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00:32Oh, well, I started playing when I was
00:50nine years old. My dad got me my first guitar for my ninth birthday and I started out playing.
00:58My dad, when he first started teaching me, he started teaching me fingerpicking straight
01:01away because that's what I wanted to learn as well because I'd grown up seeing him playing
01:07the old fingerstyle, like country blues guitar and like Americana style stuff and ragtime
01:11as well and that's what I wanted to learn because I just grew up hearing him playing
01:16it and hearing, just hearing all the old CDs like Blind Emma Jefferson and Blind Blake and
01:21all that kind of thing. So he started off teaching me fingerpicking straight away and when I was
01:28nine and I played for about a year and a half maybe and I got to a certain stage and
01:37I got
01:38pretty good I suppose and then I actually started training in boxing and jujitsu so I got really
01:46into that. When I was about 11, I got really, 10 or 11, I got very into that so I
01:51kind of
01:51put the guitar up for a wee while and I was training that for about three or four years and
01:58then lockdown
01:59hit when I was about 13 so I couldn't go, couldn't train anymore for about two years pretty much
02:06because I was stuck at home and so I decided to pick the guitar up again and start playing
02:11again because I was bored and I needed something to do with myself so I decided to start playing
02:17again and yeah, I went back to my dad and said can you start teaching me again as well
02:23because I just wanted to learn properly from him. I mean why wouldn't I when I've got a teacher
02:29like so I decided to start learning again during lockdown and I learnt, I already learnt Vestipal
02:37when I was younger and then during lockdown I learnt to play Blind Blake's Police Dog Blues
02:43and I decided just for fun, I didn't think anything would come of it, we decided to put it up
02:48on YouTube
02:50just for no reason really at all but when we did that it got quite a lot of attention, a
02:57lot more than
02:58than we'd expected. Yeah and I put up Vestipal as well shortly after that when I'd learnt it fully
03:09and it got a lot of attention too. Yeah so that's kind of how things started out for me I
03:16suppose, yeah.
03:19When I was growing up, I have two siblings as well and they would have grown up hearing the same
03:24kind of music
03:24but they never took to it so I suppose I just, I don't know, I suppose I just kind of
03:30connected with it or something
03:31and I suppose and I don't know, I just really loved listening to it. It's just the kind of music
03:39that I love I suppose
03:40and yeah, there's not much reason, I don't really have a reason, I just really love it and yeah.
03:49At first my dad, he taught me the songs himself and through him teaching them I just kind of became,
03:55I became like independent
03:58and able to learn them from the records myself just and yeah, I would slow them, you can kind of,
04:04I used to slow them down
04:06to hear exactly the, you know, the notes that they were playing and I just learned them from the records
04:10pretty much.
04:11I don't, I don't read tabs or anything or I don't read music so I just, I just learn by
04:15ear, yeah.
04:16And who were, who were your favourite players of that era?
04:23Blind Blake is one of my favourites, I really love Reverend Gary Davis as well, he became, he became famous,
04:31he played in the 30s as well but he became famous in the, in the 1960s and I really love
04:36Mississippi John Hurt as well
04:38and Memphis Minnie, I love her as well, she's very cool. They're probably a few of my favourites,
04:44by Lemon Jefferson too. I recently learned Blind Blake's That'll Never Happen No More
04:53and I also play a Blind Lemon Jefferson song, Black Horse Blues. I play a couple of instrumentals as well,
05:04a John Fahey song, called Psycho River Blues, yeah. Some of the ones that I learned on the album, my
05:11dad would have taught me them
05:13when I was younger and I went and recorded them then but he would have taught me some of them,
05:17the early ones
05:19and then I, from that mostly now I just learn them by myself.
05:24That's just the, that's how my dad taught me, he taught me to, he taught me to rest my finger,
05:29just there,
05:32when I started learning and the first thing he taught me was, when I was, when I began learning to
05:38finger pick
05:39was just alternate basso, just boom, like this here. And I started learning open tunings first,
05:46because I thought it would be easier for me, because I was, I was small and easier on my hands
05:50and there's not big chords, we don't really play big chords in open tunings very often.
05:56But I just, when I started learning I played just that like that, for about a week,
06:00until my left thumb was kind of independent, until I was able to do that, without thinking.
06:06And then I started slowly adding in to kind of a chord, so I'd be like, then go like, like
06:12that.
06:16Yeah and that's kind of how I started learning and after that he might start adding in some of the
06:22melody notes
06:23and slowly, over a long period of time I learned, yeah.
06:27It all started to come together.
06:28Yeah it all started coming together, yeah. So, for very basic I would probably.
06:52Very basic.
06:55This is actually, this guitar actually belongs to my, to my dad.
07:00He got it when I was, I think he got it actually before I even started playing,
07:06when I was quite young, but this is definitely one of my favourites.
07:11It's probably just because it's a very, it's got a really small body and I'm quite small,
07:15so it's easier for me to play.
07:17And it's a 12th fret, so it's got short scale and it was easier for me to learn on this
07:25as well,
07:26because I would have had short arms when I was younger and all, so I would have to reach up.
07:31And it's just got a really nice neck and all in it and I just, yeah, it's just, it's a
07:36really nice guitar
07:37and it sounds amazing as well.
07:39Has it got a sort of a V neck?
07:41Yeah, it's got a kind of a V, a slight V. Yeah, I like it, yeah.
07:46I mainly play, I like a kind of a V in the neck usually, yeah.
