Track Listing. 1. Dermot Grogan's + Hardiman's Fancy (jigs) 2. The Brown Coffin + Paddy Lynn's Delight (HP + reel) 3. The Girl of the House + The Dawn Chorus + O'Sullivan's March (jigs) 4. The Miller of Drone + Pauline Conneely's + Finbarr Dwyer's (highland + reels) 5. Poll Ha'penny + Seán O'Duibhir an Gleanna (hornpipes) 6. Farewell to Gurteen + John Joe Gardiner's (jigs) 7. Paddy Kelly's + The Log Cabin + Mayor Harrison's Fedora (reels) 8. Paddy Fahy's + The Buck from the Mountain (hornpipes) 9. Finbarr Dwyer's + The Dogs Among the Bushes (reels) 10. Bold O'Doherty + Kitty Come Down to Limerick (jigs) 11. Bold Anne's + Rogha Thomáis Uí Dhubhda + Quinn's (reels) 12. The Princess Royal (O'Carolan tune) Click on underscored titles to hear sound samples with Real Player.

We are delighted to announce our release of this recording.

Angelina Carberry
An Traidisiún Beo
RTR 002

With Guest musicians.
John Blake guitar & piano
Peter Carberry: Accordion
Martin Quinn: Acccordion
Laoise Kelly: Harp
Martin Gavin: Bodrhan

#6 / Best Irish Traditional Albums of 2005
The Irish Echo, CEOL Column By Earle Hitchner

An Traidisiún Beo is the new solo CD from Banjo player Angelina Carberry.It was launched in November 2005 at the Ennis Trad fest Co Clare.

Guests on the CD include The redoubtable John Blake on Piano and Guitar, Laoise Kelly on Harp, Martin Gavin on Bodhran, Peter Carberry and Martin Quinn on Accordions. The CD has12 tracks of tunes many of which are unusual settings and versions that are not commonly heard.

Angelina was born in Manchester into a county Longford musical family steeped in Traditional Music.

In 1998 Angelina moved back to Ireland and since has developed as one of the Countries leading Banjo players .She has recorded previously in 2000 with her Father Peter and again in 2003 with her husband Martin Quinn, Both Recordings received critical acclaim from leading music journalists and throughout music circles. Also available from Copperplate RTR 001 Angelina Carberry & Martin Quinn

Tradition glancing backwards and forwards at the same time. Mighty fine', Siobhan Long, THE IRISH TIMES.

'This is sweet-pot, session-seasoned playing from two superb young instrumentalists', Earle Hitchner The Irish Echo

An Traidisiún Beo reveals a lot more of the quality of her musicianship, which is erudite in the ways of the Tradition but lives very much in the present, a present that will outlive the transient and fickle tastes that sometimes pervade.

Music for the serious and light-hearted alike, but certainly not for the fainthearted!!

We at Copperplate are delighted to continue our working relationship with Angelina and proud to have this title on our roster. We will be doing all we can to help this brilliant release achieve its full potential and will be supporting it with a full-scale promotional mail out to media and retail, as well as advertising in music press.

Press Reaction

Best Irish Traditional Albums of 2005

The Irish Echo, CEOL Column By Earle Hitchner
Shortly after coming to the Irish Echo in 1991, I decided to compile an annual top 20 list of Irish traditional recordings that would stubbornly resist the trend to place albums in several, often arbitrary categories. I felt then, as I do now, that such category-crammed lists were thinly veiled attempts to pacify as many musicians, publicists, and record labels as possible by spreading acclaim like cheap margarine.
Critics, if they really are critics, should have the courage of their convictions and rank the recordings, no matter how difficult the process and unwieldy the challenge. To me, it's a matter of put up or shut up, and each year I choose to put up for "Ceol" readers.
Every one of these standout albums from 2005, unflinchingly ranked 1 to 10, belongs in your listening library.

(6) AN TRAIDISIUN BEO, by Angelina Carberry (self-issued, ReelTrad RTR 002)

"Memories From the Holla" in 2001 and "Angelina Carberry and Martin Quinn" in 2003 were recordings that featured Angelina's beguiling ability on tenor banjo, and this solo CD from 2005 will only bolster the respect for her nimble, lyrical, unhurried, clear-stream playing style. Ireland's spreading neo-trad movement, in which ego-flexing invention takes a backseat to hard-core playing, has not yet taken firm foothold in America, but this recording may become an influential exemplar. Half of the dozen tracks are just banjo and accompaniment, whether John Blake's guitar and piano or Martin Gavin's bodhran. Tunes unfold organically in Carberry's ever-capable hands, with no nosebleed rush to the finish line in such medleys as "Dermot Grogan's Jig/Hardiman's Fancy" and "Finbar Dwyer's/The Dogs Among the Bushes." This spellbinding album of four-string banjo music by Carberry could not be more different in style and effect from the solo albums made by tenor banjoist nonpareil Gerry O'Connor, and yet the two share a deference for the integrity of a melody and for hitting notes fully and cleanly. Each of these virtuosos shows how versatile the instrument can be, and Knocknacarra, Galway's Angelina Carberry also demonstrates that ease isn't the same as easy. Joy flows through everything she plays.

