Pettersson & Fredriksson

A song called Juli. Played by Pettersson (nyckelharpor)& Fredriksson (läpmandola) and Connan (bouzouki)

Black Velvet (Israel)

This is a fine set from Israelian Band Black Velvet called "The Titanic": a) An Irishman in Brittany (Eoghan O'Neill)
A Breton in Paris (Donal Lunny). From the Moving Hearts album The Storm.

Black Velvet is:
Shani Kombelis -- Flute
Michael Greilsammer -- Fiddle
Ehud Nathan -- Bouzouki
Itay Abramovitz -- Keyboards
Nitzan Shachar -- Bodhran, Percussion
with
John McSherry -- Pipes, Low Whistle

This is what they wrote:
In January 2005 Israeli band Black Velvet played several concerts with Irish uillean piper John McSherry as part of the Irish Music Festival in Tel Aviv. This special program was a tribute to the work and music of Donal Lunny, and included several pieces from various stages of his musical career, as well as some of the band's music.


Four Jigs and a slip jig:
The Lark in the morning (Trad.)
Earl the breakfast boiler (Donal Lunny)
In the mountains of Holland (Donal Lunny)
Oh hag! You've killed me (Trad.)
Lucky lucky day (Donal Lunny)

From the Moving Hearts album - The Storm
Lucky lucky day -- from Coolfin


Three reels:
Crawley's
Trim the Velvet
The Roscommon reel

The first and third reels were part of a set played by Matt Molloy and Donal Lunny in the 1981 album The Gathering. The second was suggested by John McSherry.


The Lowlands of Holland



You'll find some more videos at youtube. Have a look.

Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh

Found on youtube:
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, well-known traditional singer and musician of Danu fame sings "An Spealadóir" (a West Kerry song) and together with Michelle Mulcahy onn accordion follows with two reels: "The Caucus" and "The Wind That Shakes The Barley". Accompaniment is by Billy Mc Glynn on guitar(it's a bouzouki, of course).

They were recorded at the Peig Ryan Tribute Concert held in June of 2007.

Aaron Jones in Germany 2008

Aaron Jones will be in Germany on tour in 2008. Here are the dates:






11.Apr.2008 20:00
Neue Schmiede Bielefeld
12.Apr.2008 20:00
Franziskaner-Kloster Saalfeld
13.Apr.2008 20:00
BÜZ Minden
16.Apr.2008 20:00
Pauluskirche Wuppertal
17.Apr.2008 20:00
Bürgerhaus Stuhr
18.Apr.2008 20:00
Weserrenaissance-Schloss Bevern
19.Apr.2008 20:00
KUZ Dieselstrasse Esslingen
22.Apr.2008 20:00
Prisma, im Bottich Pforzheim

You should go there. He's one of the best Zouk players. Watch his site:
http://www.myspace.com/aaronjoneszouk

Christmas time again

I wish everyone a merry christmas. Have a good time with your good friends and family. It's time to have a little holiday. I'll be back next year.

All the best

Klickie

Snaarmaarwaar

A group from Belgium. Mandola, Mandolin and Guitar, beautiful sound. Look at their site:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=170929796

Ana Alcaide

Live in Madrid, 28.11.2007. Here's a Polska. It sounds really medievial.


And here's Parte 2.Seguidilla


This is Junto con Carlos Beceiro y Dimitris Psonis

De Dannan - Reels

A couple of reels played live.
Frankie Gavin - Fiddle
Alec Finn - Bouzouki
Aidan Coffey - Accordion
Colm Murphy - Bodhran

David Gill

David plays a song by John Lennon called Oh my love. I never heard the original version, but it's a lovely song. He plays his bouzouki like a guitar. Nice work.


Here's another song called This Lullaby. It's a cover from QotSA (Who is this?)

Lark in the Morning/Paddy O'Rafferty

Lark in the morning and Paddy O'Rafferty played on bouzouki in ADAD tuning. Fine work.

Donal Lunny, Noel Hill, Liam O Maonlai & Hothouse Flowers

Cailleach an Airgid
Taken from Donal Lunny's "Sult - Spirit of the Music" TV series - recorded around 1996.

