Hello Again!...Well the first week of the Tour of Ireland is over.
The past couple of months I have been working on a more acoustic sound in preparation for touring my new album in the summer... But!!!...I decided in January to go acoustic on this tour and so far its been a great success.
The line up has slightly changed on stage... I am back playing the Harmonica; Philip O'Duffy who is still with me after all these years is playing Acoustic Guitar, Mandolin, and some Electric Guitar. Darren Farrell has also joined us on stage, playing Acoustic Guitars...You may be familiar with Darren from my shows, I have been working with him over the past couple of years and more recently he has been opening the show for me.
As I am writing this I am thinking back to a concert tour that I did with Phil Coulter in July 06. I was sitting back stage preparing for the second night of the show and Philip and myself where running through some numbers for the show as we would normally do...It turned into a bit of a session that day with Philip, Darren, and myself...I found myself delving into the past singing songs I haven't sung in years...songs I had long forgotten...The sound of the acoustic music was great...It felt new but familiar at the same time, sure why wouldn't it, that's how it all started for me in the first place. That day I decided I was going back to my roots, playing acoustic music and more importantly going back to singing the type of songs I like to sing. A lot of things have changed since then. The biggest change I suppose, was I changed management. I've started playing the Harmonica again, and i'm in the process of recording a new acoustic album, which will be out in the summer. I've been putting some new songs together, re-jigging some old songs, and having a ball rehearsing with the lads, all very exciting stuff really.
Anyway we arrived in Strabane last Friday week for the beginning of the tour. We went through the usual setting up of the gear...Did a sound check and ran over a couple of numbers, nothing unusual in all of that. I had all the usual nerves that you have before the opening night of a tour, plus I was wondering how the new songs would go down, how the new line up was going to workout live on stage and so on...
I did feel an extra edge though...an excitement I haven't felt in a long time and as the time got closer to opening I was starting to feel that 'high' the kind of high you get with nerves and excitement, it's such a great feeling, a reminder of why i'm still performing after 40 years.
The funny thing about all of this is, when I first started in 1964/65 I was singing only acoustic folk and Irish music...Back then of course I was in a duo called the Ramblers Two which consisted of Mick Crotty on the Guitar and myself on the Harmonica,Tin Whistle and Guitar. By 1966 I had gone solo and had a number one hit with Mursheen Durkin and overnight my life changed. I remember the excitement of it all, so clear in my head like it was only yesterday, and now I find myself getting those same feelings all over again.
The gigs have been great over the past week. Each gig has been special for different reasons. The opening night in Strabane was a great night as it marked the beginning of a new chapter, the sold out concerts in Naas and Mooncoin, what fantastic audiences...Sometimes I could hardly hear myself on stage when you were singing, The Helix in Dublin, its always nice to crack the big smoke.
I finished up the first week in my home county of Offaly and as always it was great to be back...I have actually been invited down to my hometown of Banagher to open the St Patrick's Day parade on the 16th of March thanks to Sean Cronin...Actually when I was speaking to Sean on Sunday he brought something to my attention, he thought the song "The Town I Left Behind"was written by my brother Tom. The song was actually written by me for my brother who moved from Banagher to St Louis. My brother has never stopped asking me about Banagher from the time he moved out to St Louis and it got so much that I wrote the song to shut him up...It didn't work!
I am now looking forward to getting back on the road later this week as we are all in full flow. There is a great vibe on stage now as we settle into the tour, and you never know, if you happen to make a gig on the remaining nights, I might even get a chance to meet you after the show!
I would just like to say thanks to:
Ray Kennedy on Near 90FM. Ray has a lunchtime programme called Lunchtime Misellany from 1pm-2pm Monday to Thursday. There is a live stream for this programme using this link: http://www.nearfm.ie/
Liam Kitt on KFM for his support. Liam has a programme called KCountry from 7pm-9pm Monday to Thursday. There is a live stream for this programme using this link: http://www.kfmradio.com/
That's all for now and thanks for your great support on the tour so far and for all your emails and photos. Some photos that I have received are posted in the Gallery on this site.
I look forward to meeting you all very soon at one of the remaining concerts.
There is a full listing of all the remaining dates on this website under Gigs section.
Slan,
Johnny
