The 10 best trad albums of the noughties

tarbolton

Now that we’re a few months into a new decade and the dust is settling after the demise of the noughties perhaps its timely now to look back at that decade.



So here is my vote for the 10 best traditional recordings of the decade.

1. Mick O’Brien & Caoimhín O’Raghallaigh – Kitty Lie Over
2. Martin Hayes & Denis Cahill – Welcome here again
3. John Carty – Yeah that’s all it is
4. John Carty – I will if I can
5. Matt Molloy & John Carty – Pathway to the well
6. West Ocean String Quartet with Matt Molloy – The guiding Moon
7. Michael O’Raghallaigh – The nervous man
8. Oisin Mac Diarmada – Ar an bhfidil
9. Iarla O’Lionaird – Invisible fields
10. Mick, Louise And Michelle Mulcahy - Notes From The Heart

My favourite album of the decade was the startlingly brilliant Kitty Lie Over by Mick O’Brien & Caoimhín O’Raghallaigh. An album of uileann pipes/fiddle duets it pulled off the extraordinary trick of sounding like it could have been recorded any time in the last 60 years and sounding totally unprecedented, all at the same time. I could say that it takes its cues from the 1970 recording by Denis Murphy And Julia Clifford – “The Star Above the Garter” and that there are hints of the Old Time American and the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle traditions but really attempts at trying to describe its brilliance and originality inevitably fail – I am afraid you just have to hear it yourself!

If there was one musician who left his fingerprints all over the noughties it was John Carty. As a master of the fiddle, banjo, flute and guitar he turned up on four of the albums on the list above (he’s on Oisin Mac Diarmada’s CD as well) as well as touring and making great records with the groups At The Racket and Patrick Street and a few more himself. So he has to be the musician of the decade!

But that’s just my take on it! Let us know what you think and together we might end up with a sense of trad in the noughties, what happened, what was great, what mattered, what didn’t,…

So go on! Tell us! The noughties – how were they for you?

Futurecrook

This is a tough one indeed. I think you've put a great list together there but I've no idea where to start really.

In no particular order:

1) Beoga - A Lovely Madness
2) Slide - Harmonic Motion

I think both these groups have really 'revived' trad (for want of a better word) for the younger generation. They've shown where you can take trad music to and I think that's important.

3) Lau - Lightweights and Gentleman

Not technically Irish trad but a great album, and again, they've had considerable influence over the younger generation of trad players in Dublin in particular.

4) John Wynne & John McEvoy - Pride of the West
5) Matt Molloy & John Carty - Pathway to the Well
6) Danú - Think Before You Think
7) Lunasa - The Story so Far
8) June McCormack & Michael Rooney - Draíocht
9) Muireann Nic Amhlaoib, Eamonn Doorley, Ross Martin & Julie Fowlis - Dual (Again, not purely Irish but a wonderful album.)
10) As Tarbolton said, you can't really ignore John Carty but I can't actually pick one specific album. I also think Martin Hayes & Denis Cahill are two who can't be ignored so I'm just going to mention them all here.

There are of course loads more albums that I can't think of right now but these are the ones that immediately come to mind. It's been a great decade for music. Here's hoping it continues on like this.