1. The Musical Priest / Jenny's Chickens

2. The Humours of Lissadel / The Queen of May

3. Tommy Coen's / The Reel of Mullinavat

4. The Templehouse / Toss The Feathers

5. The Pipe on the Hob / Brendan Tonra's Jig

6. Farewell to Miltown / The Star of Munster

7. Pol Ha'penny

8. Colonel Fraser

9. The Bank of Ireland / The Woman of the House

The Drunken Gauger

Banish Misfortune / The Cliffs of Moher

Lucy Campbell

Paddy Ryan's Dream / Over the Moor to Maggie

Rakish Paddy / The Green Fields of Rossbeigh

The Tempest / The West Wind

The Porthole of the Kelp / The Hare's Paw

Press Reviews

Irish Music Magazine 1/2003

Bow Hand is the baby of Dermot Kearney, banjo-player and erstwhile sparring partner of the fiddler Jimmy Power when the latter led the sessions on The Victoria in London's Holloway Road in the 1980s. The label's first release was 'Navvy on the Shore' by the larger than life and twice as frisky, Donegal fidddler, Danny Meehan, and now comes an equally valuable recording from another key figure on the London Irish music scene.

Sean Casey is, of course, the son of the late Bobby Casey, from the Crosses of Annagh in Co Clare, whom many reckon to be one of the greatest fiddlers of the latter half of the last century and, sadly also one of the most under-recorded. Brought up in London's Camden Town in a house where Willie Clancy was the lodger, oddly enough Sean was never taught by his father, but acquired early tuition from the concertina player and piper, Tommy McCarthy, also learning fiddle technique from Tony Linnane, and Brendan Mulkere. Yet it was on the mandolin that Sean first made his name, later also acquiring skills on the mandola and banjo, on the last of which he would often be requested to play a solo at The Victoria. Ill-health forced Jimmy Power to retire from the pub's sessions and Dermot Kearney latched upon Sean as his replacement, much to the latter's surprise, on the fiddle and he's never looked back since.

Porthole of the Kelp is his debut solo album, and was recorded in the Cricklewood living room of Paddy Gallagher, who accompanies on guitar and bouzouki, with Pete Quinn dropping in for the odd tune on the keyboard. Those who've heard Sean play at a session will instantly recognise the wit, sensitivity and effortless vigour which characterizes his playing, ever willing to let the melody do the work, but keen to explore its possibilities. There were, of course, essential facets of his father's music and there are many echoes of the great man here, not least in two swooping jigs, The Pipe on the Hob and Brendan Tonra's.

Admittedly, the sound quality (direct to DAT) is not the best, though the accompaniment is always spot on whether it's Paddy's stylish tracking of Casey's every move, or the resonant chordal landscape painted by Pete's keyboard. As on the reel, 'Colonel Fraser', the letter seems to inspire Sean to broaden his canvas even further, offering a rich concoction of technical agility married to essential soulfulness.

Sean never plays a tune the same way twice, so this is very much a one-off recording, but, hopefully not the last that those outside London will hear of him. Geoff Wallis

Musical Traditions Web Site

One of the younger musicians referred to by Reg in his aforementioned liner notes is the fiddler Seán Casey who was born some thirty-five or so years ago in North London. His father was, of course, Bobby Casey whose own father was Scully Casey which is some lineage to live up to. The Porthole is simply one hell of a fiddle player doing precisely what comes naturally! (It is suggested, however, that those of a nervous disposition do not look too closely at the CD itself which, thanks to the position of its central hole, appears to show Seán shot through the head.) Geoff Wallis