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

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

Margaret's Waltz on the joanna from Colm Daly"

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

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. 

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."

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