The Swallow's Tail

Si do Mhamo I / gan Ainm

Cuz Teehan's / The Blackbird

Cooley's / Come West Along The Road

The Annabla Polkas 2+1

Na Ceannabhain Bhana / Paidin O'Raifeartaigh

Amhran Mhainse

Rileanna Chois Fharraige

Give Us A Drink of Water / Hardiman the Fiddler

Kiely Cotter / The Bridge of Athlone / The Cuil Aodha Slide

The Trip to Barbados(That's Right Too) / The Leading Role

Johnny Seoighe

The Bee's Wing / The High Level Hornpipe

Poirt Inis Bearachain

The Bucks of Oranmore

The Friendly Robin / The Dawn Chorus

Press Reviews

The Irish Times

Fiddler/ Pianist Charlie Lennon and guitarist Steve Cooney combine with Connemara melodeon/accordion guru Connolly to produce a truly wonderful thoroughly rhythmic collection of Reels, Jigs, Flings, Hornpipes and Song.

The Living Tradition

His playing is sharp and solid and has a lovely warm quality to it...Each note is in place and spun with the hand of a weaver.

Musical Traditions

Johnny is a great technician and plays with a great deal of drive.

Rock'n'Reel

Johnny Connolly's command of the melodeon allows some bright, sparkling moments of inspiration on Cuz Teehan's and The Annabla Polkas. The Swallow's Tail shows conclusively that Connolly is a very gifted traditional musician.

Sing Out

This album proves Johnny Connolly to be a mighty player of the melodeon. He plays with a strong rhythmic sense and depth of emotion not often reached by other boxplayers. There is an earthiness to his sound that seems to touch a lost chord in the soul.

Taplas

Enemies of the accordion family have its nomenclature on their side; melodeon, for instance, means different things in different places. In Ireland, it's the humble instrument with one row of right-hand buttons and this is what Johnny Connolly plays. There's a humility in this man too. His playing is understated and measured, but wonderfully rhythmic, forever exploring new twists and turns of expression. Charlie Lennon's inventive piano accompaniments are exemplary (he's also there on fiddle) and Steve Cooney's more up-front guitar suits the two tracks of polkas and slides. Drioball na Fainleoige, meaning The Swallow's Tail (which tune Connolly plays in three different keys) is a great second album from one of Ireland's finest but less vaunted traditional musicians. John Neilson

The Living Tradition

Johnny Connolly's debut album An tOile n Aerach received fulsome plaudits in the pages of this magazine, which rated it one of the musical highlights of its year of release, 1991. This pair of welcome new offerings from Clo Iar-Chonnachta are ample indication that the phenomenon which caused so much excitement back then was no flash in the pan, and that, indeed, what we're dealing with here is ... well, a living tradition.

Dreaming Up the Tunes is as fine an example as you'd hope to meet of a son following in an illustrious father's footsteps. But to deal with the dad first:

Johnny senior - known as Sean-Johnny ("Old Johnny") to distinguish him from his talented offspring - has presented us here with another virtuoso display of eclecticism and swing on the melodeon and accordion. The tunes come from all over the place - Johnny obviously has a soft spot for Kerry music, and slides and polkas are well represented here, played with a naturalness and surety of touch rare among non-Kerry musicians, unobtrusive accompaniment from the ubiquitous Steve Cooney perhaps helping the case. As might be expected, music from Johnny's homeplace in Cois Fharraige is also well to the fore, song airs from Connemara providing the basis for dance tunes in a couple of cases, as in his slip-jig version of P id