At Complete Ease, by John Carty & Brian Rooney

At Complete Ease

by John Carty & Brian Rooney

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The Battering Ram :The interpretation of this piece is a killer

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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Racket Records 25 year Celebration Compilation, At Our Leisure, The Wavy Bow Collection, Settle Out Of Court, Mirth-making Heroes, The Good Mixer - Traditional Irish Music recorded live in London - 1989, Meadbh The Crimson Path, I Will If I Can, and 9 more. , and , .

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1.	Morris Scanlon's / The Wandering Minstrel / Up Leitrim (jigs) 02:59	buy track
2.	The Bunch of Green Rushes / The Stone in the Field / Corry Hills (reels) 03:33	buy track
3.	O'Dwyer's / Kilannon's / Killavil Fancy (hornpipe/reels) 04:52	buy track
4.	The Worn Torn Petticoat / Spike Island Lassies (slide/reel) 02:29	buy track
5.	Old John's / A Thousand Farewells (jigs) 02:41	buy track
6.	Collier's / Rakish Paddy / Pinch of Snuff (reels) 04:08	buy track
7.	Bonny Annie / The Clare Dragoons (polkas) 02:23	buy track
8.	My Own Western Home (waltz) 02:33	buy track
9.	Highest Hill in Sligo / Palmer's Gate (reels) 02:35	buy track
10.	Fig For A Kiss / Dooney Rock (slip jigs) 02:29	buy track
11.	Granuaile / Green Groves of Erin / The Mountain Top (barndance/reels) 05:17	buy track
12.	Old Arboe / The Battering Ram / The Drimacoo Reel (air/jig/reel) 04:23	buy track
13.	Humours of Ballinlass / O'Callaghan's (hornpipes) 02:57	buy track
14.	Ensemble Set (jig/barndance/reel/jig/reels) 06:39	buy track

about

John Carty (fiddle, tenor guitar), Brian Rooney (fiddle), with James Carty (fiddle), Mickey Rooney (fiddle), Arty McGlynn (guitar), Brian McGrath (piano, tenor guitar, hammond organ), Alec Finn (bouzouki, tenor guitar, guitar)

Having played for years together John Carty and Brian Rooney have finally made a recording of their duet playing. Their individual creativity and spontaneous, subtle melodic variations are allowed to flourish within a shared musicality producing a partnership which is more than the sum of two fiddles. There are guest appearances on fiddle by John's son, James, and Brian's brother, Mickey. Accompaniment is provided by Alec Finn, Arty McGlynn and Brian McGrath.

"Two of my top ten Irish traditional albums for 2005 were “Within a Mile of Kilty” by Ben, Charlie, and Maurice Lennon, Brian Rooney, Seamus Quinn, and John Gordon, which was the #1 release of that year, and “I Will If I Can” by John Carty, which was #10. Two of those musicians, Leitrim-born fiddler and button accordionist Brian Rooney and London-born fiddler, tenor banjoist, tenor guitarist, and flutist John Carty (of Boyle-Cashel parents), have recently released their first full duet album, “At Complete Ease,” and it’s easily one of the best recordings I’ve heard so far this year.

Eleven years apart in age (Rooney is older), these two musicians show no signs of a generation gap on this CD. The tightness of their playing (Carty on fiddle and tenor guitar, Rooney solely on fiddle) stems from sessions they shared in London during the late 1970s. In New York we tend to elevate our Irish traditional music scene as the epicenter of all diasporas. But London’s diasporic Irish trad scene has its own distinguished history of influence and impact, as this album affirms.

I’ve admired John Carty’s talent since “The Cat That Ate the Candle,” his 1994 solo album devoted almost entirely to his banjo playing. With “Last Night’s Fun,” his first fiddle-centric solo CD in 1996, he firmly established himself as a multi-instrumental threat. (He’s additionally proficient on tenor guitar and flute.) Carty is a member of two bands, At the Racket and Patrick Street, and often performs with Chieftains’ flutist Matt Molloy and guitarist Arty McGlynn in Ireland, where the trio issued “Pathway to the Well” in 2007.

The artistry of Brian Rooney became apparent to me in 1999 with his superb solo debut, “The Godfather,” produced by John Carty, who plays banjo on it. In 2002, Rooney’s second solo CD, “Leitrim to London,” was nearly as impressive and included a track of his fine accordion playing. Like veteran flutist Tom McElvogue, whose sparkling “The Long Hard Road” in 2010 hinted at the journey taken to gain some form of wider recognition, Rooney represents the best of England’s immigrant and native Irish traditional culture deserving more international attention.

“At Complete Ease” is pure-drop duet playing but without the mania for “correctness” sometimes marring otherwise well-intentioned, hard-core traditional recordings. There is no one prescribed way to play a tune. The challenge is to interpret a melody without distorting or destroying its essence and appeal. Carty and Rooney understand that. What’s ironic is that the luster of their playing emanates from their avoidance of luster. They perform with, not at, each other, much as they would in a pub where patrons come to listen more than socialize." The Irish Echo

credits

released February 16, 2011

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Racket Records

Racket Records is an independent family run record label based in the north west of Ireland established in 1997 specialising in Irish traditional music.

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