Track Listing 1. Reels: Mullingar Races/Coen's Memories/Jim Donoghue's. 2. Jigs: Munster Buttermilk/ The Sheep in the Boat/Charlie Mulvihill's. 3. Reels: The Pullet/ The Boys of portaferry/The Dunmore Lasses. 4. Polkas: Captain Moonlight's Army/Tom Billy Murphy's/Johnny O'Leary's. 5. Jigs: Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part/Martin Hardiman's (harp solo) 6. Reels: Down The Broom/The Bush in Bloom. (flute/harp) 7. Jigs: James McMahon's/ The Fairhaired Boy/JohnMcKenna's. 8. Reels: Devanney's Goat/The Flax in Bloom. (concertina) 9. Jigs: Hugh Traver's/What Would I Do if the Kettle Boiled Over? (pipes & fiddle) 10. HPs: The Home Ruler/Jerry Daly's. 11. Slow Air: Mountains of Pomeroy (harp solo) 12. Reels: Mick O'Connor's/McDonagh's/McCabe's. 13. Jigs: Kitty Lie Over/ Connie the Soldier. 14. Reels: The Sailor's Jacket/ Wexford Lasses. (pipes & fiddle) 15. Jigs: Jerry holland's/ Humours of Rahey/Paddy Conneely's. 16. Reels: Maids of Castlebar/Toss the Feathers/Lucy Campbell.     Click on underlined titles to hear mp3 sound samples.

We are delighted to announce our release of this fine recording.

Mick, Louise & Michelle Mulcahy
Reelin' in Tradition.
CICD 180
With
Tommy Hayes: bodrhan, bones.
Cyril O'Donoghue: bouzouki

Music on the accordion, melodeon, uilleann pipes, flute, harp, piano, concertina & fiddle.


‘For those who really know their traditional music, the Mulcahy Family must rank as one of the most impressive musical families in Ireland today.’ – Martin Hayes, from the sleevenotes of Reelin’ in Tradition



Following their outstanding 2005 recording Notes from the Heart on the Cló Iar-Chonnachta label, Mick Mulcahy and his daughters Louise (26) and Michelle (24) are back with a new album, Reelin' in Tradition.

If their first album was a revelation for the rhythmic and beautiful Mulcahy sound - as well as the virtuosity across several instruments of Michelle and Louise - Reelin' in Tradition presents a new level of musicianship exploring their collective repertoire.

Mick Mulcahy from Brosna, Co. Kerry, recorded two accordion albums on the Gael-Linn label in 1976 and 1990, and, while he always played music at home, he never had to try to get his children to play as they quickly found their own way to it.

Louise and Michelle both started on tin whistle. At age 10 Louise moved on to the flute and as a teenager began playing uilleann pipes. Mick recalls driving Louise to Dublin from their home in Limerick every month for a year for lessons in Na Píobairí Uilleann. Louise recently guest-presented the TG4 traditional-music show Geantraí.

Michelle started playing the accordion aged six and surprised everyone when she asked for a harp at age ten. She subsequently took up the fiddle, piano and concertina. Michelle was TG4 Young Traditional Musician of the Year in 2006 and recently featured on Riverdance composer Bill Whelan's new album, The Connemara Suite, on a piece for harp and orchestra which he wrote for her.

Mick, Louise and Michelle Mulcahy regularly perform in Ireland the USA and have an unmistakeable, infectious sound. As Martin Hayes writes, 'I first became familiar with the music of Mick Mulcahy from his first solo recording... I remember that both my father and I felt that his music had a great depth of feeling. That same feeling that first made an impression on me has been handed on to his daughters and continues all the way through this recording.'


Also available from Copperplate: CICD 160 Mick, Louis & Michelle Mulcahy: Notes from the Heart

Press Reviews

They have a carefully chosen programme drawing on tunes from all over Ireland and they show their ability to demonstrate region variations in style, particularly when it is the lovely Sliabh Luachra polka style.

The tracks led by individuals don't have quite the same spark as those featuring all three and the least successful are the harp tracks. It is clear that Louise is a very fine harpist, but the recording here is a bit unbalanced and does not do her justice.
As on their previous album there are two accompanists; Tommy Hayes on bodhrán and bones and Cyril O'Donaghue on bouzouki but the recording balance keeps their contributions very much in the background
to favour the superb melody playing. Vic Smith.

