Episode 5: Maggie Carty (Banjo, singing)

Recorded live at the National Celtic Festival in Victoria, Australia. Maggie Carty joins us for a few tunes and a chat about being immersed in the music all her life, custodianship, and the musicians that made the biggest impact on her playing. The songs and tunes performed are as follows:

The Moving Bogs/Sydney Bogs
(please correct me if this is wrong)
Lough Erne Shore
The Nightingale
The Mist Covered Mountains/The Gallowglass Jig
Stór Mo Chroí

...

So it won't be a surprise to anybody who's listened to a few episodes already that my first acquaintance with Lough Erne Shore, which Maggie Kate sings in Episode 5 of The Blarney Pilgrims Podcast, was via the Paul Brady and Andy Irvine Purple Album...worth a listen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UiBO1MT65g

And here is a great song Maggie performs with John Carty (her dad) and Francis Gaffney:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzLKI9B67-M

The Mist Covered Mountains, which Maggie plays, got me all nostalgic for Scotland as I was listening to her. And bagpipes. So many bagpipes at the National Celtic Festival Australia Official, some of which you can hear floating on the breeze behind Maggie as she's chatting with us on a sunny Saturday morning. And which put me in mind of other sunny Saturday mornings in Stirling, Scotland, when I worked in a wine and whiskey store and would hear two competing pipers busking from either end of the same street. A very interesting phenomenon, the effects of competing bagpipe music floating on the breeze on one's psyche...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n72XebBaMeI

Louis MacNeice's poem Bagpipe Music (what an accent that guy had - you'd hardly guess he was born in Carrickfergus.) Louis worked for a long time at the BBC, and is fondly remembered by Andy Irvine, who knew him from drinking in The George in London, before he (Andy) found his way to Ireland...

https://www.andyirvine.com/bio/chapter1.html

Maybe everything, always, eventually comes back around to...you know...Andy Irvine.

Louise Mulcahy, one of the Mulcahy sisters who Maggie cites as an influence:

https://www.facebook.com/louise.mulcahy.330/

And a fascinating clip of (I think) Bryan Rooney - the Godfather:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EopvuL9T8W4

One last note, Maggie was chatting about the London Irish music scene...I'm trying to track down an old BBC Radio 4 docco about just that, so hopefully in the next few weeks we'll be able to share it with you.

Seriously - has a banjo ever sounded so good? Thank you Maggie Kate for a lovely Saturday morning.

You can buy Maggie's CDs here:
johncartymusic.com/music.asp
(BTW, CDs are on sale for €10 with free postage to anywhere in the world for the month of July.)

And you can follow her here:
www.facebook.com/maggie.carty.3
www.instagram.com/maggiekatemusic/

I (Darren) would like to say a massive thank you to Jim Patton, who, after listening to the episode got in contact with me via Facebook to let me know some more info about Maggie's banjo. So, for those of you interested in such things, here are the deets. It is a Jim Patton Banjo. The tone ring is made from 3/8" square brass tube rolled to fit the rim. And the wood is American black walnut. It's a beautiful banjo!

You can contact Jim here: https://www.jpbanjos.co.uk/
And you can follow him here: https://www.facebook.com/jim.patton.946

Thanks again to Una McAlinden for having us at the National Celtic Festival and to everyone that came along to watch and support.

Also a HUGE thank you to Dave At Screenwave for becoming a Patreon. You're some sound man Dave!

If you want to be sound like Dave, please head over here and shout us a pint - you know we're worth it - www.patreon.com/blarneypilgrims