Yes I know, wrong forum.
Last of the founder members of the Dubliners has died unexpectedly at 71.
News in the Iirish Times
Sad news indeed. I’ve had the Dubliners playing all morning.
RIP.
Barney was an excellent whistle player, so you are in the right forum.
I knew that ofcourse and even if he hadn’t been, some things supersede certain divides. Many here will have come to this through the Dubliners and McKenna’s banjo contribution to the band in particular. I know they are part of my early influences. My father listened to the Dubliners at times and that connected with my own developing musical interests, including a period on both the 5 string and tenor banjo during the mid seventies. Which recently led someone to say: ‘I knew you had hidden shallows’. But it was all part of the road I travelled. I didn’t see much of the Dubliners after the seventies. In fact the last time I saw them live was in the Olympia in Dublin in 1979, reinvigorated by the return of Ronnie Drew and on the best of form doing a week on their home turf. It was a good night and a fond memory. Their appearances on the tellie in recent years (though not their latest line ups) filled me with a bit of nostalgia and a re-evaluation of what they were doing, and how good they actually were at it when they were on the form.
So, a sad day and with Earl Scruggs going during the same week, it seems a re-call of banjo players is at hand.
Yep, Barney was a very distinctive banjo player. A nice man, as well, I was lucky enough to have the crack and a few tunes with him a couple of times. The Dubliners were my introduction to Irish music, as they were a favourite of my grandparents and parents.
Sad news…
I’ll second what Mr Gumby just said. The Dubliners early albums were not ramshackle affairs, but thoughtfully arranged and well played and sung. I must confess to having little time for them in the last 10 years or so, simply because they never reached the heights of simplicity and robustness that they achieved in the 60s and early 70s, and they seemed to be a parody of themselves.
m.d.
Sad news indeed. I’m a longtime Dubliners fan, and I can only say that I’m glad Barney went peacefully and that I’ll miss him.
We were fortunate to have the band here in Leeds just three weeks ago for the Patrick’s day weekend. RIP
Scruggs and McKenna so close together. As a player of 5-string and tenor banjo, both of these men have greatly influenced the varying styles of banjo playing I’ve studied. I wish I could personally give my condolences to the families of both of these great men.
Not many musicians are so influential they leave a transformed tradition or a new genre in their wake, but Barney McKenna is among that number. He wasn’t the first to play ITM on a banjo, but he was the man who cemented it into place as an accepted part of the canon.
You may have seen this already but I enjoyed it, Barney and Micho with Tony MacMahon (and you get Micho’s whistle playing as a bonus)
He lived in my town and played in lots of sessions around here over the years along with his brother, so it was a bit of a shock to our community, though he hadn’t really been well in recent years. They brought him to our local church where people could come and pay their respects over a period of about 3 hours, but didn’t have a full mass here, otherwise there wouldn’t have been enough room for everyone in the church.
He influenced a lot of musicians around here, I met one of them last night who was almost in tears talking about him. I only started playing about 5 years ago so I never really got to know him like most people around here.