Introdaction
I first met Joe with my brother Charlie sometime in the early 60's in the house of Seamus Connolly in Killaloe, Co. Clare.
Aggie White was there, so was Fr. Kelly and a great nights music ensued. It was the beginning of a long and lasting friendship down through the years to this present day.
I am therefore privileged to have been asked to pen this introduction to a beautiful album from the gifted hands of truly the great master of the accordion.
Joe is a man of rare stature and his very presence graces and transforms a place as soon as he enters. One suddenly becomes aware of a magic descending and personating through, to the extent that one feels the need to remain in his company and stay under the spell. I know few musicians who possess this rare and unique gift. When one adds his storytelling to his musicality, then the picture is complete.
I have studied his playing, over the years, so as to gain an understanding of why things work so well. I can only conclude that the secret lies partly by the way he weaves the bellows, creating a series of notes, sometimes giving a rocking effect all with superb measured time. Add to this a right hand that spans longer than long, embracing rolls, doubles, trebles, all kinds of grace notes, of the most delicate texture and other quiffs known only to the man himself. The result is a masterful rendition of traditional music at its very best.
This album has a lovely warm mellow feel to it, coursing along in the comfort zone at a nice leisurely pace taking in a wide variety of music, including the odd waltz, at least four slow airs, of which the "Lament for Aughrim" is an absolute gem, a strathspey and of course reels, jigs and hornpipes.
Listen to the lonesome sound of the box. It haunts you all the way through. Joe is accompanied by Charlie whose delicacy and taste are now well established and the fusion of these two, which began that night in Killaloe, all of those 40 years ago is heard at its best in this album.
I can honestly give my imprimatur to it and recommend it to all lovers of traditional music in this rarefied stratospheric layout of excellence.
Space does not permit me to expound further. Suffice it to say that spring wells keep pumping however dry the weather and this fountain of Kilnadeema is far from being dry.
The best of luck Joe.
--Ben Lennon
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