Brendan Taaffe: Review of Tommy Peoples




Tommy Peoples: Waiting for a Call

(Shanachie 78052)

Any recording of Tommy Peoples is an event to be noted, and die-hard fans will long have worn a path to the stereo with this new recording. Waiting for a Call is possibly the most interesting of Tommy’s albums in conception, comprising 11 tracks recorded in the mid-80’s with Alec Finn, Donal Lunny, and Seán Potts and 5 tracks recently recorded with ex-Solas guitar player John Doyle. Apparently the tracks from the 80’s weren’t considered enough for a full-length album (though, interestingly, they would be about the same length as the other Shanachie solo albums), so they have been supplemented with the recent tracks. The fiddling, of course, is fantastic—this is Tommy Peoples we’re talking about. A mastery of technique—the biting triplets, the variations—and an emotional intensity unparalleled elsewhere, as if music is the sole salvation.

The fact that the two parts of this album were recorded almost twenty years apart means that it is less of a piece than his other recordings, particularly in contrast to The Quiet Glen. But it also gives the serious listener a lot to think about, and a chance to see the progression of Tommy’s playing, especially on the two versions of “The Spike Island Lassies”, one recorded in the 80’s and one in 2002. A lot of people, myself included, have held forth on how Tommy’s playing has changed, becoming sweeter with age. When I compare the versions of the “Lassies”, I think instead that Tommy has become more fully himself. The quirks and marks of individual style, present in the earlier version, have become more pronounced with time. No other fiddler uses negative space as well as Tommy does—his pauses and jumps are as much a part of his palette of ornamentation as triplets and rolls and do as much to illuminate the tune. Other highlights of the album include an unaccompanied version of “The Drunken Landlady” and “Fisherman’s Island” where Tommy is in great form, and “The Fairest Rose”, a slow air and hornpipe of Tommy’s making that has me hitting the repeat button over and over again, taken in by the beauty of the piece each time. A new release from Tommy Peoples—what more do I need to say?

Tommy Peoples: Waiting for a Call