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What a great night 🎶#readinguk # | The Fisherman’s Cottage | Facebook

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What a great night 🎶#readinguk #rdguk #reading #berkshire #readingberkshire #uk #rdg #bookstagram #caversham #insta #books #bracknell #wokingham #rugbygram #rdgbiz #wearevegivores #vegansofinstagram #k #readingtime #vegivores #drivingrugbyforward #inclusion #instagay #booklover #gayrugby #rugbyforall #inclusiverugby #rugby #plantbasedgoodness #growtherose | The Fisherman’s Cottage | Facebook

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What a great night 🎶#readinguk #rdguk #reading #berkshire #readingberkshire #uk #rdg #bookstagram #caversham #insta #books #bracknell #wokingham #rugbygram #rdgbiz #wearevegivores #vegansofinstagram…

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Watch & learn from overhead camera shots of my simple but effective fingering style on piano which I'm calling 'Colm's Way'.
https://www.youtube.com/@colmsway

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Colm Daly's piano playing technique as used on his CD 'Old Time Joanna' and which is freely found here: https://padlet.com/newtchaser/colmdaly/wish/1705439096

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REVIEWS re Margarets Waltz track from the Ripples Across The Pond CD that I spired Old Time Joanna CD.:

OLD TIME HERALD (US)
"A standout among the album's many pleasant surprises"

Old Time News (UK):
"I was delighted to hear a very spirited and accomplished rendition of Margaret's Waltz on the joanna from Colm Daly".
Gill Harrison

NW Bluegrass (UK) see full review
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/colm.daly/FOLDERS/NW_Bluegrass_News_Mag_July-2000_Review_Ripples_Across_the_Pond.doc

REVIEWS re Old Time Joanna CD:
Old Time News (UK)
"Enjoyable purely for what it is, and adding a refreshing and revealing new dimension to the old familiar music to boot"
Bill Lloyd

Musical Traditions (UK):
"Just to say how much I enjoyed the CD. Gave it a couple of playings while attemping to clear the Paddy's day cobwebs oSunday morning and was very impressed. Was great to hear your takes of Ida Red and Sallyann Johnson in particular, as the Bob wills and Mark O' Connor versions have long been favourites of mine".
Martin Beeson

Netrhythms: see full review
http://www.netrhythms.co.uk/reviewsd.html#colmdaly
"he effortlessly and naturally communicates his enjoyment of the music with a good-time vibe in every bar (and juke-joint!)"
David Kidman

COMMENTS:
"I have enjoyed listening to your CD, especially Roll 'em Colm".
Walt Koken

Date: Wed Feb 21, 2001 3:32 pm

Just got back from the Gainsborough festival 2001

run by FOAOTMAD.............Another highlight of the weekend was Colm Daly's old time piano playing which led to an unplanned purchase of his "Old Time Joanna" CD - excellent

stuff! http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/oldtimemusic/message/75

From: elmoreuk

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David Kidman - Traditional Music Maker

An unusual album this - 27 tracks of solo piano playing repertoire drawn principally from the American fiddle tradition, mostly in an appealing and neatly mobile ragtime groove, with hints here and there of New Orleans stride or boogie styles.

Apparently, Colm’s known in old-time circles as a guitarist and occasional fiddler, but it's clear from this home-produced CD that he's no mean pianist too! In fact, it's also a good bet that you'll not have heard this music played quite like this; to some it may sound a potential recipe for disaster (on paper at least), but I find it stimulating and intriguing, not least because it points up the close (and under-appreciated) kinship between the traditional fiddle tunes and the ragtime of Scott Joplin and his era, and how naturally the latter developed in full knowledge of the former from the sprightly minstrelsy of the cakewalk players.

Aspects of ragtime technique abound, such as ornamentation and trills, while heavy syncopation often takes the place of the four-square rhythmic orientation of the original dance tunes. Remember how Joshua Rifkin’s deliberate and unhurried renditions of Joplin invoked charges of "heresy" ?!; well, this ain't heresy either, but again just a different slant on the music, and is most refreshing. Colm’s "walking bass" has an enviable solidity, but occasional unavoidable imperfections elsewhere in his playing don't matter a jot, as he effortlessly and naturally communicates his enjoyment of the music with a good-time vibe in every bar (and juke-joint!).

He's not afraid to exercise expressive rubato on the less pacey numbers like Ashokan Farewell and Margaret's Waltz either, and he's not averse to a bit of henhouse vamp (as on Growling Old Men), while he also relishes a bit of Jerry Lee Lewis when the mood takes him; to his credit, though, his approach is so fully-formed that none of these influences seems out of place within the context of his treatments of the material.

Bill Lloyd – Old Time News

This generous CD contains 27 tracks of Colm Daly on solo piano, playing traditional American fiddle tunes, with a sprinkling of Irish, Canadian, Cajun and Gospel numbers. The treatment of all the tracks is similar, moving between Ragtime, Boogie-Woogie and Stride Piano styles, all at medium tempo.

Colm Daly plays with an instinct born of many a good night in the pub - he knows the tunes well, and enjoys playing around with them. Without doubt the feel of the disc owes more to the atmosphere of the smoky New Orleans beer-shop than to the bow-ties and aspidistras of the concert platform, or even to the straw-bales and dungarees of the mountain chicken-run, and it is none the worse for that. He simply takes the old-time tunes and turns them into a different form of entertainment. In the process they lose one identity and gain another.

In form and structure, the music is conventional. Most of the tunes have the standard traditional dance music structure AABB, played on 3 chords over 32 bars. The tempo moves around quite freely however, (love me, love my rubato) and he uses syncopation and ornamentation (trills, runs, triplets and grace notes) in almost every bar. He clearly enjoys the slower numbers, ('White Dove' and 'Margaret's Waltz' for example) and the non-traditional numbers, when he allows the expressive qualities of the music more room, and he clearly has a feel for Jerry Lee Lewis (in the up tempo Roll M'Colm) but the broad appeal of the disc relies on a straight-forward good-time feel, with a solid walking bass in the rhythmic left hand and the ornamented tune in the right hand.

Hours at the keyboard have produced a well-developed and consistent individual style, and it is interesting that the tunes from different countries and traditions respond equally well to the Colm Daly treatment, and as a result they appear to have much in common. This piano style reveals that the transition from fiddle dance band music to the rags of Scott Joplin was only a small step.

It must be said that Colm Daly is not Scott Joplin, but he is no mean player. He acknowledges in the notes to the CD that the recording started out as a private affair, not intended for publication, as a record of his pianistic endeavours before the fingers stiffened up. He is an amateur in the best and truest sense, and has this in common with the greatest of the old-timers - he plays for love of the music. In the same way that a serious critic of fiddle technique might carp at the scratchy tone or the bowing style of some old-time fiddler recorded in his backyard in 1956, so one could find fault with these performances if one has a mind to. I had to listen carefully, (and with a stiff upper lip) to find any fault, but I don't recommend that approach. I suggest that the way most likely to bring satisfaction is to listen generously - and if you think you hear the very occasional fluff or hesitation in a run or trill, just imagine that a happy punter jostled Colm's arm in the crush round the piano, and you will find yourself wishing you were there!

To those who believe that Old Time music should only be played on fiddle and banjo, the recording will come either as a pleasant surprise or a dreadful mistake, depending on the purity of their minds. (You have to guess which is which way round.) It is likely that you will like all of it or none of it. I can recall being mildly outraged when my favourite Irish Trad outfit, the Boys of The Lough, brought a piano into their line-up in the mid-Eighties, only to be delighted when it led me on to discover the Cape Breton piano players Tracy Dares and Hilda Chaisson, and Violet Tulloch from the Lerwick Lounge in Shetland, (one of Daly's main influences) for whom the piano was a superb rhythmic and melodic addition to the traditional sound. This album has the same unexpected but delightful quality - enjoyable purely for what it is, and adding a refreshing and revealing new dimension to the old familiar music to boot.

I can do no better than quote from Colm's own informative notes: "This is probably the only compilation on one CD dedicated to solo old-time piano that you'll find and one that offers

an insight into how it can be done too. I hope you'll enjoy my offering and should you own a Joanna that you'll be inspired to try for yourself."

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OLDTIME JOANNA AND ME

I choose the word “joanna” quoting from a recent review by Gill Harrison (in The Old Time News re: Ripples Across the Pond CD) featuring a track by me. It is Cockney slang for piano and as I’m an honorary Cockney having lived in London 25 years I thought that it was quite appropriate.

This CD was initially intended only as a private affair, to have for posterity before my ever stiffening fingers seize up from arthritis or old age whichever comes first. I’m only 52 but my fingers ache more and my playing durations grow ever shorter with each incrementing year. This CD was initially intended only as a private affair, to have for posterity before my ever stiffening fingers seize up from arthritis or old age whichever comes first. I’m only 52 but my fingers ache more and my playing durations grow ever shorter with each incrementing year. I have been encouraged to “go public” by friends and from very positive reviews of my rendition of Margaret's Waltz on the Ripples Across the Pond CD. After much hesitancy and hard work this is the final outcome.

