Green House

Grey Larsen & Paddy League | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 26, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: The Orchard
• ASIN: B00005LOQ8
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,262,498 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

THE WASHINGTON POST, March 15, 2001

“... the album unfolds in alternately spirited and soulful fashion; the duo's close rapport sparks a series of inspired alliances.” --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Product Description

“Their playing is both authentic and beautiful, the product of artistic humility and insight. Grey and Paddy have found the perfect balance between maintaining tradition and finding their own unique voice.” - Martin Hayes

All Music Guide EXPERT REVIEW: "The respected Irish flutist and concertina player Grey Larsen teams up with guitarist and bodhran player Paddy League on this beautiful and unexpectedly gentle collection of traditional Irish tunes. Usually a program like this, especially when performed by a player of Larsen's skill, would be a showcase for flashy technique, but he and League take a different tack, treating each tune as a jewel to be polished and presented for its own beauty rather than as a chance to show off. The result is an album of unusual loveliness. Highlights include the opening set of reels, on which League's bodhran playing is especially impressive and shows the effects of his tabla studies, and a sweet rendition of Turlough O'Carolan's "O'Carolan's Draught," on which the artist plays concertina in a very straightforward, unadorned style. At the end of the disc are three tracks featuring conversation and a performance of "The Cuckoo's Nest" by the Irish melodeon player Michael J. Kennedy. These last tracks bear no obvious relation to the rest of the album (though Larsen and League do perform "The Cuckoo's Nest" themselves earlier in the program), but are lots of fun nevertheless. Highly recommended". -- Rick Anderson --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gem, November 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Green House (Audio CD)

I grew up listening to Grey Larsen's traditional music albums such as Banish Misfortune and First of Autumn. What I found in The Green House is something entirely different and beautiful.

Larsen and League have done something very unique here in traditional music. Through brilliant performance and production they have incorporated the intimacy of a solo album with the energy and innovation of a "trad band" and the precise evocation of a string quartet. The tracks are mostly in the traditional format of sets of tunes in like form (e.g. jigs), but they go far beyond letting the tunes speak for themselves. They create an entire abiance of sound in which the tunes live--primarily traditional in instermentation and performance, but entirely purposeful in their intent and virtuosic implementation.

Don't expect a session tape here. There is nothing informal about The Green House. At times you will be moved to tap or feet or dance, especially as Paddy League rips loose on the goat skin. But you will also be moved into more contemplative moods by Larsen's masterful interpretation of traditional tunes such as The Wind That Shakes the Barley followed by his own Dusk Among the Willows on track 4.

At the end of the CD, after a long gap, there are some old recordings of Larsen and friends interviewing Michael Kennedy, an Irish immigrant and accordion player playing, speaking and singing. These are wonderful in the way they tie the new to the old through Kennedy's recounts of how he learned his tunes as a boy near the turn of the century in Ireland, especially as we realize that the tune Kennedy plays is also played by Larsen on track 3.

I highly recommend this album.

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare grace and beauty., November 15, 2003

By 

Miles D. Moore (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Green House (Audio CD)

Glory be, Grey Larsen is recording again! One-third of the late, lamented Celtic/New Age/folk group Metamora, Larsen kept a low profile in the years after the band's breakup, building a national reputation as a teacher of the Irish flute. A few years ago, he found a simpatico partner in the young bodhran player and guitarist Paddy League, and founded his own recording label, Sleepy Creek. So far Larsen and League have recorded two CDs together; "The Green House" was the first of them, and among other things it demonstrates strongly just how much of Metamora's distinctive sound was due to Larsen. The music here is a seamless medley of ancient Irish airs and Larsen originals; it is impossible to tell which are Larsen's own without checking the credits, and that is a great tribute to the authenticity of his musicianship. Joyous, graceful and poignant, this CD is a must for any lover of Celtic music. "The Green House" is essentially a tribute to Larsen's mentor, Michael J. Kennedy, a melodeon player from County Galway who spent the last 50-odd years of his life in the Cincinnati area. The last three tracks on the CD are comprised of a radio interview Kennedy gave not long before his death in 1978, in which he plays "The Cuckoo's Nest," a song he collected, and talks about his youth playing dances in County Galway. Bluff and cheery, Kennedy sounds exactly like Victor McLaglen in "The Quiet Man," only a lot more amiable. Kennedy was an inspiration to an entire generation of Midwestern folk musicians, and the three end tracks demonstrate amply his charm and talent.