2009 TOP 10 TRAD RELEASES in Ceol Column in The Irish Echo newspaper, New York City
9. "Reelin' in Tradition" by Mick, Louise, and Michelle Mulcahy (Clo Iar-Chonnachta CICD 180).
It's not fair. No three family members should have the abundance of musical talent that Mick, Louise, and Michelle Mulcahy of Abbeyfeale, West Limerick, have. On this, their third album together ("The Mulcahy Family" and "Notes From the Heart" came out in 2000 and 2005, respectively), the Brosna, North Kerry-born Mick Mulcahy on C#/D, B/C, D/D#, C/C#, and D button accordions joins daughter Lucille on uilleann pipes and D and E-flat flutes and daughter Michelle on harp, concertina, fiddle, and piano for a largely familiar repertoire that's freshly and impressively played. Earle Hitchner

www.liveIreland.com
The Livies 1.1.2010
Instrumental Album of the Year

Reelin’ in Tradition by the Mulcahy family is the easy choice. The album is being handled by the unequalled Alan O’Leary out of Copperplate Distribution in London, and he handles only the best. The Mulcahys won this Award with their last album, and we suspect they will again with their next album! Mick, Michelle and Louise are the real, true deal. Michelle is best known for her harp work, Louise for her uillean pipes and father, Mick for his button box. But, Louise and Michelle seem to play every instrument ever made---and they play them perfectly. Indescribable. We’ll settle for the word, “fabulous” and leave it at that. If you love trad, and you do, why would you not have this album? Every note perfect. Instrumental Album of the Year. Bill Margeson

www.liveireland.com
So, with this rambling in mind, I received the new Mulcahy family album from the best promoter and distributor in the business, Alan O’Leary of Copperplate in London. Michelle Mulcahy, sister Louise and father, Mick have done it again. This time, it is called, Reelin’ in Tradition. Mick holds forth on the accordion, Michelle and Louise on every other instrument in the tradition. Does it do to tell you that Michelle was teaching master classes in the Irish harp at the age of 18? That, at 16, Louise was in the very forefront of uillean pipers? See, for you, after all these years, the hope is that you find a critic or writer in whose taste you trust. Our pal, Jimmy Keane---himself the best piano accordion player in Irish music—always says, “A cd that you love is the cheapest thing you can buy. Think of what it gives you over the years.” As usual, he is right. What I have to add is that a cd that you don’t like and will never play again is a pretty expensive thing. So, you find writers and artists whom you trust. Trust the Mulcahys. Perfection every time, every cut. This all-instrumental treat will be, for sure, at Rampant Lion and Paddy’s on the Square, locally. I can’t put it in words. This all-instrumental album is at the apex of Irish music. I’d love to tell you more, but I can’t. I’m listening to it now. Michelle is on the harp, and I am numb. Wow! Just-----perfect. Rating: Four Harps. Bill Margeson

The Irish Post
Martin Hayes in his sleeve notes says: "For those who really know their traditional music the Mulcahy family must rank as one of the most impressive musical families in Ireland today."
There is something about families playing music together that always gets to me in the nicest possible way.
Mick Mulcahy from Brosna, Co. Kerry on accordion with daughters Louise on flute and uilleann pipes and Michelle on harp, fiddle, piano and concertina, blend perfectly together as you
would expect and are augmented by two guest musicians Tommy Hayes on bodhran and bones and Cyril O'Donoghue on bouzouki.
I particularly liked The Mountains Of Pomeroy, most unusually played as a slow air on the harp and the last set of reels Maids Of Castlebar/Toss The Feathers/Lucy Campbell really
motored in a joyous finale.
This album is another release from the Connemara-based publishing company Clo lar-Chonnachta whose original goal was to record.the musicians of Connemara, but have since expanded
to include musicians from all over Ireland as well as different genres.
Full marks to them and long may it last. This is a well-produced album of excellent playing and beautifully packaged with an informative booklet which is always welcome. Joe Giltrap


The Irish Echo

Mastery from the Mulcahys. Father and Two Daughters Release a Third CD

CEOL By Earle Hitchner
[Published on July 8, 2009, in the IRISH ECHO newspaper, New York City. Copyright (c) Earle Hitchner. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of author.]

