Niamh Ni Charra: Fiddle,Concertina, Viola & Vocals
With Special Guests:
Seamus Begley: Accordion, Vocals
Donal Murphy: Accordion
Nicky McAuliffe: Fiddle
Anne McAuliffe: Flute
Cathall King: Flute
Matt Griffin: Guitar
Donogh Hennessy: Guitar
Tony O'Flaherty: Piano, Djembe, Shakers
Tommy O'Sullivan: Guitars
Dominic Keogh: Bodhran
American Guests:
Liz Carroll: Fiddle
Jimmy Keane: Piano Accordion
Mick Moloney: Banjo
Cuz is the latest album from Killarney musician Niamh Ní Charra, and celebrates Sliabh Luachra's rich history of music, in particular the compositions and repertoire of Glountane native Cuz Teahan. Cuz emigrated to Chicago in 1928 and spent the next six decades playing and passing on the music of Sliabh Luachra to generations of musicians. Shortly before his death, he made a tape full of rare tunes and his own compositions for a very young Niamh, now a multi-award-winning performer. Drawing on the tape for inspiration and material, this album is a tribute to Cuz and his music. Along with showcasing Niamh's impressive talent and versatility on fiddle, concertina, and voice, it features top class guest artists from Ireland and America, all of whom had a connection to Cuz . These include Liz Carroll, Jimmy Keane, Donogh Hennessy, Mick Moloney, Donal Murphy and Tommy O Sullivan.
www.spiralearth.com
" it is a modern classic, a brilliant introduction to the life of Teahan and a superb reference point for the tradition that Teahan and Niamh have helped nurture and spread".
Iain Hazlewood
Audio
Dave Kennedy's Gift:
Moll Roe:
The Big Furze Bush:
Track Listing
The Lonesome Road to Dingle/Dave Kennedy's Gift/Cuz Teahan's Favourite/The Nun's Cuttings.
- Tagh's & Biddy's/Denis Murphy's #2/Mary Shea's Promise to her Dog/Dust on the Bible
- Johnny I Do Miss You/The Galway Belle/Ballyhoura Mountains.
- Frank Thornton's/The Glountane Highland/The Road to Glountane.
- Is Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce hi. (song).
- The Dolly Varden/Moll Roe.
- Anne Sheehy McAuliffe's/Mickey Chewing Bubblegum/Newmarket Polkas.
- The Peeler & The Goat/Paul's Departure/The Chieftains Are Coming.
- Kerry Mills/Gaelic Park/Tumble The Tinker.
- The Man from Glountane/Tom Dayhill's Fiddle.
- I Made it to Winona/The Day I Spent with Mick/The Rogue's Gallery.
- Ann Heymann's/Glountane School 1862.
- The Big Furze Bush/The Hair Fell Off My Coconut/Minnie Looney's.
Niamh hails from Killarney, Ireland, where she started playing music at the age of 4. A multiple award winner on both fiddle and concertina, she toured for 8 years as a soloist with Riverdance , performing in over 2500 shows, before returning to Ireland where she is now based.
She released her debut album "Ón Dá Thaobh / From Both Sides" in 2007 to much critical acclaim - it was the only Irish album on MOJO's Top Ten Folk Albums for 2007. She received the "Best Trad Music Act 2008" award from UK publication 'The Irish World', and "Best Fiddle/Violin 2008" by the American based 'Irish Music Association'. Her second album "Súgach Sámh / Happy Out" again received rave reviews - it was listed in NY Journalist Earle Hitchner's Top 30 albums for 2010, and as "probably the best album of 2010" in 'Irish Music Magazine'. She was nominated for "Top Solo Performer" in the 2011 Irish Music Awards and in January 2012 was awarded "Female Musician of the Year" in the Live Ireland Music Awards 2012, compiled by respected and renowned industry critic Bill Margeson. Her music features on the programme "Ireland in Song" which is currently airing on Aer Lingus transatlantic flights, and which is also due to be aired on PBS in spring.
