Dipper C/G County Clare

The Famous Dipper County Clare Concertina

Web Site by Tom Lawrence

A Legend in His Own Time

Colin Dipper is widely regarded as one of the best concertina makers. In fact, I daresay a not-insubstantial minority considers him the best maker ever, past or present. The Dippers (Colin and Rosalie) painstakingly build each instrument from scratch, totally by hand. No two Dipper concertinas are alike, outside or inside. Each one is it's own creature, with it's own personality. Then there is the mystery of the man, the length of the waiting list, the fact that he doesn't even have a web site!

Although each instrument is unique, he does have some classes of instruments of which he makes a fair number. One class, very popular for Irish music, is the County Clare model. This one is built a little smaller than usual and designed to be loud and fast for Irish dance music. That is the model I have. It has nickel-silver ends and ebony body.

The Cadillac, or Ferrari?

In fact, as far as Dipper concertinas go, this one is fairly plain. The original buyer asked for an instrument that was "all business", plain black bellows and no fancy tooling or decoration. Therefore the instrument sports a very traditional Jeffries-style endplate. But in it's understated appearance, everything is class and fine craftsmanship. And like that black Ferrari you didn't notice until it blazed past at 200 miles per hour, this one moves.

Audio

The Ash Plant, Scatter The Mud (Jigs) - Two of my favorite jigs, learned from the playing of three of my favorite concertina players. The first jig is as played by Kitty Hayes on A Touch of Clare. The second seems to be my own hybridization between how Mary MacNamara played it on The Blackberry Blossom and Tommy McCarthy's playing on Sporting Nell.

The Sligo Maid's Lament, Down The Broom (Reels) - Two of my favorite, powerful reels.

Selected Links

http://www.concertina.net - A comprehensive source of information about concertinas, and a very friendly discussion board

I am Tom Lawrence (tom at concertinatom dot com), amateur Irish-style concertina player in the Seattle area. If you email me, be sure to put "concertina" in the subject line to avoid my junk-mail filter.

Concertina Completed: Feb 2001
Concertina Acquired: Oct 2004
Created: Dec 2004
Last Updated: Feb 2006

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