BWW Reviews: HANDING DOWN THE TUNES Documents A Continuing Family Tradition

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Saturday 4th April 2015

I had no intention of writing a review when I went to the Irish Club in Adelaide over the Easter weekend but, as it turned out, the evening was important enough to deserve coverage. Tommy McCarthy, his wife, Louise Costello, his daughter, Rose, and his nephew, Peadar Giles, were making a brief stopover in Adelaide on their way to a tour of the eastern states, promoting a documentary about his father, Tommy McCarthy senior. Handing Down the Tunes, made by Ken Lynam, details the life, times and music of this great musician who was born in 1929 and preserved the traditional West Clare style of playing, teaching his four children, Tommy and his three sisters, Jacqueline, Marion and Bernadette, as well as beginning the tuition of his twelve grandchildren, including Rose and Peadar. This tuition, by one man steeped in the tradition, has ensured authenticity in their playing, the music being beautifully preserved in this family since he began hearing and learning it before the War.

The Irish music scene in Adelaide was begun by the late Tim Whelan senior and we, too, play in the West Clare style, so there were a good number of local musicians in the audience, eager to see this documentary and hear the four musicians playing together in a concert after the showing. Naturally, we all brought our instruments to play in a session after the concert, in which the four joined us for some lively tunes and plenty of good craic over a pint of Guinness.

The fascinating documentary is very comprehensive and is, effectively, in three parts. The first covers his early years, growing up on the family farm near Kilmichil in County Clare, developing a love for the music, and learning to play whistle, Uilleann pipes, and concertina from some of the best of the day. The second part concerns his migration to London in the early 1950s, where his four children were born, raised, taught, and played regularly with him and some of the other great Irish musicians who had also migrated looking for work. The third section concerns his return to Ireland, following the four children, who had already moved there. What stands out is that the many people in the film who pay tribute to him and reminisce about their friendships constitute a veritable "who's who" of the greatest of Irish traditional musicians. That shows the high esteem in which this man is held and the enormous respect that he earned in a lifetime of teaching and playing.

Following the screening of this marvellous documentary, the four treated the audience to a string of familiar tunes, and a couple of surprises, with Tommy and Rose on fiddles, Louise on banjo and button accordion, and Peadar on Uilleann pipes and whistle. The influence of Tommy senior becomes clear as they play, with all four playing as tightly as it is possible, with the same feel for the music. It was four people playing as one, with superb balance between the instruments and every note from each of them clearly articulated but, the technical aspects aside, there was so much life in the music, and they had the listeners enthralled.

They were an inspiration to play with in the session that followed, and there was much to talk about, with the local musicians eager to hear more from them. It was an unforgettable evening. The group will continue their tour as shown below.

Thursday 9th 7:30pm, Senior Citizens Centre (behind Collingwood Town Hall), Melbourne, Victoria

Saturday 11th 7:30pm, Gaelic Club, Surrey Hills, Sydney, New South Wales

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