Irishtune.info

A link I always wanted to post but always forgot. Here you can find information on lots of tunes, find out the most recorded tunes, most cited albums, tune books and lots more. So many information, this site will catch your attention for a long time.

http://www.irishtune.info/

Irish Folk Weekend Bonn

I'm back from Irish folk weekend in Bonn. We all had a great time playing together. Thanks to Sabrina, Ekhart and all the others who made this weekend possible. This time we were 10 bouzouki players. We learned the tunes Far from home, Jim Donoghue's and the song Aragon Mill besides some techniques and Rhythms. On Friday evening there was a concert at Fiddlers Irish pub with Séan Reeves & FEW, who are Séan Reeves, Michael Lempelius and Jonathan Williams.
Here is some information about them:
http://www.fiddlers-bonn.com/index.php?id=198
It was a fantastic show that night.

Here are some pictures of that night:
http://www.fiddlers-bonn.com/index.php?id=171&tx_jmgallery_pi1[albumUid]=17&cHash=a8046f588b

On Saturday there was a Session at Fiddlers:

Here are some photos:
http://www.fiddlers-bonn.com/index.php?id=171&tx_jmgallery_pi1[albumUid]=18&cHash=80795b9f66


This time I did not capture the workshop tune. Sorry for that. Instead I post some videos from the bouzouki workshop by Michael Lempelius. First is a song called Aragon Mills:



I will post chords as PDF as soon as I finished them.

Next a Song by Richard Thompson called Beeswing:



More information about the weekend:
http://www.doubletop.de/workshop-bonn.php

NKForsterGuitars

What's a bouzouki blog without Links to Luthiers. Nigel Foster has built the new Cittern for Aaron Jones.Here's a link to his site with some photos of this Zouk.

http://nkforsterguitars.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
Here's the main link:
http://nkforsterguitars.blogspot.com/

Tejedor

Tejedor, a band from Asturies with a song called Xoto de Punta. Great video.

Berrogüetto

Berrogüetto is a folk group from Galicia. Lively modern folk with deep roots in celtic music.

Rosendo en Sabaxans


Fusco

Altan

My friend Tom (www.irish-like.com) gave me the link to some Altan videos. The bouzouki player is Ciarán Curran.

The sunset


The boxty set


Is the big man within


Altan Bo Mhin Na toitean /Dark haired lass


Another video

How to convert a guitar into a bouzouki

There a some websites to be found on the net which might be useful for those who want to try out the bouzouki without spending too much money. Just take an old guitar and make some adjustments. Here are some tutorials, some with lots of photos. But don't blame me, if it does not work!








https://www.keithhemsley.me.uk/guizouki.php


You can find another article here:
http://www.dennishavlena.com/mandolin.htm

And another article:
http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Technique/Guitar/Structural/8StConvert/8stconvert.html

and another one:
https://imgur.com/r/Luthier/3Jm5Y


Converting a 12 String Guitar: http://www.dennishavlena.com/bougit.htm

Ceilidh Soc - Tunes

Another site with lots of tunes. Search and download selected tunes as abc or pdf. Great service.
http://www.ceilidhsoc.org/music.html

Michael McGoldrick, Donal Lunny & Bruce Molsky

Another video from the transatlantic session series. Fantastic tune.

The Kitchen Musician

A great site with lots of songs and tunes. Best of all: The chords for accompanying are written down, too. Great site to learn some more tunes.

http://www.kitchenmusician.net/pages/kmmusicalpha.html

Guide to accompaniment for Irish traditional music

Some good tipps and advices for the accompaniment of trad Irish music to be found on this site. Just have a look at it:
http://www.tiompanalley.com/index_files/tunes/accompan.htm

Here you can find some tunes, some with mp3 to listen to:
http://www.tiompanalley.com/index_files/tunes/TunesLst.htm#HandOut

David James is the 2002 All-Ireland Champion, the only American to win solo senior All-Ireland Championships in the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (Festival of Irish Traditional Music) on the hammered dulcimer. He received a Master Folk Fellowship award from the Indiana Arts Commission in 1990, and another Individual Artist Award in 2000. He has won many US Midwest Fleadh titles on the dulcimer, fiddle, in trio competitions, in traditional singing and newly composed song categories.

