Tony Kirwan is a singer and songwriter from Newbridge in County Kildare.
In his own words
From a very young age I was intrigued by Elvis Presley – I really liked his voice and sound. Later on I moved on to musicians and bands like Bob Dylan, The Band, Neil Young, Kris Kristofferson, Luke Kelly – I really liked that folk music. Then I discovered the beautiful sounds of Bob Marley, Jimmy Buffett, The Eagles, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Scorpions, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Van Morrison, BB King, Vince Gill, Matalica, Chuck Berry – anything that moves you or goes boogie and has strings or brass attached, I like it. The list goes on and on.
Have you time to listen to me ?
I learned to play some songs and I used to bring an acoustic guitar with me everywhere, to work, the pub – anywhere I’d get the chance to play a song. After a few years, I had to stop playing because I had settled down and was married with two young children. I probably didn’t play a single song for nearly 20 years and when my marriage broke down, I bought a guitar and started playing again. I was just jamming here and there, nothing too serious, just playing in some local bars.
On the road
Then I got together playing music with different people on the road, and that’s when my journey started. I’d be playing 2 piece, 3 piece, with different guy’s in small bars playing cover versions of other artist’s songs. Different people came and went. Some guys might stay a while, then move on to different things, so I’d end up with different band mate all the time. Some people would ask who are you with now ? The last guy stayed about 5 year’s and we had a 2 piece called Cripple Creek. He was a fine guitarist called Kevin a.k.a. Bird. A truly great guy to work with and we got on famously but then Covid 19 hit and he retired from live playing music.
After the lock-downs ended, I couldn’t go back to playing in pubs as I felt I couldn’t go on without Bird. I did do gig in the Moat Theatre in Naas and was lucky enough to share the stage with some of Ireland’s finest musicians at a charity gig for Ukraine.
Trying to promote my album
I’d been working on my album during Covid and, especially in 2022, I’d been busy doing just about everything. Writing the album, recording it, producing it with Colm, artwork photos, sending it to press, administration, even trying to promote my album, which I found very difficult. I’d even done a few charity gig’s in between. I’m a big supporter of Cancer Research Ireland – because I’ve lost a few friends to the dreadful disease. One of those in particular, was Jimmy Aspell. I wrote a song for him called When it Snows in New Orleans. We recorded it just before he passed away. I also wrote Glad I Got to See You One Last Time. This song was about Jimmy – when I visited him the day he left us. It’s now track 5 on the Breakdown album.
I do a Cancer charity gig with some musician friends every year, which is now known as Jimmy’s Gig.