It's not fair. No three family members should have the abundance of musical talent that Mick, Louise, and Michelle Mulcahy of Abbeyfeale, West Limerick, collectively have. It's an embarrassment of riches and any other cliche for plenitude you can think of.

On "Reelin' in Tradition," their third album together ("The Mulcahy Family" and "Notes From the Heart" came out in 2000 and 2005, respectively), the Brosna, North Kerry-born Mick Mulcahy on C#/D, B/C, D/D#, C/C#, and D button accordions joins daughter Lucille on uilleann pipes and D and E-flat flutes (she also plays whistle but not here) and daughter Michelle on harp, concertina, fiddle, and piano (she also plays accordion but not here). Their repertoire on this new CD is largely familiar, but their playing is more impressive than ever.

Accompanied by Cyril O'Donoghue on bouzouki, the opening track of "Mullingar Races / Coen's Memories / Jim Donoghue's" reels brims with pace, precision, and passion. Featuring Mick on accordion, Louise on flute, and Michelle on concertina, fiddle, and piano, it is an ideal blend of performance polish for a studio recording and visceral music for dancing.

Of the 16 tracks on the CD, six are medleys of jigs and another six are medleys of reels, all performed with irresistible dynamism. The changes between reels in "The Pullet / The Boys of Portaferry / The Dunmore Lassies" sparkle with spot-on control from Mick on accordion, Louise on flute, and Michelle on fiddle and concertina, accompanied by O'Donoghue on bouzouki and Tommy Hayes on bodhran. Louise's adroit solo flute playing, backed by Michelle on harp, propels the reels "Down the Broom / The Bush in Bloom," while Michelle's buoyant concertina playing, backed by herself on piano and O'Donoghue on bouzouki, keeps the reels "Devanney's Goat / The Flax in Bloom" bobbing along.

Without accompaniment, Louise on uilleann pipes and Michelle on fiddle duet on the jigs "Hughie Travers / What Would I Do If the Kettle Boiled Over?" and the reels "The Sailor's Jacket / Wexford Lasses." Featured on "A New Dawn," a 1999 album of promising uilleann pipers, Louise is now a fully recognized force on Ireland's arguably most demanding instrument, and Michelle nimbly weaves her fiddle lines with the melody, drones, and regulator counterpoint provided by Louise. Those two tracks are outstanding.

Four other tracks are also without accompaniment: the hornpipes "The Home Ruler / Jerry Daly's" and the polkas "Captain Moonlight's Army / Tom Billy Murphy's / Johnny O'Leary's," which are accordion, flute, and concertina collaborations that absolutely glow, as well as the slow air "Mountains of Pomeroy" and the jigs "Happy to Meet, Sorry to Part / Martin Hardiman's," Michelle's superb harp solos.

My only quibbles are with some inaccurate information in two track note statements: "Jerry [O'Brien] came from Youghal," and "Joe Derrane, the accordion player, would have learned a lot of music from him," Martin Hardiman, "a musician who lived in Boston." O'Brien actually came from Kinsale, and Derrane actually learned the second jig from a different musician in Chicago during a post-concert house party sometime between the late 1940s and early 1950s.

On this CD, proud papa Mick Mulcahy seems content to allow his daughters to shine. But he puts his own strong solo melodeon stamp on the jigs "Kitty Lie Over / Connie the Soldier," backed by Michelle on piano and Hayes on bones, even though the bones playing is too low in the mix and thus sounds a little like expiring crickets.

Throughout this recording, the performances of Mick, Louise, and Michelle Mulcahy are, without exception, exceptional. Mick has been a lauded leader on the accordion since at least the mid-1970s, while his versatile and virtuosic daughters (Louise is 26, Michelle is 24) have only burnished the family's musical reputation. The three albums made by these three musicians over the past nine years constitute a luminous achievement not limited to the happy accident of common blood. This would be a summit accomplishment for any Irish traditional trio today.

"Reelin' in Tradition" finishes with Clare dancers Aidan Vaughan, Paddy Neylon, Deirdre Comber, and Tina Walsh battering the floor to the last two reels in "Maids of Castlebar / Toss the Feathers / Lucy Campbell," followed by clapping and cheering. I found myself doing the same. Earle Hitchner