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Local Ground
''Local Ground'' is the ninth studio album by Irish folk music group Altan, released in March 2005 on the Narada label. Recording For the recording of ''Local Ground'', Altan invited a few of their friends in music to play on the album. Former Bothy Band founder Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill plays piano on guitarist Dáithí Sproule's composition "The Roseville", a kind of a slip-reel. Steve Cooney guests on bass and Dónal Lunny adds guitar. Altan have asked Galician piper Carlos Núñez to contribute some gaita (Galician bagpipes) to two tracks. Bodhrán maestro Jim Higgins provides the rhythmic pulse on many of the tracks while Graham Henderson adds some touches of keyboard colour to a set of reels. Artwork and title The cover art is a reproduction of a painting by Kilkenny-based artist Bernadette Kiely. The album title "Local Ground" comes from the painting title. Critical reception ''Local Ground'' received a very positive review from the musicscotland.com website, ...
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Album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual Phonograph record#78 rpm disc developments, 78 rpm records collected in a bound book resembling a photograph album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl LP record, long-playing (LP) records played at  revolutions per minute, rpm. The album was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s to the early 21st century, a period known as the album era. Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The 8-track tape was the first tape format widely used alongside vinyl from 1965 until being phased out by 1983 and was gradually supplanted by the cassette tape during the 1970s and early 1980s; the populari ...
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Steve Cooney
Stephen Cooney is an Australian-Irish musician. Early life Cooney was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, where he learned to play the didgeridoo, and from the age of seventeen he played in a number of rock bands. He is of Irish ancestry. Career Cooney moved to Ireland in the early 1980s, and since then he played, noticeably the guitar, over 60 albums with Irish artists, such as the Irish band Altan, The Chieftains, Clannad and Andy Irvine. He also composes his own material and is a producer/arranger of traditional music. In 2019 he recorded and published at Claddagh Records the album ''Ceol Ársa Cláirsí:Tunes of the Irish Harpers for Solo Guitar''. Personal life Cooney was married to Sinéad O'Connor from 2010 to 2011. Selected discography ;With Franciscus Henri * '' Lord of the Dance'' (1969) ;With Mándu * ''To the Shores of His Heaven'' (1974) ;With Little River Band * '' Little River Band'' (1975) ;With Captain Rock * ''Buried Treasure'' (1975) ...
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Guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strings against frets with the fingers of the opposite hand. A plectrum or individual finger picks may also be used to strike the strings. The sound of the guitar is projected either acoustically, by means of a resonant chamber on the instrument, or amplified by an electronic pickup and an amplifier. The guitar is classified as a chordophone – meaning the sound is produced by a vibrating string stretched between two fixed points. Historically, a guitar was constructed from wood with its strings made of catgut. Steel guitar strings were introduced near the end of the nineteenth century in the United States; nylon strings came in the 1940s. The guitar's ancestors include the gittern, the vihuela, the four-course Renaissance guitar, an ...
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Mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 strings, although five (10 strings) and six (12 strings) course versions also exist. There are of course different types of strings that can be used, metal strings are the main ones since they are the cheapest and easiest to make. The courses are typically tuned in an interval of perfect fifths, with the same tuning as a violin (G3, D4, A4, E5). Also, like the violin, it is the soprano member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello and mandobass. There are many styles of mandolin, but the three most common types are the ''Neapolitan'' or ''round-backed'' mandolin, the ''archtop'' mandolin and the ''flat-backed'' mandolin. The round-backed version has a deep bottom, constructed of strips of wood, glued toge ...
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Bouzouki
The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and a long neck with a fretted fingerboard. It has steel strings and is played with a plectrum producing a sharp metallic sound, reminiscent of a mandolin but pitched lower. There are two main types of bouzouki: the ''trichordo'' (''three-course'') has three pairs of strings (known as courses) and the ''tetrachordo'' (''four-course'') has four pairs of strings. The instrument was brought to Greece in the early 1900s by Greek refugees from Anatolia, and quickly became the central instrument to the rebetiko genre and its music branches. It is now an important element of modern Laïko pop Greek music. Etymology The name ''bouzouki'' comes from the Turkish word , meaning "broken" or "modified", and comes from a particular re-entrant tuning ...
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Tin Whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is a type of fipple flute, putting it in the same class as the recorder, Native American flute, and other woodwind instruments that meet such criteria. A tin whistle player is called a whistler. The tin whistle is closely associated with Irish traditional music and Celtic music. Other names for the instrument are the flageolet, English flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, tin flageolet, or Irish whistle (also ga, feadóg stáin or feadóg). History The tin whistle in its modern form is from a wider family of fipple flutes which have been seen in many forms and cultures throughout the world. In Europe, such instruments have a long and distinguished history and take various forms, of which the most widely known are the recorder, tin whistle, Flabiol, Txistu and tabor pipe. Predecessors Almost all primitive cultures had a type of fipple flute, and it is most likely the first p ...
