Review: John Doherty, The Floating Bow
This is one of the best John Doherty recordings -- which makes it one of the best Irish music recordings. Period.
In case you have never heard his playing, I will try to describe his style. (His playing on this recording is very much representative of his style, in my judgment.) His bowing is powerful, imitating the Highland pipes. The tones produced are lonesome-sounding -- not, I would say, rich or warm -- but there is still a singing quality that is hard to describe (or imitate). It is rarely swung, but the playing is driving nonetheless. His playing is almost always one-note-per-bow (the exceptions can be easily heard by any reasonably well trained ear), which gives the music a brisk, staccato flavor -- though the metronome tempo may not be any faster than many southern fiddlers. (E.g., "The Fantastic Reel" clocks in around 120-5/bpm.) It is fast playing, in any case. He has much less finger ornamentation than other players, and it tends to imitate piping ornamentation, with a lot of cuts and some trills, and very few slurs. The primary ornament is the bowed triplet, which also contributes to the piping sound of the playing. The overall effect is a very stark, lonesome, and powerful sound. Not for everyone, but truly great for those who appreciate it.
Unlike some other recordings we have of John Doherty, these do not have his introductory stories, which is a shame.
As to the liner notes -- or, I should say, book. Crocodile Dundee would look contemptuously on any other liner notes, and whip out the liner notes to The Floating Bow, saying, "You call those liner notes? Now these -- these are liner notes." They are 32 CD-sized pages long, with four pages of pictures including some fine mug shots of John, and a 21 page essay about the history of the recording and about the performer and his family generally. I enjoyed the essay greatly; it is well-written.
Some good old Donegal tunes make appearances here -- including tunes which appeared earlier on other John Doherty recordings (e.g., "The Fantastic Reel" and "Gusty's Frolicks"). I also appreciate the inclusion of some standard southern session tunes: "The Sligo Maid's Lament" (aka "Sligo Maid"), "Drops of Brandy," "The Wind that Shakes the Barley," "Miss McLeod's," and "The Mountain Road." I particularly like what he does with the latter. It is grand to be able to hear what a great fiddler like Doherty did with tunes like this. He plays them in a fresh and unique way.
One of my favorite tracks is the air-jig-reel set "The Enniskillen Dragoons," "Nóra Críonna," and "Píobaire an Chéideadh," done in pipe imitation. This involves the use of scordatura (also known as cross-tuning -- tuning strings up or down to pitches different from the standard GDAE). In particular it involves a constant double-stopping on the "D" string tuned down to "A" and the liberal use of cuts and trilling, so that the piping imitation is more than merely suggestive. Mickey Doherty does the same thing with "Nóra Críonna" and "Miss McLeod's" on The Gravel Walks. I can't tell whether it's the better quality of the recording or, instead, that of the playing that makes John's version sound better to me. I understand this sort of piping imitation has gone out of style. I don't know why!
There are a lot of other tracks that deserve comment but suffice it to say that they are all wonderful. In general, both the playing and the production of this recording is superb, and it cannot be recommended highly enough.
And thanks to Dr. Alun Evans for bringing his recordings to the public. And I myself will offer my apologies, if any are due, to the ghost and family of John Doherty, if they resent Dr. Evans for doing so.
[Back to the Main Reviews
Page] [Back to the More Specialized
Questions]
[Back to the Donegal Fiddling Homepage]