs album with classic
old tunes like Maud Miller and The Battering Ram, a must have for any collector of Irish Traditional Music.
Click here to purchase Seven Streams online at Claddagh Records.
Jim Belcher, set dancer and Radio Host on KBCS Seattle
I've listened to your “Seven Streams” and in fact played a track on my radio show on January 8 and will continue to play it
through this spring. I enjoyed the album. My favorite tracks are the reels of course, very danceable. I feel like I'm dancing
in Clare. You captured the “ceili band” sound very well as I can close my eyes and imagine myself in the middle of the
dance floor at the old Church in Labasheeda. The musicianship and production on this cd is impeccable, really precise is
how I hear it. The musicians are all very talented.
I enjoyed the liner notes for the tunes, for a radio show programmer it is particularly helpful to have a history of the tunes.
After I googled up the word “turlough” I better understood your name and the additional liner notes. I am putting the cd in
the KBCS library and recommending it to the other programmers.
AllCelticMusic.com
Turloughmore Ceili Band
Seven Streams Price CD £ 9.35
Code TNC003
Territory Irish
Genre Ceili Dance
Running Time 51 mins.
FIRST HEARING: A strident start, marching to 'A Nation Once Again'. The ten-piece band have great lift and really pump
out the tunes so you might need a wee breather midway through the 50 minute set of dances.
Click here to purchase Seven Streams online at AllCelticMusic.com
Maureen Donachie
Floral Park, NY
The new recording “Seven Streams” is wonderful!!!! Musically, I like the fact that each instrument is able to be heard
clearly - great mix! I particularly enjoy the tune sets and selections. They are different combinations than one would find in
this region, which makes the choices more enticing. The ornamentation and variations on many of the tunes is absolutely
brilliant!!! I particularly enjoy the set with the Copper Plates and the Mountain Road, as well as the Reel of Bogie set. Of
course, the Sally Gardens (or, as my friends and I refer to it, “The Clare National Anthem”) is terrific!!! From a dancer's
perspective, the recording has phenomenal lift, much life and wonderful "dance-ability"! Great job!!! Thanks, as always,
for sharing your talents and your music.
Wishing you all the best for a successful US tour
Clare Dance Music Comes to U.S.
Paul Keating, Irish Voice Newspaper, Wed Feb 1st, 2006.
Down through the year’s one of the most hotly contested aspects – and perhaps the most prideful – of the annual Fleadh
Cheoil na hEireann (All-Ireland Music Fleadh) is the senior Ceili Band Competition that closes out the weekend.
The bands from the Banner County like the Kilfenora, Tulla and more recently the Ennis Ceili Band have grabbed first place
gold so often that one might think that all a Clare ceili band has to do is show up.
Try telling that to the Turloughmore Ceili Band from Clare who, for the last four years, has come in second place to the
eventual winners, actually an unprecedented feat in itself in the fleadh ceili band lore though very disappointing at the same
time.
Considering the formidable opposition (the Ennis Ceili Band achieved the rare three-peat in 2001/2/3 while the Meath-based
Naomh Padraig has won the top rung the past two years) they faced, one could understand in they folded up the marquee
in Letterkenny and went home discouraged.
That would be a considerable underestimation on the Clare musicians who have made up the Turloughmore Ceili Band since
1999 when it formed under the leadership of Denis Liddy from Newmarket-on-Fergus just outside of Ennis.
Instead they focused on a unique competition for the best session group in Ireland at the end of September, and walked
away with the top honours and €5,000 first place prize. They spun that gold into completing their latest CD entitled Seven
Streams: Traditional Music from County Clare in time for a marvelous launch night at the 10th annual Ennis Trad Festival in
November.
That close and controversial call this year in Letterkenny “galvanized and fueled up the recording effort as we put the defeat
behind us,” said leader Liddy by phone from Clare. And it gave them the impetus to bring that quintessential Clare dance
music to an American audience with a brief 10-day visit to the Northeast beginning on February 11th.
It is a seasoned band making the American tour, with Joan Hanrahan and Bernadette Liddy joining her brother Denis on
fiddles, Brid O’Gorman and David O’Brien on flutes, Mary Liddy on concertina (another sister), Brian O’Dea on accordion,
Marie Quigney on piano and Pat Costello on drums. Piper Brian Collins is unable to make this trip.
It is a varied tour featuring instrument workshops, radio appearances, concerts in houses and on stages, and, of course,
ceilithe where the true mettle of a Clare band is tested. All should provide a suitable U.S. launch for their new recording,
which documents a very healthy music scene for today’s County Clare while displaying their considerable talent.
