ABOUT 2

Continued from ABOUT 1

From our teenage years Derry and I developed mainly musical friendships with those around us and this has led me from boogie-woogie to blues and r&b, to old time and even back to the Irish that we once rebelled against. Right now it all seems to revolve back to what we might have heard as teenagers on the kitchen radio or from a handful of records an elder brother returned from London with. These gems included Leadbelly, Davy Graham, Cyril Davis, Lonnie Donnigan and Flatt & Scruggs amongst others. A friend lent me some Jimmy Yancey records and that carved my path of appreciation into the blues and later onto greats like Professor Longhair and Fats Domino.

In my early 40's my waning interest and stagnation in the piano was given a new lease of life by frequenting an Old Time pub session that had a brilliant piano otherwise unused. I was unfamiliar with it at first but I soon found myself hooked. I was therefore quite shocked when the proprietors removed the piano without any warning. Having discovered the fun of playing ensemble rather than solo I bought a guitar and learned to flat-pick without hesitation. In a similar fashion I later picked up and learnt some old time fiddling.

The piano was never too far behind for what I could play on the fiddle I transferred to piano and in so doing I seemed to find a my own voice on it. This was boosted about a year ago by indulging myself to a Yamaha Clavinova. As if in mockery to the cheap and cheerful uprights I was used to I was astonished to discover a flood of new output on its slick keyboard. This flood sprung from the deep well that decades of Old-time sessions had filled.

Throughout my playing life I've changed from applying different fingerings for different styles to almost the one fingering method now. On the left hand the third finger provides walking bass while the thumb and forefinger make up chords and the little finger plays bottom-alternating 5ths. The thumb often alternates the offbeat with a sixth providing a swing element. With the right hand I play the scale using the unusual 4/3 finger progression. Both fingering techniques are I believe pretty unique for I've never been shown or been corrected in my approach, nor have I had the advantage of reading music. The discerning listener will be correct to point out that I diverge on occasion to add colour. The style may not allow for those elegant chromatic right hand chord changes that Violet Tullock (Shetland) so skilfully employs but at least it does accommodate the three elements of my tunes: the melody, the chords and the bass.

I first heard Old Time piano as I call it when Derry returned from the States with an extremely poor live recording of a Contra dance band featuring an eccentric piano player. I could not emulate who ever it was no matter how much I tried but in the process I began to absorb the importance of syncopation into my own playing. Listening to snippets of Violet Tullock from the Shetlands or Sandy Bradley on the excellent Sandy's Fancy album has been extremely rewarding. I have recently had the distinct pleasure of seeing Patt Plunkett accompany Charlie Walden at Clifftop. The Red Clay Ramblers also frequently feature piano on their recordings but sadly there seems little else to choose from amongst contemporary artists. Fortunately for us the many recordings from the early days of country music feature piano e.g. The Highlanders, the Blue Ridge Mountaineers, H M Barnes Blue Ridge Ramblers, Sharp Hinman & Sharp to name but a few brilliant exponents.

How and ever, lead or solo old-time piano is almost nonexistent but for some rare pickings from Gary Patton, The Shelor Family, Thelma Thompson, Jennifer Crawford, Hayward Blevins and even Hobart Smith. All these and more have been inspirational but I would never rank myself in their league. In compensation I am offering you the listener my own humble but unique approach to this dark art. Also, this is probably the only compilation on one CD dedicated to solo old-time piano that you'll find and one that offers an insight into how it can be done too. I hope you'll enjoy my offering and should you own a " joanna" that you'll be inspired to try for yourself.

Colm Daly

2/1/2001