In order to drown out my infant cries my parents resorted to playing records of The St. Peter’s Ceili Band and Lonnie Donegan. The crying stopped so the records became a nightly routine. My parents were keen ceili-goers and my grandfather was a great singer and melodeon player, so it wasn’t long before me and my brother, Pat, got involved too, first singing at family parties then graduating onto the tin whistle and finally taking our places on accordion and flute in the local Green Velvet Ceili Band.
Over the years I’ve been through a series of ceili bands, folk-rock bands and Irish trad groups but there was always a pull from another side. I also played, and sometimes sang, with rock bands, country and bluegrass groups, jazz, western-swing, cajun and blues musicians. When I eventually started to write my own songs these genres influenced me a great deal though there was always something indelibly Irish that remained.
Whilst on the instrumental side I’ve remained firmly rooted in Irish traditional music as a singer I’ve tended to cast my net a bit wider. Many of my songs are very old folk songs, mostly from Ireland and Scotland, whilst others are from contemporary songwriters or self-penned. And of course every song has a story to it.
For many years now I´ve been performing with wonderful Czech fiddler, Ondřej Volčík, who is not only a talented musician but also an expert on Czech and Irish music. He also forms the bedrock of Bar Fast the Door along with our talented guitarist Tomáš Vomočil.