Reading Micheál Ó Súilleabháin on the subject of Potts needs to be done carefully, it appears to me. Documentation and references are one thing, every possible care has been taken on that level. What brings me up short are some of the author's more subjective opinions and assertions about Potts. So much is made of "isolation."

Ó Súilleabháin has a point to make, of course. His account of Potts' having to be coaxed, invitation upon invitation, to permit an approach and personal contact, speaks for itself.

But there is more to Tommie Potts than his retreat from commercial public exposure. Otherwise his one commercial recorded album, The Liffey Banks, would not have been taken to the collective bosom of traditional musicians regardless of whether they play fiddles or pipes. Potts was certainly plugged in to SOMETHING, and it is that connection, as much as or more than the factor of isolation, that separates him from other musicians. I will concede, however, that it is not easy to articulate said SOMETHING. What does everyone else say?