Tony MacMahon

Not to be confused with Tony McMahon.

Tony MacMahon ( Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland, 1939) is an Irish button accordion player and radio and television broadcaster.

Tony MacMahon with his accordion

Tony MacMahon's chief early inspiration, accordionist Joe Cooley, was a frequent caller at the MacMahon home from 1949 until 1954, when Cooley emigrated to the USA. MacMahon has described the memory of Cooley's music as being "embedded in his DNA.".[1] Other influences from the locality were piper Willie Clancy and fiddler Bobby Casey.

In 1957 MacMahon moved to Dublin to train as a teacher, where he came into contact with accordionist Sonny Brogan and fiddler John Kelly. Travelling in North America in 1964, in both New York and Dublin, he shared a flat with piper and singer Seamus Ennis, whom he credits as an important influence on his playing of slow airs.[2]

“There is a big difference between playing notes and playing music, millions of people play instrument and make the same sound like a cat that presses its paw against a note in a piano but only the person who feels for music and has a high understanding can play soulfully.”[3]

— Tony MacMahon on Music, Interview during his stay at Madurai

MacMahon plays the accordion in the "press-and-draw" style of his mentor Joe Cooley. He is regarded as an exceptionally powerful performer, particularly of slow airs, and has been described as an "iconic figure in traditional music circles".[4] His own attitude to his music, and his chosen instrument,[5] can be ambivalent, however: "I wouldn’t regard my own music either as traditional or indeed anything to write home about. [...] For longer than I care to remember, I have hacked my way through tunes of beauty and tenderness on stage."[6]

In 1974 he was a founder member of the band Seachtair, which later became The Bothy Band.

MacMahon enjoyed a long career with RTÉ, first as a presenter of traditional-music TV programmes, then as a radio producer (he initiated the long-running programme The Long Note), and returning to television with The Pure Drop and Come West Along the Road. The Green Linnet was a 1979 television series documenting MacMahon's travels through Western Europe with banjoist Barney McKenna in a green Citroën 2CV van (nicknamed The Green Linnet).[7] MacMahon retired from RTÉ in 1998.

MacMahon has frequently voiced strong criticism of modern trends in the performance of Irish traditional music, and of growing commercialism in particular.[8] His address to the 1996 Crossroads Conference provides a summary of his views.[9]

In 2014 MacMahon announced that he was unable to continue public performances as a result of Parkinson's disease.[10] However, in a November 2015 interview on RTÉ radio, MacMahon stated that after further tests, the diagnosis of Parkinson's had been found to be incorrect.[11]

Discography

References

  1. ↑ "The Beat of a Big Heart". The Journal of Music. 1 August 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  2. ↑ "The Master". The Journal of Music. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  3. ↑ http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/striking-the-right-chord/article4560504.ece
  4. ↑ "MacMahon's Ghosts". The Journal of Music. 1 November 2005. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  5. ↑ "Player on the Black Keys". The Journal of Music. 1 January 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  6. ↑ "The Beat of a Big Heart". The Journal of Music. 1 August 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  7. ↑ "RTÉ Player - Catch up with your favourite TV programmes online". Rte.ie. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  8. ↑ "Editorial: MacMahon from Clare". The Journal of Music. 1 January 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  9. ↑ "The Language of Passion". Tony MacMahon. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  10. ↑ "Kitchen Concerts". Tony MacMahon. 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  11. ↑ "RTÉ - Liveline". RTÉ. 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2015.

The Companion to Irish Traditional Music, ed. Fintan Vallely, New York University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8147-8802-5.

External links

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