Musicians on the Uilleann Piper CD (2000) are
Mick McNamara - guitar and bobhran on tracks 5 and 11,
Peter Browne - guitar on track 4, Paul McCabe - guitar on tracks 2,6 and 9, Clare Martin - flute and Jacqui Martin - fiddle on track 7
Musicians on the Shady Woods cd are
Eileen Gannon - harp on tracks 4,7 and 10,
Bernie McDonald - giotar on tracks 4, 7 and 10,
Kevin Buckley fiddle on tracks 2 and 11 and snare drum on track 13
and Patsy O'Brien on tracks 2 and 9
Influences
Friends and family, the weather, whats on telly, hangovers, the time of day (or night), who's outside, instruments, club orange, Bulmers, trousers, the internet, etc. for now
Tommy Martin is an Uilleann Piper hailing from Dublin, Ireland. He is currently located in the St. Louis, Missouri area of the USA.
Tommy got his practice set when he was 12. Mick O'Brien arranged Dan O'Dowd and Johnny Bourke to make the practice set for Tommy. This started Tommy on weekly lessons under the guidance of Mick O'Brien for a while.
As a 12 year old learning Uilleann Pipes, Tommy felt he was the only kid on the planet doing this. The appeal of TV and Football grew too tempting and the pipes were left under the bed for a while.
Six month later curiousity got the better of him and the Uilleann pipes came out from under the bed. A phone call to Mick O'Brien was made and classes were arranged again. But it was different this time, there were other students. Ivan Goff had been taking lessons from Mick for a year or so, and Mick's youngest brother John was just about to start. With Mick's teaching and encouragement from John and intimidation from Ivan, Tommy got stuck in and never went back.
By 1988, with the great help of Mick's tuition and guidance he won his first competition at the Annual Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann (traditional music competition festival), an event run by "Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann", (Literally, traditional musicians of Ireland). This organisation was founded in the 1950's to promote and foster Irish traditional music throughout the world as well as Ireland.
His professional career started in 1996 when he took a job organising and playing at Irish music nights in Irish pubs in Hong Kong. This led to more work in Asian cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Singapore and Tokyo over the coming years.
Back in Europe, Tommy's talent and experience took him to perform in almost every country. Performances varied from solo events to playing with 5 piece folk bands. Since then his gigs have been as diverse as being an Uilleann Pipes tutor in New Zealand to performing with "Riverdance" in New York to recording with past members of rock band "Thin Lizzy".
In January 2004 Tommy had the honor to play a newly composed piece of music with the Chicago Virtuosi Symphony Orchestra.
His first solo CD, "Uilleann Piper", was released in 2000 and Tommy can be also heard on another 12 albums.
His second CD, "Shady Woods" is out now.
Hear more clips of Tommy if you click here and click on each cd cover to hear more from each CD.
http://cdbaby.com/all/tompipes
Hi Tommy, hope you are well. Skerries Trad Music Weekend is May 16-18 this year. See you there. www. skerriestraditionalmusic. com Saturday workshops are Harp, Fiddle, Whistle, Flute, Uilleann Pipes, Accordion, Bodhran, Concertina, Guitar and Dancing ; this years tutors are Mary Bergin, Máire O'Keeffe, Liz Doherty, Charlie Lennon, Ben Lennon, Jacinta McEvoy, Colm Gannon, Garry O'Briain, Tommy Martin, Néillidh Mulligan, Leo Rickard, Breda Keville, Cormac Cannon, Andrea Gallagher, Jacqui Martin, Tristan Rosenstock, Jesse Smith, Jim Grant, Siobhán Breathnach, Michael Rooney & June McCormack ; the dancing tutors are Marie Garrity for two hand dances and Mick Mulkerrins & Mairéad Casey for sean nós and set dancing.
Hey Tommy (This stuff is without Martin Thomas...) Check out my VERY OLD songs which I have just uploaded onto my myspace - from OVER TWENTY YEARS ago!!!! How about that! Just having a bit of an artist's block so thought I'd put something different on in the meantime and worked out how to convert cassettes to mp3 which was no mean feat. Love Penny
Once drove an old sedan, up north, From a place in Sydney to Cairns; Then to Kuranda I went forth, By train, to look without set plans.
I browsed through the trendy market, With fresh fruits of tropical kind; Walked to the creek through lush thicket - Nature’s hand giving peace of mind.
I dined in a scenic cafe; Then, outside, as I wrote for yen, Some passing Kooris called-out: “Hey, You go walkabout with your pen.”
Request or question, I don’t know - Assured voices, elderly men. That’s now several years ago, And I’ve seen the world - with my pen.
Hiya! Won't be able to make the Atlanta Tionol unfortunatley, I'm at Dollywood from March 19th - May 5th. Who knows, maybe I'll try to sneak away down to Atlanta and bring Vignoles with me! Hope things are good Tom.
I've just posted a blog from the Irish Chistmas in America show in Santa Cruz.If you care to see how I’ve slandered and maligned you please check out my blog on the show. I’ve posted several of the pictures there.
Sings: "I wish you a merry chriiistmaaas..lallalalalallaaaaa...". OOOOPS, was that Santa who ran away from my singing? Anyway, have a good, peacefull time. Bless you Chris
Hey Rev...great show tonight at The Strand! See you Saturday (unless the weather is too terrible) in Philadelphia.
You'll probably see him first, but please pass along apologies to Tristan for leaving without saying goodbye. Danielle needed to get back to the little one for the early morning feeding.
