It s pretty unusual for a debut album by a relatively unknown artist to feature guest vocals by the likes of Luka Bloom and Christy Moore, not to mention Liam O Maonlai and Dervish s Cathy Jordan. Unusual, but not surprising, given that Luka (aka Barry Moore) and Christy happen to be the uncles of the artists in question.
Flute player Conor Byrne s mother is Eilish Moore, who ran the Meeting Place a bastion of Dublin s folk scene in the 1970s for many years and now organises gigs at Mother Redcap s.
Sitting in the Davenport Hotel and looking slightly ill at ease, embarrassed to be the focus of all this attention, Conor is the first to admit that his family background has given him an extra leg up: It s down to my mother that I started going to gigs at an early age, playing gigs myself at an early age, and I met so many musicians through Christy and through Barry. I ve been given some very generous advice from so many people, and that s been to my advantage.
Released a few weeks ago on Newberry Records, the label run by Christy s astute manager Mattie Fox, Wind Dancer features a mixture of songs, traditional tunes, a few numbers written by Conor in a trad idiom, and, most surprisingly, a vocal from Conor himself on Louis Armstrong s We Have All The Time In The World .
Conor took up the whistle at the age of four, learning from a fellow called Con O Tuama who gave classes at Conor s school. At the same time, he was already going around to gigs and sessions with his mother, and he started taking flute lessons at the age of 11 at the Cslaiste Chilliain in Clondalkin, where Paul McGrattan and Cian O Sullivan were among his teachers.
What made the strongest impression, however, was a chance meeting with the late Frankie Kennedy of Altan: I d been playing the flute for about a year, and I was up in Gweedore on a two-week holiday with my family. It was the most miserable two weeks I ever had, because it was raining the whole time. Mam went down to the local pub, Hiudai Beag s, Frankie and Mairead were there, and she asked Frankie would he come up to the house and give me a few tips. I still remember the advice he gave me to this day he was just telling me about breathing technique, how to hold the flute and all that, and it really helped me along.
By his early teens, Conor was a fixture at sessions around Dublin, particularly in Hughes , and in the summers he went down to Miltown Malbay, where his aunt Anne Rynne ran a vegetarian cafe called the People s Kitchen I used to work there myself, chopped most of my fingers off peeling carrots! That was great fun we used to get all sorts of musicians having a few tunes while they were eating their coleslaw.
Confused and lacking direction after secondary school, Conor undertook a year-long Ballyfermot Rock School course in music management, then worked for nearly three years behind the counter at McNeill s music shop: It was great to work there. A lot of musicians used to come in you used to come in yourself! indeed I did and I learned a lot about instruments.
While still at McNeill s, he formed the band Odessa, named impulsively after a film then showing at the IFC, with fiddler Breda Smyth, Lloyd Byrne on drums and percussion, bass player Joe Csibi and guitarist Gavin Ralston. The group s Sunday-afternoon gigs at Whelan s generated a decent following and they recorded a few demos, but in 1996 the momentum ran out. Joe and Lloyd have since joined Riverdance, Gavin is touring with Mike Scott, and Breda is at work on a solo album.
Conor s own decision to go solo was largely influenced by his uncle Luka Bloom, who also produced the CD. He was the first person to say to me, you should get your act together and do this album, because you re getting to the stage of your life where you have to start doing things if you want to make a career out of music, he explains.
There have been other projects along the way. He s toured with Maire Breathnach, Anuna, Donal Lunny, and was a member of Eimear Quinn s band for Brendan Graham s Eurovision winning song: That was great! When I was first asked to do it I kind of wasn t sure no offence to Eurovision or anybody who s performed in it, but it wasn t really my scene.
There speaks a master of diplomacy!
But I actually liked the song, and I got a great holiday out of it over in Oslo! It was quite an experience.
For now, though, he s concentrating on his future career, studying with vocal coach Frank Merriman and rehearsing his band for an Irish tour that commences on March 26th with a gig at Mother Redcap s. Conor can also be seen at the Temple Bar Music Centre on St Patrick s Night, along with Cooney & Begley, Emer Mayock and Gavin Ralston. n