Do You Know Bog Jazz? Is the secret child of Sliabh Luachra fiddle music and a misspent youth playing electric guitar in biker bars.. the unexpected offspring of two very different worlds.
The recording is from a gig with the great Shane Murphy on drums at the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival back in October 2024. If you’d like to buy it, I’d be delighted but if you’d just like to add it to your Bandcamp account for free get a code here: https://dlcm.app/stan/do-you-know-bog-jazz
The name of the track is a tongue in cheek attempt to categorise this music after someone said it was like Desert Blues. The piece is based on three reels: Within a Mile of Dublin / Johnny Allen’s / Tom Billy’s
Eoin Stan O’Sullivan – guitar. Shane Murphy – drums. Engineer Keith O’Connor. Recorded by Colm Hinchion. Mixed & Mastered by Oscar at Abbeyfeale Road Studios, Newmarket, Ireland. Original photo by Jacqui Scully
Now tell all your friends and loved ones and please get them to play it loudly in their cars with the windows open.
It was lovely to be asked to do another appearance on Geantrí.. It was recorded in September [I think] and I remember having a lovely evening listening to all the other guests doing their bits.. They got a nice sound for us.. even though the rest of the gang liked our polkas the best, I think the set of slides rock the most.
It’s more like a gang of friends than a band, but if we didn’t have a name, we might be harder to book for gigs, sessions, concerts, etc. Over the years, the lineup has been a cast of thousands, but for the last twenty years, it’s mostly been the gang you see on the Geantraí programme—except for Karl Nesbitt on the flute. He’s been joining us for the last seven or eight years on flute and drum as well.
The name originated way back in the late ’90s. I was playing fiddle with a tin whistler, Rebecca Daly, and a guitar player called Roy O’Driscoll. We had a few engagements every week in Cork City—Thursday and Sunday evenings at Snotty Joe’s and Sunday from 5 to 7 at the Hairy Lemon. We were probably advertised as Trad Session, and that was all fine until we got asked to play a mini-festival run by the CMRC (Cork Music Resource Centre). We needed to give them a name for the poster.
At that time, I was only known for playing guitar in a rock band called The Shanks. When I tried to explain to Cork City people what traditional music was, I was often met with puzzled looks. As far as I could tell, most city people understood traditional music to be ballads or Country & Irish. One day, after telling someone I was gigging, they asked cautiously, “Is it the ceili stuff?” After that, anytime I used the term ceili, it was to make sure that anyone expecting to rock out didn’t get ambushed by a diddly-eye nightmare they weren’t prepared for.
The Allstars part came from another Cork band called The Jammy Dodger Allstars. It was a sort of supergroup featuring Rory Looney (drums), Sandy Hyland (bass), Fergus Ryan (guitar), and the late Aidan O’Connell (vocals). They were really, really good, and I was very, very jealous of their name. I had seen them around the time we were booked for the mini-festival.
I was also obsessed with Joe Cooley’s music at the time. I was listening to the Omós do Joe Cooley album by Paul Brock and Frankie Gavin and trying to learn all the tunes on it.
So when I was asked for a name for the poster, I thought—When people hear us, they’ll think of the times they danced at a ceili. And to make sure they know they’re hearing the best of music, we’ll be Allstars. And let’s mention Joe Cooley as well.
We were billed as The Cooley Ceili Allstars.
The little festival gig was mad. We were joined by a conga player, Mark Wilkins. It was a bit of a blur, but I remember the crowd being totally surprised, and every set was followed by massive applause. That lineup of the band disintegrated within a few weeks, and for the following ten months, I didn’t have many gigs playing fiddle. But then something weird happened—apparently, a good percentage of the people who had watched that gig went on to manage bars in the city centre.
So from the following summer, I started getting people asking for The Cooley Ceili Allstars to play their bars. By then, I had moved on to obsessing about some other music, so the Cooley part was dropped. And just like that, The Ceili Allstars were off on a string of gigs and residencies that hasn’t ended yet.
There was a walking tour of the Island with little stops for 25 minute musical performances.
I was taken to my spot and setup my amp and guitar. As I was warming up I put my recorder in front of my amp.
These are some recordings from both my gig and a few tunes I played for some people who decided to listen to me warming up..
It was a nice bill to be on. There was the amazing David Murphy doing material from his recent album of traditional melodies on pedal steel guitar, Brian Leach was doing his celtic experimentalism with his home made hammer dulcimer. Sorcha De Roiste sang sean nós songs. I did my bog jazz stuff.. Myself and Sorcha did two duets which I didn’t record but here’s one of the songs that we did in 2019.
