North by NorthWest
“With Eliot’s signature sound driven by his squeaky clean technique,
there is never a difficult sounding passage, nor wrinkle in the tempo;
and Dave Cory is right there with him at every twist and turn.”
- Iris na bPíobairí
About the Album
North by NorthWest is a collaborative musical effort between banjo player/guitarist, Dave Cory, and uilleann piper/flute player, Eliot Grasso.
“We had a great time playing together on a prior recording project in Portland during February 2006, so we thought it made sense to record an album together.
After our initial practice in the Seattle’s Best Coffee shop on the corner of 2nd Avenue and Cherry Street in Pioneer Square, we felt like there was a lot to work with. We came up with a healthy dose of traditional tunes along with a few originals by Peter Fitzgerald and John Daly.
Meath-born Baltimore banjo player, Peter Fitzgerald, composed two jigs on the album: ‘The Thrupenny Bit’ and ‘The Bowels of the Earth.’ I learned them from Peter during my many years playing with him around Baltimore. I picked up John Daly’s ‘Slate Hill’ from uilleann piper Kieran O'Hare when I was visiting him in Chicago during 2003.
In late May 2006, I recorded a dozen or so tunes and mailed them to McGurk’s Pub in St. Louis while Dave was doing a brief tour there. When he returned to the Northwest we had one more practice; Dave had all the tunes nailed.
June 9th brought us to sound engineer Mike Kelly at Eastside Recording Studios in Portland and the rest is on the disc.”
About the Musicians
Dave Cory (banjo, guitar, octave mandolin)
Dave Cory hails from Bishop, CA where he began playing the guitar in his early teens. By age 16, Dave became infatuated with Irish tenor banjo and has never let go. In the late 90s and early 2000s, he spent a great deal of time playing Irish music around Boston with such exponents of the tradition as Dan Isaacson, Tina Lech, Ted David, and Peter Molloy. Now living in Portland, he performs and records regularly with such talents as Bridgetown, An Tua, Crumac, The McKassons, and Celhorn to name a few. Dave’s style is marked by impeccable rhythm, innovative variations, and abounding virtuosity coupled with profound understanding of the traditional idiom.
Notes About the Tunes
1. Reels: Billy McComiskey’s/Dan Breen’s/The Beauty Spot
Eliot composed the first reel for the great Brooklyn-born accordion player and Baltimore resident, Billy McComiskey. Dan Breen (1894-1969) was born near Soloheadbeg, County Tipperary. In 1919 he participated in the first engagement of the Irish war of independence. The Beauty Spot is a great piping tune.
2. Jigs: The Fly in the Porter/Gan Ainm
The first jig Eliot learned from piper Robbie Hannan. The phrasing of the second jig is very odd and allegedly comes from a recording of Trian in the 1990s.
3. Reels: The Nine Points of Roguery/Famous Ballymote
The Nine Points of Roguery is a northern reel that also goes by the name The Black Mare of Fanad. Famous Ballymote, named after a town in County Sligo, needs no introduction.
4. Reels: The Blackberry Blossom/Slate Hill
Slate Hill was composed by the Cork-born fiddler John Daly and was originally set in the key of G minor. Between 1841 and 1902, fourteen of the houses in the neighborhood where John grew up were built of stone that came from a small quarry on the farm his parents bought in 1961. Quarrying ceased in 1903, but roofing slate continued to be harvested there until 1906. A century later, the place continues to be referred to locally as Slate Hill.
5. Jigs: The Purse Rusted Shut/The Green Lady/Morgan Andersen’s Foret
These three jigs are all compositions of Eliot's. The first is named for a select few who would rather pay to have their lawns mowed than for a proper music lesson. The second is named for what might possibly be the finest sushi roll on earth. This sumptuous item contains yellow tail, cucumber, mint leaves, and freshly cut limes and is sold at a premium at $11 American. It can be obtained from Edo Sushi in Lutherville, Maryland. The last tune was composed in honor of the great bow maker, Morgan Andersen. The foret is a hand-operated French tool designed to bore the eyes out of a bow’s frog.
6. Reels: The Musical Priest/Farrell O’Gara
These reels are well-known tunes. The Musical Priest is transposed here to A minor from B minor.
7. Set Dance & Reel: Rodney’s Glory/The Watchmaker
Rodney's Glory is no. 1784 in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland and is a set dance version of O’Carolan’s air The Princess Royal. The title was derived from verses by the poet Eoghain Rua Ó Súilleabháin written to commemorate a naval battle fought in 1782 between British Vice Admiral, George Brydges Rodney (1718-1792), and a fleet of Frenchman. The Watchmaker is a Donegal version of the Scottish fiddle tune, Neil Gow’s Wife and can be found in the Skye Collection scored as a strathspey in G minor. We thought that the F naturals in both tunes made them a complementary pair.
8. Reels: Up Against The Buachalawns/The Old Pinch of Snuff
The Buachalawn is a yellow-flowered weed poisonous to horses and cattle. Perhaps the composer of this tune had a field overrun with the plant, endangering his livestock. This version of the Pinch of Snuff is the more comely and concise of the tunes bearing that name.
9. Air & Set Dance: The Fallen Bridge/The Princess Royal
Eliot wrote The Fallen Bridge and dedicates it to the memory of Nick Marsalek, an incredibly gifted jazz guitarist whose contribution to music will be remembered by all who encountered him. Eliot learned The Princess Royal, composed by Turlough O’Carolan, via Barry Foy from a live performance of Tommy Peoples recorded in 1974.
10. Hornpipes: The Come Hither Stare/Poll Ha'Penny
Eliot composed The Come Hither Stare in April 2006. There is some speculation that the second hornpipe, Poll Ha’Penny, is derived from the air, Molly McAlpin, which was collected and published by Edward Bunting in 1796. The blind harper, Turlough O’Carolan, was purportedly quoted to have said that he wished he had written it. This would indicate that the tune predates his death in 1738.
11. Jigs: The Thrupenny Bit/The Bowels of the Earth/The Falls of the West
The first two jigs are compositions of Meath-born banjo player and Baltimore resident Peter Fitzgerald. The Thrupenny Bit was titled to commemorate the old Irish coin which sadly disappeared when Ireland joined the EEC in 1973. “Let us descend to the bowels of the earth,” was Frank Claudy’s customary invitation to descend into the subterranean basement of his Regester Avenue home in Baltimore. Eliot composed The Falls of the West for his wife, Kate, after his first visit to the West Coast. The waterfalls on Mount Rainier left an indelible impression.
12. Reels: Smith O’ Couster/The Jolly Tinker/Farewell to Ireland
The first reel is a Shetland tune composed by fiddler Tom Anderson (1910-1991) who recorded it on The Silver Bow: The Fiddle Music of Shetland. This version of the Jolly Tinker is one indigenous to Donegal. This version of Farewell to Ireland comes from the piping of Kieran O’Hare.
