David offers a fresh take on Percy French’s songs

Arts Week with Judy Murphy

“He’s the kind of fella you’d love to have met,” says singer David Larkin of the multi-talented Percy French, a songwriter, artist, showman and engineer who bequeathed a vast legacy of songs and paintings to the world when he died in 1920 at the age of 66.

His songs which captured Irish life with a fine dash of humour and a great deal of affection, have been widely recorded through the years, most notably by the late Irish tenor Brendan O’Dowda.

David has now given a new interpretation to 12 of French’s compositions on his album, David Larkin sings Percy French: With a Toot on the Flute and a Twiddle on the Fiddle!!!

“I loved his songs and I’d have known quite a few of them from hearing them on the radio and at sing-songs,” says David who works as a Housing Support Assistant with the Simon Community and presents Larkin About on Galway’s Flirt FM in his spare time. An early memory of hearing one of them is when American folk singer, Don McLean recorded The Mountains of Mourne in 1973.

David’s family moved to Galway City from Athleague in Roscommon when he was six, but “I always consider myself a Roscommon man”, he says with a smile.

He’s been part of the Galway singing scene for decades, co-hosting the I’m Singing in the Crane sessions in the popular city pub since 2013. He’s a regular participant in singing sessions and festivals countrywide, including the Willie Clancy Summer School in Miltown Malbay, County Clare, where he contributes to the daily singing workshops.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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