I haven’t updated this playlist series in almost 13 years. This iteration includes mostly tunes recorded since then (other than the Nickel Creek tune). Apple Music has been invented since then, so that’s where this one lives instead of Spotify. I hope you enjoy it.
- “Magherabaun Reel” - Martin Hayes & the Common Ground Ensemble. The Common Ground Ensemble is the latest outlet for Martin Hayes’ talent since the passing of his long-time collaborator, guitarist Dennis Cahill.
- “Fermoy Lasses / Sporting Paddy” - The Tossers. Chicago celtic punk band The Tossers recently release a self-titled album with covers and re-recordings of some of their standards. This track is a raucous rendition of some session tunes.
- “These Times Have Got Me Drinking / Tripping Up the Stairs” - Flogging Molly. A great imagining of what an Irish tune might be about if it were a song.
- “The Bunch of Green Rushes / Salt Creek” - We Banjo 3. The Greengrass idea of mixing bluegrass and Irish traditional music is probably best embodied in the transatlantic music of We Banjo 3.
- “The Falcon’s Rest” - Fourwinds. This is a brand-new album which I supported on Kickstarter.
- “Castilleja” - Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway. From their Grammy-winning best bluegrass album.
- “The First Rain / An Choisir / Tommy Peoples’” - Marla Fibish feat. Keith Murphy. One of the other tunes on this album references the Paradise Fire in 2018. I wonder whether First Rain is about clearing the smoke from the skies.
- “Mansinneedof” - Sarah Jarosz. Another Grammy-nominated mandolin tune from a great artist.
- “The Yellow Tinker / The Yellow Pantsuit” - Liz Carroll. The Yellow Tinker is one of my favorite tunes. Jimmy Keane writes about how this tune
gets “Lizzified” this time around and as a bonus, is the one solo fiddle tune on the album (aside from Liz’s tapping feet). By Lizzified, I mean she turns the tune inside out and re-interprets it - always respectful of the tune, but just adds a little “sumthin, sumthin” to it – maybe with a few extra notes, highlighting an internal phrase or rhythm, enhancing a chord, inverting rolls/ornaments etc. It is part of why traditional music has survived the past few centuries…
- “I’m Shipping Up to Boston (Tulsa Version)” - Dropkick Murphys. This song comes from the large library of Woody Guthrie. This version uses fiddle as the main melody instrument instead of accordion and tenor banjo.
- “Master Crowley’s” - Lankum. Master Crowley’s is another of my favorites. My son says this version is “scary.”
- “Smoothie Song” - Nickel Creek. This octave-mandolin-driven tune won the Grammy for best country instrumental in 2002.
- “O’Sullivan’s March / The Green Fields of Glentown” - Caitlín & Ciarán. And my favorite tune (Glentown). Caitlín and Ciarán take turns accompanying each other with rich drones on this track.