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http://www.accordions.com/news.aspx?d=22-Jul-2016&lang=de&s=12041
http://www.accordions.com/news.aspx?d=22-Jul-2016&lang=de&s=12041
22-Jul-2016
by Rob Howard
|
 Over 250 people gathered in the Devon Inn Hotel last Thursday for the long-awaited solo album from West Limerick button accordion player Donie Nolan, and on Sunday, Donie’s CD ‘The Banks of the Abha Bhán’ had its second outing at the Willie Clancy Week in Miltown Malbay.Having featured on at least half a dozen CDs by others over the past thirty years, Donie is no stranger to recordings but the surprise for many is that this is his first solo album. It is, however, an album that has been worth the wait, a CD full of selections and surprises that demonstrates the breadth and beauty of Donie’s style and his instinctive musicianship. In the sleeve notes, there is a look at the musical journey this man has made since he first picked up an accordion. Donie’s first brush with music was as a pupil in Kilcolman NS where teacher Paddy Murphy got a school band going. “I remember the first tune I played was with a mouth organ above in the old hall in Knockaderry,” he recalled this week. “I have been playing accordion since I was eleven or twelve,” he continued. “I wasn’t ever taught. I never learnt by note. I always played by ear.” He started out, he explained, with the old C sharp and D style or what he called the “old press and draw style”. But he was later attracted to the newer style advanced by Paddy O’Brien from Tipperary, using both rows in what came to be known as B and C playing. “It gives you a broader range,” Donie explained. “But I would go back to the older style if I were playing on my own.” A car, acquired when he was about 18, opened up a new world of music for Donie as he travelled around to Kerry, Clare, Cork and around the country and became familiar with other musicians, other tunes and other styles of playing. Over the years, Donie has become synonymous with the Carrigkerry WrenBoys and with the Taylors Cross Ceili Band but he has also built a reputation as a singer and this is reflected in the album where he sings on three of the 16 tracks. Another very vivid and unique element in Donie’s CD is that it features dancers, resurrecting memories of dancing on radio. Their dance steps can clearly be heard during several of the dance sets which were recorded live. ‘The Banks of the Abha Bhán’ takes its title from the White River which rises in Donie’s part of the world and Donie is accompanied on the album by John Blake and Brian Mooney. It costs €15 and is available in local shops in Carrigkerry, Athea, Glin, Ballyhahill, Lyons in Abbyfeale and O’Connors, Newcastle West. |