The London Lasses: LL 25th Anniversary Album

“This anniversary album. like all the other albums from The London Lasses, is a delight to listen to. This group of women are top class solo musicians and together they form a wonderful traditional sound. There is great life and energy in the music from start to finish and its wonderful to see past members joining the current group for this celebratory recording. The tunes are varied and diverse and the old and the new tunes are weaved together to form a lovely flow. It is great to hear some wonderful newly composed tunes like Tommy Fitzharris's 'White Fairy, Edel Fox's 'Nana Jo's* and Josephine Keegan's 'The Punchbowl' and 'The Curlew' fit in so welt with the older tunes. The beautiful voice of Brona McVittie is another highlight of this album and I am also delighted to see a new generation of young lasses, in particular Annie & Katie Quinn. joining the ranks and adding their own unique sound to The London Lasses. Maith sibh a chailiní ceolmhara agus go mba facia buan sibh!” Neansai Ni Choisdealbha Eagral Cecil RTE Raidio na Gaeltachta

The Lasses were delighted to include a number of past and present band members on this celebratory recording, and to feature members of the next generation of traditional Irish musicians in London.
Karen Ryan (fiddle. banjo, whistles. mandola) tracks 1-14
Elaine Conwell (fiddle) tracks 2 & 11
Elma McElligott (flute, saxophone. whistle) tracks 1-4, 7,8,10, 11, 13,14.
Brogan McAuliffe (concertina) tracks 1,2,4,5, 7-14.
Bróna McVittie (vocal/harp) tracks 3,6,9, 13.
Pete Quinn (piano, keys) tracks 1-8.11-14
Dee Havlin (flute) tracks 5,12.
Maureen Linane Hankins (accordion) tracks 5. 12.
Bernie Conneely (banjo) track 8.
Chris O'Malley (piano) track 10.
Teresa Connolly (fiddle) tracks 1, 8.
Annie Quinn (Uilleann pipes, banjo) tracks 3, 4.5,7, 10.
Katie Quinn {accordion, fiddle) tracks 1, 4, 7, 8
Rachel Isherwood (fiddle) track 14.
James and Orla Earnshaw (fiddles) track 11.

In 1997, fiddle players Karen Ryan and Elaine Conwell together with banjo player Pauline Conneely. took a trip to the US where they played a number of concerts from New York to San Francisco, by way of Chicago and other stops. Intended as a one-off musical holiday and with accompaniment provided by guests in each city, under the title 'The London Lasses’, the trio had such a great experience and were so warmly received that they decided to continue performing together on their return,
they invited flute player, Sharon Whelton to join them. In 1999. the band, now with Bernie Conneely on banjo. recorded their eponymously titled debut CD with Liverpool pianist Pete Quinn, along with vocalist Sue Cullen and whistle player Grace Kelly.

Over the next two decades. the band performed extensively and recorded a further four albums. Line-ups changed over time and Included band members Dee Havlin (flute & whistle), Maureen Linane Hankins, (accordion), Kathleen O’Sullivan (vocal), Elma McElligott (flute, saxophone& whistle), Bróna McVittie (vocal, harp), Brogan McAuliffe (concertina, Chris O’Malley (piano).

The band has also enjoyed working with other guests down the years. some of whom feature on this and other lasses CDs. The London Lasses have been delighted to bring their music to some of the world's most prestigious festivals and concert halts. including Cambridge Folk Festival, the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam). Glastonbury. Dublin City Hall, Philadelphia Irish Festival. Mayor of London's St Patrick's Festival (Trafalgar Square) and the Royal Albert Hall, where they performed the first ever BBC Proms ceili as part of the 2008 season and supported The Chieftains on their 50th Anniversary tour in 2012. They have been included on the 3 CD compilation Beginners Guide to Ireland (2005) and the Ultimate Guide to Irish Folk (2014). TV and radio appearances include TG4's Hup and Geantrai, BBC One's Eastenders, BBC Radio 3's In Tune. RTE Raidio na Gaeltachta and more

