Tommy Peoples

pure music

[@juliemelia]

I saw Tommy Peoples playing in Ennis in 1988. It was like someone had sprinkled fairy dust in the air. I had a great fear that he would stop playing and the magic would finish.
Steven Edward, Melbourne

[@ronanmcconnellable]

RIP Tommy. The second tune here, which I think is one of his, is some of the most beautiful playing I've ever heard.

[@billdennehy570]

RIP Tommy. A gentleman and artist. I won't forget you.

[@DONAL914]

Does it matter where he lived?, His style may have been from Donegal but his music was from the man himself. R.I.P Tommy

[@Zargblast]

Get your facts right, Clarebannerman, Tommy left Clare four years ago and has been living back home in Donegal for the last three!
Still the master.

[@clarebannerman]

Tommy from County Donegal now living in Kilfeora, County Clare. Remember him from the late 60's. Great musician & brilliant exponent of the Donegal style.

[@MrMusicguyma]

Tommy was a quick, clean player, firmly in the traditions of both Donegal and Clare especially evident when playing solo. A solo performance by Tommy in a pub inspired Wendy Newton acquire the Green Linnet record label from founders Lisa Null & Patick Sky in 1975 to publicize trad Music in the USA.
Despite bad management by Green Linnet, and subsequent lawsuits, it did get the music out to a wider audience worldwide.

[@HEADSUPBERKELEY]

By God I don't think I ever saw such a skilled sensitive player. OK ONE OF THE GREATS!
BB

[@evilviolist]

The first tune is the Silver Spire, the second is one of Tommy's, which I think he calls the Beautiful Gortree. The crunchy effect is called a treble, after the dance step, or a triplet, presumably after how many notes are in it.

[@celtharp]

violin tone of the most exquisite beauty, like hearing a spirit playing, or rather, singing
stabs me in the heart time after time

[@sentimentaloldme]

R.I.P. Tommy...

[@clarebannerman]

His daughter Siobhán is also a lovely fiddle player.

[@musicofnewfoundlandlabrado2080]

💓So lovely.

[@petehoward6143]

Some of his playing is wonderfully just outside the tempered scale. So beautiful.

[@untonsured]

Pete Howard the what scale? Nonsense.

[@petehoward6143]

Nope. It is. Just a few notes and probably his preference and not a mistake on his part. Look it up. I don't have time for a pointless argument, cranky pants. I've been a fan Tommy Peoples more than 30 years.

[@untonsured]

I think I'd know. So much bullshit sometimes about music. Tommy is a brilliant musician and like most of us trad players we don't intend to play tampered this or that and if it is it's sheer accident or probably slightly out of tune notes.

[@untonsured]

Doesn't matter how long you've been a fan.

[@petehoward6143]

You really are pointlessly bent out of shape about this. You don't know me and so you don't know what kind of musician I am. I've learned by ear from the older players in area (the Ozarks). I can't remember where I learned the term tempered (in fact I had to look to make sure that it was what I thought). The long and short of it is musicians of all sorts talk to each other and like to learn from each other and we also are literate and like to read from time to time. And talking and reading are not snobby and elitist practices. That's all I have to say on the subject. Have another beer and calm down and go to bed.

[@memecine]

The first tune is "Silver Spire", the second is "Black Pat's", but I'm not sure it is his own composition; on his CD "The Quiet Glen (An Gleann Ciúin)", he plays it with "Bonny Kate", which is credited to him, but the credit for "Black Pat's" is 'Trad'. Lovely, brilliant music in any case. A wonderful fiddler, which he performed more in public.

[@ralphd35]

Just fantastic.

[@duonhhb]

Yes indeed Steven & Julie.....

[@pointybongo]

hoo boy. he is THE man!

[@mrtubbs1]

Outstanding

[@deterdettol]

@malek321 @memecine Tommy Peoples did compose Black Pats.
The second tune is not Black Pats, it is actually The Beautiful Gortree, also composed by Tommy Peoples. In his Quiet Glen album, he played it after The Cup of Tea.

[@AnVeidhleadoir]

@njouve yeah i think your right about that. I had to learn the whiskey before breackfast for a college piece and it immediately stuck me as being similar to this tune. the 2nd is one of his own compositions.

[@njouve]

What a fiddler Tommy is !!!
By the way the first tune seems to be the ancestor of the "Whiskey Before Breakfast" tune known in the Old Time/Bluegrass world.

[@kelamuni]

there are indeed some similarities, in bars 3 and 7 in the A part, and bars 5 - 8 in the B part. the Silver Spire is also known as the Great Eastern reel in N. America. see page 70 of Ryan’s Mammoth.

[@sandb1867]

He rules!

[@Frakfayt]

The Silver Spire for the first tune.

[@caitlinbegley5704]

Wow Wow Wow

[@Stibsyt]

Interesting to note that Charles O'Connor is starting to look spookily like Tommy now...;-) can't play like this though!

[@PhysicsForTheFuture]

@dwaynedibbly It certainly isn't flashy like some of the guys in the touring bands, but it has an intensity and drive to it...again perhaps like his personality. I will go for this over Kevin Burke say. But all is cool.

[@Poodlepups]

The first tune may be "The Silver Spire." I'd have to compare it to Dusty Miller, which I don't remember...

[@redhairedlad]

The first tune is "The Silver Spire". Don't know the 2nd.

[@MauriceJudge1]

a cut above

[@wqpeb]

just listened to dusty miller again last night.
this is not it after all, but there is a similar phrase, that's all.
had me fooled.

[@raphaelpinel2614]

Beautiful and magic! Strange that he plays the first tune in E flat major, and the second in F, isn't it? Not common fiddle scales

[@fiddle18]

The fiddle would be tuned up a semitone. So he's playing D and E major

[@sdfiddler]

Great rendition!! Is this Blackberry Blossoum??

[@SirSelby]

I always thought he composed it as well. It's one of my favourite reels to play. Care to share how you've got this info, just to set the record straight as to it's origin?

[@Zargblast]

'I have his CDs.' You could shave off his leg hair and smoke it in a pipe, but you still wouldn't have a clue about Tommy's music.
Séamus Tansey lived in Portadown for more than a decade. It doesn't mean his flute-style is Armagh-tinged.
Do get a grip and listen very closely to Tommy's playing.

[@Paudyis]

I prefer how he sounded at this sort of age, he sounds kinda shrill for my ears now

[@humanity4408]

He doesn't tap the stick with his pinky, that's a myth. It's all in the wrist.

[@cmrsvids]

@xlacrosse3793 I was just thinking the very same.

[@wqpeb]

first tune dusty miller?

[@bobdylansblues]

@dwaynedibbly your not listening.

[@Zargblast]

Utter rubbish! Which planet are you on!
Tommy's playing is East Donegal through and through with a smidgeon of nuances picked up on his travels.
You really ought to get out more!

[@dwaynedibbly]

i find his playing so boring like his persoanlity.

[@conanmcdonnell9265]

Having listened to you play, I have come to the conclusion that your opinion is worthless.

[@emaych2]

He was a quiet man. Unlike yourself.