David has performed and conducted workshops from California (e.g., Lark In The Morning Music Celebration, Mendocino) to Maine (Song of the Sea, Bar Harbor). Recent standouts were the 2005 Goderich, Ontario, Gaelic Roots Week, 2005 St. Joseph County Firefly Festival, the 2004 Evart, MI Funfest (over 150 workshop attendees), 2002 Cork (Ireland) Dulcimer Festival, 2000 and 2001 Kentucky Music Weeks where he taught dulcimer and fiddle, and the 2001 Indianapolis Irish Festival where he and partner Kim Hoffmann demonstrated Irish music and song styles with over 300 children.

Irish Flute Tunes

I came across this site by accident. I was looking for the notation of Crowley's reel and found this great site. Lots of Flute tunes to be found here. Michael plays them on his flute, once slow and then faster. Great work, if you don't have a flute player just capture his playing and accompany him. Good for trying different backings. Sounds better than playing to midi flutes on my sequencer.

http://irishflute.podbean.com/

Free Irish Music Downloads

Here's a website where you can get legal free music downloads of Celtic Music.

http://www.freeirishmusic.com/

Chordmaps

Music theory isn't a simple thing. That's a field I'm always working on, so many things I don't understand. Here's a website that can help a lot.

http://chordmaps.com

The chordmaps you can find there are very interesting. Starting with simple chordmaps, until you find very complex ones. You can work on chord progressions, and suddenly you understand a lot more than before. How does a chordmap work? Just start your chord progression with Chord I. Then jump to any chord on the map and start your way back to chord I using the arrows. Try it out.

Kasir: Killavil jig - The Cicada - The Paper Bird

What a discovery. Kasir from Denmark play a lively mix of celtic music.

Web: http://www.kasir.dk/index-eng.html
Myspace: http://www.kasir.dk/index-eng.html

Oisín - Eckerman bodhrán
Rune - Borsini Accordion & Colin Goldie Overton whistles
Aske - Martin Guitar, Moon octave mandolin, Kasuga mandolin

Joseph Sobol and David DiGiuseppe - cittern and accordion

East Tennessee State University professor Joseph Sobol on cittern and Chapel Hill, NC accordionist/multi-instrumentalist David DiGiuseppe playing a short jig. Great playing!

Fred Morrison, Michael McGoldrick and Donal Lunny

You gotta see this. Real fantastic playing. What a band!

Medley - Farewell to Uist, The Lochaber Badger, RIP the Badger:

Fred Morrison - whistle and pipes
Michael McGoldrick - whistle and pipes
Donal Lunny - bouzouki
Jerry Douglas - dobro

Dolores Keane - Craigie Hill (1982)

Craigie Hill performed by Dolores Keane and Reel Union.

John faulkner - Bouzouki
Mairtin O'Connor - acordion
Sean Keane - flute
Eamonn Curran - whistle

Unfortunately you can't see too much of John's zouk playing. Nevertheless a real gem.

Lord Franklin

A song about Admiral Sir John Franklin (April 15, 1786 – June 11, 1847) who was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. He mapped almost two thirds of the northern coastline of North America. His last expedition disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. The entire crew perished from starvation and exposure after Franklin died and the expedition's icebound ships were abandoned in desperation.

I first heard this song from Pentangle long ago. Two years ago I bought a record from a group called Arcanadh. On this there is another great version of that song. Listen to it, if you get a chance. http://www.arcanadh.com/

The bouzouki I'm playing on this video is made by Stevens, Munich, Germany. I bought it secondhand some years ago. Look at: http://www.guitars.de/

Lyrics and Tab: http://insel.heim.at/jamaica/320453/bouzouki_songs/Lord_Franklin.pdf

Tab made with Tabledit http://www.tabledit.com/

Andy Irvine - The Ballad Of Tom Joad

performed at a Woody Guthrie tribute show in Whelans, Dublin - 3/10/07. Not high quality, but better than nothing.

The maid that sold her barley

There are many versions of that song, but I prefer the recording of the group Déanta. Whatever happened to these great musicians? PDF with lyrics and chords at: http://insel.heim.at/jamaica/320453/bouzouki_songs/maid.pdf


The bouzouki I'm playing on this video is handmade by Heiner Dreizehnter, Leutkirch, Germany. Unfortunately he died about two years ago. RIP!

{t:The Maid That Sold Her Barley}

It’s [Gm]cold and raw, the north winds blow

Black in the [F]morning [Gm]early

When [Gm]all the hills were covered with snow

Oh then it was [F]winter [Gm]fairly.

