Listening to this guy's playing got me turned onto the old push-pull style...I also remember him snapping at me in a NYC pub for trying to talk to him to soon after coming off stage (he was still in a meditative, trance-like state). This experience was well-deserved...and it taught me a lot about how guys like him approach these tunes. Tony is the man!
Yes, Tony did exactly the same to me in Shea's pub in Dublin, though he drove to kilkenny one day right out of the blue to want to talk to me about the Irish druids - He has the spirit of the filidh in him.
I must have seen this clip 300 times now. The "Toss The Feathers" reel is sometimes listed as "Killian's" in some trad music books. If you have a bit of trouble finding it, or you find the version of TtF isn't sounding like Tony's, check "Killian's". Also realize that Tony is playing this thing like a house on fire. It sounds a lot different "at speed". This guy rocks.
I like the way he uses the bass keys as if they were a backing band -very rhythmically. Good as he is there, I think he's at his best when playing the slow airs ... his playing is so emotional.
Tony, Originally from Ennis,County Clare but worked & lived most of his life in Dublin. This clip must be thirty years old. Can be contrary at times---but sure can't we all! Is prone to give a sermon before playing a tune, but a great great box player in the Joe Cooley style.
Tony had probably one of the best jobs in Dublin as an irish producer/director on the 'State;' RTE TV/radio - he got it through sheer talent and persistence and being a nice guy - WHO WOULD KILL YOU IF YOU INTERRUPTED HIM LISTENING TO THE NEXT GREATEST BOX PLAYER FROM WEST CORK! Don't I know...
Ní bheidh a leithéad ann arís/Inimitable performance! Bhí mé ann insan Óstán Royal George i gCathair Luimní timpeall 1976 nuair a bhí Tony ag seinnt i gCoirm Ceoil aonair iontach. I lovingly recall attending a solo, live performance by Tony in the Royal George Hotel in Limerick City circa 1976. Go ndéana Dia trócaire air/RIP Tony!
A lovely fellow, but don't dare interrupt him when he';s listening to the latest progeny on the box from West Cork, as I did in O'Shea's pub on the quay in Dublin. But he did tell me to come back and chat when the show was over. The drink well overpowered me by then and they gave me reasonable B&B over the pub for the night, last I saw of Tony , must see him again before we go...
Hi there,I tried for years to in (D) in the b/c box and failed,So my answer was solved by re tuning the box to (C/D,John Brosnan is the man.Many thanks John.
The Button Accordeon is a bitch to learn, but once you have her tamed she´s wax in your hands. Amazing instrument. Those things are really powerful. Afaik it was a german invention, but the irish players all play italian brands.
There is nothing on this earth like the fabulous Italian reeds, I was lucky to find the best of them in a small chinese box that I got for 250 euro new from an unfortunate friend who developed arthritis in his hands and could play no more. I grew up playing a big Paolo Soprani red, this little box I have now called "McBrides" was made by the chinese deliberately for the Irish market, it's lovely and small and light and though I'd love a Soprani grey as Tony has it would probably come to 4000 Euro today. Don't forget that Tony was paid massive money all his life from RTE TV Ireland as one of their best intellectual producer/directors, and happily the liberal elite there had no effect whatsoever on his independent Irish mind. What of it, my grandfather McGrath played an old Hohner and was probably the best dance master in Munster .
Thanks for that. I looked him up on Wikipedia. There is a reference in that article to a 13 page lecture he presented in 1996, sharing his views on traditional Irish music. A long read, but interesting. I didn't know that he had died.
i just think these tunes have never been played better than how tony played them... I'm a whistle player, I love irish music by mary bergin, joanie madden etc... but I think irish music is at its best when played by MacMahon
@synthpathetic well… it's part of the music, I think. Besides, the noise is not too present, imho (I mean there is far worse and it does not ruins the energy and the power of MacMahon's playing).
