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Tommy
On The Bridge Reviews
Tom's latest
solo venture finds our fab folk fiddler in fine fettle (forgive this
feckless fabrication of F-words!). And it's a faultless portrayal of
the essence of the man and his playing, right enough. Here's the man
with the abundance of joie-de-vivre, at his most happy when playing
his fiddle, and there he is on the front cover with a big grin right
across his face – that's Tom to a T! Generous to a fault, he's
sharing his sheer delight in the music-making with you for over 50
minutes on a great sequence of tunes and songs that gives us a true
measure of the man's good taste and suit him down to the ground.
These incorporate one or two we've got used to hearing from Tom in
his live sets - like the good Mr Thompson's Beeswing - and also
include quite a few that I'd not heard before and that may well be
new to his repertoire, but he plays them all as if he's got them in
his blood, such is his abundantly natural vivacity. Amidst all the
natural excitement, there's loads of variety in pace and mood, with
two brilliant sets of hornpipes (notably the set that kicks off with
James Hill's Beeswing Hornpipe, on which Tom goes into twin-fiddlin'
mode along with Peter Tickell, closing the disc in stunning form),
tune-sets that spicily combine old favourites with sparkling new
treatments (like the Willie Hunter/Byron Berline medley on track 6),
and at the other end of the scale, a beautiful and intimate waltz
from the pen of Cape Breton fiddler Jerry Holland (Boo Baby's
Lullaby) and a lovely Scott-Skinner tune Bovaglie's Plaid. The songs
(a ratio of one in three of the fifteen tracks) contain some real
pearls too: a superb rendition of Mary And The Soldier, the
captivatingly “folky” Allan Taylor song (Fiddler John), Ian
Campbell's intriguing, rousing Patrick Pearse, yet the pick of the
bunch is definitely Billy Mitchell's wonderful portrait of a
Tyneside miner 1915-1975 (written for his dad, it turns out).
Accompaniment-wise, Tom bridges his fiddle and bonhomie most
attractively on this disc by virtue of the good company of a handful
of talented fellow musos. There's Aaron Jones (of Old Blind Dogs) on
guitar and bouzouki (and sharing the producer's chair with Tom
himself, incidentally), also ace bodhránist Ciaran Boyle (who's
shortly to go on tour with Last Night's Fun), David Wood (guitar),
Kevin McGuire (double-bass) and the award-winning Claire Mann
(whistles). Engineering is superb too: it's a typically crisp and
clean Ron Angus production, with a totally believable perspective at
all times and, as I said, admirably capturing “the real McConville”,
the joyous and generous spirit of the man and the sessions. And I
love the canny multi-resonances of the CD title too; more power to
Tom's elbow, I say!
David
Kidman -
http://www.netrhythms.co.uk/reviews.html
Amateur pic taken at
the Davy Lamp album launch
Tom McConville is
the very essence of the Geordie Irish tradition, a hugely talented
fiddler with a fine, light singing voice, and an all-round good guy
as well. This latest release sees him teaming up with Aaron Jones,
vocals, guitar and bouzouki; Claire Mann, fiddle and whistles;
Ciaran Boyle, bodhran; Kevin McGuire, double bass; Peter Tickell,
fiddle; and Dave Wood, guitar. With friends like these, you just
know it’s going to be good, and it certainly lives up to
expectations.
Tom’s tastes have
always been wide and varied, and the choice of material here reflect
these nicely, with tunes from a number of sources, each given Tom’s
own empathetic treatment, which respects its background, yet turns
it into something definitely his own. Similarly with the songs,
which range from the traditional Mary and The Soldier, through a
Billy Mitchell tribute to his father and Allan Taylor’s poignant
Fiddler John, to the Richard Thompson benchmark Beeswing. All of
these are easily mastered by Tom, whose pacing is always well suited
to the lyrics, allowing the listener to digest the message.
If the
instrumentation on the songs is suitably understated, the
instrumental tracks allow Tom full scope to demonstrate his mastery
of various styles, from Northumbrian to American, from Irish to
Cajun and Scottish. The emphasis throughout is on quality music,
taken at just the right pace, well-balanced yet passionate.
An absolute belter.
Gordon Potter
The Living Tradition
THE celebrated Newcastle fiddler and singer releases
a new album shining with his unforced musicality.
Here with solid support from, among others,
Edinburgh's Aaron Jones and Claire Mann, he lets his
eclectic Irish/Northumbrian/Scots and even American
technique out in a stream of catchy fiddle tunes,
while songs to Irish martyr Patrick Pearse, and the
eponymous bride in 'Mary And The Soldier', have
great warmth and humanity.
NORMAN CHALMERS
The Scotsman on Sunday
THE Tyneside fiddler and singer is in fine fettle on
his latest outing, aided and abetted by Aaron Jones
on guitar and Claire Mann on flute and whistles.
Ciaran Boyle and Kevin McGuire add bodhrán and
double bass to the mix, and fellow north-easterners
Peter Tickell and Dave Wood feature on the final
set. The instrumental tunes are well-chosen, crisply
and expressively executed, and the five songs,
including Richard Thompson's challenging Beeswing,
complement them nicely.
FIONA SHEPHERD
The Scotsman
ALTHOUGH the cover depicts Tom playing on the
Newcastle Swing Bridge, the title also refers to a blind beggar who
used to stand on the bridge as the 19th turned into the 20th
century. There the connection ends. The first Tommy died in the snow
on New Year's Day one hundred years ago, whereas the playing on this
album is suffused with warmth and enjoyment.
Throughout Tom is backed by Aaron Jones on bouzouki and guitar with
occasional others; Ciaran Boyle on bodhràn, Kevin Maguire on bass,
fiddler Peter Tickell, guitarisr Dave Wood and Claire Mann on flute
and whistles. Sparkling fiddling is evident, never more so than on
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star/The Easy Club. It's difficult to stop
jigging around with music like this. Even the Scott Skinner slow air
Bovaglie's Plaid and Jerry Holland's Boo Baby's Lullaby found me
swaying.
Tom's amiable voice presents five songs: Ian Campbell's Patrick
Pearse, Allan Taylor's Fiddler John, Mary and the Soldier, Billy
Mitchell's 1915-1975 and a revisit to Richard Thompson's terrific
Beeswing, which he included on a previous album.
I've never met Tom McConville, but the humanity and a generosity of
spirit that is so evident in this album makes me I feel I know him.
Iain Campbell
TAPLAS
Hello,
We have the great pleasure to announce you that your cd "Tommy on
the Bridge"
was elected "cd of the year" in our March issue, the first pages of
which you can find in
attachment.
All the best !
Marc Bauduin
http://users.skynet.be/canard.folk
|
Click here for
Mike Harding Intro
and then....
Click here to hear
'Patrick Pearse' track
and Mike Harding outro
|