As [Gm]I was riding o’er the moor

I met a farmer’s daugh[Dm]ter

Her [Gm]cherry cheeks and coal-black hair

They caused my [Dm]heart to [C]falter.  

I bowed my bonnet very low

To let her know my meaning.

She answered with a courteous smile 

Her looks they were engaging. 

"where are you bound my pretty maid 

It's now in the morning early?"

The answer that she gave to me 

"Kind sir, to sell my barley."

"Now twenty guineas I've in my purse 

And twenty more that's yearly.

You need not go to the market town 

For I'll buy all your barley.

If twenty guineas would gain the heart 

Of the maid I love so dearly

All for to tarry with me one night 

And go home in the morning early."

As I was riding o'er the moor

The very evening after

It was my fortune for to meet

The farmer's only daughter.

Although the weather being cold and raw 

With her I thought to parlay

The answer that she gave to me 

"Kind sir, I've sold my barley."

Yoyotimmy

Yoyotimmy brings us two instrumentals on his zouk. First Lark in the morning, a 4-part jig


Next Brian Boru's March


Lament on Con O'Leary's Wife's Death



Fine work, yoyotimmy, love this a lot!

Julie Fowlis w/ Jenna Reid & Donal Lunny

My favourite Singer Julie Fowlis in a new Transatlantic Session. You gotta see the fun they have playing that fantastic song.
Seo 'N Làimh Mo Rùin
(The drink would be in my Love's hand)

Transatlantic Sessions series 3 (2007)

bouzouki - Donal Lunny
dobro - Jerry Douglas
whistle - Michael McGoldrick
guitar - Russ Barenberg




Here's "The blackest crow"

2nd fiddle : Aly Bain
flute: Michael McGoldrick
guitar: Russ Barenberg
dobro: Jerry Douglas
bouzouki: Phil Cunningham
bass: Todd Parks
percussion: James Mackintosh
vocals: Julie Fowlis



Embedding is disabled, but I got it to work, anyway, so have fun!

Three Drunken Maidens

I learned this song from an old Planxty recording. Thought I could play it, too. Here's a part of my version. You'll find the words and chords underneath the video.

{t:Three Drunken Maidens}

{c:}

There [D]were three drunken [G]maidens Came [A]from the [G]Isle of [D]Wight 

They [D]drank from Sunday [G]morning Nor [A]stopped till [G]Saturday [D]night

When [Em]Saturday night came round me boys They [D]would not then go [A]home

Then [Bm]These three drunken [G]maidens They [A]pushed the [G]jug a[D]bout

Then [D]in comes bouncing [G]Sally, her [A]cheeks as red as [D]bloom

“Move [D]up me jolly [G]sisters and [A]give young Sally [D]room

For [Em]I will be your equal be[D]fore the night is [A]out.”

And [Bm]these four drunken [G]maidens they [A]pushed the [G]jug a[D]bout

There’s [D]woodcock and there’s [G]pheasant, there’s [A]partridge and there’s [D]hare

[D]There’s all sorts of [G]dainties; no [A]scarcity was [D]there

There’s [Em]forty quarts of beer, me boys, they [D]nearly drunk them [A]out

And [Bm]these four drunken [G]maidens, they [A]pushed the [G]jug a[D]bout

Then  [D]up and comes the [G]landlord; he’s [A]asking for his [D]pay

It’ a [D]forty shilling [G]bill, me boys, these [A]gals have got to [D]pay

That’s [Em]ten pounce apiece, me boys, but [D]still they wouldn’t go [A]out

And [Bm]these four drunken [G]maidens, they [A]pushed the [G]jug a[D]bout

“[D]Oh, where are your [G]feathered hats, your [A]mantles rich and [D]fine?”

“They’ve [D]all been swallowed [G]up, me boys, in [A]tankards of good [D]wine.”

“[Em]And where are your maidenheads, you [D]maidens brisk and [A]gay?”

“We [D]left them in the [G]alehouse, we [A]drank them [G]clean a[D]way!”

Adam Page playing Nickel Creek's Smoothie Song

Fantastic zouk playing. I wish I was so fast.

Slide

A stunning live performance by this fine group.

Bracken Finally Falls!