AFAIK, it's the tuning that is the most used in Ireland. That means that to play in D, you have to make more cross-fingering between the two rows than you would have with a C#/D. Joe Burke, for the older players or Johnny Og Connolly (you want to hear his album with Charlie Lennon), Sean Og Graham and Damian McKee (from Beoga) for the younger players are good examples of B/C players. Sometimes the B/C players play the tunes one tone lower, they have to make C#/D fingerings on B/C box to do so.
Only difference is we have to go on the upper scale more often when playing a C sharp/D. But you don't actually experience any difference playing from one to the other.
This is the music that has come down in our bloodline from the great filidh and druids of Ireland- fabulous Tony MacMahon, he even goes into Celtic Rock here - better on his own than the Horslips, am I right?
Tony could so much have become a Dublin snob, RTE is full of them, instead his greatest achievement is that he spent long years in Dublin 4 on a big salary and expenses, could do what he liked , and he drank as he could like the next man.,feature the music and musicians that he loved, and emerge a Druidic soul. A lovely guy who would not hesitate to tell Mozart to go F*ck himself if he interrupted Tony listening to the next great talent pumping a Paolo from the stage of O'Shea's pub on the quays of Dublin.
Oh no, nothing special. He just plays a D/D# accordion, so I transposed it a semitone lower so that it is as if he was playing with a C#/D accordion. Easier to learn with.
@synthpathetic sorry you find that sound annoying. I don't at all, and I guess that's just lucky. Actually, there's very little of it on this vid . . . you'll really hear it when someone plays a lower-end Hohner like the Erica though.
I grew up playing them all by ear, never knew the difference, still don't at times. I sort of know the difference in a hornpipe , it's slower and more 'loopy'.
in my opinion there isnt a hole deep enough for all the acordians, and players but this is amazing, such pasion and power, i fuckin love it i am now squeze box convert, *piano agordian still sucks though
My late father, an ambulance driver from the Comeraghs, who taught me the box, would have half killed me if I dared breathe a word in criticism of Tony, I didn't as I could find no cause.
@@jessiejoemurkin659 Hello From Texas in the United States. Daddy's family came over from Ross and cromarty parish in Scotland. They settled in the carolinas until the Oklahoma land run in El Reno Oklahoma where I was raised .
B/C is the most popular if you want to play with everybody else, Tony was a loner, he played by himself, so D/D sharp suited him. he also wanted to get a sound like the pipes on the box like his piper hero Willie Clancy.
The grey Paolo is an awful price, buy it if you will ever play in public and if you can find it,, otherwise a cheap chinese box, especially the McBride with it's sweetest Italian reeds, light, small, ready to go but with stiff bellows.
Actually the instruments are the same, only one is one semitone higher than the other. I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think D/D# accordions are used to play tunes that are in "exotic" keys like, say, Eb. Usually, the players just play the same tunes transposed a semitone higher with the D/D# pitched instruments. I don't know where that habit come from. Maybe to play along fiddlers that tune their violin a semitone higher too ?
Hey I was wondering what tuning is typically used when playing Irish accordion I want to learn to play but I need to know what kind of accordion to get what is the standard tuning that they would usually use
B/C if you want to play with others, D/D sharp if , like Tony, you're happy to compose or ad lib on your own. Tony drove to meet one time, I should have driven to listen to him, he has so much wisdom and so much sorrow, just like an old Irish druid.
@synthpathetic good point ! I see what you mean, you can sometimes throw a flute player's album through the window when you start listening the breathing noises :)
NO, Tony would tell you. The secret of being one of the Big Boys is to be able to play a set of certain reels , most of us can't play them all so polished. Tony would tell you, as I would, and I made my living ine tine in pubs on the box, maybe try the slow airs, few are great are everything and hardly any can actually compose!
Bowe might have the same box but he (or anybody else for that matter) would eat it before they would get the music out of it that mcmahon does.noel hill is the only living exponent playing in the same rarified atmosphere , as joe cooley unfortunately is dead this many a year
Rest in peace you giant of Irish music!
The Angels will be dancing now, God bless you, R.I.P.
Listening to this guy's playing got me turned onto the old push-pull style...I also remember him snapping at me in a NYC pub for trying to talk to him to soon after coming off stage (he was still in a meditative, trance-like state). This experience was well-deserved...and it taught me a lot about how guys like him approach these tunes. Tony is the man!