Here’s a few pic form the day and like I said above all photos are by Bríd O’Donovan
I did a few on the fiddleSorcha De Roiste and myselfSorcha singingSorcha againDavid Murphy on the pedal steel guitarBrian LeachSorcha & Myself having a tune in the boat
Duchas 24 is a CD I worked on for Kerry Comhaltas. It a very nicely put together collection of all sorts of tunes and songs performed with great skill and style. Many great young musicians are recorded here for the first time and I think several of them will proceed to make their mark on Irish traditional music in the coming years.
I’m really proud of my work on it. We recorded most of it at the Duchas building in Tralee over a day and a bit. The musicians and singers showed great competence, confidence and you could really sense the work that had been put in to their arrangements. As usual I tried my best to make the recording sound as natural as possible and I have to compliment the room at the Duchas Centre for being an amazing venue to record in. The only thing I could only say that I wish there was more Sliabh Luachra music on it. I’m duty bound to say things like that but you won’t even notice as it is a very entertaining album from start to finish.
The album is the brainchild of John Stack of Kerry CCE and it was envisioned as an homage, update and tribute to the original Duchas record that came out in 1978. That is a much treasured and rare to find record now but you might learn more about it here: rushymountain.com/2021/04/11/duchas/ Well done to John for his dedication and foresight. I hope it inspires young and old.
Anyway I thought some of you might be interested in collecting the Duchas 24 album and if you do I hope you enjoy it.
I should be back soon with new release on the Sliabh Luachra label and another digital rerelease of a classic from a few years ago on the Scullys Fest page.
I’ve digitally reissued two of the late Dan Herlihy’s albums through the Scullys Fest label. I’m delighted to have gotten permission to do this because I think it’s really important for Dan’s music to get an audience and go on to inspire and teach another generation. I also digitised the sleeve notes and they can be downloaded with the albums.. #sliabhluachra Please support it and tell people. https://scullysfest.bandcamp.com/
Dan was a great champion of Sliabh Luachra music and he also published books of tunes. This is a short bio of Dan from the World Fiddle Day Scartaglin website:
Dan Jas. Herlihy. (Accordion).Born in Ballydesmond in 1942. Early tuition from his grandmother Kate, a concertina player, his mother Molly, a fiddle player, and Jack O’Connell of Lighthouse was also a big influence. Emigrated to London 1960 and played with Michael Gorman, Raymond Roland and many more great players. Returned home 1977 and played at all the sessions,féiles and festivals around the locality. He recorded a cassette tape,’Traditional Music from Sliabh Luachra’, 3 CDs and a DVD: ‘The night of the Fair’; ‘The Ballydesmond Polka’; and ‘The Millstream’. The DVD was also called ‘The Millstream’. He also published two music books: ‘Sliabh Luachra Music Masters, Vols. I and II’. He spent eight years collecting music and collected c. 900 tunes. He also taught music for about 10 yrs. in Ballydesmond. He died in 2019
I’ve been selling Paudy Scully‘s books to the followers of our Scullys Fest bandcamp page. Most of the stock has gone but there’s still some three book sets and a single copies of each left. Maybe some of you might like to acquire them?
Some dusty copies of the Monks of the Screw Trio CD have surfaced. There’s only three available. It’s a very special album, full of great music. It a recording of three friends having fun playing together in the Paudy’s Scully’s back kitchen – great music’s natural habitat. It was recorded in the simplest way and it has been an inspiration for the recordings that have been made in Newmarket since then.
The 15% discount code below can still be used on any music on the Scully Fest and the Sliabh Luachra Bandcamp pages until the end of September. Code: sept15
scullysfest.bandcamp.com
sliabhluachra.bandcamp.com
If you’re around Cork for the Folk Festival watch out for gigs featuring two of the greatest bands of all time… That’s the Ceili Allstars in the Spalpin Fanach on Fri 29th tickets.peoplesrepublicofcork.com/11159012/C%C3%A9il%C3%AD-Allstars-&-Paul-Walker-&-Karen-Pfeiffer-/Fri-29-Sep-2023 and Tionól supporting Muireann in the Triskel on September 28th
Earlier this year, we thought we had sold all the physical copies of Timmy O’Connor’s album “As It Was In Toureendarby.” But, surprise! We found another box of CDs under the kitchen table at Scully’s Bar in Newmarket. So, if you don’t already have this CD in your collection, now’s your chance to get it
The album was recorded in Timmy’s house in Toureendarby, Newmarket, Co Cork by Jerry Harrington in 2009. The tunes Timmy picked and the style of playing was a very deliberate effort to recreate the sort of music that he heard as a young man at the Pattern Dances and House Parties. So It’s a bit of a concept album mixed with a sort of historical document.
To celebrate here’s a 15% discount code that can be used on Timmy’s album or any other releases in either the Scullys Fest and Sliabh Luachra Bandcamp shops until the end of September this year.
So I’ve changed the website again. Fingers crossed I’ll settle on this one. I started off on Drupal, then WordPress, then I wanted to try out Google sites and now I’m back on the WordPress again. Great.
Please support it and tell people.