TRACK LISTING

01: Jigs: Caves of Kiltannon/The New Home/The Clare Shout (3:57)
02: REELS: Dandy Dinny Cronin/Moving In Old Decency/Ballintore Fancy/Over The Bridge To Peggy (3:53)
03. SONG: Rathfriland on the Hill (3:30)
04. Planxty Thomas Burke (3.23)
05. JIGS, REELS: The Woods of Caolrua/Dancing Eyes/The Crock of Gold. The White Fairy (5:56)
06 SONG: Bánchnoic Éireann (5 13)
07 MARCHES: Jamesy Gannon's/Triumphal March (5:06)
08 REELS: The Leitrim Rover/The Punchbowl (5:4
09. SONG: The Blackbird of Mullaghmore (5:42)
10: 8ARNDANCE, REEL: Peach Blossoms/The Sunny Banks (3:26)
11. SUP JIGS: Seamus Connolly's Favourite/Gort Na M6na/The Night Before Larry Was Stretched (2:40)
12. REELS: Martin Wynne 's No. 4/The Curlew/Nana Jo’s (3.32)
13. SONG: Sweet Portaferry (5:05)
14. REELS: The Culfadda/Farewell to London/Rossmore Jetty (3:27)

SOUND SAMPLES

Track 1: Over the Bridge to Peggy

Track 2: Dancing Eyes

Track 3: Sweet Portaferry

Track 4: Gort na Móna

Also available from Copperplate
The London Lasses & Pete Quinn
The London Lasses: Tracks Across the Deep
The London Lasses: The Enchanted Lady
The London Lasses: By Night & By Day
The London Lasses: The One I Loved the Best
Karen Ryan: The Coast Road

Press Reviews

Songlines Magazine
There are 16 musicians supporting The London Lass. in celebrating their 25 years together on LL25, a generous 14-track album of jigs, reels, marches and songs. T'hey range from the ancient - the blind, fairy-touched harpist and composer Turlough O'Carolan's 17th-century 'Planxty Thomas Burke' through to new tune sets from concertina player Edel Fox, flautist Tommy Fitzharris and harpist Michael Rooney. Of the four songs, the standout is singer Brona McVittie's account of the beautiful Bánchnoic Eireann 6. (The Fair Hills of Ireland), which dates from the 1700s, and which is also one of LL25's best tracks. The Lass.' band leader, Karen Ryan, is also director of the annual Return to London Town Festival of traditional Irish music, and here she plays fiddle, banjo, whistle and mandola, against a shifting combination of pipes, fiddles, concertin., whistles and more, spinning their ways giddily through these songs. The reels 'The Leitrim Rover / The Punchbowl' are suffused with a whispy, otherworldly silvery sheen of strings over pianist Peter Quinn's guiding keys, while singer-songwriter/producer Reg Keating provides two fine songs that hit the spot without resorting to force in 'The Blackbird of Mullaghmore and 'Sweet Portaferry'. A masterful spirit of ease and mellifluousness is the signature feel on this anniversary celebration. TIM CUMMING

R'n'R Magazine THE LONDON LASSES **** 1125 — 25th Anniversary Album
The London Lasses have time and again breathed fresh air into the Irish traditional canon. This is their fifth album of typically committed yet light-to-the-touch music, aptly referred to as 'exciting and full of companionable joie de vivre'. It's not that there's any lack of melancholy or consideration in the subtext, just that the music is fashioned to drive on effortlessly, drawing its sometimes complex or heavyweight cargo through the night with a mighty thrust and crack and stream of wind. It's been one of the characteristics of the London-Irish particularly, over fifty years and more, that there's a particular edge and passion, born of the keen sensitivity of the diaspora, that I recognise from musicians such as Mandy Murray, an incomparable concertina player largely unknown outside the circle. I hear her as the London lass she is, while this album weaves its way through tunes often familiar, but rarely hackneyed, such as the 'Dandy Dinny Cronin' and 'The Woods Of Caolrua' sets, excellently played and inventively arranged. To complete my sense of fulfilment, along with the obligatory Carolan piece, one of my favourite traditional songs, 'The Blackbird Of Mullaghmore' appears, which takes me home entirely. I think that's the intention. Nick Burbridge