Clareen Banjos Shaskeen
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Celtic Grooves Imports - Newsletter No. 1
SHASKEEN: TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC FOR SET DANCING VOL. 2 (Corofin Plain Set, North Kerry Polka Set, Newport Set)
SHASKEEN: TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC FOR SET DANCING VOL. 3 (Connemara Jig Set, Two Hand Dance (Highland Fling), Clare Lancers, Derradra Set)
SHASKEEN: TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC FOR SET DANCING VOL. 4 (Plain Set, Fermanagh Set, Cashel Set, Leitrim Set, Shoe the Donkey)
The famous Galway-based dance band Shaskeen has added three more CDs to their series of music for the sets. The no-nonsense, straightforward performances of Shaskeen are very well suited for this sort of thing, and to me sound much more interesting musically than the Matt Cunningham material. It's not so much of a surprise when you learn that no less than Charlie Harris (accordion, replaced by Patsy McDonagh on Vol. 4), Eamon Cotter (flute), and Geraldine Cotter (piano) join founding members Tom Cussen (banjo) and Benny O'Connor (drums) on the recordings. Fiddler Maura O'Keeffe is also a guest on Vol. 4. Good dancing music. Rating: ***
Newcastle Irish Set Dancers - Music for Irish Set Dancing
CDs, Cassettes and Videos
Three excellent "Music for the Sets" CDs and cassettes series are the Matt Cunningham, Shaskeen and those from the Brook Academy. When using music particularly for learning and practising Sets we sometimes need to slow down the music to give us the right feel for our level of proficiency of dancing. We find the Music for the Sets source CDs and cassettes often have very fast music which is difficult for beginners. For some figures the length of music doesn't always fit due to regional variations in the way a figure is danced (and compared to how the musicians know it). For example, we have five different versions of instructions for Figure 5 from the Cashel Set!
The Shaskeen CDs and cassettes have a number of sets on each album. Shaskeen are an Irish band specialising in music for set dancing.
Faoilean Recordings
7 Walter Macken Place, Mervue, Galway, Co Galway, Ireland. Tel: 091 753647.
See Albums: 25th Silver Jubilee Collection Irish Traditional Music And Song
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