World Library of Folk and Primitive Music vol.1:Ireland

When Alan Lomax left the United States in 1948 he made his home in London, and started immediately to record and travel throughout England, Ireland and Scotland. In Ireland, Seamus Ennis, the famous singer and musician served him as a guide and translator for the Gaelic songs. Ennis was himself a field collector who already collected tunes and songs all over Ireland. He appears many times on the first volume of “The World Library”, both as a singer and player of the uileann pipes. Another great character is Margaret Barry, a powerful street singer from Cork who accompanies her singing with a 5-String Banjo. Lomax would record her again in London where she lived throughout the fifties and became a well-known figure of the pubs and clubs, often playing with fiddler Michael Gorman. The emphasis on this first volume of The World Library is on the vocal styles and the beautiful Gaelic language but it features also fine samples of instrumental music played on fiddle and uileann pipes. (On the photos below: Semus Ennis in the 1950’s holding his uileann pipes and Michael Gorman with Margaret Barry)

-I digitalized my vinyl copy of the disc but didn’t cut the performances in separate tracks. I prefered to have an mp3 of each side to restituate “the vinyl experience” of listening an entire side of performances in a row. As these records were issued more than fifty years ago, the copy i have contains many pops and clics but it’s not so annoying, at least for someone like me, who is used to hear 78rpm scratchy records! I say to myself, it’s like listening music close to the fireside, with the clics of the wood burning…For those who wants a cleaner sound, there’s always the possibilty to buy the re-issue cd on Rounder Records…

Listen here: Ireland- side A

                     Ireland-side B

-Here are photographs of the inside liner notes: