ABOUT 1

OLDTIME JOANNA AND ME

I choose the word "joanna" quoting from a recent review by Gill Harrison (in The Old Time News re: Ripples Across the Pond CD) featuring a track by me. It is Cockney slang for piano and as I'm an honorary Cockney having lived in London 25 years I thought that it was quite appropriate.

This CD was initially intended only as a private affair, to have for posterity before my ever stiffening fingers seize up from arthritis or old age whichever comes first. I'm only 52 but my fingers ache more and my playing durations grow ever shorter with each incrementing year. I have been encouraged to "go public" by friends and from very positive reviews of my rendition of Margaret's Waltz on the Ripples Across the Pond CD. After much hesitancy and hard work this is the final outcome.

Born and bred in Dublin I abandoned it's joblessness in my twenties to "dig for gold" in London but only ended up floating from place to place. Eventually I settled in London, got married and reared a family of two daughters. To retain my job in computer maintenance and being divorced I moved to Reading in 1997 and immediately immersed myself into the local and not so local musical scene. I don't run around with various bands as much as I used to anymore for I tend to immerse myself in computer related projects of which this is but one of many.

I seemed to always remember playing piano though we never had a piano in our household till I was turning into my teens. My sister was having lessons and I recall envying that privilege. I suppose I had an ear for the piano from as early as I can remember, right from pre-school days when I was brought to an event in my forthcoming school and to my fascination a band with a piano player in the pit. Much later on at a boys club an elder sat at the otherwise neglected piano and played Ray Charles's What I Say and I was transfixed. Such was my admiration that I decided there and then that that's what I wanted to do someday.

There were no musical interests in my immediate family though I have discovered a strong tradition in my father's family who hailed from West Clare a hotbed for traditional Irish music. None of that was transmitted to us living in suburban middleclass Dublin except for the Irish Ceilidhe programs on the wireless. The wireless in the kitchen being perpetually on was a rich source of influence and our only entertainment. Being the 1950's there was a lot of Russ Conway, Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis all of whom inexplicably grabbed my attention. Being from a family of nine and many of us teenagers we scoured the airwaves for pirate radio stations to hear the latest releases.

The introduction of a record player at home seemed to mark a turning point in the generation gap between us teenagers and our parents for my Dad would destroy the Elvis Presley records in piques of rage against corruption. The church also frowned on unwholesome dancing and of girls wearing jeans, such was the fundamentalist religious and cultural climate of Catholic Ireland created by our Celtic purist president Mr. DeValera . Rock and Roll became not just a musical preference for the youth but a political and cultural statement by the young in defiance of such indoctrination.

I found that when my sister lost interest in her piano studies I had the sitting room piano all to myself. Everyday for hours I fumbled and plonked at the grossly out of tune keys as if exorcising some demon from my spirit. My twin brother Derry (also on the Ripples Across the Pond CD) in the meantime had taken up the guitar and with the aid of a few lessons made such rapid progress that I was ashamed for my lack of it. Probably due to the feeling of being overlooked regarding lessons did I become dog headed and pursued my own course with vehemence. I believe it is this that characterises my playing more than anything else, a determination to go it alone. Indeed to say "I did it my way" would be quite apt.

Now that I'm in my 50's and having little to show for "my way" other than a drawer full of pretty rough tape recordings I decided that before it's too late I'd take the plunge and get at least one decent recording done in a professional studio. This in itself was a huge challenge to my panic-attack disposition when not in the comfort of my home or with friends. However it has been one of the most satisfying things I've ever attempted and not least for having also to master the techniques of producing a home CD from the results.

Continued (click on ABOUT 2)