Johnny Doherty playing fiddle Part 1 of 2

[@PuppiKILLRZ]

This is my great grand uncle john doherty to be interviewed by the great pete seeger how amazing is that even springsteen would have loved that

[@cocusflute]

I am stunned- first by his technique, second by his sensitivity, third by his perfect bowing... and so on.... Thanks so much for posting this. Doherty is a modest genius. He makes Sean McGuire appear boastful, vain, and pretentious.

[@rikardo5101]

Brilliant, my idol in fiddle playing. Dick. Hogan

[@CillianByrne-u6l]

John is the best donegal musician that ever lived. He was to donegal music what Coleman was to sligo.

[@zydecobill]

This is just beautiful. Met with and recorded Johnny in 1976/7. Just beautiful.

[@clarebannerman]

That's a lovely old clip of this great musician.

[@oldflute]

How many more gems like this featuring the older generation are lying around somewhere in personal film archives (or audio archives)? Thanks to whoever rescued this one. Stunning.

[@fissta1]

From Noel Carr. Jamuary 29th 2014 - Sad Day Today as I learn Pete has died. - Another Legend Gone - Pete Seeger - RIP Once upon a time in Carrick, SW Donegal, the great Pete Seeger and his wife Toshi and family drove up our main street and parked their car and caravan in tow outside John Maloney’s Ostan Sliabh a’ Liag. Outside the hotel door the fly fishing rods were stacked neatly as the hotel attracted a strong clientele of salmon and seatrout angling guests that fished the Glen River and lakes. The hotel was well renowned for the best meals around consisting of local fish, lamb, pork and steaks. In the evening the entertainment would occasionally have the odd surprise star performance from either a local fiddler such as Frank Cassidy or from the many traveler fiddlers on the circuit who were welcomed and well treated in every pub as they drew the crowds from far and near. Pete Seeger was on a trawl of Irish folk music and local GP Dr Malachy Mc Closkey led the search party to track down the great Johnny Doherty who was travelling near Slieveatooey at that time. The doctor, who knew and valued Pete Seeger persuaded Doherty to defer plans and drove him to Carrick where this recording was made on our street as the rain fell on the tin roof. There is also good footage of Seeger earlier that year at various gigs of his high profile1964 world tour. It is hard to believe and the footage proves that he ended his time in Europe with a session in that rental caravan on the Slieve League peninsula with another legend of our own. Johnny Doherty was a regular sight in the village coming and going but he eventually spent some of his final days living in the Dr. O’Byrne’s Golden Gate Doc’s Bar formerly the Glencolmcille Hotel in Carrick. See part 2 where his rendition of the fox and the hounds tune was a familiar sound coming from the one of the seven pubs as you stood on the street. In the notes to the clip we learn that Pete’s wife, Toshi, who died last year was behind the camera during these recordings as their kids played outside the caravan on the street. I remember that time when the Yanks came to town as one of excitement and the making of new friends to play who seemed to have an abundant supply of candy which they shared generously from their mother with the far Eastern smile as she distributed them among us with fairness. Their middle daughter was Tinya who shared my ripe old age of eight years at the time. We played our daily games of Kitty Out on the enclosed school green opposite the hotel where the caravan was recording for posterity. Once we got a gawk inside but all I saw was a bright light similar to the one I saw in Dentist Donal Martin’s which was enough to lose any interest to explore inside. Nobody knew that there was a recording made until this KZbin clip turned up in 2010. Thanks for posting it Martin. To all the Seeger family, the village of Carrick and Ireland extends their sympathy especially to son Daniel, and daughters Mika and Tinya. You’re too long away from us. Rath De oraibh go leir.

[@redhairedlad]

I became a fan of Doherty with the bood The Northern Fiddle. These vids are so precious; thanks so much for posting it.

[@KennedysKitchen]

Just beautiful.

[@fanwick]

I love that kind of historic vids. Very fine, thanks a lot!

[@Steviegottagunn]

Pure class.

[@BluesnCruise]

If anyone has ever seen Gene Hackman in Young Frankenstein, this guy is a ringer!😂

[@sdrtcacgnrjrc]

Thanks, wonderful video! Totally irrelevant (but nice for me) -I was born that year in Donegal, but didnt grew up there. I grew to love irish music first as an adult living on the edge of Sliabh Luachra, so it's nice to hear some Donegal music from 1964 ;-)

[@DEKEKendo2]

Fuckin class!!!!

[@ProfesserLuigi]

That last Jig sounds suspiciously like Leather Britches. Must be a relative.

[@rwilsbach9206]

It is Leather Britches, or Lord MacDonald's Reel, as it's known in Scotland and Ireland. Widely known through MIchael Coleman's recording in the 1920s

[@Joe1729]

@Pagra50 Look at his left hand. He *definitely* didn't have classical training!

[@Galleitch]

Not modern classical training. But if you go back a hundred years or so classical ideas about holds were quite different.

[@be8nice]

@@Galleitch I would say that he hadn't any classical training. He's not in tune in the higher positions, so I'd guess he taught himself that by ear and didn't practice it very often. In first position, his playing is brilliant.

[@Pagra50]

I wonder , did he have classical training? That`s what his technique seems to suggest. Great stuff, regardless.

[@ZachVance108]

Pagra50 I would say doubtful if you look at his left hand.He was just a old country fiddler.But very damn good one haha

[@ConsairtinFergus]

He had a couple of tricks in his hat, though. The tune he plays shifting positions at aprox. 02:00 is actually "The President", by Scottish violinist James Scott Skinner.

[@thelightisahead]

I can’t think of anything in his biography that would align with the notion of him receiving classical training, and I don’t sense from his lifestyle or musical approach that he would have been interested either - it wasn’t what he was aspiring towards. The fact is that J Scott Skinner’s music was something of a bridge between traditional and classical music, partly as a vehicle for his own virtuosity, and John Doherty was simply an extremely talented and acute player who, as with the rest of his repertoire, picked up Skinner’s tunes by ear, complete with their somewhat classical bent. It’s only fair to say that Doherty’s position work isn’t completely accurate, but that’s no surprise as he can’t have given it a huge amount of attention, with how little of his repertoire would have used higher positions - again, it just doesn’t seem to have been a particular motivation for him.

[@athulican]

that's why we need a chin rest.