Along with touring extensively as a solo artist and with her own band, Niamh has also performed and recorded with The Chieftains, and with Carlos Núñez. and in 2011 released an album "The Basque Irish Connection" , in collaboration with Basque musician Ibon Koteron. She still performs occasionally with Riverdance and most recently joined them for a tour of China where she took on the additional role of Musical Director. She has taught both fiddle and concertina and regularly gives workshops and masterclasses. Her latest album "Cuz" is due for release in March and features many top class guest musicians.
More details at www.niamhnicharra.com
Also by Niamh and available from Copperplate
IMCD001 Niamh ni Charra: From Both Sides
IMCD002 Niamh ni Charra: Happy Out
IMCD003 The Basque Irish Connection:EuskEirea
Press Reviews
Froots Aug 13
Niamh Ní Charra's historical document is of a far more personal nature. The Cuz of her title is Terry Teahan, who followed Michael Conway's emigrant footsteps in 1928, though he ended up in Chicago, where he was a much-loved tune writer, embroiderer, accordionist, concertina and fiddle player, championing the proud Sliabh Luachra tradition. He even made it back to Ireland on a few occasions, on the last of which he met Niamh Ní Charra, then a schoolgirl, and effectively became her mentor — albeit a long-distance one — as she embarked on her own journey as one of Ireland's finest young concertina and fiddle players into Riverdance and beyond. He died in 1989 but, using samples of Cuz singing and playing and drawing material from the tapes of rare tunes he bequeathed her, this is her heartwarming tribute. She, too, has plenty of guest stars to keep the tunes flying and the adrenalin flowing, among them the great Irish American fiddler Liz Carroll, Mick Moloney on banjo, Jimmy Keane on piano accordion, the guitars of Tommy O'Sullivan and Donogh Hennessy, Anne and Nicky McAuliffe on flute and fiddle respectively and the redoubtable Séamus Begley contributing accordion and vocals. It's a lovely project which also comes beautifully packaged with fulsome booklet and a sleeve based on Cuz's embroidery. Colin Irwin
MOJO
Terry 'Cuz' Teahan was an Irish concertina player, composer and embroiderer who emigrated to Chicago in 1928.
Niamh Ni Charra is a magnificent fiddler, singer, concertina player and Riverdancer, who met Cuz in 1986. But the tapes he sent her inspire her still and, with such as Seamus Begley, Liz Carroll, Mick Moloney and Tommy Sullivan, she repays him with this full-blooded and uplifting tribute. Colin Irwin
R2 Monthly Music Glossy Mag ****
Concertina master Terry 'Cuz'Teahan (1905-1989) was born in Co. Kerry, but emigrated to Chicago in l 92 8, surviving the Depression by selling embroidery, but going on to become a key player in the city's vibrant Irish music scene. Always encouraging, aspiring musicians, he spotted schoolgirl Niamh Ni Charra on a visit to his home country in 1986 and, upon his return to Chicago, recorded a tape of tunes and tips which he sent to the precocious musician, a few snippets of which punctuate this release.
This delightful album gathers together musicians from both sides of the Atlantic to celebrate the man and his music, and to say thank-you to this influential player. Drawing on his compositions, many of which have entered uncredited into the popular repertoire, along with tunes associated with Cuz, it's a celebration indeed, with the vertiginous 'The Dolly Varden' spinning from barn dance to slip jig, and a number of spirited polka sets that defy you to sit still.
There's pause for breath on the beautiful 'ls Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Cé hi', but it's the sheer joy of the dance tunes that makes this disc soar. Oz Hardwick
The Living Tradition June/July 13
This tribute to Terry "Cuz" Teahan was sparked bu a tape which Cuz made for Niamh when she was a wee girl. During a visit from his adopted Chicago home to his native Kerry, Cuz Teahan heard the young Niamh play and was impressed enough to record an hour of music and chat for her which he sent over shortly before his death in 1989. Concertina and Fiddle diva Niamh has been inspired by this music ever since, and it seems she was not the only young musician to benefit from Teahan's generosity. Indeed, Cuz got his nickname from his habit of welcoming new immigrants to Chicago with the advice that they should present themselves at the fire station, where he was a chief fireman, and say they were his cousins looking for a job.