Yes, Tony did exactly the same to me in Shea's pub in Dublin, though he drove to kilkenny one day right out of the blue to want to talk to me about the Irish druids -
He has the spirit of the filidh in him.
Long time now, but he did the same to me and loved us both as fellow Gaelic souls.
Could be very insulting...not his fault...First met him back in 1971.
So sad to hear he's gone. One of my all-time favourites who knew exactly where the heart of the music was.
Absolutely, he lived and breathed it
You said It very right, the heart of music!!
Rest in peace Tony brilliant musician 🎼
Tony is a genuine artist of high regard. His timing and presence in music , should be admired and looked up too ...
Great player. Very emotional and not afraid to voice his opinion. It's his music that I like.
I must have seen this clip 300 times now. The "Toss The Feathers" reel is sometimes listed as "Killian's" in some trad music books. If you have a bit of trouble finding it, or you find the version of TtF isn't sounding like Tony's, check "Killian's".
Also realize that Tony is playing this thing like a house on fire. It sounds a lot different "at speed". This guy rocks.
RIP Tony MacMahon
loved his playing with Michael Osuilleabhain
I lived the energy to y put into his playing .and it came out in his music .
it's like watching some mythical accordion god
It's not like it,, it is it..
He must be the GOAT on that button according...
I like the way he uses the bass keys as if they were a backing band -very rhythmically. Good as he is there, I think he's at his best when playing the slow airs ... his playing is so emotional.
Tony,
Originally from Ennis,County Clare but worked & lived most of his life in Dublin. This clip must be thirty years old. Can be contrary at times---but sure can't we all! Is prone to give a sermon before playing a tune, but a great great box player in the Joe Cooley style.
Tony had probably one of the best jobs in Dublin as an irish producer/director on the 'State;' RTE TV/radio - he got it through sheer talent and persistence and being a nice guy - WHO WOULD KILL YOU IF YOU INTERRUPTED HIM LISTENING TO THE NEXT GREATEST BOX PLAYER FROM WEST CORK!
Don't I know...
@@MichaelMcGrathPhotographer Look up 'The Green Linnet' doco where he & Barny McKenna drove to Brittany on a musical pilgrimage.
A legend
I love Tony's complete and total commitment to his his ancestors roots .
Vladimir Pavlovich why are you scared of ethnic pride?
He came to me in Kilkenny in 1987 to discuss the Irish druids.
WTF are you talking about "Timothy Hart"...eh Which ancestors? You Kiloney.
Pretty sure the first reel is Ships are saling then into toss the feathers . great box playing love his style .
Ní bheidh a leithéad ann arís/Inimitable performance! Bhí mé ann insan Óstán Royal George i gCathair Luimní timpeall 1976 nuair a bhí Tony ag seinnt i gCoirm Ceoil aonair iontach. I lovingly recall attending a solo, live performance by Tony in the Royal George Hotel in Limerick City circa 1976. Go ndéana Dia trócaire air/RIP Tony!
Fantastic musician, a legend.
A lovely fellow, but don't dare interrupt him when he';s listening to the latest progeny on the box from West Cork, as I did in O'Shea's pub on the quay in Dublin. But he did tell me to come back and chat when the show was over. The drink well overpowered me by then and they gave me reasonable B&B over the pub for the night, last I saw of Tony , must see him again before we go...
Hi there,I tried for years to in (D) in the b/c box and failed,So my answer was solved by re tuning the box to (C/D,John Brosnan is the man.Many thanks John.
What fools in the name of God unliked this??.. RIP you box beast !
Keep calm, he touched the wrong key by mistake, which happens quite often!!
The Button Accordeon is a bitch to learn, but once you have her tamed she´s wax in your hands. Amazing instrument. Those things are really powerful.
Afaik it was a german invention, but the irish players all play italian brands.
A bitch to learn. Well I found it a lot easier than say the banjo or whistle
There is nothing on this earth like the fabulous Italian reeds, I was lucky to find the best of them in a small chinese box that I got for 250 euro new from an unfortunate friend who developed arthritis in his hands and could play no more.
