bands:Fanai - with Dan Possumato (button accordion, melodeon) Shades of Green & Blue with Henry Koretzky (vocals, mandolin, guitar) & Emmy Truckenmiller (vocals, fiddle, guitar) Laune Rangers (Launies) - with Ryck Kaiser (fiddle) & Chad Shambaugh (bodhran)
Jamie also plays with Kristine Allen (fiddle, vocals), Myron Bretholz (bodhran), Sharon Goldwasser (fiddle), Hillary Horner (step dance), Deb Kauffmann (vocals, guitar), Bob Lee (slack key guitar), Peter Rodgers (fiddle), John Winship (fiddle), Bruce Young (fiddle, guitar, vocals)
Influences
My father; Buddy Holly; Gram Parsons; George Kahumoku Jr; Daniel Ho
Sounds Like
As far as the singing goes, imagine Iarla O Lionaird crossing paths with Gene Clark and thinking they were Jerry Jeff Walker performing like Enrico Caruso (after a few Sierra Nevadas).
As far as the guitar playing goes, take a healthy dose of Buddy Holly, mix it with a smattering of Gerry O'Beirne, while adding a touch of George Kahumoku Jr and a lot of wishful thinking! Dream on!
"A WONDERFUL ECLECTIC BLEND OF IRISH AND ENGLISH TRADITIONS" (Dede Wyland)
"NEED WORK - WILL PLAY" (Jamie O'Brien)
I come from a London-Irish family but have spent over half my life away from the British Isles: firstly living in France, then Germany and now the US (Pennsylvania for nearly two decades and nowadays Arizona). En route, I've played a lot of music in a lot of styles with a lot of people.
Today, I draw together all the different influences and likes into an eclectic approach to celtic music: there's a touch of rockabilly, a little '60s soul, country (both rock and outlaw) and various forms of traditional music (Irish and music hall from my family, Irish and English from various friends and my latest love, Hawaiian from some wonderful musicians I've had the good fortune of meeting when in the Islands.
Looking back over four decades and more of public performance, I count a number of extraordinary experiences as part of my background: playing with Ogron (trad. English); meeting Jenny Ford (the first real professional performer I met and worked with); teaming up with singer-songwriter Ernest Hone; an eight-year collaboration with Uli Altdoerfer; coming to the States and being taken under Medicinal Purpose' wing (thank you Ryck, Henry, Carol & Bruce); a tempestuous but rewarding partnership with Cara Frankowicz; jamming with the Brennans & friends in Philly along with Jim Eagan, Laura Byrne and the JP Tuesday crowd in Baltimore; and last but not least, being included by Dan Possumato and John Walsh in Fanai, an amazing traditional Irish band.
A disasterous solo career came to a full stop in total embarrassment in 1974 - maybe I just wasn't ready; but on the bright side, as I wanted to carry on playing, it made me learn how to work with other people. Then, thanks to the wonderful and sadly missed Joe Brown (not that brilliant English musician who's down as one of my friends, but the smiling, soccer playing kid I used to coach), I started with the solo stuff after a quarter of a century. Aoife encouraged me to do it. And so did Gerry. And finally George and Nancy convinced me it was possible (and necessary). Now I love the solo work as much as the group playing and the accompanying.
Current projects include playing solo, performing with Fanai and with Shades of Green & Blue ("where celtic meets Americana") and accompanying other musicians. The Launies and Medicinal Purpose are currently on hold, but don't be surprised if they appear at a venue near you - we still practice and are ready and raring to go - it's just a question of time and geography that holds us back.
wow! you'll be in my hometown for the Irish festival! cool. i used to play it myself. i'll be out on the left coast then... but maybe i'll catch you in arizona one of these days. i'm off to ireland from sweden in a week.. love from smedjebacken, where the sun is still shining 20 hours a day!
Looking forward o your PA tour. Lots to catch up on.
Had a blast last week when I did a 2 1/2 hour set with John Whelan at the Garryowen Pub in Gettysburg after sitting in on a set of reels at the Irish festival. What a brilliant box player!
Back from a 3-week visit of Ireland and a week of bodhran school. Played with Kieran Munnelly, Johnny Ringo, Damien Stenson, and took classes with Jimmy Higgins, Colm Phelan, Eamon Murray and a few others. I'm still on a music high.
hey jamie...very nice tunes you have here...anyways, i just wanted to stop by and thank you for finding me on here....i hope you had a great holiday....and that you enjoy my music...
Hey! Wanted to share about a pretty cool experience and give you a heads-up about the TV coverage of it tomorrow *Thur. May 1, 6:00 PM Pacific* on E!
The Asian Excellence Awards (www. asianexcellenceawards. com) were last week and Tia Carrere and I performed. So many people from Hawaii were there. Carrie Ann Inaba (Dancing with the Stars) co-hosted it. Mark Dacascos and Kelly Hu were presenters and Tia was the headliner! Here are a few pictures with them: www. danielho. com/html/pro. html
I even got to meet Quentin Tarantino! I love his work!!! The air time is Thursday, May 1 at 6pm on E!
And...got a show coming up next week Friday...
Fri. , May 9, 8:00pm
Daniel Ho as special guest
with the El Camino College Youth Orchestra
Arts Nova Sinfonia
El Camino College Campus Theater
16007 Crenshaw Blvd.
Thanks for a fabulous show last night, Jamie. It was good seeing you and Tina at the street fair today as well. I'll probably see you at the Folk Festival as well, and if not then, definitely on May 24th.
