50 Irish Fiddle Tunes (HL 634235)

50 Irish Fiddle Tunes (HL 634235)

Fifty choice tunes, as arranged and played by one of the all-time greats of Irish traditional fiddling, Tommy Peoples.

Tommy Peoples was born in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, and grew up in Killycally, St. Johnston, Co. Donegal. He learned partly from his father but started lessons with his cousin Joe Cassidy at the age of seven. Peoples developed his own techniques of bowing from early in his playing career and is one of the most inventive and imaginative of traditional fiddlers. A move to Dublin led to his involvement in the foundation of The Green Linnet CéilI Band and, in 1974, to a brief spell with the group 1691. Soon after, he joined the legendary Bothy Band, with which he recorded an album in 1975. In the late 1970s he played for a time with the Kilfenora Céili Band but was always happier in small sessions rather than stage performances. One of the most memorable traditional albums of this period is Matt Molloy, Paid Brady, Tommy Peoples (1978), notable for the great passion and energy of all three players' performances. Peoples has released a number of solo albums, including The High Part of the Road (1979), on which he was accompanied by Paul Brady. Throughout the 1980s and '90s he played small sessions, many of them around Co. Clare. The Quiet Glen/An Gleann Giiiin was released in 1998, with Aiph Duggan on guitar, and has strengthened Peoples' standing as one of the all-time greats of Irish traditional fiddling.