I was born in a small town called Banagher in the midlands of Ireland on the banks of the River Shannon. It was there I spent many a happy day playing in the meadows and bog lands. Watching my uncles cut turf, jumping bog holes with my cousins and in the evening listening to the call of the corncrake and the curlew.
When I was six my family and I moved from the quiet town of Banagher to the hustle and bustle of Dublin City. We were a small close knit family but strangely enough there was no music in the house however my mother could dance a fine Hornpipe. My first introduction to the beauty of folk music came on cold winter evenings listening to Radio Luxemburg after homework was done. The station used to present a folk programme that featured well established names such as The Weavers, Rambling Jack Elliot and Hank Williams to name but a few. Folk music now became my first love, meaning the Good ole Rock n Roll would have to take a back seat.
When I reached my teens I formed a folk duo with a fellow art student by the name of Michael Crotty. We called ourselves the Ramblers Two While together we toured various folk clubs in both Ireland and England during the mid sixties. However we eventually went our separate ways, Michael to join a folk group, and me, well I took the road less travelled and went solo..This was to make all the difference.
My big break came in late 1966 when I recorded a song called Mursheen Durkin an old ballad from the west of Ireland. It topped the charts at Number 1 for three consecutive weeks and represented my first steps on the road success. Mursheen Durkin was followed up by The Boston Burglar which also reached No 1 in the charts. In 1966 in Dublin City I had played support to an up and coming band called The Rolling Stones and for the very first time witnessed the mobbing and screaming of the fans, the band running for the back door and the all important Getaway Car !!. Now this was happening to me!!!
My first tour of the United States was in 67. It involved seven weeks of concerts during that very hot summer of Hippies, Protests and Vietnam. One of the many famous venues I played was the Hungry Eye in San Francisco. However, my favourite was the famous Carnegie Hall in New York City. It was a most memorable experience for me at that time and still is to the present day. It was at this stage in my career that I had my third Number One Hit with the song Nora from Sean O'Casey's famous play The Plough And The Stars. Later this song gained a well respected place on my album of prose, poetry and song called All Our Wars Are Merry All Our Songs Are Sad perhaps I will complete a similar project sometime in the future.
I formed a band in the 1970's and went Electric! My heart was now torn between the Fashionable Showbands of that era and my one true love Folk Music. Well let's just say ... Love Conquered All.
On a golden August afternoon while sitting on a stone in the sun outside Kennedy's pub in Doocastle Co. Mayo, came the inspiration to write my first song Long Before Your Time It too reached Number 1 and to this day I am still putting pen to paper or as Dylan Thomas might say Labouring By Singing Light.
I am happy to say that many of the songs that I have written over the years have become standards and have been recorded by many other singers. Song's like Long Before Your Time - Michael - Going To California - The Ballad Of John Williams - Richman's Garden - Never Learned To Dance and The Ballad of Anne Frank to name a few.
I consider myself most fortunate as my singing has brought me to many places in the world, places I would never have dreamed of seeing. I have seen the cold lands of Northern Canada, been stranded in blizzards throughout the U.S., Stood on the burning sands of the Persian Gulf, and sung my songs beneath the warm sun of Spain. I have sailed both the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas, wondered at the many ancient sites in Rome and have been seduced by the beauty of Pompeii. Witnessed the beginning and the ending of the Cold War, shuddered at the atrocities of 9/11 and rejoiced at the coming of peace to Northern Ireland. Throughout all these experiences, both my writing and singing have been with me through the good and bad.
This year I have been touring throughout the various counties of Ireland. I have just returned from a few concert dates in Boston and I definitely plan to go back. I will be appearing at the Irish Cultural Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, USA in July. I am Finally finished my new album and I regard it to be my best work to date. It can be purchased from www.johnnymcevoy.net
That's it for the moment and I hope to talk to you again soon.
Slan
Johnny McEvoy
Hello Johnny, Neil and I are looking forward to seeing you in the Riverside Theatre in November and hope to have a chat with you after the show. Hope this has been a good year for you.
Hi Johnny. I am going to be in Ireland October 11th - 22nd and am wondering if you are doing any concerts during that time. Staying near Castleblaney, but willing to travel the length of the isle to see you again.
Hello Johnny, It was great to be able to hear you and Darren Farrell perform last weekend in Cleveland. What a treat it was to hear you again since the first time I heard you perform at the Irish Village in Chicago back in 1985. You haven't changed at all. Your voice still brings me back to a very happy, simple time in life growing up in a house surrounded by all types of music being played. Your records were always my favorite! I love the new CD, Never Smelt The Roses. The instrumental introduction to the song you wrote for your brother (The Town I Left Behind) is hauntingly beautiful, as are the words in the song. It was a thrill for me to be able to meet you and for my sister Grainne, my friend Kate, and I to get a photo taken with you! Thank you, Johnny. Looking forward to having you come perform in Chicago in the spring. God Bless.
Hi Johnny ,Thank you for the album It is a great piece of work Ross McFadyen played it when he interviewed me on his show you can hear the interview on the listen again page at www.celticmusicradio.net .I played Staten Island and Heart with no companion on my show last night and will continue to play tracks from it in the coming weeks . Thank you again for this wonderful album. Kind Regards Mary
Good afternoon Johnny I do hope you are feeling much better. I just used my demorcratic right and voted in our local and european elections. I will continue to vote NO against the Lisbon Treaty as we would lose our democratic rights. Aonteach Eireann is just over the hill.
Every time that we listen & write music... play an instrument... dance... act in a play... or work in some audio/image/video engineering process... something is healing inside...
When we share it with friends... something is healing all over...
Love can drive... in a simple way... everything
We are connected
Vibejays & Friends
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Estimada/o Johnny McEvoy,
cada vez que escuchamos o escribimos musica... tocamos un instrumento... bailamos... o trabajamos en procesos de ingenieria de audio/imagen/video.... algo se sana por dentro...
Cuando lo compartimos con amigos... algo se sana en todas partes...
El Amor puede conducir... de manera simple... todo...
Enjoy your time in St. Louis. We miss you here in Chicago. It's been years since I saw you play here in Chicago...am going to try to make it to Cleveland in July to hear you play at the festival.
