Guitar, pedal steel, banjo, mandolin

Currently listening to? Lots of big band swing (Ellington and Basie). Am also really digging The Mountain by Steve Earle. It’s been out a few years but I’ve only gotten round to it now. It sounds a bit like Bill Monroe’s band playing a Pogues album and has some great, great tunes and playing. The record features The Del McCoury Band, one of the best bluegrass acts around. Also worth mentioning is The Killer Angels, a fab book about the American Civil War which inspired some of the characters on The Mountain.
 
Best gig? I won’t say ‘best’ gig, but The Aliens at the Green Man Festival a couple of years ago blew me away. I didn’t know anything about them before (and in truth haven’t sought anything out since) but they were so right for the moment it was untrue.
 
Dream band lineup? Freddie Green (from Basie’s band) on rhythm guitar, Don Helms on steel, Merle Travis on lead guitar, Bill Black on bass, Kenny Baker (who played with Bill Monroe) on fiddle, Clyde Stubblefield on drums…do we really need a singer?
 
Favourite instrument you own? Favourite gigging instrument has to be my Gretsch (Country Classic II)…in terms of other instruments that I own, I’d have to go for my OOO Martin. It’s simplicity itself, but nothing is as well balanced (tonally and physically) as the pre-war Martin OOO design (God, do I sound like a guitar bore?).
 
Best single of all time? Move it on Over by Hank. Not his best song, but it has all the ingredients of a great single (and a fantastic Saturday night out)
 
Best album of all time? Now there’s a toughie. Once again, I’m not going to say ‘best’ but certainly up there has to be Satan is Real by The Louvin Brothers. It’s got everything from rockabilly guitar to the sweetest vocal harmonies you could imagine. Most people know it for its dreadful cover which always makes its way onto those ‘worst of’ emails going around. It is truly a dreadful cover, but also a magnificent album.
 
First record you bought? I should probably lie, but it was actually Lady and The Tramp.
 
First gig? This sounds like a lie, but isn’t. My first ever gig was Public Enemy playing on the cricket pitch at Trinity College, Dublin. If that sounds like a completely improbable set-up, yes it is and I have no idea how it happened. I bunked off school with my friend (and bad influence) Justin and made my way down to see the support act – local psychedelic garage band – The Golden Horde. Public Enemy were at the start of their career and I hadn’t a clue who they were (or what to make of it). Apparently they were playing in support of a planned Def Jam tour that never happened (including The Beasties….which, thinking about it, might be the reason it never happened. I don’t think the BBs were popular with the more conservative elements of society which were then – unfortunately – numerous in Ireland). Incidentally, I was later to regularly see most of The Golden Horde twice a month at my dole office where – despite the fact of it being wet, miserable and cold, they would generally turn up wearing shades, winkle pickers and fake full length leopard skin coats. Rock on boys…I hope you’re still out there and doing fine!
 
Most embarrassing possession? Much too embarrassing to say.