James McCarthy: The Broken Pledge Reel/Kit Shea's Reel

78rpm Disc: James McCarthy: The Broken Pledge Reel/Kit Shea's Reel

Fiddler James McCarthy recorded these two reels for the Gennett label (5725) in 1925. Paddy Muldoon provided the piano accompaniment.

There was a fiddle player named James McCarthy in Pittsburgh actively playing Irish music for various events and radio programs from the 1910s through the 1920s. Although it's difficult to confirm that the recorded McCarthy is the same musician, the one based in Pittsburgh performed often with piper John Mullen and Mullen's sister, Anna Thomas, on fiddle. McCarthy and Mullen also performed with step dancer John Hayes for Clan-na-Gael's Emmett anniversary in 1914.

Many thanks to Nick Whitmer for his connection of Mullen and McCarthy listed in the Lives of the Pipers bio for John Mullen (livesofthepipers.com/2mullenjohn.html).

From the Noel Rice Collection, Rice 78 00-126.