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ARMAGH PIPERS CLUB / EITHNE VALLELY - By Dobbin’s Flowery Vale

ARMAGH PIPERS CLUB / EITHNE VALLELY - By Dobbin’s Flowery Vale
Private Label

Subtitled A Journey In Traditional Song With The Armagh Pipers Club, this book is difficult to categorise. It does embody (on the two accompanying CDs) some excellent singing, but it’s also a very useful resource, containing 41 songs. These are predominantly from the province of Ulster and many will be familiar to anyone who enjoys singing from that region. But there are one or two lesser-known surprises, which add a piquancy to the mix.

Dealing with the book itself, it’s well laid out and contains the words of all the songs featured on the CDs. The large typeface and softback A4 format, together with the music notations for all the songs, make the contents very accessible. The content is varied – nearly every imaginable genre of traditional song is represented here – and this book would make an excellent gift for any budding singer. I would love to see it find a place in schools; although I believe not so many schools have singing as a subject these days.

The CDs are equally varied, and while some have been sourced from recordings by well-known singers like Roisin White and Colum Sands, others come from lesser known and younger singers, as well as from the younger members of the Armagh Pipers Club itself. Overall, the vocal clarity is good, and of course, it means the songs can be heard and then learned by ear, should the reader/listener choose to do so.

I know the APC has a long and richly deserved reputation for encouraging and promoting all forms of traditional music and song, and they should be congratulated for producing a most entertaining and educational tool for the promotion of traditional song – it certainly sounds to be safe in their part of the world.

www.armaghpipersclub.com

John Waltham



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This album was reviewed in Issue 122 of The Living Tradition magazine.