Mally Endures The Test Of Time
Dave Mallinson the Cleckheaton based music, melodeon player and traditional book publisher has just published his CD to accompany the book 100 Enduring Irish Session Tunes. This is what he has to say……..
I very much hope it gives you enjoyment and helps you to acquaint yourself with traditional music. Its purpose is to allow you to become familiar with a tune before you learn it .
Having both the music and the soundtrack is a great way of learning tunes and is proving extremely popular. In response to this, perhaps rather foolishly, I took it upon myself to record the thousand tunes in my session books, a daunting undertaking. It became immediately apparent that a serious compromise had to be made, I had to be satisfied with a product my musical abilities could achieve. I couldn’t spend the rest of my days trying to achieve perfection before going into the studio, and only so much time and money could be devoted to each recording. Striking a realistic balance between musical excellence and a reasonable timescale had to be strictly adhered to. “Just good enough, is just good enough” has had to be my motto. So, unfortunately I can’t promise you mind blowing music. However, I hope you will find that the tunes are played simply, clearly and they are exactly as written in the book.
Rather than playing the tunes myself, I could have chosen the usual route taken by other publishers who produce similar items, and “bought it in”. I could have paid highly skilled traditional musicians to play some wonderful music and completed the project much cheaper in a fraction of the time. Needless to say, I decided against the easy way out. Yes, I’ll agree, I want the personal satisfaction but there’s more to it. Doing it myself gives me the control of keeping the settings exactly as written, and more importantly, I feel it helps to foster a closer relationship between myself and my customers, something I have always strived for. I am unable to blame anyone but myself for any imperfections found on this CD and its a c c o mpanying book, but at least I can say “It’s all my own work”.