The result of painstaking archival research by renowned fiddle player Paddy Glackin, this is only the second album ever released of performances by one of Irish traditional music’s true giants.
Long anticipated by the traditional music community, this collection is made up of digitally re-mastered recordings sourced mainly from tapes held by the RTÉ Sound Archive, with additional material from private collections. The
42 tunes on the release cover two decades of Tommie’s playing between the early 1960s and the early 1980s, and are published with an additional 5 edited extracts from interviews carried out with Tommie in the 1970s by Tony Mac Mahon for his The L ong Note programme on RTÉ Radio.
The release is also accompanied by a 20 page booklet with photographs from every decade of his life, some of which have never been published before, and with specially commissioned texts by well known musicians Seán Óg Potts (his grand-nephew), who explains the background to the music,
and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, who contributes the introduction.
The influence of Tommie Potts (1912-1988) on Irish traditional music is hard to overstate. Potts’ unique combination of startling innovation and reverence for tradition is deeply admired not only by the leading fiddle musicians of the generations that have followed him, including Frankie
Gavin, Martin Hayes, and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, but also by players of other instruments. Uilleann piper Peter Browne has described him as “one of the most inventive, individual, skilled and tasteful traditional musicians I’ve ever heard”.
RTÉ is proud to publish these beautiful recordings as part of its series of definitive traditional music releases from the RTÉ Sound Archive, just one of the many ways RTÉ has opened up its archive to enrich the nation’s experience of its audiovisual heritage.
Tommie Potts
Tracks:
1.Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms (air), The Rocky Road to Dublin (slip jig)
2.The Repeal of the Union (reel)
3.The Wheels of the World (reel)
4.My Lagan Love (air), Unnamed (Tommie Potts composition)
5.Speech: Tommie’s Musical Upbringing
6.Banish Misfortune (jig)
7.The Humours of Scarriff (reel)
8.An Chúilfhionn (The Coolin) (air)
9.Paddy Ryan’s Dream/Ballinasloe Fair (reels)
10.The Braes of Busby (reel)
11.Speech: “I prefer tunes in minor keys”?
12.The Blackbird (air) Julia Delaney (reel)
13.Boil the Breakfast Early, Bunker Hill (reels)
14.Coppers and Brass (jig)
15.Ryan’s Rant, Paddy on the Turnpike (reels)
16.The Ship Comes Home (lullaby)
17.The Trip to Durrow (reel)
18. Martin Wynne’s, Jenny’s Chickens (reels)
19.The Queen of May (reel)
20.Farewell to Erin (reel)
21.Speech: ? “I am very selfish . . .”?
22.Poll Ha’penny (hornpipe)
23.Unnamed Slip Jig (Tommie Potts Composition) ?
24.The Morning Dew (reel)
25.Apples In Winter, The Trip to Sligo (jigs)
26.The Kerryman’s Daughter (reel)
27.The Walls of Liscarroll (jig)
28. The Dear Irish Boy (air)
29.Drowsy Maggie (reel)
30.The Tarbolton (reel)
31.The Monaghan Jig (jig)
32.The Moving Clouds (reel)
33.The Kerryman’s Daughter (reel)
34.The College Groves (reel)
35.The Broken Pledge (reel)
36.Speech: “I have a liking for tunes in D minor . . .”
37.Julia Delaney (reel)
38.Maudebawn Chapel (Ed Reavy’s) (reel)
39.The Dear Irish Boy (air), The Boys of Ballisodare (reel)
40.Sporting Paddy (reel)
41.Toss the Feathers (reel)
42.The Girl Who Broke My Heart (reel)
43.The Dear Irish Boy (air), The Steampacket (reel)
44.The Yellow Tinker (reel)
45.The Bunch of Keys (reel)
46.Speech: ? “I’ve nothing else . . . only the music”
47.The Fermoy Lasses (reel)