Philadelphia set dance doyen Marianne McDonald (856-236-2717) has them off to an ambitious start with instrument
workshops at the Philadelphia Irish Centre on Saturday February 11, 12 noon to 3 p.m. with a ceili there the next day from
2-6 p.m., sandwiched around a Saturday night appearance at the Mermaid Inn.
Then it’s on to the Big apple to record an appearance for Kathleen Biggins’ A Thousand Welcomes on WFUV to air on
Saturday February 18, visit with Dr. Mick Maloney at NYU, and play for a ceili at the Kerryman’s Hall (yes, they can play
polkas and slides equally well) on Wednesday February 15 at 8 p.m. at 305 McLean Avenue organized by Bridie Dal Pizzol
and Ennis native Fergal O’Halloran (718-513-6550).
A brief diversion to New England includes a Friday night concert in Worcester at the Hibernian Cultural Centre (www.
coolbawnroad.com) on February 17 at 8 p.m.
A more important aspect of the fleadh experience is meeting fellow musicians, as Liddy and company have done with the
Pearl River teachers and students who have gone in droves in recent years.
With many experienced teachers in the band including Denis Liddy, who has had great luck generally in training children for
the fleadh like the younger Barefield Ceili Band, there will be a number of music classes offered in Pearl River on Saturday
afternoon, February 18 organised through Patty Furlong (1-845-735-3282 or pattyfurlong@aol.com) with house concerts
to follow that night in Pearl River and Fairfield, Connecticut (203-255-3748).
The Turloughmore will finish up their first historic U.S. tour with a ceili at the Gaelic American Centre (74 Beach Road in
Fairfield, Connecticut) on Sunday, February 19 from 4-7 p.m. organised by Breda O’Sullivan (203-243-5508) or www.
gaconline.org).
If you want to get a sneak preview of the band, log onto www.rte.ie/ceilihouse and look for the January 21 broadcast from
the newly revamped Comhaltas Centre Cois ns hAbhna in Ennis to hear some of their music.
Kathleen Biggins, WFUV Radio Station.
WFUV.ORG and 90.7 FM, Public Radio from Fordham University in New York City
It's no wonder the Turloughmore Ceili Band is Ireland's number one session band. I defy anyone listening to "Seven
Streams" to stay planted in his or her seat. But if you truly DO have two left feet, just close your eyes and let yourself be
carried away by the masterful playing of some of the finest musicians Co. Clare has to offer. Listeners to "A Thousand
Welcomes" will certainly be hearing more from this CD in the months to come.
Clare Masters Make First U.S. Tour
By Paul Keating, Irish Voice Newspaper
IF you have the moxie and the will to contest the All-Ireland senior ceili competition four years in a row, only to come in
second each time, a little blizzard will not deter you on your first U.S. tour.
Such was the fate of the Turloughmore Ceili Band from Clare as they arrived in Philadelphia on February 11 and 12 and
finished up in Fairfield, Connecticut on Sunday, February 19.
If the audience (who listened and danced) were polled in Yonkers, New Hampshire, Worcester, Pearl River and Fairfield, it
would be hard to imagine any group finishing on top of them, such was the impression they made.
In Yonkers at the Kerry Hall on McLean Avenue, a dedicated corps of set dancers came out on Wednesday to pack the
beautiful street-level hall that is a testament to the commitment to Irish culture of the Kerry people in New York.
On the night seven of the 10 members who made the tour played with ferocious attack that delighted the dancers, who
were up, ten groups at a time, on the gorgeous timber floor.
It was one of those magic nights when the music and dance are one, when the tune changes are met with a yelp from the
floor by the dancers with an attuned ear and foot.
For fiddler Denis Liddy, a founding member of the band in 1999, the spontaneity and reaction to every (musical) nuance
we were trying to evoke was spectacular, he told me by phone on their last day.
At next sighting, the troupe were leading a series of music workshops in Pearl River late Saturday morning and afternoon
before splitting forces for house concerts and sessions on Saturday night.
There are some who won respect the very important place of ceili bands in the evolution of Irish traditional music, mostly
dealing with regimentation and uniformity squelching the individual spirit.
My experience is that when you see musicians like these in workshops, concerts or sessions, you realize that assertion isn't
really on. The band have influenced a large number of students in their lifetime so fear not for the tradition.
These barnstorming tours are logistical and financial challenges but they yield more than tangible results when you consider
the communal aspects that ensue when strangers meet to enjoy the music and dance together.
