New acetates, photographs & upcoming events...

A wonderful collection of Irish music Acetates
 
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.

Listen to the recording

Patrick O’Leary Family
Adelaide, Australia
 
As a follow-up to the inclusion of the Francis O’Neill letters to Patrick O’Leary in my Archive, I recently received a collection of wonderful photos from his great granddaughter in Adelaide. The photos are of Patrick with his family and with various musical friends depicting the social Irish music scene  in Adelaide in the early decades of the 1900s.

Upcoming Events
I will participate in the following up-coming events in USA and Ireland and look forward to meeting any of my friends who may be in attendance.

April 11-13
The Ward Irish Music Archives conference, Archiving Irish America: Music, Dance and Culture April 11-13 in Milwaukee. I will deliver a presentation on my Chicago Archive of Irish Traditional Musicians & Storytellers.
Archiving Irish America: Music, Dance, and Culture Conference
 
April 26-28
The 2nd Gathering to memorialize Patsy Touhey, one of America’s greatest uilleann pipers will be in Boston again this year. I will deliver a presentation on the Life & Music of piper Mike Scanlon, originally from Doocastle, Co. Mayo, who spent most of his life in Cleveland.
Patsy Touhey Weekend

May 24-26
Na Piobaire Uilleann (NPU), The Piper’s Club in Dublin, will hold their annual meeting in Thurles, Co. Tipperary this year. I will attend as guest speaker and will deliver a presentation on the Life & Music of Thomas Standeven, uilleann piper and teacher from Philadelphia.
NPU Annual Tionól 2024 - Tipperary - Na Piobairi Uilleann