Niamh has collected a generous Kerry dozen of Cuz Teahan's compositions here, many showing his roguish character, such as Mickey Chewing Bubblegum, The Day l Spent With Mick and the cryptic Mary Shea 's Promise To Her Dog. Slides, polkas, jigs, reels, highlands, hornpipes and waltzes: Cuz was a proli?c composer, and his tunes are up there with Sliabh Luachra's finest.
Niamh has included a couple of snippets from that tape, showing Cuz in excellent voice on a scurrilous ditty or two, and there are two cheeky Ni Charra creations here too. Niamh has also enlisted the help of several fellow feisty musicians; Seamus Begley, Donal Murphy and Donogh Hennessy among others, as well as Liz Carroll, Jimmy Keane and Mick Moloney from the American Irish community.
Like all good music, and good Kerry music in particular, this collection is over all too quickly. Three quarters of an hour fly by. Some moments do stand out: the two slides Galway Belle and The Mountains Of Ballyhoura often attributed to Cuz Teahan but disowned by him, the delightful Road to Glountane which was apparently Cuz's favourite composition, and the set of polkas starting with I Made It To Winona. On the gentler side, Cuz wrote a charming waltz for harpist Ann Heymann, and Niamh throws in an old Gaelic song - she's a multilingual singer these days, in a light sweet voice. That roguish edge never quite goes away, though, and the final set of slides is a perfect example: a suitably adulterous intro to The Big Furze Bush, the wonderfully named Kerry version of the Scots march A Hundred Pipers, and Minnie Looney's which it seems is a completely unremarkable name in Kerry: go figure! You can find out more at www.niamhnicharra.com - well worth checking out. Alex Monaghan
The Irish Post 10.05.13 Tribute to a musical inspiration
BRILLIANT Killarney musician Niamh Nic Charra's new album celebrates the repertoires and compositionstof Cuz Teahan who emigrated to Chicago in 1928, aged 23. Having spent six decades passing on the music of Sliabh Luachra, to generations of musicians,he made a tape for Niamh shortly before his death.
The tape contained rare tunes and his own compositionsrand provided the inspiration for Niamh to record this fantastic album as a tribute to the man who was an inspiration to her.The album also features some of the other great Irish artists who had a connection to Cuz including Liz Carroll, Jimmy Keane, Mick Moloney, Donal Murphy and Tommy O'Sullivan. Funded by the Arts Council this is an important piece of work by a gifted musician and a fitting tribute to her fellow county man. I will be amazed if it does not feature in the end of the year awards. Joe Giltrap
Irish Music Magazine
Niamh Ni Charra is a multiple award-winning button box and fiddle player. lf you are reading this, you probably already know l that. She is a major creative force in the music, and a well-established Q ?xture on the international stage.The recognition started in her childhood with All-Ireland championships and the like. But, none of those awards were to figure as importantly as a tape she received from Chicago's Terry 'Cuz' Teahan. Cuz, of course, was born in l
Kerry, but had emigrated to Chicago in 1928, where he lived his entire adult life before his passing in 1989.
Teahan was a legendary Sliabh Luachra button box player, while occasionally lending a touch on the fiddle. As a young child, Niamh had met Cuz on one of his last journeys to Ireland. Captivated by the young musician's talent, he surprised her by sending a tape from Chicago made especially for her. It was full of tunes, counsel and encouragement. lt is still one of Niamh's special treasures and sparked the idea for this album.This tribute to Cuz has been in Niamh's heart a long time.
As part of her research, Niamh was stunned to find the virtual library of tunes Cuz had written, for which he never received any credit. Some are considered classics, as should be this album. Lots of guest musicians, headed in tribute by Chicago's own Liz Carroll and Jimmy Keane, as well as the likes of Seamus Begley and Mick Moloney.The project is loaded with Cuz tunes and others, some tapes of himself (the album opens with Cuz reciting The Lonesome Road to Dingle which heads up a set rich in Slides.
