From the email I received:
This CD comprises of twenty three previously unreleased recordings of Leo Rowsome. The tracks are mainly home recordings provided by Leo's daughter Helena, along with several archive recordings from RTÉ featuring duets and trios with Sean Seery, Jim Dowling, Vincent Broderick and Larry Redican.
Leo was central to the world of uilleann piping during the twentieth century. As a player, pipemaker, teacher and organiser, he made an unequalled contribution to the preservation and promotion of the craft.
His playing was known to generations of Irish people through his performances on radio, from the earliest broadcasts of an Irish radio station, 2RN, up to the time of his death in 1970. Garech Browne considered his music so important that he founded a record company, Claddagh Records, so that he could publish Leo's music, and that album, Rí na bPíobairí/ King of the Pipers (Claddagh CC1) was the first LP recording of uilleann piping to be commercially released.
There has always been an appetite for more recordings from Leo, and it is hoped that this release will go some way towards satisfying that demand.
Price €18
(Members €16)
Available here. Hope the sound is good, the 1950s home recordings on his grandson Kevin's CD were kinda murky. I do own some of the Redican/Broderick cuts already and those are well made. Curiously enough the week before I heard about this I put this little clip up: Leo Rowsome The Stone in the Field, The Lightning Flash - YouTube. Don't know where I got that from, perhaps from these recordings - the same medley is on the CD.
Let's hope NPU continue with this series after the, what, decade long pause? We still want to hear Tommy Reck at home, fellas!