[Published on January 25, 2006, in the IRISH ECHO newspaper, New York City. Copyright (c) Earle Hitchner. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of author.]

The Living Tradition March/April.06
Angelina Carberry is a new name to me, although she has had a couple of CDs out before - one with her father Peter, and one with her husband Martin Quinn. Both these offerings were well received, so it was interesting to listen to her new CD 'An Traidisiun Beo' for the first time.

Angelina plays banjo well, there is some excellent, sympathetic backing on all tracks, but the banjo is always at the front of the mix.
She is able to examine the capabilities of the instrument to the full, producing a thin sound one moment, before showing the banjo's full range on the next track.

This album is very Irish in sound, no surprise as she is originally from the Irish community in Manchester, and now resides in Ireland.

Angelina and Martin have produced this CD and a good job they have done, too. There are very full liner notes-too full in places. But that contributes to my one real criticism. Due to the lengthy notes, the inside cover is just too wordy and feels untidy.

Personally I feel that a booklet would have been preferable. It is hard to say how well 'An Traidisiun Beo' will do but I wish Angelina well. Presumably she will be touring so check it out then. Dave Beeby

The Living Tradition
The title is a bit of a giveaway: traditional music on banjo from Angelina and friends, a fine example of the contemporary style. There's a good mix of tunes here, from the well-known Poll Ha'penny and The Dogs Among The Bushes to rarities such as Dermot Grogan's Jig and The Log Cabin. Angelina's sources range from Kerry to Scotland and America, gathering all forms of Irish music from the Donegal highland The Miller Of Drone to the stirring Carolan piece The Princess Royal.

Angelina plays in the bouncy, percussive style of most banjo music from the 1920s to the present, without the fluid ornamentation and other liberties taken by Gerry O'Connor and his successors. Comparisons with John Carty and Kieran Hanrahan spring to mind, although Ms Carberry is more at home with jigs and hornpipes than the unrelenting reels which predominate on many CDs. An Traidisiún Beo is a breath of fresh air in that respect: only five sets of reels, slotted in between highlights such as The Brown Coffin and Paddy Fahy's, two hornpipes deserving better names. There's also a charming setting of the slip jig Will You Come Down To Limerick?, and a lovely set of jigs starting appropriately with The Girl Of The House.
Accompaniment on most tracks is provided y the admirable John Blake, and Angelina is joined at several points by her father Peter and her husband Martin Quinn on accordions. Laoise Kelly's harp and Martin Gavin's bodhrán also appear in a few places. The website at www.reeltrad.com has more details and samples, as well as information on Angelina's previous duet recordings with Peter Carberry and Martin Quinn: check it out. Alex Monaghan

SCOTLAND on SUNDAY
Brought up in Manchester's rich Irish community, this talented young woman now lives back in the Emerald Isle, in a house full of wee children already playing traditional music. Carberry plays the banjo - the fretted bodhran to its detractors - but one would have to lack eardrums to find this album anything less than a delight. With players the calibre of harpist Laoise Kelly, John Blake on piano and guitar, father Peter on accordion and Martin Gavins rock-steady bodhran, this is beautifully paced, artfully performed and downright happy collection of reels, jigs, highlands and hornpipes. NORMAN CHALMERS

Galway Advertiser
While the fiddle holds dominance, it is nice to see instruments normally relegated to the ‘with accompaniment from’ category have a chance to take centre stage.

The banjo tends to be one of those instruments only there to fill out the sound, but Carberry proves it can vie with the best of them, such as on the reels recorded here with both Peter Carberry and Martin Quinn on accordion.

However the best testament for letting the banjo take the lead in things comes from track four, a Highland and some reels. Here, Angelina, as leader of the band, lets rip with some ad-libs and flourishes that make for exciting listening. It makes me wonder what she would be like on guitar and if deep inside her there is a closet fan of the guitar riff?

