Derek McGinley & Tara Connaghan
Donegal, Ulster, Ireland | INDIE
Music
Press
Track listing plus seven comments (so far):
The Far Side of the Glen
Fiddle Music of South West Donegal
A lovely album by two of the many fine young musicians who are keeping the Donegal tradition alive.
Derek and Tara stick close to the tradition learned from older players of distinction and it is delightful to hear the octave playing on some of the tracks.
They have a website www.farsideoftheglen.com
# Posted by deeor one year ago.
http://www.farsideoftheglen.com
http://soundcloud.com/farsideoftheglen
# Posted by SmashTheWindows 3 months ago.
“Tara Connaghan & Derek McGinley: The Far Side Of The Glen” ~ Brilliant!!! Thanks Hiro!
One of our prized Winter/Christmas surprises/gifts was this lovely recording. ‘Slainte’ on site here, dear Hiro blessed us with this gift from afar, ordered from Custy’s from Japan and sent here to the Northwest of England - with a lovely little note and smile from Custy’s enclosed. This recording has had many repeat spins since it arrived, including using it to inspire dancers, in teaching. Hiro is a friend who understands the pleasures of music that nourish my soul. This is among only a few recordings I’ve purchased or received over the last few years that are the top of my listening pleasures, highly prized. It also rings all kinds of good memories, times spent with older musicians while living in and touring around Ireland. It raises a smile. It feels like home. Many of those blessed moments of music sharing were in and around and about Donegal, with hopes we’ll be returning there for a few weeks sometime this year ~ quietly…
I recommend you chase up this recording for the full pleasure of their talents and inspirations, their playing and the tunes, better yet if you can catch them live. This whole recording is inspirational. We love it. As already said, I also use some of the tracks in teaching dance, and that is high praise from me.
This Winter, Christmas and the opening of this New Year was music all round, including a Welsh wedding and Welsh choirs. I will be transcribing more tunes from this recording and adding them to the database here, continuing the praise and appreciation for this lovely recording…
Thanks Tara and Derek for taking the time to do this for us all, and for the tradition, for those that have carried it for us before us.
Again, and repeatedly ~ Thanks Hiro/’slainte’ ~ for these repeat pleasures and inspirations. My own family doesn’t know me well enough to satisfy my interests and passions like you have with this one CD… ~ ‘c’ :-D
# Posted by ceolachan one month ago.
“ Derek McGinley & Tara Connaghan: The Far Side Of The Glen” ~ making their website live
http://farsideoftheglen.ie/wp/
# Posted by ceolachan one month ago.
The Far Side of the Glen
‘c’, nice to know you enjoy this recording, perhaps even more than I do. It caught my attention just after it was released, but it took me almost a year to make enough money for it! Well, actually I purchased John Carty and Brain Rooney’s lovely album early in 2011, so I was a bit reluctant to get another fiddle duet recording just a few months later.
Better late than never. This recording really has a timeless quality. I never grow tired of it. It’s inspirational, as ceolachan put it. Visit their website and listen to a couple of tracks, and you’ll see.
You can watch them play a set of highlands: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvQ6Fd19uO8
play video
And Derek McGinley’s gig from last year:
http://source.pipers.ie/Gallery.aspx?id=867
# Posted by slainte one month ago.
Thanks for the additional links, much appreciated, and right now as I type. As said, we’ve enjoyed dancing to this music. Do you still remember the Highland steps I’d taught you? They go well with those tracks on this recording, and with Derek’s playing for NPU, lovely… :-)
# Posted by ceolachan one month ago.
Not quite sure how I managed to post the links to Soundcloud without actually saying how amazing this is.
# Posted by SmashTheWindows one month ago. - TheSession.org
I have heard Donegal’s premier trad band Altan just in concert, and for many years Altan defined the music of Ireland’s north west for me. However, Altan’s approach to traditional Irish music is a rather refined and contemporary one. Recently I encountered the Donegal fiddle trio Fidil, who is staying true to its roots but take the music into quite outlandish realms.
