The release of my new single "Giving away my money" will be on August 15th and then the release of the new album “Stolen Moments” will follow in September.

The Nashville Recordings
Way back in 1985 or 1986 I was over in Nashville singing backing vocals on Maura O Connell’s album “ Just in time” which was being produced by Bela Fleck. I was kind of excited to be on the project because not only was Bela Fleck producing the album but also people I had admired for many years were playing on it. Guitarist Russ Barenberg, Dobro Player Gerry Douglas spring to mind and on accordion Jackie Daly an Irish musician I just loved. Not only that but it was my song “ Feet of a dancer” we were working on and a newcomer, Nanci Griffith was singing the other backing vocal. Small wonder then that I didn’t recall the engineer on the session Bil Vorndick.

It was to be nearly twenty years later before I came across Bil Vorndick again. In the meantime he had produced artists as diverse as James Taylor, Alison Krauss and Bob Dylan. I came across him again when he was in Ireland recording an album for an Irish band Carmel Sheerin and the Ravens and it just so happened that they were recording a song I wrote with Brendan Graham called “ By the time the leaves are brown”. It seemed that Bil remembered the 1985 Nashville session and when my name came up on the Irish album he made contact by e-mail and after tooing and frooing for a while he invited me to record an album at Nashville studio.

I started to select songs and eventually came up with enough for the album. In November 2005 I boarded a plane from Shannon to Atlanta and thence to Nashville where Bil picked me up. The plan was to record the album more or less live and to bring the project to completion in seven days. Naturally I was nervous but excited as well – a good way to be.

Bil and I spent the first day with his assistant engineers Ryan Baker, Joe Walker and Toby Sio getting the studio ready. The studio is actually an old bar/nightclub that Bil purchased some years ago and the dance hall of the venue is still there. It was an old drinking haunt of people like Patsy Cline and Hank Williams so there’s a kind of ghostly atmosphere of those heady days of the fifties around the place.

After a good night’s rest I was collected from my hotel at about 10 am the following morning to start recording. My hotel was just about ten minutes from the studio where Bil lives with his wife Patricia. A few of the musicians had already arrived and the rest filtered in over the next half hour. Mark Fain who is the bass player in Ricky Skaggs’ band had charted out all the songs for everyone and we all sat around in the control room to discuss the songs before we started recording.

The musicians were quietly professional in their approach and we were all a little strange with each other to begin with. Believe it or not people speak a slightly different form of English in Nashville and it took me a little time to catch on to the dialect. Pat McInerney who is the drummer in Nanci Griffith’s band and whose people come from Mayo was my lifeline. He’s English and we had things like “Dad’s Army” and “Coronation Street” in common so he broke the ice with everyone for me.

I couldn’t believe how quickly the songs took shape. Guitar player Pete Huttlinger and myself struck up a good picking relationship and soon dobro player Randy Kohrs who incidentally plays in Dolly Parton’s band was jamming along. Fiddle player Aubrey Hainey, a gifted musician, who also played mandolin on the album just fell into the music naturally and as the first number began I soon realised how lucky I was to have such a fine bunch of musicians playing on my songs. They had that indefinable feel for the songs and over the next three days we recorded thirteen songs most of them in two takes or less. Solos and instrumental breaks just rolled from the fingers of these artists like voice sounds. It was incredible.

We overdubbed a few backing vocals with Patti Smith and Chip Davis on the fifth day as well as a lovely clarinet piece by Sam Levine and the recording was finished. The next two days were spent mixing everything down and on the seventh day we had an album. Bil rang Mr Seva who mastered the album and a few weeks later the finished product was delivered to my home in Drumshanbo.
Thus my new album “Stolen Moments” was made and if it never sells a single copy I’d do it exactly the same way. It was a labour of love made lovingly.

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