07:53Um, well mainly now I just play in standard tuning.
07:57Um, but I do play a couple of songs in open tunings.
08:01So I play, uh, Festival and I play, and Please Dog Blues, they're both in open E tuning.
08:07Well they're actually in drop, or open D, but I tune the guitar up to open E so it's easier
08:12for me to sing.
08:12Um, and I play, uh, Frankie and When the Levy Brecks in open A tuning.
08:19I did the same thing for that.
08:20It's usually played in open G, but I tuned it up to open A so it's easier for me to
08:24sing.
08:25Because I don't have a very deep voice.
08:27Um, yeah, I play them open, that's kind of main.
08:32And I do a couple of songs in drop D as well.
08:35This is another Waterloo, um, it's one of, one of my favourite guitars as well.
08:40Uh, and I have this one in, um, open A tuning to, so I have to, don't have to tune.
08:49Um, yeah, and it sounds really good in, the songs in open A sound really good in this guitar as
08:55well.
08:55Um, but yeah, this is an open A tuning.
08:59I'm gonna, yeah, I usually play about only two songs in open A.
09:03Oh yeah, I'll be example is.
09:36Well, I actually started learning in open tunings. I started learning in open D tuning.
09:42So I suppose I was kind of used to them. When I went to standard tuning, it was actually
09:46harder for me. But yeah, I'm probably more used to standard tuning now than the open
09:52tunings, but I don't really have much trouble playing in open tunings at all. It's not much
10:00different for me. Before going on a plane, I might only take two because it's a lot to
10:08take three guitars away. And just tune between the open tunings on stage. But usually I take
10:18three on tour, yeah. I have a guitar that's made by Cairn McNally. It's called McNally
10:23guitar. It's probably my favourite guitar, but I don't like taking it. I don't like
10:30taking it away. Because it's kind of precious to me, I suppose. It's a custom made guitar.
10:38He made it for me. I got to design the inlays and the neck and all. It's a very pretty
10:46guitar,
10:47I suppose. It's definitely one of my favourites. And it sounds amazing as well.
10:53No, I didn't have the McNally at that stage. I only got the McNally about this March, I think
10:58it was. So I didn't have it at that stage. I recorded most of the songs, I recorded them on,
11:05I think it was probably the two Waterloos actually. Yeah, mostly the two Waterloos, most of the songs
11:12are recorded on them, yeah. We recorded the songs down in a little home studio that's just like five
11:19minutes down the road from where we lived. And my dad knew the guy, Terry McGinty, it's called a
11:26ballet music studio, but we actually knew him. And it wasn't really like a proper big studio
11:32experience. It was a little home studio in a little small room. And it was really,
11:37really, it was like playing at home nearly. So it was just, I haven't really had that studio
11:43experience yet. Well, I'd only, my album was actually being released just before the,
11:51just before the Nanny. So in December, on the 8th of December it was being released.
11:58And my dad had the idea just to, to get him to ask the record label,
12:05of Tocco Square Records, Josh Rosenthal, to just get in contact with people just about my album and
12:11let them know that it's going to be out there and stuff. And he got in contact with the producer
12:17of
12:18Jules of the Hoot Nanny and just the later show as well. And not to get on the show,
12:24just to kind of let them know my album's going to be out there and all. And, and when he
12:28did that,
12:29it turned out she already bought my album. I released a single before the album was out,
12:35the Realty Woman Blues. So she had already bought that. She already bought it, yeah. And everything
12:40kind of just came together after that. She had the, she had an idea to record, do a thing like,
12:49do a recording like the C60 did a few years ago, like a little kind of acoustic recording,
12:57um, after the big, you know, um, after the band, after midnight, I think it was, um,
13:06yeah, change, kind of a change after the Jules of the Big Band, um, a little acoustic act and bring
13:12the lights down like that and kind of, yeah. Yeah. Well, I'd never been on television before,
13:16of course, um, yeah, it was a really big jump. Like I'd never really, before that I'd only played like
13:22three or four gigs, um, small gigs and like in my, just in my hometown pretty much in,
13:29in Ireland, um, so I wasn't used to that at all. I was very nervous, I must say, to go
13:37on and be in a
13:38big studio and it was crazy, yeah. Um, this is my guitar this time actually, uh, it's an iris, um,
13:51it's a really good guitar as well, um, it's got a pretty strong v-neck again, um, it's kind of
13:58what I
13:58like, I suppose, uh, small enough body and all, um, suit me. I suppose actually it was built for me,
14:06um, yeah, it was built for me. It was custom made for me, um, by Irish guitars. They're a new
14:14brand,
14:15um, a new company, uh, they're made by the same, uh, Luthers that made Waterloo guitars.
14:24Um, after Bill Collings, um, passed away, they, they got rid of all the Luthers that make, um,
14:31the Waterloo guitars because they weren't, um, and this guy, um, the guy that, um, makes Irish,
14:39he decided to come up with this company and they hired all the people that, um, all the Luthers that
14:44were making the Waterloo guitars, so it's a pretty similar guitar to the Waterloos. Yeah, it's an open
14:50each other.
15:20Well, at the minute, I'm just kind of on tour, I suppose, and playing out, getting myself out there.
15:29And I, yeah, I suppose I am preparing for, trying to get new songs in my repertoire and preparing for
15:35a new, to make a, to record a new album as well.
15:39But I don't, it's not going to be, I won't, I'm not too pushed to record one very soon, but
15:45there will be another one, yeah, in the past year.
15:50Maybe next year too.
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