Listening to the kitchen recording of “The Far Side of the Glen,” however, we are treated to the pure drop and the very roots of Donegal fiddle music. Derek McGinley and Tara Connaghan are two traditional fiddlers from South West Donegal – Derek from the Glencolmcille area and Tara from Glenties, respectively – who play together for years which shows in their mutual understanding. Twin fiddling has a long tradition in Co. Donegal.
Furthermore, there is gentle pacing and no crossover into other genres. The repertoire as well is rooted in the area, the music they grew up with. Such as the opening two jigs learned from their mentor and teacher James Byrne, “John Phadaí Chonchubhair’s / The Nova Scotia Jig,” both not very well known. This is followed by some more unfamiliar highlands, hornpipes and barndances. The travelling fiddler John Doherty has to be credited for many of these tunes. I could go on and marvel about the chosen tunes, let me only mention the popular reel “The Old Wheel Of Fortune” (the tune also being the title track of Fidil’s latest album), or “Maggie Pickens,” a specific solo step dance, played in two different versions here, the second learned from Glenties fiddler Vincent Campbell. Derek has his solo outing with the well known song “Rocking The Cradle,” while Tara does some beautiful waltzes, and God knows how these tunes made their way from Austria to Donegal in the last 200 years.
Thomas Keller, FolkWorld Webzine, Germany
July 2012 - FolkWorld Webzine
This CD arrived through the post the day after I heard of the death of John “TheTae” Gallagher, one of South West Donegal’s truly legendary fiddlers, so it was in reflective mood that I first listened to this recording. The easy pace of the playing, combined with a fidelity to the local tradition, seemed appropriate to the mood. Derek (a grand-nephew of John The Tae) and Tara are both steeped in the South West Donegal style, both acknowledge immense debts to the Dohertys, Campbells, and above all, James Byrne, and judging by this recording, they are worthy inheritors of their tradition.
Recorded in a cottage kitchen, the CD features nothing more than the two fiddles. The sound quality is good and there is no “electrickery”. The material chosen among the 14 tracks reflects the local repertoire, with a number of old favourites and a couple of less common items, plus one hornpipe composed by Derek. So there are plenty of highlands, mazurkas, barndances, waltzes and reels. They’ve chosen to leave out some of the usual staples of the local repertoire – things like the Moneymusk and the Gravel Walks, and this is no bad thing – it gives other pieces a chance to shine.
It’s easy to hear in the playing the respect they have for the music, and this impression is confirmed by the comprehensive sleeve notes. This is not the “flashy” playing so often heard today; each note is given its chance to express itself properly – the music talks to you, as it should. No excessive speed, no attempts at fusion with other styles, just good, honest Donegal fiddling as we used to hear it years ago, played by two musicians whose musical partnership has lasted long enough to give them that instinctive interaction that’s so vital in making good music.
If I have a criticism, it’s that on most of the tracks they could have afforded to play each piece through one less time, which might well have allowed space for a couple more sets.
Derek and Tara have produced something which is not going to thrill you if you want fast, furious music. But if you want something to listen to rather than just hear, then this will remind you where it all came from and why it’s worth savouring, just as it is.
John Waltham, The Living Tradition
April 2012 - The Living Tradition, Scotland
Another Donegal CD, this time with two fiddlers. Fiddle music is very important in the most northern county of Ireland but what Derek and Tara are delivering is more special than what Fidil presents.
The two fiddlers play music from the southwest of this county, recorded in a cottage near Carrick. They have been playing together for 15 years and we can truly hear that in the refinement of their playing together, the reconcilement is excellent.
You can find detailed information to all tunes in the booklet. While reading, you learn about the deep connection between the musicians and their home and its music tradition. And this is the feel of the entire CD. For the true lover of Donegal fiddle this is certainly a true little treasure.
