Len Graham (singer)

Len Graham

Len Graham singing in Armagh for TG4
Background information
Born 1944
County Antrim, Northern Ireland
Genres Irish traditional
Folk
Celtic music
Occupation(s) Singer
Author
Years active 1975–present
Labels Gael Linn
Shanachie
Various others
Associated acts Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin
Joe Holmes
Eithne Ní Uallacháin
Website Official website
Notable instruments
Vocals

Len Graham is an Irish traditional singer and song collector from County Antrim, Northern Ireland. He is a leading authority on Folk music in Ireland.

Early life

Graham was born in County Antrim. His father, a fiddler, brought him to sessions in the local area as a young boy. Throughout the 1960s, Len travelled around Ireland to record and preserve folk songs, befriending singers such as Joe Holmes. Graham won the All Ireland Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann traditional singing competition in 1971, an important accolade for Irish traditional musicians around the world.[1]

Career

In 1975 Graham released his first album, a collaboration with his mentor Joe Holmes, Chaste Muses, Bards and Sages on Free Reed Records. In 1976 he released his first solo album, Wind and Water with Topic Records. This was followed by his second collaboration with Holmes in 1978: After Dawning: Traditional Songs, Ballads and Lilts from the North of Ireland was released on the Ossian USA label.

Graham continued to collaborate with other poets and seanchaithe and storytellers. Since collecting songs from Ulster's older traditional singers, among them Eddie Butcher and Joe Holmes, his association with John Campbell would begin a 20-year collaboration of story and song. During the 1980s–90s, Graham and Campbell would bring their events and work to cross-community groups around Ireland, especially to the north which was experiencing armed conflict.

Graham and Campbell also gave talks on the shared cultural traditions of both the nationalist and unionist populations in Northern Ireland. Graham collaborates with American-born singer Brían Ó hAirt, touring regions of North America annually. Their performances feature the duet singing tradition that was common among the singing communities of Ulster during Graham's own youth; they also feature the repertoire shared between the Ulster and Appalachian/Ozark traditions as well as lilting, sean-nós dancing, spoons playing and tunes on the tin whistle and concertina. Songs collected and recorded by Graham are now well known in folk repertoire around the world, and have been recorded by Altan, De Dannan, The Chieftains, Cherish the Ladies, Andy Irvine and Karen Casey, among others.

His recording career has produced over twenty albums of song. In November 2008, he gave a lecture and performance at the Library of Congress entitled It's Of My Rambles: A Journey in the Song Tradition of Ulster. Graham's book, Here I Am Amongst You, on the songs, dance music and traditions of Joe Holmes was published by Four Courts Press in 2010.[2]

Awards and honors

Personal life

Graham and his wife Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin, who is also a traditional singer, both specialise in the songs of Ulster. Together they recorded an album of children's songs, called "When I was Young." They live in Mullaghbawn, Co. Armagh. He is the uncle of fiddler and producer Dónal O'Connor.

Discography

With Joe Holmes

  • Chaste Muses, Bards and Sages (1971)
  • After Dawning (1978)

Skylark

  • Skylark (1987)
  • All of It (1989)
  • Light and Shade (1992)
  • Raining Bicycles (1996)

With Cathal McConnell

  • For the Sake of Old Decency (1993)

With Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin and Garry Ó Briain

With John Campbell

  • Ebb and Flow (1998)
  • Two for the Road (2001)

With Brian Ó hAirt

  • In Two Minds (2011)
  • The Road Taken (2015)

Solo

  • Wind and Water (1977)
  • Do Me Justice (1983)
  • Ye Lovers All (1986)
  • It's of My Rambles (1993) (field recordings to accompany book by the same name)
  • In Full Flight (2008)
  • Over the Hills and Far Away (2010)

In 2009 The Knight Templar's Dream from Wind and Water was included in Topic Records 70 year anniversary boxed set Three Score and Ten as track eighteen on the third CD.

References

  1. ↑ [Oireachtas Award Winners http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/2042540]
  2. ↑ Here I Am Amongst You, Four Courts Press; accessed 25 September 2015.
  3. ↑ http://www.tg4.ie/clar/gceol/gcam.asp

External links

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