Meinem Profil hinzufügen | Mehr Videos

Here's the flying pig:

The Flying Pig Video

Meinem Profil hinzufügen | Mehr Videos

DRD

A new video from DRD. Nor further information available. Bouzouki, Flute and Fiddle. Great video.

Salamanca reel por Xaiva, Noci band o como carallo se llamen

Salamanca reel is played here by some Musicians at the Festival de Peiteiros 2007. Very powerful.

Russ Rentler (aka Dobrodoc)

Russ is playing an original song on his zouk tuned GDAE. Like this one a lot.

Mandola playing on youtube

Here's a solo on mandola, the tune is Cunla, known by Planxty and others:



Here's a real nice tune called Rochdale Coconut Dance



I really love this one, well made boys!

Some tunes played by fiddle and bouzouki on youtube

Here are some tunes I found on youtube:

First two reels in E minor and one in D:


Then two reels: eileen curen's and another



Here comes a jig:



the wild swans at coole



some g minor "version"

Kasir - Killavil jig /The Cicada / The Paper Bird

The group Kasir live from "Det Bruunske Pakhus", Denmark,2006. Fine playing. You can see an octave mandolin made by Jimmy Moon.

Old blind dogs

One of the finest Scottish folk bands around.

this is a video from 1998 at lowender peran.



No zouk, on this one, but nevertheless fantastic. On this video you can see Jonny Hardie, the song is the Barnyards of Delgathy.



This must be a new one featuring Aaron Jones on Cittern. Very short extract only.

Josep Maria Ribelles & Carlos Beceiro

Cittern and Harp together playing some tunes from Catalonia.

Spellbox

On their site on myspace they discribe their music as "Songs to commit suicide by".
www.myspace.com/spellbox




Uneasy Chair live at Cincinnaty ODDitorium:



Glory Bound:



Merciless Night:



Tragic:

Blarney Pilgrim /Morrisons'

Kougata has published this video on youtube. It seems he is a multi-instrumentalist, as he has posted 5 videos with different instruments.

Randy Clepper at Evart Funfest 2007

Randy is playing the the tunes: Martin Wynne's number two and number one. He plays a Sobell 10 string cittern:



Here are some close shots:

Fling, Irish folk out of the Netherlands

Here's a great folk band from Netherland. They have got three Bouzoukis made by Heiner Dreizehnter. On their website you can download some sound snippets from their albums. Give 'em a try.
http://www.flingmusic.com/

West Coast Of Clare

This is my first own video I post to youtube. I'm playing my old Stevens Bouzouki here, trying to play the intro of West coast of Clare, one of the best songs by Andy Irvine. This is nearly the arragement he once played live on his bass bouzouki. I restringed my zouk for this to achieve that bass bouzouki sound.


Here's the tab for this intro,  I made it with Tabledit

Taylor's traditional tunebook

A collection of over 500 traditional tunes. You can select in the upper right of the page.Scottish, Irish, English, Welsh tunes and more.
http://www.contemplator.com/tunebook/index.htm
You'll find lots of songs, too at:
http://www.contemplator.com

Mick's virtual whistle

You want to play with a flute player, but there's no one around you? Listen to Mick play on his website or download some of his tunes and play along with him.
http://www.micksvirtualwhistle.net/whistle/index.html

O'Reagan's Tunebook

Another great tunebook, well more than one, indeed. PDF and abc files. You'll find there airs, barndances, bourrees, gavottes, hornpipes, jigs, marches, planxties, polkas, reels and lots more.Have a look at:
http://music.gordfisch.net/oregans/music/tunebook.html

New link 2020:
http://www.braccio.me/session/OReaganSessionTunebook.pdf

O'Neill's The Music of Ireland

PDF scored and midis of lots of Irish tunes. If you are looking for new tunes to play try this one. More than 1000 pages packed with tunes.I don't know if the picture is the one corresponding with the book.


http://www.guitarnut.com/folktablature/oneills/index.html

Michael Eskin - Blarney Stone Pub Session Tunebook

Michael Eskin is a talented musician who plays lots of instruments like flute, Uilleann pipes and concertina. I havn't heard any recordings up to now. The reason I add a link to him is because he collected lots of tunes and he offers a tunebook as a pdf file.

