5. Gift of Acetate Collection
I recently received a gift, from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous, of a wonderful collection of Irish music acetates. They date from roughly mid-1940s to mid-1950s and are primarily fiddle music. The donor, who received these acetates over 50 years ago from John Frank Vesey, the great Sligo fiddle player, wanted me to add them to my Archive as he “admires what I am doing to share the old music.” Vesey, who was based in Philadelphia, came to Chicago on a number of occasions to act as judge at the IMA Fleadhs in the mid – 1960s. While in Chicago, he stayed with his former neighbor and student back in Co. Sligo, Phil Durkin. The musicians playing on these acetates are:
Eddie Cahill (flute), Patsy Cawley (fiddle), Daniel Costigan (song), Paddy Cronin (fiddle), James “Lad” O’Beirne (fiddle), Paddy O’Brien (accordion), Tom Potts (fiddle), Ed Reavy (fiddle), John Frank Vesey (fiddle) and Martin Wynne (fiddle). Where we are almost certain, but cannot say definitively, the name of the musician playing a specific track we have “maybe” after the name. There are a few unknown musicians (Anon Violin) with at least one unknown tune (Gan Ainm) and I would love to hear from anyone who may recognize and name the Anon Violin or “Gan Ainm”.
Sincere thanks to my anonymous donor for the gift of this great music, to Alan Morrisroe for digitizing the acetates (the final 6 tracks were digitized by the donor) and to those who helped identify names of musicians & tunes, including Seamus Connolly, Sean Quinn, Eileen O’Brien*, Nicki McAuliffe, Don Meade, Brian Conway and Emmett Gill
Eddie Cahill (flute), Patsy Cawley (fiddle), Daniel Costigan (song), Paddy Cronin (fiddle), James “Lad” O’Beirne (fiddle), Paddy O’Brien (accordion), Tom Potts (fiddle), Ed Reavy (fiddle), John Frank Vesey (fiddle) and Martin Wynne (fiddle). Where we are almost certain, but cannot say definitively, the name of the musician playing a specific track we have “maybe” after the name. There are a few unknown musicians (Anon Violin) with at least one unknown tune (Gan Ainm) and I would love to hear from anyone who may recognize and name the Anon Violin or “Gan Ainm”.
Sincere thanks to my anonymous donor for the gift of this great music, to Alan Morrisroe for digitizing the acetates (the final 6 tracks were digitized by the donor) and to those who helped identify names of musicians & tunes, including Seamus Connolly, Sean Quinn, Eileen O’Brien*, Nicki McAuliffe, Don Meade, Brian Conway and Emmett Gill
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*Footnote:
When I was trying to identify the accordion player on Track 14A1, which I assumed was recorded from a New York radio Irish music show, I reached out to Eileen O’Brien to see if it might be her father, as I was aware Paddy immigrated to New York in 1954. To my great surprise (and delight) Eileen not only confirmed the musician was indeed her father but she also told me she had the video recording of what I was playing down the phone to her (The Sally Gardens). It turns out my acetate was a recording from a hugely popular TV show in New York called The Ted Mac Amateur Hour, where various acts, including singers, musicians, dancers and jugglers performed in front of a live audience who voted the winner. Paddy was in New York only one month when his friend, Steve Quinn, entered his name into the show. He won three shows in a row and qualified for the final, to compete against the popular singer Pat Boone (the eventual winner), which was recorded in Madison Square Garden. Eileen, thank you for the above information and for sending me two videos of Paddy appearing on the show to include in my Archive. I’m sure all of my viewers will enjoy these recordings of Paddy’s amazing playing. They are, without doubt, an important historical record of early traditional Irish music performed on American television. |
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