Greengrass Vol. 11

By Aaron Lord
  1. “Elephant in the Corn” - Nickel Creek. After a 7-year break, Nickel Creek returned in 2014 with critically-acclaimed A Dotted Line.
  2. “Catherine Kelly’s / Lake Effect” - Liz Carroll featuring Turtle Island String Quartet. Catherine Kelly’s slip jig is something we’ve recently reintegrated into our set list. This recording puts a different spin on it.
  3. “Soggy’s / Waterboogie” - Beoga. A dancer who used to come to our local session choreographed a dance for this slip jig. Our session leader calls Soggy’s “The best slip jig ever… I’ve been told that if you play this for dancers they will love you.”
  4. “Fish and Bird” - Noam Pikelny featuring Aoife O’Donovan. A waltz by the banjo player from Punch Brothers, from Grammy- nominated Beat the Devil and Carry a Rail. It’s actually about a bird and a whale.
  5. “Repeal of the Union” - The Gloaming. Featuring Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and Martin Hayes.
  6. “Timmy Cliffords / The Return Home / O’ot Be Est Da Vong / John Joe Caseys” - Solas. Though recorded in 1996 this great album from which this track comes has really stood the test of time.
  7. “Interlude 3” - Sarah Jarosz. From Blue Heron Suite, a concept album that is really a single-composition song cycle. It contains four interludes. Sarah’s primary instrument is a Fletcher Brock arch-top octave mandolin.
  8. “6 Then 5” - Seamus Egan. This comes from a great 2020 album from American multi-instrumentalist of Irish music and former member of Solas.
  9. “The Rookery / Joe Cooley’s Morning Dew / The Edenderry Reel” - Caitlin Nic Gabhann. Former member of Riverdance and concertina player who accompanies her own music with percussive foot-tapping.
  10. “Rye Whiskey” - Punch Brothers. “Rye whiskey makes the band sound better / Makes your baby cuter…”
  11. “Suite Breton: Stajerien Chapel Nevez / Ridée / Ridée Pour Jean-Michel Veillon” - Old Blind Dogs. One reel and two ridées, from Cape Breton, as performed by Scots from Aberdeen.
  12. “Whiskey Before Breakfast” - Various. A distinctly bluegrass take on a classic Irish session tune, from Bluegrass ‘95, winner of International Bluegrass Music Association’s 1996 “Recorded Event of the Year”.
  13. “Lady In The Bottle / Old Hag You Have Killed Me / Price Of The Pig” - Anna Murray - Scottish piper from the Isle of Lewis closes us out with a set of three jigs on the small pipes.

Cover image is a photo of green grass with morning dew, with blurry trees in the distance, by Jonas Weckschmied on Unsplash