Album Notes

This recording is the result of my thirty some years immersed in Irish fiddle playing, my earlier life spent in serious study of the classical guitar, and my meeting with an extraordinary musician, Micheál O'Domhnaill, in about 1980. I didn't plan to create yet another "Celtic guitar" album - there are already so many great ones - but thought I'd be dreaming up a lot of original pieces for this collection. In the end, only ttwo are my own compositions. Most of the material comes from the Irish tradition, which has given me a way of understanding music that now underlies every note I play, whatever instrument I happen to have in my hand. There are a couple of my old favorites from the classical guitar repertoire; the Bach Cello Prelude (the only piece on the album in "standard" tuning, and "My Lady Hunsdon's Puffe", by Elizabethan lutenist John Dowland, which I found works much better in DADGAD. I learned that tuning and so much more from my friend and neighbor Micheál O'Domhnaill, but I never got a chance to properly thank him before his tragic death in 2006... thanks, Micheál, this album is for you. - RB, Seattle Nov. 2010