Their new CD Seven Streams: Traditional Music from County Clare, had to be reinforced with another shipment as they
flew out of their hands. If you didn't score a copy you can order it from OssianUSA at www.ossianusa.com or 603-783-
4383.
Link to Turloughmore Ceili Band in Ossian USA -
http://www.ossianusa.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ossian&Product_Code=01176-CD
TURLOUGHMORE CÉILÍ BAND
Seven Streams Tig Na Coille ***
Hup now. Around the house, and mind the dresser. Clare's Turloughmore Céilí Band are the Jack Dempsey of céilí music:
ferociously muscular and unapologetically pugnacious.
Their inclusion of Pearl O'Shaughnessy's Barndances is the licence they need to give full reign to their spacious, roaming
ensemble playing. And that's what sets this céilí band apart: the air pockets that circulate between the downright funky
piano introduction of the jig set, Lark in the Morning and The Lilting Fisherman, is proof enough that not all céilí music has
to be strangulated and over-populated by attention-seeking players. Even their treatment of the stalwart The Rights of Man
is refreshingly louche and unhurried.
Dance music that'll satisfy the palate of dancer and listener alike.
Siobhán Long
Link to original article - http://www.ireland.com/theticket/articles/2006/0811/1154691568834.html
Irish Philadelphia Review of recent Turloughmore Ceili Band Tour of USA
Ceili Band Brings a Bit of Clare to Philly
The world-famous Turloughmore band kept local dancers up and on their feet for a long, exciting ceili mor.
By Jeff Meade
The Turloughmore Ceili Band from County Clare might be the musical equivalent of a perpetual motion machine. OK, they
must have taken a break at some time during their appearance at the Philadelphia Irish Center on Sunday. But mostly they
just played on and on and on, and the 120-plus dancers who wore out shoe leather all afternoon and well into the night
managed to keep up with them.
For one of the organizers, Marianne MacDonald, Kevin McGillian
and his fellow local ceili band musicians will always be the favorite.
Still, she says, it’s interesting to hear another group. “Just to hear a
big ceili band is very exciting,” she says. “Their timing is just
extraordinary."
And it was nice to finally hear them.
The first time Turloughmore’s passed through town, it was last February.
As luck—bad luck—would have it, the date of the ceili mor coincided with
a massive snowstorm. “They had done a workshop for us at the Mermaid,”
Marianne recalls. “And then we got 18 inches of snow.”
Not long afterward, the band was scheduling gigs in the U.S. and realized
they would be able to play in Philadelphia in August. They contacted Fiddling with a fury
Marianne and arranged for a return visit—sans snow.
(Only the tail end of a major heat wave.)
In the air-conditioned ballroom, a sizzling, humid city in the Mid-Atlantic
states seemed far away. And cool County Clare, that much closer.
Link to Original Article - http://www.irishphiladelphia.com/ST-turloughmore081206.html
Feedback from recent tour to Australia
Everyone has still been talking about your visit. I wonder if you have any idea what it means to us out here to have
musicians of your calibre make the long journey to Australia. We mostly dance to recorded music so the opportunity of
dancing to your brilliant music was certainly not to be passed up. As I said, you saved us an airfare to Ireland!! Yes, it
WAS that good!
The four musicians you brought were obviously delighted with their trip 'down under'. I am sure you will be welcomed
back with open arms should you decide to make a return trip.
The cd is a great reminder of dancing to you 'live' and is almost worn out already!
Best wishes to all
Margaret Winnett
www.SydneyIrishCeiliDancers.com.au
Australia
Claddagh Records:
The Turloughmore Ceili Band - Seven Streams
Turloughmore Ceili Band,from Co.Clare, are one of the top Ceili Bands in the country these days. This ten-piece band has
been together since 1999 with a line up featuring three Fiddles, two Flutes, Uilleann Pipes, Concertina, Accordion, Piano
and Drums. This CD (their second release) is called "Seven Streams" and has fifteen tracks of top class music ranging
from classic marches to the six-part Derry Hornpipe and the old Copperplate reels. The entire recording is based on the old
traditions of Clare dance music with the inspiration coming from the older generation of musicians in Clare. Turloughmore,
however, now have their own highly individual stamp on their music with some wonderful variations and nuances sprinkled
right through their performances, even on the live takes on tracks 13,14 and 15. This is a connoisseurs album with classic
old tunes like Maud Miller and The Battering Ram, a must have for any collector of Irish Traditional Music.
Click here to purchase Seven Streams online at Claddagh Records.
