Heeeere’s Johnny
These days Fean is back in Shannon, has been there for the past month, basing himself once more in the town where his love of the blues and Irish trad was first kindled.
“My father worked in the airport and we moved out to Shannon when I was very young”, he says. “At that stage I was listening to the likes of BB King, Buddy Guy and Otis Rush. I was big into black US blues artists. But I was also becoming interested in Irish music”.
At 16, he began to pluck the tenor banjo. He passed through the Clare pub sessions and picked up the mandolin on the journey.
“I went to Doolin and Lisdoonvarna quite a bit”, he recalls. “There, I played a lot with the fiddle player Ted Furey, Finbar’s father. Those were great times. I was instilled with a great appreciation for the music. The Russell brothers were a big influence and I realised that the Clare style was important”.
It wasn’t long before he made it to Dublin. By now, he’d established a name with a number of Limerick bands, the likes of Sweet Street and Jeremiah Henry. While in the city, he replaced Declan Sinnott in Horslips and his influence on the group can’t be underestimated. His love of Irish trad seeped into the band and from this, Ireland’s freshest sounding band gathered significant momentum.
“At the time, we were unique. There wasn’t any other group doing the kind of music we were involved in. And we made a decision to bring the sound to as many people as possible. The gigging was fairly intensive. We played five, six nights in a row, one night off and back on the road for another week again”.
Crowds flocked to hear Horslips. They’d show up in a village on a Monday night and the venue would be packed. regarded as one of the few bands to pay proper attention to their fan base outside the capital, their popularity mushroomed.
More at the link.
No comments:
Post a Comment