Johnny Og Connolly
Fear Inis Bearachain

With
Padraig O'Dubhghail: Guitar
Liam O'Connor: Fiddle
Cliona Costello: Banjo
Tommy Fitzharris: Flute
Garry O'Briain: Mandocello

This is a new album by Johnny Og Connolly compiled as a tribute to his father, the renowned melodeon player, Johnny Connolly. Released on the Clo lar-Chonnacht label, the album is a beautiful and fitting tribute to one of Connemara's most beloved musicians.

Writing in the album notes, Johnny Og says that it was always his intention to begin playing the melodeon when his father no longer could. "Sadly, that time has come sooner than any of us could have anticipated. From after the Willie Clancy week in 2018 till the middle of September, I devoted some serious attention to the melodeon, listening and playing along to my dad's wonderful recordings," he explains."...the result is an album of variety and contrast, with an emphasis on Conamara music..."

“My father used to say to me, “play the melodeon, take it up”, but I always preferred the two-row accordion because there was so much more you could do with it,” says musician and composer Johnny Óg Connolly, smiling at the irony.
Because this Saturday night, the Connemara man, who is hugely regarded for his accordion-playing, will release his latest CD, Fear Inis Bearachain, at a session in Tigh Chualain, Inverin – and it’s a melodeon album.
Fear Inis Bearachain was recorded in honour of his father Johnny Connolly, the man who is credited with reviving this single-row instrument in Connemara and further afield.
“I always said I’d play it when he wasn’t around and, in a way, that’s true,” says Johnny Óg, referring to the Alzheimer’s Disease which in recent years, has ravaged his father’s mind. Not for nothing is it called the living death, he observes.
Johnny and his father’s close relationship was forged mainly over music, he says, as they were very different personalities.
And while he grieves the absence of the man who ferried him to sessions and fleadhs throughout his childhood, Johnny is eternally grateful for the gift they shared, which allows him pay omós, in his own special way, to Sean Johnny.
The album title refers to his father’s birthplace on the island of Inish Bearachain where music was central to people’s lives – there was little else by way of entertainment, Johnny Óg remarks.
As a young man, his father emigrated to England, returning to Connemara in 1976 with his wife Patricia and young family.
Although Johnny Connolly later became renowned for his wonderful, effortless and graceful playing of the single-row melodeon, he didn’t play it at all when his children were young.
Johnny Óg recalls that his dad did pick it up one night during a Celtic festival in Lorient, encouraged by his friend and fellow musician, Meaití Jó Shéamuis Ó Fáharta, and got a great reaction.
Then, after a work accident meant he had to take six months off, Patricia bought her husband a melodeon. It became a life-defining gift.

Audio

Track 1: The Ashplant

Track 2: Fear Inis Bearachain

Track3:

Track Listing

1. Pota Mor Fatai/Sadhbruinnealla/ Cailleach an Airgid/ Whiskey O Rowdledum.
2. Ril Mhairtin Sheamuis/The Ashplant
3. Keel Row/Barndance gan ainm
4. Flanagan’s Jig/Kimmel’s Jig
5. Suantrai James & Eilidh Patricia
6. Boys of Blue Hill/An Staicin Eorna
7. Liam an Bhradain/Kelly G’s/Hurley’s Hop Jig
8. The Sligo Maid/The Silver Spear
9. Brown Coffin Hornpipe
10. Fear Inis Bearachain/Fear Londain/Fear Bhoston
11. Caoineadh Aisling na Geal
12. Ceiliur na Spideoige/Ben’s Arrival
13. PJ Conlon’s Slip Jigs
14. Tommy the Norman/Fitzharris Fling
15. La Belle Ella/Glen Swilly Waltz
16. The Blackthorn Stick/Humours of Glendart/Paidin O’Raffeartaigh

Watch Johnny and Johnny O'g play on youTube

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/]

Press Reviews

  RnR May/June           *****  

This may sound fanciful but accordian/melodeon player Johnny O’g Connolly’s, Fear Inis Bearcain is a skeleton key of a work. In terms of the Conamara accordion/melodeon tradition, it is comparable to John Kirkpatrick’s Plain Capers unlocked Morris dance tunes from the  Cotswolds tradition. To say simplistically it's fifteen tracks long would be numerically correct but profoundly inaccurate. It is far, far more and greater than the sum of its parts.

In part, Fear lnis Bearachain is a tribute to his father, the melodeon player Johnny Connolly. The material here also taps into other, wider Connemara sources, notable of these is the Gurrane, County Galway-born maestro Peter Conlon 1892-1967) whose reputation as the “Most Famous Irish Accordionist” (February 1935) is based on his U.S. recordings. Do check out The Genius Of Peter Conlon (Oldtime Records OTR 104/105,1012.)

Every track, bar two, is a dance tune miniature. Each is a multiple foray into barndances, hornpipes, hop dances, jigs, slip jigs, reels or waltzes.
Or maybe an instrumental rendering of a sean nos song. The two exceptions are absolutely breathtaking. The first is just over three minutes in length: the exquisite lullaby (suantrai) 'Suantrai James Agus Eilidh Patricia'. The second at double that duration is his dreamy, steal-your-breath-away slow air commission, 'Caoineadh Aisling Na nGael'.

Like Plain Capers this is not a solo free reed recording. Like it- it is a thing of beauty. Ken Hunt

The Irish Music Magazine May 19
This album was released in December 2018, just in time for Christmas. It is in many ways a present from Johnny Óg to his father Johnny Connolly. The latter is the well-respected box player, who hails from the island of Inis Bearachain in Conamara, hence the title of the album. Johnny Senior hasn’t been doing too well of late, being struck down with Alzheimer’s, so much so, that his playing days are sadly now behind him.
On this album, Johnny Óg pays a warm tribute to his father’s memory and music, not by way of imitation, neither is it sentimental, it is an act of love, a gentle passing of tradition from one generation to another. Oh, what music there is to hand down, lively dance music, with a strong hint of the swing and verve of 1920s American ballrooms on a pair of jigs Flanagan’s and Kimmel’s. Track ten is a medley of tunes that recall places where Johnny Senior has lived, Inis Bearachain, London and Boston. There’s a waltz lullaby Suantrai James agus Eilidh Patricia. Johnny’s own composition Tommy the Norman and The Fitzharris Fling were composed for Leitrim man Tommy Fitzharris who adds his flute to this track.
Other guests include Gary O Briain on Mandocello and Padraig Ó Dhubhghaill on guitar, Clodadh Costello on banjo and Liam O’Connor on Fiddle, a premier league team. The solo playing is exemplary, complete with the click and clack as the buttons press out the music, giving the album another dimension of handicraft, and honesty.
Music is a gift and the Connollys have shared it with each other and us for years. Give yourself a treat and gift it to your collection. Seán Laffey