Jim Belcher, set dancer and Radio Host on KBCS Seattle
I've listened to your “Seven Streams” and in fact played a track on my radio show on January 8 and will continue to play it
through this spring. I enjoyed the album. My favorite tracks are the reels of course, very danceable. I feel like I'm dancing
in Clare. You captured the “ceili band” sound very well as I can close my eyes and imagine myself in the middle of the
dance floor at the old Church in Labasheeda. The musicianship and production on this cd is impeccable, really precise is
how I hear it. The musicians are all very talented.
I enjoyed the liner notes for the tunes, for a radio show programmer it is particularly helpful to have a history of the tunes.
After I googled up the word “turlough” I better understood your name and the additional liner notes. I am putting the cd in
the KBCS library and recommending it to the other programmers.
AllCelticMusic.com
Turloughmore Ceili Band
Seven Streams Price CD £ 9.35
Code TNC003
Territory Irish
Genre Ceili Dance
Running Time 51 mins.
FIRST HEARING: A strident start, marching to 'A Nation Once Again'. The ten-piece band have great lift and really pump
out the tunes so you might need a wee breather midway through the 50 minute set of dances.
Click here to purchase Seven Streams online at AllCelticMusic.com
Maureen Donachie
Floral Park, NY
The new recording “Seven Streams” is wonderful!!!! Musically, I like the fact that each instrument is able to be heard
clearly - great mix! I particularly enjoy the tune sets and selections. They are different combinations than one would find in
this region, which makes the choices more enticing. The ornamentation and variations on many of the tunes is absolutely
brilliant!!! I particularly enjoy the set with the Copper Plates and the Mountain Road, as well as the Reel of Bogie set. Of
course, the Sally Gardens (or, as my friends and I refer to it, “The Clare National Anthem”) is terrific!!! From a dancer's
perspective, the recording has phenomenal lift, much life and wonderful "dance-ability"! Great job!!! Thanks, as always,
for sharing your talents and your music.
Wishing you all the best for a successful US tour
Clare Dance Music Comes to U.S.
Paul Keating, Irish Voice Newspaper, Wed Feb 1st, 2006.
Down through the year’s one of the most hotly contested aspects – and perhaps the most prideful – of the annual Fleadh
Cheoil na hEireann (All-Ireland Music Fleadh) is the senior Ceili Band Competition that closes out the weekend.
The bands from the Banner County like the Kilfenora, Tulla and more recently the Ennis Ceili Band have grabbed first place
gold so often that one might think that all a Clare ceili band has to do is show up.
Try telling that to the Turloughmore Ceili Band from Clare who, for the last four years, has come in second place to the
eventual winners, actually an unprecedented feat in itself in the fleadh ceili band lore though very disappointing at the same
time.
Considering the formidable opposition (the Ennis Ceili Band achieved the rare three-peat in 2001/2/3 while the Meath-based
Naomh Padraig has won the top rung the past two years) they faced, one could understand in they folded up the marquee
in Letterkenny and went home discouraged.
That would be a considerable underestimation on the Clare musicians who have made up the Turloughmore Ceili Band since
1999 when it formed under the leadership of Denis Liddy from Newmarket-on-Fergus just outside of Ennis.
Instead they focused on a unique competition for the best session group in Ireland at the end of September, and walked
away with the top honours and €5,000 first place prize. They spun that gold into completing their latest CD entitled Seven
Streams: Traditional Music from County Clare in time for a marvelous launch night at the 10th annual Ennis Trad Festival in
November.
That close and controversial call this year in Letterkenny “galvanized and fueled up the recording effort as we put the defeat
behind us,” said leader Liddy by phone from Clare. And it gave them the impetus to bring that quintessential Clare dance
music to an American audience with a brief 10-day visit to the Northeast beginning on February 11th.
It is a seasoned band making the American tour, with Joan Hanrahan and Bernadette Liddy joining her brother Denis on
fiddles, Brid O’Gorman and David O’Brien on flutes, Mary Liddy on concertina (another sister), Brian O’Dea on accordion,
Marie Quigney on piano and Pat Costello on drums. Piper Brian Collins is unable to make this trip.
It is a varied tour featuring instrument workshops, radio appearances, concerts in houses and on stages, and, of course,
ceilithe where the true mettle of a Clare band is tested. All should provide a suitable U.S. launch for their new recording,
which documents a very healthy music scene for today’s County Clare while displaying their considerable talent.
Philadelphia set dance doyen Marianne McDonald (856-236-2717) has them off to an ambitious start with instrument
workshops at the Philadelphia Irish Centre on Saturday February 11, 12 noon to 3 p.m. with a ceili there the next day from
2-6 p.m., sandwiched around a Saturday night appearance at the Mermaid Inn.
