Tony Reidy

Music:

Member Since: 2/25/2007
Band Website: tonyreidy.net
Band Members: The late-blooming songwriter’s works could well define the sound of County Mayo.
The evening also includes a guest slot by a distinguished 50 something man with greying, slightly shaggy hair and a scholarly air, who is greeted by all with affection and respect. If you want someone to define the sound of Mayo, then its’ surely Tony Reidy, who’s gentle, haunting, beautifully crafted songs seem to have been hewn from deep in the psyche of this distinctive region. His heartfelt second album, A Rough Shot of Lipstick – self-released and partly financed by Mayo County Council – remains a largely overlooked classic, devoid of pretence and artifice, but textured and tailored by the brilliant Seamie O’Dowd’s instrumental versatility and shrewd production into an unusually welcoming and rounded collection. We’re so programmed to being invigorated by new young artists, we are often blind to the attributes of age and life experience, and Reidy’s lived-in voice, melancholy style and sharp eye for lyrical detail offer a highly individual if sometimes troubled view of the world. He’s never been a professional musician, never been subjected to the rigours of the road, and carries the enthusiasm of someone half his age.“A little part of me yearns to go on the road” he says. “I suppose I’m just dabbling, but you can still dabble and be a good songwriter. My only real aim is to write better songs. I’m thinking of the next album now – I’ve got some songs ready.”Reidy comes from Aughagower, a tiny village a few miles out of Westport, where his musical education came largely from a transistor radio, listening to John Peel and the like. “I was mad for the radio,” he laughs, a fact recalled in the album’s evocative autobiographical opening track The Boy in the Gap. He also vividly recalls his first encounter with a musical instrument. “My dad worked on the farm and me and my brothers all took our turn on the farm. One day when I was about seven, my father took me to this house where two bachelors lived. They invited us in, took down a fiddle and an accordion and played. One of the tunes was The Yellow Tinker. I don’t know how good or bad it was but it really stuck with me and I became fascinated by the accordion.”He was knocked side-ways the first time he heard Dylan, but also found inspiration closer to home in the Clancy Brothers and Delia Murphy. “It was the time when everyone was listening to Doris Day and How much is that Doggy in the Window? but Delia Murphy was also on the radio and she was accepted. She’d be like Margaret Barry but less raw. She’d sing songs from people on the wrong side of the tracks that told genuine stories. They sounded authentic and you could identify with them.”At college in Galway he was completely consumed by traditional music. He saw Planxty’s first ever gig, shared a house in Tipperary with Johnny Mulhearn (who wrote Matty, popularised by Christy Moore) and started playing trad music in pubs five or six nights a week. Then life took over and he moved back to Mayo, got a proper job and settled down. But he also started writing songs…. and he couldn’t stop. “I like all the usual songwriters…. Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Richard Thompson, and there are some good Irish writers like John Spillane and Ger Wolfe.” He eventually released his first album, The Coldest Day in Winter, in 2002. “That was a bit of an experiment. A lot of it was about living close to the land – it was very different to this one.”The song Rough Shot of Lipstick was, like much of his second album, specifically inspired by Mayo – in this case a couple of “misfits” he encountered one day who’d embarked on an unlikely relationship. “It was beautiful to see them together and I was so struck I wrote the song.”Other notable tracks include Island Boys, based directly on an anguished episode he witnessed at the pier on the small island of Inishturk, off the mayo coast, when a tearful mother was sending her twin sons off to secondary school for the first time on the mainland. “Two fine big lumps of lads they were….and they wouldn’t be back for a few months. That said, it hardens them up. They’re well able to look after themselves those island lads.”Mayo Man is an anthem of sorts. (“I’ve come from the bogs of north Mayo/I come with the turf between my toes”) and has been played before Mayo’s all-Ireland football matches, though it has still to rival Fields of Athenry for crowd participation.Perhaps Reidy’s most telling song is If This is Progress, reminiscent of Damien Dempsey’s harsh assessments of the effects of the Celtic Tiger on Ireland. “It’s a protest song,” says Reidy starkly. “Suddenly we’re overrun with people not having time to talk or make a connection with other people….There was more time talk in the bad times. More camaraderie. We’re losing a lot. Or maybe I’m just getting old…” Never.
By Colin Irwin fRoots July 2008 .
Influences: Sweeneys Men
The Clancy Brothers .
Bob Dylan .
Galway in the early Seventies
Richard Thompson
Nic Jones
Waterson Carthy
Joe Cooley
Leonard Cohen
Johnny Cash
Paddy Kavanagh
A hayfield in Aughagower .
Sounds Like: Have a listen or buy some more here .
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Record Label: Unsigned .
Type of Label: None