Thursday, April 5, 2012

Two Banjo Legends Gone in the one Week ...


The passing of Barney McKenna today affected me on so many levels, it's hard to know where to begin. I had the good fortune to have known him since about 1962/63 when I used to travel with Peggy Jordan to the Abbey Tavern in Howth to hear the Ronnie Drew Folk Group, as the Dubliners where known then. On one such occasion, Barney played a particularly soft and tender tune, during which a member of the audience continued a conversation with the person in the next seat. After the applause died down, Barney said ' if you two don't shut up, I'll come down there and break me fuckin' Banjo over yes 'er fuckin' heads'. He got the result he deserved, and I have followed his example ever since. I also had a much more recent experience in Barney's life when I was asked by Nashville banjoist and Producer, Tim Carter,to write a lyric for a song that Barney wanted to record about the connection, as he saw it, between Bluegrass and Irish Music. This I did, and I'm thrilled to know that Barney recorded the song in Nashville, and that it will be released, posthumously, soon. It's called When The Bluegrass Meets The Greengrass. Incidentally, although I don't think he ever did record this, Barney was so good on the Banjo, he could play what he called 'imitation 5-string in Scruggs Style' on his Tenor Banjo. For Banjo fans who never saw him do this, it involved fretting one string on the fifth fret to give him the 'ring', and a cross-picking pattern with a flat pick that have more in common with George Shuffler or Jessee McReynolds. This memory is particularly poignant when you realise that the Wold's other great Banjo innovator, Earl Scruggs died on Thursday last. Two Banjo legends gone in one week. Hey, it just occurred to me that there may well be an amazing meeting of styles in a session on high. Also,although I have no intention of joining them for a long, long time, and I'm not sure if I'd pass the audition anyway, but I am the proud owner of a wonderful John Alvey Turner 5-string, which you can admire in this photo, taken by Fiaz Farrelly in Myshall Graveyard.