The CD includes a lullaby he loved, but did not write. It is all well and good to do these tribute albums. Add in a 24 page booklet and you can see why this album is currently topping CD charts in Ireland and the USA.
In the final analysis, however, it all rests on the musicianship of the players paying the tribute. Led by Niamh, tons of Irish and American artists appear, (Séamus Begley, Anne and Nicky McAuliffe, Donogh Hennessy, Tony O' Flaherty, Liz Carroll, Jimmy Keane and Mick Moloney and even more).
It is a triumph. Cuz would still be proud of Niamh. Very proud, indeed. Bill Margeson
Spiral Earth
The third album from the gifted Niamh Ní Charra, the brilliant fiddle and concertina player has created an album that is both tribute and celebration of a unique mans life. The 'Cuz' of the title is Terry Teahan who emigrated to America in his early twenties in 1923. The Sliabh Luachra musical tradition that he took with him had a huge impact on the music scene over there. Teahan was also a huge help to newly arrived Irish emigrants, telling them who to go to for work and to tell them that they were his cousin, as he called everyone 'Cuz' the name stuck to him.
The story of Teahan is an interesting one on its own, but there is a quite tender intersection with with the life and career of Niamh Ní Charra. Teahan spent the last three years of his life back in Ireland in the late 1980's. Visiting a Killarney primary school he saw the young Niamh performing, the impressed Teahan spoke to the girls father predicting that she would be a professional musician and one day win an All-Ireland title. Which of course she did in 1987, winning the Under Twelve All Ireland Concertina final, she went on to tour internationally with Riverdance for nearly ten years.
What makes this more of a concept album than a set of brilliantly played tunes is the way Niamh has sourced and used short recordings of Teahan at the beginning of some of the tracks, inspiration also comes from a personal tape of tunes he made for her . Teahan is transported from a historical reference to a living breathing presence on the album , indeed listening to them he must have been a larger than life character all round.
The tunes are fast and fulsome, the Sliabh Luachra tradition is heavy on the polka and the slide whilst light on the reels and so are the thirteen tracks on the album. An impressive range of guest musicians join Niamh, all in some way or another influenced by Cuz. The arrangements utilising all the phenomenal talents on offer is the real strength of the recording - it is a modern classic, a brilliant introduction to the life of Teahan and a superb reference point for the tradition that Teahan and Niamh have helped nurture and spread. Iain Hazlewood
The Irish Times: Niamh Ní Charra's beautifully rough-hewn collection celebrates Sliabh Luachra's bounties with chutzpah…A fine and firely collection. Siobhán Long
Chicago Irish American News: "This is the immediate front runner for Album of the Year."
Amwerican Public Radio: 'Cuz' and the recognition this brings to Mr. Teahan is long overdue. Thank goodness, the woman who pulled all this together is a stunningly gifted musician and archivist. This is one of the best. Ever. Good on Cuz, and good on Niamh!
FEMALE MUSICAN OF THE YEA R: Live Ireland Muzic Awards 2012
Fatea web site
Cuz"is named after legendary Irish musician, Terry 'Cuz' Teahan, who migrated to the US in the early part of the last century and who was to have a massive influence on the East Coast Irish music scene both as a performer and teacher, it would be fair to describe him as an inspirational source who enthused and inspired many musicians over a number of generations, including a young Niamh Ni Charra, when she met him in the latter years of his life and the early years of hers.
I guess if Niamh was a classical violinist she would be called a virtuoso, well even though she chooses to call her instrument of her trade the fiddle it's still very much the right thing to use that term. Not only that, fiddle isn't her only weapon of choice as she's a pretty mean concertina player too.
As you would expect from the title, "Cuz", subtitled, 'A Tribute To Terry 'Cuz' Teahan', consists of a series of sets of his tunes, though with Niamh Ni Charra's signature sound distinctively laid over the top and for fans of traditional Irish Music, it's a combination that's heaven made.
That said, this is not an entirely instrumental album, there are some great contrasting songs that also highlight that Ni Charra also has a great set of vocal chords. "Is Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn Ce Hi" is a glorious piano ballad that also features some really poignant concertina that adds to an already emotional atmosphere to create a really powerful and moving song.