Born and bred in Dublin I abandoned it’s joblessness in my twenties to “dig for gold” in London but only ended up floating from place to place. Eventually I settled in London, got married and reared a family of two daughters. To retain my job in computer maintenance and being divorced I moved to Reading in 1997 and immediately immersed myself into the local and not so local musical scene. I don’t run around with various bands as much as I used to anymore for I tend to immerse myself in computer related projects of which this is but one of many.

I seemed to always remember playing piano though we never had a piano in our household till I was turning into my teens. My sister was having lessons and I recall envying that privilege. I supposed I had an ear for the piano from as early as I can remember right from pre-school days when I was brought to an event in my forthcoming school and where to my fascination a band played in the pit. The piano featured just as boldly then as the horn instruments. Much later at a boys club an elder sat at the otherwise neglected piano and played Ray Charles’s What I Say and I was transfixed. Such was my admiration that I decided there and then that that’s what I wanted to do someday.

There were no musical interests in my immediate family though I have discovered a strong tradition in my father’s family who hailed from West Clare a hotbed for traditional Irish music. None of that was transmitted to us living in suburban middleclass Dublin except for the Irish Ceilidhe programs on the wireless. The wireless in the kitchen being perpetually on was a rich source of influence and our only entertainment. Being the 1950’s there was a lot of Russ Conway, Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis all of whom grabbed my attention over all else for some strange reason. Being from a family of nine and many of us teenagers we scoured the airwaves for pirate radio stations to hear the latest releases.

The introduction of a record player at home seemed to mark a turning point in the generation gap between us teenagers and our parents for my Dad would destroy the Elvis Presley records in piques of rage against corruption. The church also frowned on unwholesome dancing and of girls wearing jeans, such was the fundamentalist religious and cultural climate of Catholic Ireland created by our Celtic purist president Mr. DeValera . Rock and Roll became not just a musical preference for the youth but a political and cultural statement by the young in defiance of such indoctrination.

My sister having lost interest in her piano studies I found I had the sitting room piano all to myself. Everyday for hours I fumbled and plonked at the grossly out of tune keys as if exorcising some demon from my spirit. My twin brother Derry (also on the Ripples Across the Pond CD) in the meantime had taken up the guitar and with the aid of a few lessons made such rapid progress that I was ashamed for my lack of it. Probably due to the feeling of being overlooked regarding lessons did I become dog headed and pursued my own course with ever more vehemence. I believe it is this that characterises my playing more than anything else, a determination to go it alone in my own way. To say “I did it my way” seems almost an understatement regarding my approach.

Now that I’m in my 50’s and having little to show for my “going it alone” other than a few rough and ready tape recordings I decided that before it’s too late I’ll have take that huge leap of stepping into a recording studio. This in itself has been a huge challenge to one who usually only plays the piano in the comfort of home or with friends as I generally suffer panic attacks when playing in public. However it has been one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever attempted and not least for having to master the techniques of producing a home CD from the results.

From our teenage years Derry and I developed mainly musical friendships with those around us and this has led me from boogie-woogie to blues and r&b, to old time and even back to the Irish that we once rebelled against. Right now it all seems to revolve back to what we might have heard as teenagers on the kitchen radio or from a handful of records an elder brother returned from London with. These gems included Leadbelly, Davy Graham, Cyril Davis, Lonnie Donnigan and Flatt & Scruggs amongst others. A friend lent me some Jimmy Yancey records and that carved my path of appreciation into the blues and later onto greats like Professor Longhair and Fats Domino.

In my early 40’s my waning interest and stagnation in the piano was given a new lease of life by frequenting an Old Time pub session that had a brilliant piano otherwise unused. I was unfamiliar with it at first but I soon found myself hooked. I was therefore quite shocked when the proprietors removed the piano without any warning. Having discovered the fun of playing ensemble rather solo I bought a guitar and learned to flat-pick without hesitation. In a similar fashion I later picked up and learn some old time fiddling.

The piano was never too far behind for what I could play on the fiddle I transferred to piano and in doing so I seemed to find a my own voice on it. This was boosted about a year ago by indulging myself to a Yamaha Clavinova. As if in mockery to the cheap and cheerful uprights I was used to I was astonished to discover a flood of new output on its slick keyboard, which drew from well of a decade or more of playing at old-time sessions.