I grew up playing a big Paolo Soprani red, this little box I have now called "McBrides" was made by the chinese deliberately for the Irish market, it's lovely and small and light and though I'd love a Soprani grey as Tony has it would probably come to 4000 Euro today.
Don't forget that Tony was paid massive money all his life from RTE TV Ireland as one of their best intellectual producer/directors, and happily the liberal elite there had no effect whatsoever on his independent Irish mind.
What of it, my grandfather McGrath played an old Hohner and was probably the best dance master in Munster .
As stated in the description : The Ships are Sailing, followed by Toss the Feather (a.k.a. Killian's). ;-)
Beautiful stuff, thank you Tony.
Thanks for that. I looked him up on Wikipedia. There is a reference in that article to a 13 page lecture he presented in 1996, sharing his views on traditional Irish music. A long read, but interesting. I didn't know that he had died.
Thank you for this comment, could you give a reference about this lecture??
Thank you very much!
I don't trust Wiki when it comes to politics - and history!
Never to be forgotten
i just think these tunes have never been played better than how tony played them... I'm a whistle player, I love irish music by mary bergin, joanie madden etc... but I think irish music is at its best when played by MacMahon
Tony puts his very soul into it, though I think I could match him on the Cualann.
God bless this man!
RIP Sir!
@synthpathetic well… it's part of the music, I think. Besides, the noise is not too present, imho (I mean there is far worse and it does not ruins the energy and the power of MacMahon's playing).
Excellent music and playing, you have so much
talent.
Please keep it up.
Thanks for posting.
Brian Jacobi.
New Zealand.
And that is how it's done !
AFAIK, it's the tuning that is the most used in Ireland. That means that to play in D, you have to make more cross-fingering between the two rows than you would have with a C#/D. Joe Burke, for the older players or Johnny Og Connolly (you want to hear his album with Charlie Lennon), Sean Og Graham and Damian McKee (from Beoga) for the younger players are good examples of B/C players. Sometimes the B/C players play the tunes one tone lower, they have to make C#/D fingerings on B/C box to do so.
Only difference is we have to go on the upper scale more often when playing a C sharp/D. But you don't actually experience any difference playing from one to the other.
This is the music that has come down in our bloodline from the great filidh and druids of Ireland- fabulous Tony MacMahon, he even goes into Celtic Rock here - better on his own than the Horslips, am I right?
All the best Tony.
@anfiorsceal I think so too... in his albums there are a couple of airs which are really awesome
Tony could so much have become a Dublin snob, RTE is full of them, instead his greatest achievement is that he spent long years in Dublin 4 on a big salary and expenses, could do what he liked , and he drank as he could like the next man.,feature the music and musicians that he loved, and emerge a Druidic soul. A lovely guy who would not hesitate to tell Mozart to go F*ck himself if he interrupted Tony listening to the next great talent pumping a Paolo from the stage of O'Shea's pub on the quays of Dublin.
Good man, Tony.
He never recorded that Loing Ag Seoladh ríl on an alboim?
Traditional Irish music at it's best played by one of the greats on theaccordian , absolutely brilliant.
Oh no, nothing special. He just plays a D/D# accordion, so I transposed it a semitone lower so that it is as if he was playing with a C#/D accordion. Easier to learn with.
@synthpathetic sorry you find that sound annoying. I don't at all, and I guess that's just lucky. Actually, there's very little of it on this vid . . . you'll really hear it when someone plays a lower-end Hohner like the Erica though.
@Holm182 You said it!
RIP Tony
what a fucking legend this guy is
Don't curse . He's past .
Reels : simple time signature (usually 4/4 or 2/2).
Jigs : compound time signature (usually 6/8, 9/8 for the slip jigs).
Nothing fucking simply only you
Mighty work. He seems to play the second reel with more gusto. He is giving it more bellows work.
That's because he always wanted to play the box like a piper.
Gifted
@splortz thanks for that I finally found it
The master
Tony the master
Just two tunes with the same name ;)
Best rendition of this awesome tune...
