Saturday 31 October 2009

Allan Barty: Barty's Bow (1980)




Allan Barty: Barty's Bow (Kettle Records KOP4, 1980)

A celebrated Dundee mandolinist and fiddler, Allan Barty was in some ways a Scottish Dave Swarbrick, but he didn't reach the same level of success. Barty was a prominent member of the Dundee folk scene. Allan's first group was Barty's Bow, formed in Dundee in 1966, after which played in a number of Tayside groups, such as The Inn Folk, and appeared on television and radio, and toured with acts such as Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy. In 1971 he was considered as a replacement fiddler in The JSD Band after Chuck Fleming left. He recorded this single solo LP:, and was rumoured to have moved to Germany and presented a folk radio programme. He had appeared on more than forty records by the late seventies.

This, as far as I know is his only solo recording, and it's a beauty. It's all instrumental, with fiddle just winning out over mandolin, although many tracks are double-tracked with both. He is helped out on the album by Archie Fisher, Brian Miller and Robin Morton, and it was produced by Artie Tresize.

01 Pet of the Pipers/Dan the Cobbler/The Maid On the Green
02 Hen's March Tae the Middens/The Four Poster Bed
03 Sleepy Bairns
04 Flowers of Edinburgh/Bottom of the Punch Bowl/Petronella
05 The Showman's Fancy/Humours of California/The Galway Hornpipe
06 The Balkan Hills/Campbell's Farewell to Redcastle/Barren Rocks of Aden
07 The March Hare
08 Madame Bonaparte
09 College Hornpipe/Victoria Hornpipe/The Kinks Hornpipe
10 The Blackthorn Stick/Humours of Glenart/The Drunken Parson
11 Marfield Greys
12 Liberton Polka/Mason's Apron

Unavailable

Other albums featuring Allan Barty:

2 comments:

  1. Nice to see the complimentary review of this album and a mention of some of dad's other work. To dispel the myth, dad never moved to Germany but he did make numerous trips there in the mid to late 90's to team up with another Dundee musician, George Getty (guitar, bagpipes, vocals), to form Droon the Miller. They played Scottish and Irish music at seasonal gigs and festivals, specifically in Hamburg; and even recorded an album on CD titled 'Welcome Here', produced by the respected Hans-Georg Moslener.

    Hope this is of interest to some of your blog followers!

    Regards,
    Stephen

    ReplyDelete
  2. Saw him many times with Archie Fisher. Great fiddle player....

    ReplyDelete