Charlie shares memories and musical tips in new publication

Date Published: 09-Jan-2013

Charlie Lennon is a leading figure in the world of traditional music, whose compositions have been recorded by the likes of the Waterboys, Joe Burke, de Dannan, Liam O’Flynn and Sharon Shannon.

The Leitrim born musician and composer, who has lived in Spiddal for over 20 years, is launching a new collection of his works this Friday night in Dublin’s Harcourt Hotel.

Irish Tunes for Fiddle, Musical Memories 2 is being published by Walton’s Music and will be launched by RTÉ’s former Director General Cathal Goan. It contains 72 tunes and follows on from a previous collection of Charlie’s compositions, published in 1993.

This new book and accompanying CD was a major undertaking, because he wanted to do it comprehensively. Each tune had to be notated and he also put arrangements for piano on each one, as well as chords for guitar and bouzouki.

“Part of the book is really tips on piano accompaniment. I wanted to put in that,” he says, as he feels providing accompaniment “is a somewhat overlooked area, which requires very specific skills.

“There has to be an understanding between the melody maker and the accompanist. The accompanist must understand the natural rhythm and get under that and support it rather than imposing. Being subtle is part of the art”.

Charlie, who is best known as a fiddle player, has been a piano accompanist on over 25 albums so he’s well placed to give advice on that role, as well as on fiddle playing itself. But, he says, the book might never have been completed without the encouragement of a fellow musician.

“There was a guy living in Spiddal called Dave Flynn and I don’t think I’d have persevered without him. I was lazy,” says Charlie, who isn’t a bit lazy. Many men of his age, 74, would be content to take life easy, but that’s not in his nature.

“I don’t think about age,” he says. He may not, but in the process of working on this book he became ill and was two years out of action. So, while he is very relaxed and easygoing, he is a man who doesn’t waste time now– not that he ever did.

He had no ear for listening to music when he was ill, he says, and was neither able to play nor interested in performing. It was the first time since childhood that he hadn’t been involved with music.

Growing up in rural Leitrim in the 1940s, he played piano and fiddle, but emigration took a huge toll on the community there and as people left, he stopped playing. Then, when he was 14, a teacher at the local vocational school, Master Shanley, got young people playing again and formed a band. Charlie got involved and toured with them for several years, before deciding he needed to sort out his education and establish a career.

“I had enough of the touring every day and felt I wanted to do something else.”

He was starting from the back foot, however. Charlie had been very ill as a baby, as a result of which he was beset by chest problems throughout his youth. That meant that he eventually fell behind with his studies and dropped out of education after finishing national school.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune