Just found this really old post of mine. The video link did not work anymore. The link to my tab either. So here is the re-post, 12 years after the first one. Now I added the tab on the page.
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. I tried to copy 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
This fantastic RTE-Programme about the bouzouki is not available on youtube anymore as far I know. But I just found it on Dailymotion. Here's a lot of information on this lovely instrument. I mentioned this programme before, but it's always worth to look at it again.
Si Bheag Si Mhor is one of Turlough O'Carolan's (1670-1738) waltzes. Translated into English it is called "Little hill, big hill". It is said to take inspiration from folklore surrounding two hills in which lie to mortal remains of ancient warriors.
Here's fine arrangement on the zouk by Carol Murgue.
And another one by Eamon Coughlan
Here's a very differnent approach by someone who calls himself CW, a multi instrumentalist. He has lots of videos on youtube, there are some more with bouzouki.
He writes on youtube:
"It is usually played at a slow and leisurely pace by most musicians; I had the melody in my head one day, and it started morphing into a Planxty-esque jam in 4-count rhythm (as opposed to 3 count as it's usually played), and sitting down with my zouk last night, this is how it came out. I like it a lot, and I'm still practicing it/smoothing it out, but I think this video turned out well!
Tuning: FCGC - capo 5th fret"
Over the last few days I updated or deleted several sites on the blog which were outdated. Since I started the blog more than 10 years ago there are lots of videos which are not available anymore on youtube. It takes a lot of time to look at all the old posts. I found out that youtube changed links to videos, so all the older movies are not available anymore. I looked up some of the old videos, but this is hard work. So I decided to delete a lot of old videos.
If you come across dead links on the blog please report them to me or leave a comment. It's a lot of work to review all the pages on this blog so I would appreciate your help.
Also if you come across any good information regarding the Irish Bouzouki feel free to inform me and I will put them on the blog.
What a pleasure: Julie and Eamon together, just the two of them. A livestream made for Lindblad Expeditions on April 23rd, 2020 as part of the Virtual Music Lounge concert series.
While looking for videos featuring Mac Dara Ó Faoláin I found this beautiful video of Páraic Mac Donnchadha with Mac Dara Ó Faoláin. Beautiful music with banjo and bouzouki. Páraic Mac Donnchadha released an album some time ago which you can get on bandcamp or at Custy's in Ennis.
This is a song from Daoiri's first CD. I first heard it from Planxty, but there are many versions of the song out there. In this version from youtube Daoiri plays it with such power...