Can't get rid of it, even after all those years...
Agreed
Magnificent playing.
Absolutely, but Tony still wants to find out what being Irish is about...
will someone tell me whats the difference between a reel and a jig? and how would i know the difference? thanks
I grew up playing them all by ear, never knew the difference, still don't at times. I sort of know the difference in a hornpipe , it's slower and more 'loopy'.
in my opinion there isnt a hole deep enough for all the acordians, and players but this is amazing, such pasion and power, i fuckin love it i am now squeze box convert, *piano agordian still sucks though
My late father, an ambulance driver from the Comeraghs, who taught me the box, would have half killed me if I dared breathe a word in criticism of Tony, I didn't as I could find no cause.
Hundreds of these views are mine
fruit kick ha same!
And me
@@jessiejoemurkin659 well hi there!!
You might be my spirit person!
@@mathesonfreedom hello there to you mate from England 🏴
@@jessiejoemurkin659 Hello From Texas in the United States. Daddy's family came over from Ross and cromarty parish in Scotland. They settled in the carolinas until the Oklahoma land run in El Reno Oklahoma where I was raised .
wahnsinn geil let your spirit come on me
Thanks again ...didi you ever hear of a B/C box?
B/C is the most popular if you want to play with everybody else, Tony was a loner, he played by himself, so D/D sharp suited him. he also wanted to get a sound like the pipes on the box like his piper hero Willie Clancy.
I talk in the presence tense. Hes still with us .
soul man
Search youtube for
The Savage Eye S01E02 2/3
One of the best
What is meant by ''transposed in D''....Has it something to do with the accordion?
Thanks for reply ..is one type of instrument easier to play as regads sequences in some keys?.....a bit like the Boehm flute!
NO, all keys equally to play, it's your lotto. Tony prefers D because he wants to be able to play slow airs like the pipes.
Why does it say "transposed in D" while the 2 tunes are in E?
john bowe has the same box!
The grey Paolo is an awful price, buy it if you will ever play in public and if you can find it,, otherwise a cheap chinese box, especially the McBride with it's sweetest Italian reeds, light, small, ready to go but with stiff bellows.
Actually the instruments are the same, only one is one semitone higher than the other. I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think D/D# accordions are used to play tunes that are in "exotic" keys like, say, Eb. Usually, the players just play the same tunes transposed a semitone higher with the D/D# pitched instruments. I don't know where that habit come from. Maybe to play along fiddlers that tune their violin a semitone higher too ?
No difference, I play B/C and D/Dsharp automatically.
Hey I was wondering what tuning is typically used when playing Irish accordion I want to learn to play but I need to know what kind of accordion to get what is the standard tuning that they would usually use
B/C if you want to play with others, D/D sharp if , like Tony, you're happy to compose or ad lib on your own. Tony drove to meet one time, I should have driven to listen to him, he has so much wisdom and so much sorrow, just like an old Irish druid.
@synthpathetic good point ! I see what you mean, you can sometimes throw a flute player's album through the window when you start listening the breathing noises :)
Makes me want to throw my box into the ocean. :-)
NO, Tony would tell you. The secret of being one of the Big Boys is to be able to play a set of certain reels , most of us can't play them all so polished. Tony would tell you, as I would, and I made my living ine tine in pubs on the box, maybe try the slow airs, few are great are everything and hardly any can actually compose!
From which program was it?
🇺🇸 🇮🇪
Bowe might have the same box but he (or anybody else for that matter) would eat it before they would get the music out of it that mcmahon does.noel hill is the only living exponent playing in the same rarified atmosphere , as joe cooley unfortunately is dead this many a year
McMahon is unique by the fact that the Dublin liberal elite have never wanted to admit that they love an Irish box player!
@@MichaelMcGrathPhotographer Do the Liberal Elite love much west of Harold's cross or north of the Grand Canal?
up the banner
Now you know how we Irish are unique!
Yep, I hear ya. My favourite> I can actually play it on the piano accordion but this guy makes me look like a complete loser!
Koi nikko very