Here's the pdf:
http://members.cox.net/eskin/tunebook.html

Here's his website:
http://members.cox.net/eskin/

Two of my zouk heroes together

On this photo you can see Beth Patterson together with Aaron Jones at Dublin Irish Fest 2006. I wish I was there. Lots more photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timsphotosite/sets/72157600639843626/

Has anyone made videos at this Folk Fest? Please let me know.

Octave Mandolin

This video has been published in March. Mandolinman plays on his new Octave Mandolin tuned GDGD. Nice playing.

Danu - Are you ready yet?

A great live track by lively band Danu. I think ist's from their DVD.

Are you ready yet?


Kerry Tunes

Beth Patterson - New Video

Crazy video featuring Beth as an bouzouki playing elve. She appears after a minute! Song is called "Early Grace" from her lates album "Caught in the act" which is a live album mostly played by herself solo accompanied on bouzouki. You gotta check it out at cdbaby.com

Andy Irvine-Songbook reissue out now!

Arild has informed me about the reissue of the Andy Irvine Songbook. Information to be found at: http://www.heupferd-musik.homepage.t-online.de/song_buecherei.htm
It's not only a reissue. There are several new songs in it. I will order it today and hope to get it next week.

Well now that I got it I have to correct, there is only one new song in it: My heart tonight's in Ireland. So if you already own the old one you don't need necessarily buy this new one. It's a lot of money for one song.

A review of the original book is to be found at Kieron's website (I did steal the photo from his website):
http://www.chinatogalway.com/Review%20aiming%20for%20the%20heart.htm

Kate Rusby

Some say she's the queen of folk. Well, she has a beautiful voice. And sometimes she is accompanied by a zouk player.
Good Man

Busketeer

I don't know, why I did not recognize these two musicians before. You gotta watch them play, just Bouzouki (or is it a Mandola?) and Accordion.

Cooley's Reel


Egan's Polka / Britches


Stoney Steps

Camín de Cantares-Ambás-3ºParte

Another great video from Spanish musicians called Tuenda. The tune is called Danza "Al Ilau del molin". I don't know much about them, but they're really good.

I just read about that tragic car crash in which two members of Asturian band Felpeyu have been killed. The band were involved in an accident on the way to a concert. The rest of the band survived with only minor injuries, but bouzouki player Ígor Medio and guitarist, bassist and vocalist Carlos Redondo were tragically killed.

I just discovered this fantastic musicians. It's a sad day for celtic music.

Here's a fantastic video of a workshop in Polonia: “Workshop” de Felpeyu en Polonia. (2004) featuring Igor Medio -vocalist and bouzouki and Carlos Redondo - vocalist and a guitar player and many more musicians.



Felpeyu website: www.felpeyu.com

Here's video of group Tejedor of a hommage concert for Igor and Carlos

N'Alcordanza: Gatos del Fornu - Tierra

Los Gatos del Fornu live in the Memorial concert for Igor Medio and Carlos Redondo from Asturian band Felpeyu. There are so many bands in northern Spain playing celtic music. Me, I don't like that bagpipe thing so much, but when there are vocals I love this music.

Andy Irvine - Never Tire Of The Road

Yes, it's Andy again. A great live version of Never tire of the road. He's my Zouk hero.

Camín de Cantares-Pendueles-6ºParte

Sanyallana has posted another video by these great musicians on youtube:

bailliekin

Who is this musician? Just found his videos on youtube and they're fantastic. Fine singing and playing. You should have a look. I someone has got more info on him, please leave a comment.

The Goblins Riddle:


The Astrologer:


Paddy O'Brians/Bill Harts;


Cuanla:


The Twa Corbies:


Tuppence on the rope:


Rattling Roaring Willie:

Avanti Dilettanti Speyer

Historic German Music played on Bouzouki and Recorder

Gänn Duúls

Wow, so many treasures to be found on youtube. Here's their site at myspace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=171936063

Cahórnega "Entre el Ebro y Peñavieja"

Great powerful band. You can find more information at:
http://myspace.com/cahornega

Corquieu - Eita

High speed rhythm here from Corquieu. Asturian folk at it's best. (Thanks, Antemil, for your comment)

Camín de Cantares-Trabáu-5ºParte

I like this video a lot. Sounds a bit medeavial to me. Fantastic flute and zouk with 4 female vocalists and percussionists.

