Jimmy O'Brien Moran
Sean Reid's Favourite

Track Listing 1. The Boy on the Hilltop/Sean Reid's Favourite 2. Dark Lochnagar 3. The Tailor's Twist/The Friendly Visit 4. I Buried My Wife/The Blooming Meadows 5. I'll Mend Your Pots and Kettles O! 6. The Beauty Spot/Nellie Donovon 7. An Briste Breidin/Na Ceannabhain Bhana 8. Garrai na Saileog/Willie's Fling 9. Liam O'Raghallaigh 10. Poll Ha'penny//Dunphy's 11. Geo na gCnoc/The Shaskeen 12. Jame's Bourke's/Fraher's 13. Sean O'Duibhir a' Gleanna 14. An Buachaill Caol Dubh 15. Sliabh Russell/Tom Busby's/Staesia Donnelly's 16. The Butcher's March 17. The Broken Pledge/The Bunch of Keys Click on underlined titles to hear sound samples with Real Player

One of Ireland's most talented uilleann pipers at last has recorded his first solo CD.
Here, completely unaccompanied, he carries his two sets of pipes through some of the most memorable and difficult pieces of the piping cannon.
 His Colgan set of pipes are dated 1780 and are pitched in B. His other set was made by Robert Reid of North Shields, Northumberland, England. Reid (1748 - 1837) was a renowned maker of Northumbrian pipes and made several sets if Uilleann or Union pipes.
 

Seán Reid (1907 --- 1978)
Sean Reid was a remarkable man. His talents spanned such diverse fields as Civil Engineering, athletics, music and band management (The Tulla Celil Band). He was also a man of embarrassing honesty, of the utmost integrity, of vision, humility and of infinite kindness. Throughout the three years or so that I knew him he was like a father to me, patient, enthusiastic and encouraging. I enjoyed his hospitality whenever I would arrive, expected or otherwise, on his doorstep, He and his wife Mary-Ann insisted that I stay for the night on many occasions and always made me feel welcome.
When PJ Curtis invited me to record on an album in 1977 (The Piper's Rock). Sean enthusiastically agreed to let me use the Colgan set. He was so delighted to hear the set playing again that he kindly extended the loan. During his lifetime he had collected several sets of pipes, preserving them from destruction, and these he later passed on to various musicians as he saw fit. One he gave as a wedding present to Peadar O'Loughlan and they are both still together and very happy! Of two others, he gave one to Liam O'Flynn and the other to me.
I had the sad honour of playing on the Colgan set by Sean's graveside at his funeral. To his honour, I respectfully dedicate this recording. Jimmy O'Brien Moran.
 

Folk Roots
Another piper of note has his first solo album released. Jimmy O'Brien Moran from Waterford and very tasty it is too. Jimmy's playing shows the influence of Seamus Ennis and Willlie Clancy, yet he is very much his own stylist and many other pipers admit to being drawn to the way he plays. If anything, this album is long overdue for Jimmy O'Brien Moran's piping was recognized as being exceptional two decades ago when he featured with other notable and then young pipers such as Gabriel McKeon, Davy Spillane and Mick O'Brien on The Piper's Rock. He mixes his selection of tunes from a strong piping tradition in the Waterford area, on two sets of pipes-an antique set made by Robert Reid, the Tyneside maker who lived in the early decade of the last century..The sound of both the old flat set pitched in B contrasts well and the playing is masterful, never hurried, always crisply played and full of enjoyment as he mixes airs and reels with double jigs that have you purring. Dark Lochnagar is an air popularized by Willie Clancy, but here is given a different emphasis by Jimmy, as are all the tunes, sparklingly played and one of the very best albums I have heard this year    Joe Crane
 
 

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