At Our Leisure
John Carty & Michael McGoldrick
with
Matt Griffin, guitar
Jonas Fromseier, bouzouki & guitar
Unique combination of banjo and uilleann pipes with a splash of fiddle, flute and whistle with John Carty and Michael McGoldrick. Two of trads finest instrumentalists show their ability on several instruments, Carty on banjo and fiddle and McGoldrick flute, uilleann pipes and whistle, to create a classic duets album of Irish trad.
Audio
Track 1: The Sandymount
Track 2: The Groves
Track 3: Mist Covered Mounyains of Home
Track 4: Lucy Campbell
Track Listing
- Waverly / Ríl Máirtín Sheamuis
- Kelly’s Grove / Lilt Of The Landscape
- Chief O’Neil’s Favourite/ Plains Of Boyle / Humours Of Westport
- Stepping Stones / McShane’s Rambles
- 5th Legion March
- Ned Of The Hill
- Mist Covered Mountains Of Home Waltz
- The Pilgrimage / Mountcollins / Sally Gally
- Peggy’s Wedding / The Eastersnow Reel
- Gypsy Princess
- Gold Ring / The Star Of Munster
- Lord Galway’s Lamentation
- Lucy Campbell / The Jolly Tinker
- Meadbh’s Journey
- Whistler O’re The Lave O’t / Kilkenny For Me / Come To The Fair. Marches
- The GrovesHornpipe
- The Wind That Shakes The Barley / The Boyne Hunt / The Sandmount
Also available from Copperplate
Michael McGoldrick & Dezi Donnelly: The Dog in the Fog
Press Reviews
THE IRISH POST
John Carty & Michael McGoldrick - At Our Leisure
It can be too easy to take our best Irish traditional musicians for granted when they so consistently make top class music. John Carty and Michael McGoldrick’s At Our Leisure album, which has them mainly playing the relatively rare combination of banjo and uilleann pipes, is certainly one that deserves a lot more attention that it’s had so far. They are very ably supported by Matt Griffin on guitar, and Mike McCague and Jonas Fromseier who each play bouzouki and guitar.
Carty and McGoldrick were certainly leisurely in getting around to making the album after they first teamed up to play with others in 2014 at London’s Royal Albert Hall to mark a state visit by Irish President Michael D. Higgins. Anyone fortunate enough to see their concert recently at the Return to London Town Festival will know just how brilliantly well they play together. Often to be found on fiddle, including accompanying top flute player Matt Molloy, long time Boyle resident Carty learnt his craft in London. Manchester’s McGoldrick, frequently to found in the company of John Doyle and John McCusker, is in constant demand in the trad music world and beyond.
There is a highly agreeable variety of mostly traditional music on offer on At Our Leisure – a great mix of reels, jigs, waltzes, marches, and airs. Chief O'Neil's / Plains of Boyle / Humours of Westport is a lovely set of tunes, the first two hornpipes taken at an undulating, calm pace which allows you to fully hear the close skilled interplay between Carty’s banjo and McGoldrick’s pipes. Kelly's Grove / Lilt of the Landscape is a great set of reels written by McGoldrick, the playing restrained, giving equal weight to both instruments.
Fans of McGoldrick’s flute playing will be kept happy with the flute/banjo combination on a set of reels - Peggy's Wedding / The Eastersnow Reel – and a fabulous flute duet for the first half of Meadbh's Journey, a slow reel composed by Carty, then McGoldrick rounds the sound out with the addition of pipes in the second half, all underpinned by Matt Griffin’s exemplary guitar playing. Carty also swaps instruments, from banjo to fiddle, on Lucy Campbell’s / Jolly Tinker, a glorious, fast-paced set of reels. The closely matched fiddle and pipes keep up the brisk tempo and sound as good as inseparable on the second tune.
An outstanding set of three reels – The Wind That Shakes The Barley / Boyne Hunt/ The Sandymount – bring At Our Leisure to a close. The Wind That Shakes The Barley is one of those familiar tunes that somehow always sounds fresh and never more so than in this banjo and pipes setting. The skill involved in putting different tunes together is rarely commented on but the combination of these three tunes is a master class in continuity, making the joins almost invisible. It’s a superb way to end.
At Our Leisure is an exceptional album of traditional music, with a sense of renewal in the relaxed blending of banjo and pipes, and one of those that we will keep returning to. Dave McNally
