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Jimmy Crowley is an Irish traditional folk singer
and musician from fair Cork City in the Republic of Ireland. No-one sounds like Jimmy, and
few can match him for the humour, joy, tenderness and sheer storytelling craft which he brings to his repertoire of songs.
Jimmy has been travelling the world as a professional musician
since 1977. He has been involved in an ongoing process of ethnography, collecting songs and ballads from Cork and elsewhere.
He has also written the play "Red Patriots", which was produced this year to sell-out week in Cork's Triskel Arts Centre.
He is currently half-way through the writing of his Utopian
novel, Hy-Brasil while in tandem, the ethnographical work, Cork Urban Ballads, a body of songs from the oral
tradition collected in the "field" by Jimmy since the late sixties, is now very far advanced.
Jimmy holds a degree in Irish and Folklore from University
College Cork. |
He is a fine self-accompanist on bouzouki and mandola. A former
member of the band Stokers Lodge, he has formed magical musical associations with many of Ireland's folk greats such as Micheal
O'Domhnaill of the Bothy Band, Joe Burke, Jackie Daly, Donal Lunny and Mick Moloney.
Jimmy Crowley is special. Here's what folk music greats and
critics say about his music...
Tony Canniffe, writing the sleeve notes for Jimmy's
CD, My Love is a Tall Ship, says:
"For more than 30 years, Jimmy Crowley has sung the songs
of real people in his own voice. Songs of love and joy, of pain and social condition. What makes his singing loved from Aberdeen
to Adelaide, Los Angeles to Leipzig, is the distinctive and honest way he tells the story of each song. Here, among a clutch
of songs he has written himself, are those both grave and gramhar. Songs that chart the life of the ordinary people of the
Irish nation and personal songs of universal experience. The uncompromising singing tradition which Crowley has championed
for three decades rings true in every song. He has recently fallen in love with the sea after his sail-training sojourn on
the brigantine Asgard, resulting in a whole repertoire of sea songs."
Irish music great Mick Moloney says:
"Jimmy is a living legend in Irish folk music. He comes from
Cork...a city whose musical richness mirror's the city's diversity - a great trad music and song heritage as well as a legacy
from music-hall vaudeville and high art. Crowley draws on all of these traditions in fashioning his own unique performance
style and repertoire and has collected extensively in the south of Ireland both as a ballad singer and as part of his academic
degree.
"He is a consummate stage performer as well as a song writer,
adding colour to his songs by weaving stories about Cork characters, maritime exploits and daily life into his act. His singing
style is truly unique - nobody hearing Jimmy could possibly mistake him for anyone else. He accompanies himself on bouzouki,
mandola and mouth organ."
Top Irish composer Micheal O Suilleabhain says:
"Jimmy Crowley is a musical icon in Irish tradition. He sings
out from his own ground to a world of listeners. And the lift and lilt of his voice is the listener's joy."
Liam Clancy says:
"The final test of any singer is whether or not you listen
to him. I have Jimmy Crowley's Jimi Mo Mhile Stor in the car at all times."
Christy Moore says:
"Jimmy and I have been on the one road for many's the mile
and my journey is always shortened when I meet him."
English folk master Martin Carthy says:
"For me, he embodies all that is good and true about the music
in which we are involved."
Ireland's renowned folk singer Mary Black says:
"He remains a unique interpreter of songs both traditional
and contemporary with a special gift for communicating with his audience."
Rob Adams, folk critic of The Herald, Scotland, says:
"A troubadour in the grand tradition of Christy Moore and
Andy Irvine. Accompanying his softly taut, true singing on bouzouki, guitar and moothie, Jimmy does murder ballads, gentle
love songs in English and Irish (Gaelic) and witty warnings on the whereabouts of the breathalysing gardai. If his sojourn
brings him in reasonable radius of your living room, go and give your ears and funny bone a treat."
Slán tamall
