Irish Music Stories is the show about traditional music and the bigger stories behind it, like how important, ancient songs and little short folk ditties lodge in the heart, not the ears… or the eyes. In this episode, fiddle player Séamus Connolly shares early experiences of playing and collecting Irish music, and also recent challenges and insights. Also woven into the show are a few thoughts from Louis de Paor about tradition and innovation, and how the structure of old ballads and poems can resonate today.

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For playlists, transcripts, links to videos, companion essays, and to contribute to this project, please head to IrishMusicStories.org.

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Thank you to everybody for listening. And a special thank you to this month’s underwriters: Ian Bittle, Finian McCluskey, John Ploch, Brian Benscoter, Chris Murphy, Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, David Vaughan, Suezen Brown, Paul DeCamp, Susan Walsh, Rick Rubin, Ken Doyle, Chris Armstrong, Gerry Corr, Jonathan Duvick, Sean Carroll, Isobel McMahon, John Kerr, Charlie Durfee, Bob Suchor, Maureen Callanan, Margaret Sloan, Donna Kolojeskie, Mark Haynes, Michael Schock, Rachel O’Meara, and Jock Harkness.