"Cuz" is an album that pays tributes to one of the great masters of Irish music, by one of its new mistresses and one that should have broad appeal. Neil King
www.TradConnect.com
Niamh Ní Charra grew up in Killarney, Ireland and is recognised internationally for her music on both fiddle and concertina. She performed with Riverdance for close to a decade as a soloist before returning once again to Ireland and making it her home. Her debut album "Ón Dá Thaobh / From Both Sides" was released in 2007 and she followed this up with "Sugach Samh/Happy Out" in 2010. Album No.3 takes her in a different direction and is a concept album where melody, lyric, place, time, people and events combine to bring the listener more intimately into her world. She has found a perfect musical vehicle for this project in the life of Terry "Cuz" Teahan. It combines music, composition, emigration and life on a foreign shore. Cuz emigrated in 1928 at the age of 23 and brought the music of Sliabh Luachra with him to his new home in Chicago. He lived there for the rest of his life, influencing many of the well know musicians of today. In 1986, 3 years prior to his death he returned to Kerry and took the time to talk to the father of a primary school kid at a local session. He predicted that the young musician in question would someday win an All-Ireland title and go on to have a life in music. That kid was Niamh Ní Charra and the following year she went on to fulfil that prophesy by winning Under 12 All Ireland concertina final.
As an album it features a lot of music from the Sliabh Luachra tradition as you would expect. Slides, polkas and barn dances dominate. There are only two reels with the balance made up from highland's and hornpipes. This sets a different tone from any other recent releases and is refreshing in its approach. The tracks zip along at a lively and enjoyable rate with great opening set of slides called The Lonesome Road to Dingle/Dave Kennedy's Gift/Cuz Teahan's Favourite/The Nuns' Cuttings . While this track features Dónal Murphy on accordion and Tommy O' Sullivan on guitar, Niamh has also brought on board a whole range of guest musicians who also have been influenced by the music and company of Cuz over the years. From America we have Liz Carroll, Jimmy Keane and Mick Moloney and from Ireland Séamus Begley, Anne and Nicky McAuliffe, Donogh Hennessy, Tony O' Flaherty and others. They take their place on different tunes and sets across the 13 tracks of the album. Having talent and knowing how to use it was the key and every set is fresh and beautifully arranged. Frank Thornton's/The Glountane Highland/The Road to Glountane is a great set of highlands written by Cuz, often played but very often uncredited to him.
Niamh has taken the creative step of using old recordings of Cuz at the start of several of the tracks. They last mere seconds but add real depth to the album bringing to life a sense of the character and lovable rogue that Cuz must have been. The music is outstanding throughout as you would expect. However as a listener you are always looking for something interesting or different that will make you return to the tracks. It succeeds on the joint pillars of superior Sliabh Luachra music played impeccably and the underlining heartbeat that is the story of Cuz. Therein lies the secret to its success for me. The name Cuz it should finally be stated came from the help that Terry gave to newly arrived emigrants. He would tell them who to see to get work, instructing them to say they were his cousin. He eventually called everyone Cuz when greeting them and the name stuck. Tony Lawless
The Irish Times 03.13
The riches to be mined from the music of Sliabh Luachra are inexhaustable and Niamh Ni Charra's beautifully rough -hewn collection celebrates its bounties with chutzpah. Terry "Cuz" Teahan (1905 - 1989) was a concertina and accordion player (and, remarkably, an ace embroider) who emigrated to Chicago from Glountane in 1928. His lifelong love of the music and his picaresque tune compositions lit a fire beneath Ni Chara's own playing.
Here a roguish melee of musicians bristle with energy while putting a light-fingered stamp on such Cuz tunes as Mickey Chewing Bubblegum and The Man from Glountane. Ni Charra's fiddle jousts impishly with her music teacher Nicky McAuliffe, on The Newmarket Polka. Elsewhere Liz Carroll, Mick Moloney and many others bolster and shade with a subtlety that has come to define Ni Charra's approach to her music. A fine and fiery collection. Siobhan Long