And here's two more:

Back from holidays

No, this blog is not dead! I just spent 2 lovely weeks in France. Now, back on the spot I will go on searching the web for interesting bouzouki affairs.

So welcome back and have a look.

JC's ABC Tune Finder

Design: Thierry Chabanis
http://perso.orange.fr/youkoustudio/












You are looking for the melody of a certain tune? Here's a great finder. Just type in the name of the tune and you'll find the abc-file.

http://banwarth.free.fr/finder.htm

Often there are gif files with notation and midi files available, too.

Christy Moore, Declan Sinnot, Donal Lunny

Bad video quality and sound and movie are not in sync. But a great song. You don't see much of Donal. Just sit back and listen.

Sofia Karlsson

Sofia Karlsson is a Swedish singer, bouzouki and wooden flute player. In her homeland she is well known.





Listen to her new single at:
http://www.myspace.com/sofiakarlsson

Her website:
http://www.sofiakarlsson.com/

EXPLORING THE BOUZOUKI by Jim Cowdery

I haven't got this book yet, but I think I will buy it soon. Does anyone has got it? What do you think about it? Please leave a comment.







You can buy it at:

http://www.andysfronthall.com/paypal/fhbooks.html

or here:

http://elderly.com/also/books/items/40-4.htm

Plan for building bouzouki

If you are looking for a plan to build a bouzouki there are some websites which may be of interest:

You can buy the plan on the right here:
https://luth.org




And here's an article of building one of them:
https://hilmarhanssoninstruments.blogspot.com/2013/06/georges-irish-bouzouki.html


Dunwell guitar: Let's build a bouzouki:
http://www.dunwellguitar.com/BuildBouzouki/BuildZouk1.htm

Here's an article on building a bouzouki from McDonald Strings:

http://www.mcdonaldstrings.com/docs/bb_moulded_soundboards.pdf

This book might be a good start:
https://www.amazon.com/Bouzouki-Book-Workshop-Building-Bouzoukis/dp/0646436023

Or use a kit for building your instrument:


http://flipflopflyers.com/bouzouki/

Musichord 3.0 - Chords for Bouzouki

If you are looking for a program which is able to show chords and much more have a look at this:

http://www.rpsoft2000.com/music/mandolin-chord.htm

Here's what they say on the website:

If you have a mandolin, cittern or bouzouki and are looking for a chord reference for its specific tunings, we believe that Musicord 3.0 is very much the right place to look. Musicord 3.0 will handle string instruments of 4, 5 or 6 "courses" of strings. By "course" we mean sets of either one string, a string pair, or a string triplet. The actual image shows the "courses" (fingering positions) and not all of the strings for multi-string instruments as mandolins, bouzoukis and citterns. So an 8 string mandolin or an 8 string bouzouki will each be displayed as a 4 string instrument. A ten string cittern will be displayed as a five string instrument.

Both right hand viewing and left hand viewing is available. Also "capo" or bar fingering down the neck or fretboard of the instrument. Many presets are available for what we understand may be the more common tuning for mandolins, bouzoukis and citterns. If none of these preset string tunings work for you, Musicord also allows setting up a custom string tuning - and even the save of a set of custom tuned stringed instruments to be used later.

Unfortionally this programm isn't available for MAC-users. So I did not test it. If you have got any experience with this program please leave a comment.

Stephen Doherty & Zac Leger

A set of two tunes. The first one is left unknown, the second one is called "The Mother Reel". http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif



Zac Leger comes from San Diege, Ca. He now is living in in Columbus, Ohio. He has got a homepage at myspace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=86613720
Listen to the music samples there.

Stephen Doherty's page at myspace:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=141440977

Fred Morrison & Steve Byrne

Pipes and bouzouki. A nice pair.

DRD - Ende

I don't know anything about this group.



Another Video, the song "Poro":

LLAN DE CUBEL-LA CASA GRIS

Lovely Asturian folk. I love this rhythm.

Cormac Breatnach & Deiseal

Cormac Breatnach is one of my favourite low flute players. Here he plays together with the band Deiseal. Zouk Player is Niall Ó Callanain, Paul Ó Driscoll on Bass.