The Irish Times
Angelina Carberry’s downright languorous solo CD is a snapshot of a banjo player who’s not in a hurry – surely a threatened species these days. With a family history steeped in traditional music, Carberry goes for the jugular of a tune, surgically dissecting it until she reaches its pulsing core, only to then repair whatever inefficiencies might lurk within, assisted by her husband Martin Quinn and father Peter, both on box, and the eternally inventive John Blake on guitar. The jig set headlined by ‘The Girl of the House’ is a lesson in ensemble playing, the banjo stepping into the limelight only when the tune calls for it, though her solo introduction of ‘Paddy Fahy’s’ hints at a musician who thrives best in the live session. Siobhán Long

The Irish Echo 3/01/06 Ceol Column
Break up the Carberry's.They have too much talent and skill for one Irish family to posess.It's not just fair.From Co.Longford the Carberry's feature multi generational players of redoubtable skill: Angelina on Banjo her father Peter on Button Accordion, her uncle Peter Snr on uillean pipes his son Noel and grandson Kevin uillean pipes, among other musical members of this extended clan.You'd need a bus to transport them all to a session.
In 2001 Kenagh born button accordionist Peter Carberry, Manchester born daughter Angelina on Banjo and London raised accompanist John Blake made ''Memories from the Holla,'' a marvellous recording that I now realise, to late,belongs in the ''sweet 16'' list of albums I just compiled.
In 2003 Angelina who now lives in Knocknacarra, Galway and Armagh button accordionist Martin Quinn released a recording that finished seventh in in the Irish Echo's list of top 10 traditional albums for that year.

Now comes ''An Traidisiún Beo,'' Angelina Carberry's first solo CD on her own Reeltrad Records imprint. A shoo-in for my top 10 list of albums for 2005,it is another splendid example of a trend in Ireland I identified in a past ''Ceol'' column: an enlightened, tasteful, ever so appealing movement from pyrotechnics or frills back toward basics. Think of it as neo-trad: ''new'' in the sense that individuality and invention still pulse through the music, but ''old'' in the sense that nosebleed speed and ornamenting for its own sake have receded from their post-''Riverdance'' crest.I'm sure I'm not the only one who's bored now with the rosin pluming and horsehair snapping of the hyperkinetic Irish fiddler's on stage. It's turned from crowd pleasing into crowd pandering.

In the world of the Irish four-string banjo, Angelina Carberry doesn't cater to anyone's musical expectations but her own. She plays in a lyrical unrushed, unself-absorbed, clear stream style that draws out the riches of each melody. With the sole exception of the last track, Turlough O'Carolan's ''Princess Royal,'' in which a slight synth drone intrudes, everything about ''An Traidisiún Beo'' is exemplary.

She gets plenty of fine assistance from Martin Quinn and Peter Carberry on button accordions, Laoise Kelly on Harp, Martin Gavin on Bodhran and John Blake on guitar and piano, but this is, first to last, Angelina's album.Six of the tracks are just Banjo and accompaniment, whether guitar, piano or bodhran. In ''Dermot Grogan's jig/Hardiman's fancy,'' ''Finbar Dwyer's /The dog's among the bushes,'' and the ''The Brown Coffin/Paddy Lynn's delight,'' all essentially solo showcases, she lets each tune unfold organically, reminding us that the destination matters less than the journey.
I know what your thinking: how does her style of playing compare with Gerry O'Connor's? They're dramatically different banjoist's with different intents, but they share a bond in their ability to wring every element of pleasure from a tune. They also share a meticulousness in their playing, hitting every note flush and skipping or slipping no detail. If they occupy opposite ends of the Tenor banjo scale of style, it merely proves how versatile the sound of the four string banjo can be in such masterful hands.

Angelina's collaborations with her father Peter and Martin Quinn on the box are no less memorable on the CD. The medley of ''Bonnie Anne's Reel/Rogha Thomáis Ui Dhubhda/Quinn's Reel,'' spotlights the beautifu blendedl playing of Angelina on banjo and Quinn on accordion, Blake on piano and guitar and Gavin on Bodhran while ''The Girl of the House/The Dawn Chorus/O'Sullivans March,' and ''Paddy Kelly's/The Log Cabin/Mayor Harrison's Fedorda,'' are propelled at a model tempo and with a model touch by Angelina her father, and Blake.
Also hearing former Bumblebees' harper Laoise Kelly provide rhythm for Angelina's banjo work in ''Paddy Fahy's/The Buck from the Mountain,'' hornpipes creates a well executed change in texture.

The fluid unobtrusively shimmering banjo playing by Angelina Carberry on this recording conveys utter ease through all the hard work she's put into her training. The sweat doesn't show, nor should it. This album is about music, not muscle. Honesty and integrity in performing are natural byproducts of something more important, more fundamental: she loves to play.You can hear it in every note from her banjo.

''An Traidisiún Beo'' is another shining example of a so-called vanity CD, self produced self-issued, that eclipses most of the far more expensively made Irish traditional recordings released by major commercial and long-established indie labels.
The name of Angelina's own record label sums it up best: Reeltrad.That it is. Earle Hitchner

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