Gerry Carthy was born in Castlebar, County Mayo on the West Coast of Ireland. On leaving school at
18 he took the boat to England like so many other young Irishmen who had to emigrate to find work.
Carthy worked on construction and in a steel factory during the two years he spent in England. The
plight of the exile is a common theme in Irish music.
It was in England that he began to really take an interest in his own traditional music and literature.
In 1969, after three months in London he moved to the West Country and lived in Cheltenham.,
Gloucestershire where he formed a folk music trio and got involved in the local folk clubs which were
thriving then like the coffee houses in America.
But the West of Ireland and its 'Celtic Twilight' atmosphere was always calling and before long he
moved back to Mayo for a year, now taking up the tenor banjo. Up to that he played mandolin and tin whistle. In fact his musical career started at school with the fife and drum band, a tradition in the
schools then which unfortunately today seems to have died out. The following year, 1973, he enrolled
at University College Galway, 50 miles south of his home town. For the next ten years Carthy lived in
Galway City and played in traditional Irish sessions around the town. Galway is where he truly
learned his trade. In the seventies there was a wealth of music in Galway since there were so many
native traditional musicians. Added to these was a bearded Bohemian clique who haunted the favorite
traditional music pubs in town, like Mrs. Cullen's Bar and the Cellar Bar and they brought with
them new ideas and new life to ancient music within the framework of the traditional idiom. There
were musicians here from all over Ireland. Carthy fell into this circle and his musical education was assured - whatever about the academic side of things!
During the Summer months Carthy and a friend from Castlebar, Brendan Fahy, a singer and guitar
player roamed around continental Europe playing on the streets and in the cafes.
In 1981 Carthy spent 10 months in America mainly in New York City where he played at Gurdy's Folk City on a St. Patrick's Day gig opening for a band called Touchstone - a band who mixed Irish and American music well. This time too he was with a guitarist/singer, Archie Meaney from Ennis Co. Clare.
But before long it was back to Ireland once more. He found himself in Academia again, this time
taking a teacher's diploma at U.C.G. in Galway. Again the road called and an old dream of Carthy's
urged him back to America. That dream was to work his way from New York to San Francisco and see
America with 'Jack Kerouac' eyes! On the way or rather on the road Gerry was directed through
Santa Fe. August 2000 marked 14 years in the Southwest. He makes his living playing Irish Traditional music although he played the banjo in a traditional Dixieland Jazz Band, The Red Hot Chiles for 10 years.
In the early nineties The New Mexico Folk Arts Division accepted his application for inclusion on their
roster as an Artist in Residence in New Mexico for Traditional Irish Music and Song.
Carthy plays the music on a variety of instruments. His repertoire includes the Folk Music of Northern New Mexico and American tunes and ballads. He touches on different strains of Irish music. The traditional dance tunes - jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas and he has a particular fondness for slow airs; the old ballads brought to life first by the Clancy Brothers in Greenwich Village in the sixties; the modern folk influence which started in Ireland with groups like Sweeney's Men, The Johnstons, Emmet Spiceland and the electric folk band Steeleye Span who were based in England. From the Ceili Bands of the fifties to the polish of today's greatest exponents of traditional Irish music, The Chieftains, Carthy knows what he is doing. Added to this, his appreciation and sensitive interpretation of the music of the old travelling harpers of Ireland make Carthy's show an experience not to be missed!
Gerry Carthy(Short Bio)
Gerry Carthy comes from County Mayo on the West coast of Ireland. After leaving school in 1969 he lived in England for two years, then returned to Galway City, attended the University there for a few years and got involved in the emerging traditional Irish music scene.
He has lived in Santa Fe since 1986 playing Irish traditional music on a variety of instruments including tin whistle, flute, low whistle, saxophone,guitar, tenor guitar, tenor banjo,concertina, fiddle and mandolin.
Gerry cites his main influences as being early Irish folk groups from the 'Ballad Boom' era in the Ireland of the 60's and 70's and various traditional musicians notably Sweeney's Men, the Johnstons, Emmett Spiceland, Sean O'Riada and Ceolteoiri Cualann, Scara Brae and of course the Dubliners and the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Later came Planxty , the Bothy Band and De Danann who came out of the Galway music mix.
His musical mentors and friends in Galway were the unknown characters who were the life and soul of the music scene in the seventies - Peter Galligan,Mickey Finn, Sean Tyrell,Jim Dillon,Jackie Small,Henry Higgins,Noel Sherlock, Seany Francis, Kevin Garvey,Johnny Keaney, Pat Broderick, Donal Staunton, Pat Broderick,Pat Conneely,Charlie Harris,Sean O'Conaire, Tommy Nolan who was the resident fiddle player at O'Malley's Bar where the Sunday morning sessions took place and the older traditional players Eddie Maloney, Jimmy Cummins, Lar Kelly and Vincent Keegan who frequented Mrs. Cullens Bar, the pub for 'trad' in those days.
He is an Artist in Residence with New Mexico Folk Arts and is on the adjunct faculty of the Contemperary Music Program at the College of Santa Fe. He plays regularly in Santa Fe at various venues and teaches Irish music in the area.
I am excited about this new CD Old Time Irish (the first I have recorded in 15 years) and CD Baby and hope to hear from some old pals or anyone whom I knew in the Galway days.
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