In October 2006, Gay McKeon broached me with a commission to produce a solo recording of my own playing for the NPU catalogue. I immediately accepted this invitation and am now in the final stages of the project.

 

I had the fortune to work with recording engineer extraordinaire, Sean Keegan, the director of the MA in recording technology at the University of Limerick. A knowledgeable musician himself, Sean rendered much useful critiques and encouragement throughout the project. We would take breaks frequently to grab a coffee or a bite to eat down the street at the Kilmurray Lodge.

 

It is a bit difficult to talk about one’s own work in terms of technique, art, and the matrix of variables that make a recording unique to the performer. I can say that I am pleased with the playing on the recording and feel that it offers an accurate and circumspect glimpse of my musicality as a traditional musician. The repertoire was a great joy to record and I grew more attached to it the more I played it.

 

I find recording a much needed challenge. It is a difficult thing to focus so intensely for so long...I have to pay as close attention to the last 8 bars as to the first 8 bars and mistakes in the middle--unlike in a live performance--can be jarring psychologically. “Have to redo that one...” will cross my mind which can effect the rest of the take. Any lapse in concentration slows the process because even though the playing might be technically good, how I feel about the “feel” of the recording can be off-putting if not in a positive frame of mind throughout the take.

 

Recordings are documents; they are sonic photographs that, thanks to digital technology, do not deteriorate. They will be around--for all we know--indefinitely. The psychological approach to such a situation is quite different from a concert scenario where small errors or inconsistencies are not cause for concern. The audience is sitting there with you in the present and once a moment has passed, they are busy experiencing the current moment and not the previous moment no matter how precise or inaccurate.  Recordings of course will be replayed ad infinitum, analyzed, deconstructed, criticized but technically and stylistically. It is at this point where the challenge comes to a head and I must become my own worst critic. Tempo, intonation, variations in rhythm, natural as the elasticity of these musical elements may be in real performance become immediately suspect of inconsistency.

 

The good news is that this, like any other high-stress situation, is negotiable. New spaces and new acoustics present unmet challenges and once these challenges are faced and conquered, the relaxed nature of performance can begin to take the place of the hypercritical.

 

Here is the track listing:

 

 

I chose these tunes because they represent the gamut of music played during my musical development thus far from tunes learned in childhood, in Baltimore, Ireland, Seattle, and original compositions.