Throughout my playing life I’ve changed from applying different fingerings for different styles to almost the one fingering method now. On the left hand the third finger provides walking bass while the thumb and forefinger make up chords and little finger plays bottom-alternating 5ths. The thumb often alternates the offbeat with a sixth providing a swing element. With the right hand I play the scale using a 4/3 progression. Both hand techniques are I believe unique to me for I’ve never been shown or corrected in my approach nor can I read music. The discerning listener will be correct to point out that I diverge on occasion to add colour. The style may not allow for those elegant chromatic right hand chord changes that Violet Tullock so skilfully employs but at least it does accommodate the three elements of my tunes: the melody, the chords and the bass.

I first heard Old Time piano as I call it when Derry returned from the States with an extremely poor live recording of a Contra dance band featuring an eccentric piano player. I could not emulate who ever it was no matter how much I tried but in the process I began to absorb the importance of syncopation into my own playing. Listening to snippets of Violet Tullock from the Shetlands or Sandy Bradley on the excellent Sandy’s Fancy album has been extremely rewarding. I have recently had the distinct pleasure of seeing Patt Plunkett accompany Charlie Walden at Clifftop. The Red Clay Ramblers also frequently feature piano on their recordings but sadly there seems little else to choose from amongst contemporary artists. Fortunately for us the many recordings from the early days of country music feature piano e.g. The Hillbillies, the Blue Ridge Mountaineers, H M Barnes Blue Ridge Ramblers, Sharp Hinman & Sharp to name but a few brilliant exponents.

How and ever, lead or solo old-time piano is almost nonexistent but for some rare pickings from Gary Patton, The Shelor Family, Thelma Thompson, Jennifer Crawford, Hayward Blevins and even Hobart Smith. All these and more have been inspirational but I would never rank myself in their league. In compensation I am offering you the listener my own humble but unique approach to this dark art. Also, this is probably the only compilation on one CD dedicated to solo old-time piano that you’ll find and one that offers an insight into how it can be done too. I hope you’ll enjoy my offering and should you own a “ joanna” that you’ll be inspired to try for yourself.

Colm Daly

2/1/2001

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Recent reviews of the UK compilation CD "Ripples Across the Pond" featuring a home-recorded track by me of Margaret's Waltz (now studio recorded on my new solo CD) incited some acclaim in both the UK and the US. Here are some review comments about my offering on that CD:

"a standout among the album's many pleasant surprises"

OLD-TIME HERALD

" I was delighted to hear a very spirited and accomplished rendition of

Margaret's Waltz on the joanna from Colm Daly"

OLD TIME NEWS

This prompted me to approach a professional sound studio to record this album. My playing basically examines some of the crossover areas between Afro-American piano and Scots-Irish fiddle tunes, both traditions being very dear to me.

I am very proud to present to you this new CD "Old Time Joanna". The tunes are mainly from the Southern hillbilly-fiddling repertoire but with a sprinkling of Cajun, Gospel, Canadian and a tinge of Boogie and Irish thrown in for good measure. Sample audio clips are available from my website at RIFFF.COM where there are more track details and a full personal biog. The summer copy of The Old Time News will carry a full review so an early review from you would be greatly appreciated.

Colm Daly

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1  Nashville Skyline Rag
2  Whiskey Before breakfast
3  White Dove
4  Roll'm Colm
5  Fifteen Cents
6  Margaret's Waltz
7  Durang's Hornpipe
8  Martha Campbell
9  Jole Blon
10 Old Mother Flannigan
11 Bele of Lexington
12 Ook Pik Waltz
13  Mason's Apron
14  Sallyann Johnson
15 Askokan Farewell
16 Fisher's Hornpipe
17 St. Anne's Reel
18 Bull at the Wagon
19 Ida Red
20 Spotted Pony
21 Weapon of Prayer
22 Sandy River Belle
23 Sally Goodin Shortnin' Bread
24 Citigo
25 Soldier's Joy
26 Little Billy Wilson
27 Canadian Medley :
Cuffey & Growling Old Man
Grumbling Old Woman & La Bastringue

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I promised to share online my solo piano CD called 'Old Time Joanna' with some muso friends and now pleased to say I've uploaded it to Google Drive (and hopefully will be playable without having to download, though I think that is doable too) and happy to share with the world. I reckon that those who paid for the original have had their money's worth and won't object. This is a trial so I'm not sure whether it works...fingers crossed!
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1PWySYong_RiZBOLkJJRog87t0v0wynSJ

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Sally Goodin Shortnin' Bread – Colm Daly

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Cuffey & Growling Old Man Grumbling Old Woman & La Bastringue – Colm Daly

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Cuffey
Growling Old Man Grumbling Old Woman
La Bastringue

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Cuffey & Growling Old Man Grumbling Old Woman & La Bastringue

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Cuffey & Growling Old Man Grumbling Old Woman & La Bastringue