Music

Albums by Craobh Rua · Click an image for more info

I’d Understand You if I Knew What You Meant by Craobh Rua
I’d Understand You if I Knew What You Meant
If I'da Been Here, I'd a Been There by Craobh Rua
If Ida Been Here, Ida Been There
SOh it Is by Craobh Rua
SOh It Is
No Matter How Cold and Wet You Are As Long As You’re Warm and Dry by Craobh Rua
No Matter How Cold and Wet You Are As Long As You’re Warm and Dry
The More That’s Said the Less the Better by Craobh Rua
The More That’s Said the Less the Better
Not a Word About It by Craobh Rua
Not a Word About It

Compilation CDs

Craobh Rua have contributed tracks to the following compilation CDs:

The Ultimate Guide to Irish Folk (2014) Arc Music EUCD2484 · Sound Neighbours (2007) · Smithsonian Folkways Recordings SFW CD40544 · Celtic Spirits 6 (2002) SONY MUSIC CATALOGUE SMC5063542 · The Rough Guide to Irish Folk Music (2001) RGNET 1036 CD, RGNET 1036 MC · Celtic Dimensions (1998) KRL CDDLD 5001 · New Folk Roots and Traditional Music (2007) · The Shetland Sessions Volume Two (1992) LCOM 7022 · The Shetland Sessions Volume One (1992) LCOM 7021 · Huntington Folk 2 (1999) SVL 06CD · The Celts Play Connecticut (2009) · Keltika (2005) KE87 · Celtica Volume 15 (2001) · Celtica Volume 7 (2000) · Live At Double Inn Best of 1998 (1998) PUB-CD 98001

Books

Play Tunes on the Irish Tenor Banjo Introductory Repertoire by Brian Connolly
Play Tunes on the Irish Tenor Banjo Introductory Repertoire by Brian Connolly

Brian Connolly, Play Tunes on the Irish Tenor Banjo – Introductory Repertoire. 2011, ISBN 978-0-9571736- 0-6, pp85, €25 (incl. 2 CDs).

Craobh Rua’s Brian Connolly offers a banjo tutorial and guide book to teach the basic techniques for the beginner on the Irish tenor banjo, and build your repertoire, stamina and confidence when playing and to improve and develop your technical skills. The first 30 pages are dedicated to the basics: holding banjo and pick, reading music, playing first notes, major scales, arpeggios.

After a progress check (if you’ve mastered all this) comes a couple of songs – “Sally Gardens” to “I’ll Tell Me Ma” – and polka sets with stave notes (without ornamentation), tab, names of the notes placed below, and chords. Progress check again: playing clearly and fluently including changeover from one tune into another. Then there’s jigs and slides (playing triplets), reels (the supreme discipline), and, last but not least, hornpipes and mazurkas. The tunes are recorded in sets of two and at a slower pace on the two accompanying CDs. Brian stresses again the importance to get the changeover from one tune into the other, so ending and start are recorded separately.

The volume is dedicated to the memory of the late Dubliners’ banjo player Barney McKenna, who contributed so much in popularising the tenor banjo in Irish traditional music and inspired Brian as well, and includes many pictures of banjo players

Play Tunes On The Irish Tenor Banjo is currently out of print.