On this video Special Guest: Michael Mc Goldrick

Mandolin Tablature

Ok, this one is not really bouzouki-ish, but if you play GDAE you can use it as it is. Nigel Gatherer's Traditional Music Pages is a fine site containing lots of tunes for Mandolin, Whistle or mixed instruments. You'll find Scottish and Irish tunes there in ABC and Mandolin tab. If you play GDAD like me you have to work a little bit on the tunes. But nevertheless this one's a good plays for finding good tunes. Look at this great website and decide for yourself.

http://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/tab.html

Beth Patterson - Once Again

Beth is one of my favourite Bouzouki players. I'd love to see her live, but she mostly tours the US. Here's the song Exodus with her band Kalafka.

Humberto Carás - A Olvidarte

I just found this video on youtube. Don't know anything about the two musicians but I like this song.

Strange Bouzouki - Night Rider

Look at this weird improvisation on the night rider TV theme.

Andy Irvine Mick Hanly 1979

Andy & Mick are playing "You rambling boys of pleasure".


Have a look at the other videos from bilko> http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=bilko1234 you'll find great stuff there!

Planxty with two Bouzoukis

Brand new posted video on youtube. Andy and Donal on bouzouki!

Aaron Jones & Claire Mann

Aaron Jones is a well known Scottish cittern player. In 2005 he was nominated Instrumentalist of the year at the Scots Trad Music Awards. He most often uses DADAD tuning. He says: I'm a simple man, I use a simple tuning! In workshops he teaches GDAD as well.
On this video he performs the song William Taylor together with his friend Claire Mann on fiddle.



Aaron is also the man behing tradmusic.com.
http://www.tradmusic.com

Cantaria

Cantaria is a library of "bardic" folk songs, mostly from Ireland, Scotland and England. If you want to learn new songs, this is a good starting place. You'll find the words of the songs together with mp3 audio files of most of the songs. The singers feature Andy Irvine, Andy M. Steward, Brian Hart, Jim Brannigan and lots more. If you don't know it already give it a try.

http://www.chivalry.com/cantaria/

Farewell to Erin

I wanted to post this video for a long time but actually did forget it. This well known reel is played by Miguel on fiddle. The bouzouki player's name is Pachu.

If I'm correct he is bouzouki player of Asturian band Brenga Astur. Their website in English:
http://www.brengaastur.com/ingles/princien.asp

Just jamming

Great bouzouki playing by an unknown player (to me).



and another one:

Paul Brady - Wearin' The Britches

Paul plays greek bouzouki and sings this ode to traditional values with Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny in the Embankment, Tallaght in 1976.






And here he is solo with greek bouzouki from 1977.



Here's lyrics and Chords:

{t:Wearin’ The Britches}

{st:Paul Brady}

[Dm]Come all young men where e'er you be and listen to me lamentations

[Dm]I courted a girl beyond compare and I loved her with admiration

[Dm]At length in time she became my wife, [G]twas not for beauty [Am]but for riches

[C]And all the time it [F]causes strife, to [Dm]see which of us will [Am]wear the [Dm]britches

[Dm]O Paddy Kane it is my name, me height it is five foot eleven

[Dm]and Me wife is nearly not so big, she only measures four feet seven

[Dm]The hedges I have oft times stripped, [G]I've left them bare of [Am]rods and switches

[C]Her skin with blows sure [F]I’ve turned black, but [Dm]still she says she'll [Am]wear my [Dm]britches

[Dm]Well I am a tailor to my trade, at cutting out I am quite handy

[Dm]But all the money that I make, she lays it out on tea and brandy

[Dm]Now sometimes I do shout and ball with [G]nothing going with [Am]rogues and witches

[C]Her head goes oft times [F]to the wall, [Dm]still she says she'll [Am]wear me [Dm]britches

[Dm]One morning at the tea and eggs, content and sitting by the fire

[Dm]Well She broke the teapot on my legs, and left me leapin to retire

[Dm]How often do I shout and moan, as [G]I go hopping on my [Am]crutches

[C]I wished I'd broke her [F]collar bone, the [Dm]day I let her [Am]wear me [Dm]britches

[Dm]So come all young men where e'er you be, don't marry a wife if she's enchantin

[Dm]For if you do, you'll be like me, with other men she'll go gallanting

[Dm]Now my advice it is to you, to [G]marry for love and not for [Am]riches,

[C]And be sure of a wife with a [F]civil tongue, who'll [Dm]give you leave to [Am]wear your [Dm]britches.