Seven years eaelier we hear Maguire on top form, clear mind and full of energy. He plays the Boys of the Lock and he has never done it before like this. It sounds exciting because we can't tell what he is going to do next, it's all improvised. He is letting go but still confident and secure in his own musical ability. Here we begin to see the emergence of a frustrated talent driving toward a more free and progressive style. Perhaps Maguire was now beginning to break out of the mould into which he had consciously put himself. At a younger age he had already signed his name next to some of the worlds greatest violinists like Kreisler and others in the Wurlitzer book some where in the USA. He had turned down offers to play classical music in the Belfast Symphony orchestra because he wanted to promote Irish music. He certainly knew where his destiny lay but I sometimes wonder if he saw how uncermonious and thankless that might turn out to be. I believe that because he was from Belfast and had classical training he was less accepted in the Republic regardless of his talent and more so because of his exceptional talent. Those barriers no longer exist today. He was considered non-traditional by fiddle players south of the border but there are always exceptions to the rule and Joe Burke was one exception and he recorded with Maguire when ever he could. Maguire was born fifty years before his time and was one hundred and fifty years ahead of his musical generation.
If this music does nothing for you, even get your foot tapping then I dare say you have no soul. Next time we will go back another seven or ten years and by that time we should be getting closer to his golden period where he was well behaved and played strictly pure traditional stuff
