My musical influences are many and varied, a sort of musical butterfly mind. I love the interpretation of Mary Black and Lonnie Donegan, the vocal power of Jussi Bjorling, the humour and sensitivity of Eric Bogle and the chording of Alastair Macdonald. I started my musical life playing an Eko Ranger 12 guitar that I bought new in 1964 for thirty guineas and I never saved enough money then to replace it. It earned my grudging respect because, although it sounded awful and weighed a ton, it never went out of tune. It has now been replaced with a lovely Simon and Patrick 12 string and I also play a Martin 000-16T six string, both of which sound great, even when I play them.
The bodhran that I occasionally play was made in a great hurry by a (not very) gifted amateur. I suspect that the skin was chamois rather than goatskin, which made it a very good indicator of impending weather change but not a great musical instrument. It had a tone like a dustbin lid, but I liked the artistic decoration, that I did myself. However we have the technology and it has been re-skinned and now sounds excellent.
My voice has been likened (by jealous fellow musicians) to the sound that a tomcat makes when the two bricks connect. So what, someone has to sing the high harmony.
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Updated 06 May 2008
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