Journeyman

Not to be confused with the banjo-playing Gerry O’Connor, whose album was reviewed in the last issue of hotpress, this Gerry O’Connor hails from Dundalk and was a founder member of the group Skylark as well as his own band, Lá Lugh. Journeyman is his first solo album, and not before time. Its title is apt: as he demonstrates both with popular session tunes like ‘The Yellow Wattle’ and with such rarities as Peadar Ó Dubhda’s lovely slow air ‘Úr-Chnoc Chéin Mhic Cáinte’, O’Connor is a player without pretension. Rather than indulge in virtuoso showmanship for the sake of it, he puts his considerable talents entirely at the service of the tune, letting the melody suggest the pace and ornamentation.