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JIMMY POWER - Go Home And Have Your Dinner 

JIMMY POWER - Go Home And Have Your Dinner 
Favourite Records 

When I first entered The Favourite pub in Hornsey Rise, London, one Sunday morning in the mid-1970s, I had no idea that I would be walking amongst musical giants. Jimmy Power from Co. Waterford was one of these. Much credit to Lamond Gillespie (a fine violinist), who with John Blake (sound engineering) and Jesse Smith (artwork) with much assistance from Reg Hall, have created an invaluable archive of Jimmy's recordings from the late 1950s to the early 1980s, made in Waterford, and in houses and pubs in London. Jimmy ended the Sunday morning sessions with the exhortation: "Go home and have your dinners." We would willingly have stayed for days.

This CD concentrates on Jimmy, but includes many well known fellow musicians. His aura comes across so well and the recordings show that many of us still have much to learn from his playing. Listen, for example, to Jimmy's delicate rendition of Planxty Davis, The Garden Of Daisies (recorded in 1965/66), his solo version (one of three) of The Bunch Of Keys (a formidable performance) and to An Droimeann Donn Dilis, a fine air played without frills, vibrato, or any ornamentation. Heart-rending. The opening tracks of Bonnie Annie and The Gold Ring, followed later by Jimmy, Jimmy Dunleavy and Reg in great form with Farewell To Connaught and The Sligo Maid, bring those times straight back.

There are really helpful sleeve notes, too. This CD is a work of love and respect for the man and his music. It is a collector's must and an archive collection of value to all.

C.John Edwards

 

This review appeared in Issue 129 of The Living Tradition magazine