Sabrina Palm, Irland Journal, Germany
March 2012 - Irland Journal, Germany
When you open this CD case, a card folder rather than the older plastic style, you may be surprised to find the CD booklet facing you and the CD under your left hand. This unusual arrangement emphasises the sleeve notes, and indeed this music is difficult to appreciate without some of the background conveyed in these notes. The Far Side of the Glen is entirely fiddle music, in the style and mostly from the repertoire of South West Donegal. McGinley and Connaghan both learnt from the late great James Byrne of Glencolmcille, and many of the tunes here come from his playing. The fiddle duets show the effect of long years playing together. There are complementary harmonies and variations, but the timing is spot on: you couldn’t slide a horsehair between these two musicians.
Reels and jigs are supplemented by hornpipes, highlands, mazurkas, barndances, set dances and slow airs. As well as their twin fiddling, Tara and Derek take two solos each. Derek’s triplets sparkle on a version of The Thames Hornpipe and one of his own compositions, while Tara takes a lilting approach to two well known reels. The slower numbers are not as assured, although Tara’s untitled continental-style waltz is worth a listen. One of the best things about The Far Side of the Glen is that it documents tunes which are not widespread, at least in the versions here. John Phadaí Chonchubhair’s Jig is quite similar to an old pipe march, but little known outside Donegal. Jimmy McNeill’s Highland and a fascinatingly phrased untitled barndance are similarly rare. Others, of course, are well-known but still a pleasure to hear in these hands: The Old Wheel of Fortune, The Nova Scotia Jig, and of all things the popular Scottish pipe march The Balkan Hills played as a barndance.
Derek and Tara end on a fine pair of unnamed highlands learned from James Byrne, playing the second in octaves for a final flourish.
Alex Monaghan, Irish Music Magazine, Ireland
March 2012 - Irish Music Magazine, Ireland
Discography
The Far Side of the Glen, Nov. 2011
Tara has also features on:
Eoin O'Neill and Friends
Fiddlesticks and Dr. Liz Doherty 'Racket in the Rectory'
Tara 'n' Tellas (EP, Finland)
The Fiddle Music of Donegal Vol. 4 (to be released 2013)
Derek also features on:
The Fiddle Music of Donegal Vol. 3
Photos
Bio
Derek McGinley and Tara Connaghan are two highly respected fiddle players in Ireland who focus on the fiddle music of their home areas in south west Donegal.
The CD, The Far Side of the Glen, focusing solely on fiddle music from the south west Donegal area, was launched at the Ennis Trad Festival in November 2011. The CD features Derek McGinley from Mín A’Chearrbhaigh, a parish of Glencolmcille and Tara Connaghan from Glenties.
Tara and Derek, having played together for many years in sessions, on stage and in various projects, have developed a repertoire and form that respects both their styles. In 2003 they featured as a duet on RTE’s The Raw Bar series celebrating the music and memories of Packie Manus Byrne. They have toured occasionally showcasing the music of south west Donegal and they both teach at annual fiddle festivals in Donegal where huge respect is shown for passing on the music of the area. The music they play is influenced by many of the great older fiddlers in south west Donegal including the music of James Byrne, John Doherty, Danny Meehan and Vincent and Jimmy Campbell.
In a world of over-produced CDs, this CD is a breath of fresh air by going back to basics. It features just two fiddles throughout and was recorded over 2 days in a cottage near Carrick, Co. Donegal. “We wanted to leave the music as natural as possible, just in the way and environment we normally play” reveals Tara. “I love the sound of the foot tapping, it’s like the heart beat of Irish music so we’ve left that subtly in also.”
Reviews:
'This is not the “flashy” playing so often heard today; each note is given its chance to express itself properly – the music talks to you, as it should. No excessive speed, no attempts at fusion with other styles, just good, honest Donegal fiddling as we used to hear it years ago...’
John Waltham, The Living Tradition Magazine, UK
'The fiddle duets show the effect of long years playing together. There are complementary harmonies and variations, but the timing is spot on: you couldn’t slide a horsehair between these two musicians.'
Alex Monaghan, Irish Music Magazine, Ireland
'Fiddle music is very important in the most northern county of Ireland but what Derek and Tara are delivering is special... They have been playing together for 15 years and we can truly hear that in the refinement of their playing together, the reconcilement is excellent.'
Sabrina Palm, Irland Journal, Germany
Links