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Vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir. Singers may perform as soloists or accompanied by anything from a single instrument (as in art song or some jazz styles) up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Different singing styles include art music such as opera and Chinese opera, Indian music, Japanese music, and religious music styles such as gospel, traditional music styles, world music, jazz, blues, ghazal, and popular music styles such as pop, rock, and electronic dance music. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged, or improvised. It may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual as part of music educ ...
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Fiddle
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the style of the music played may determine specific construction differences between fiddles and classical violins. For example, fiddles may optionally be set up with a bridge with a flatter arch to reduce the range of bow-arm motion needed for techniques such as the double shuffle, a form of bariolage involving rapid alternation between pairs of adjacent strings. To produce a "brighter" tone than the deep tones of gut or synthetic core strings, fiddlers often use steel strings. The fiddle is part of many traditional ( folk) styles, which are typically aural traditions—taught " by ear" rather than via written music. Fiddling is the act of playing the fiddle, and fiddlers are musicians that play it. Among musical styles, fiddling tends to ...
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Gleann Nimhe – The Poison Glen
''Gleann Nimhe – The Poison Glen'' is the eleventh studio album by Folk music of Ireland, Irish folk music group Altan (band), Altan and their tenth studio album of original material, released in late February / early March 2012 on the Compass Records label. Background This is the first studio album of original material to be released by Altan in since the release of ''Local Ground'' on 1 March 2005. Title Gleann Nimhe, or the Poisoned Glen, is the Irish name of a glen located near Dunlewey, Dún Lúiche, in County Donegal in Ireland. In English, Gleann Nimhe means "The Heavenly Glen" or "The Poison Glen" (also written "The Poisoned Glen"). Music The album features ''An Ghealóg'', a song composed by Martin Tourish who would later join the band replacing Dermot Byrne, temporarily starting from the extensive Fall 2013 (mostly) German tour and permanently since Dermot Byrne's departure from the band in early 2014. Critical reception On 22 April 2012, ''Gleann Nimhe � ...
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The Twa Sisters
"The Twa Sisters" ("The Two Sisters") is a traditional murder ballad, dating at least as far back as the mid 17th century. The song recounts the tale of a girl drowned by her jealous sister. At least 21 English variants exist under several names, including "Minnorie" or "Binnorie", "The Cruel Sister", "The Wind and Rain", "Dreadful Wind and Rain", "Two Sisters", "The Bonny Swans" and the "Bonnie Bows of London". The ballad was collected by renowned folklorist Francis J. Child as Child Ballad 10 and is also listed in the Roud Folk Song Index ( Roud 8)., Whilst the song is thought to originate somewhere around England or Scotland (possibly Northumbria), extremely similar songs have been found throughout Europe, particularly in Scandinavia. Synopsis Two sisters go down by a body of water, sometimes a river and sometimes the sea. The older one pushes the younger in and refuses to pull her out again; generally the lyrics explicitly state her intent to drown her younger sister. Her ...
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Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (; born 26 July 1959) is an Irish fiddler and the lead vocalist for the Irish folk music band Altan, which she co-founded with her late husband Frankie Kennedy in 1987. Today, Mairéad is recognised as a leading exponent in the Donegal fiddle tradition, and she is often considered one of the foremost singers in the Irish language, her native tongue. She was part of the Irish supergroup T with the Maggies who performed in January 2009 at Temple Bar TradFest in Dublin their first ever two concerts under that name and who released in October 2010 their debut (and to date only) album. After nearly 22 years with Altan, Mairéad released in February 2009 her debut solo album ''Imeall''. After 29 years with Altan, Mairéad released in October 2016 her alternate band Na Mooneys' debut album ''Na Mooneys''. Background Ní Mhaonaigh grew up in Gweedore, County Donegal, on the northwest coast of Ireland. Her father, Proinsias Ó Maonaigh, who got married in 1954, t ...
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Down By Blackwaterside
"Down by Blackwaterside" (also known as "Blackwaterside", "Blackwater Side" and "Black Waterside"; see Roud 312, Laws O1 and Roud 564, Laws P18, Henry H811) is a traditional folk song, provenance and author unknown, although it is likely to have originated near the River Blackwater, Northern Ireland. Synopsis The song tells the story of a woman who has her heart broken "down by Blackwaterside" when a suitor breaks his promise of marriage, which he made to trick her into having sex with him. Her suitor mocks her for believing that he would marry her and tells her to go back to her father. He tells her she has only herself to blame for having sex before marriage. She realises he will never return and berates herself for believing his lies. Roud 564 Variant The Roud 564 variant of the song was popularised by a BBC Archive recording of an Irish Traveller, Mary Doran recorded by Peter Kennedy and Sean O'Boyle on either the 24th of July or the 1st of August 1952. During the same record ...
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