Then it’s on to the Big apple to record an appearance for Kathleen Biggins’ A Thousand Welcomes on WFUV to air on
Saturday February 18, visit with Dr. Mick Maloney at NYU, and play for a ceili at the Kerryman’s Hall (yes, they can play
polkas and slides equally well) on Wednesday February 15 at 8 p.m. at 305 McLean Avenue organized by Bridie Dal Pizzol
and Ennis native Fergal O’Halloran (718-513-6550).
A brief diversion to New England includes a Friday night concert in Worcester at the Hibernian Cultural Centre (www.
coolbawnroad.com) on February 17 at 8 p.m.
A more important aspect of the fleadh experience is meeting fellow musicians, as Liddy and company have done with the
Pearl River teachers and students who have gone in droves in recent years.
With many experienced teachers in the band including Denis Liddy, who has had great luck generally in training children for
the fleadh like the younger Barefield Ceili Band, there will be a number of music classes offered in Pearl River on Saturday
afternoon, February 18 organised through Patty Furlong (1-845-735-3282 or pattyfurlong@aol.com) with house concerts
to follow that night in Pearl River and Fairfield, Connecticut (203-255-3748).
The Turloughmore will finish up their first historic U.S. tour with a ceili at the Gaelic American Centre (74 Beach Road in
Fairfield, Connecticut) on Sunday, February 19 from 4-7 p.m. organised by Breda O’Sullivan (203-243-5508) or www.
gaconline.org).
If you want to get a sneak preview of the band, log onto www.rte.ie/ceilihouse and look for the January 21 broadcast from
the newly revamped Comhaltas Centre Cois ns hAbhna in Ennis to hear some of their music.
Kathleen Biggins, WFUV Radio Station.
WFUV.ORG and 90.7 FM, Public Radio from Fordham University in New York City
It's no wonder the Turloughmore Ceili Band is Ireland's number one session band. I defy anyone listening to "Seven
Streams" to stay planted in his or her seat. But if you truly DO have two left feet, just close your eyes and let yourself be
carried away by the masterful playing of some of the finest musicians Co. Clare has to offer. Listeners to "A Thousand
Welcomes" will certainly be hearing more from this CD in the months to come.
Clare Masters Make First U.S. Tour
By Paul Keating, Irish Voice Newspaper
IF you have the moxie and the will to contest the All-Ireland senior ceili competition four years in a row, only to come in
second each time, a little blizzard will not deter you on your first U.S. tour.
Such was the fate of the Turloughmore Ceili Band from Clare as they arrived in Philadelphia on February 11 and 12 and
finished up in Fairfield, Connecticut on Sunday, February 19.
If the audience (who listened and danced) were polled in Yonkers, New Hampshire, Worcester, Pearl River and Fairfield, it
would be hard to imagine any group finishing on top of them, such was the impression they made.
In Yonkers at the Kerry Hall on McLean Avenue, a dedicated corps of set dancers came out on Wednesday to pack the
beautiful street-level hall that is a testament to the commitment to Irish culture of the Kerry people in New York.
On the night seven of the 10 members who made the tour played with ferocious attack that delighted the dancers, who
were up, ten groups at a time, on the gorgeous timber floor.
It was one of those magic nights when the music and dance are one, when the tune changes are met with a yelp from the
floor by the dancers with an attuned ear and foot.
For fiddler Denis Liddy, a founding member of the band in 1999, the spontaneity and reaction to every (musical) nuance
we were trying to evoke was spectacular, he told me by phone on their last day.
At next sighting, the troupe were leading a series of music workshops in Pearl River late Saturday morning and afternoon
before splitting forces for house concerts and sessions on Saturday night.
There are some who won respect the very important place of ceili bands in the evolution of Irish traditional music, mostly
dealing with regimentation and uniformity squelching the individual spirit.
My experience is that when you see musicians like these in workshops, concerts or sessions, you realize that assertion isn't
really on. The band have influenced a large number of students in their lifetime so fear not for the tradition.
These barnstorming tours are logistical and financial challenges but they yield more than tangible results when you consider
the communal aspects that ensue when strangers meet to enjoy the music and dance together.
Their new CD Seven Streams: Traditional Music from County Clare, had to be reinforced with another shipment as they
flew out of their hands. If you didn't score a copy you can order it from OssianUSA at www.ossianusa.com or 603-783-
4383.
Link to Turloughmore Ceili Band in Ossian USA -
http://www.ossianusa.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ossian&Product_Code=01176-CD
Turloughmore Ceilí Band
