WITH HIS New York drawl barely concealing a pronounced Cork lilt, Eamon O Tuama has already been described as Manhattan meets Montenotte with a vengeance! But if his environmental surroundings these days are more Broadway than the Grand Parade, his formative influences were most definitely moulded in the city down by the Lee. For it was through another Corkman Freddie White that O Tuama first saw the light, musically speaking.
He was a big influence on me in the early days, recalls O Tuama. I used to go and see him every time he played in Cork. As well as showing me that someone could get up on stage with a lone guitar and put on a great show, he also introduced me to singer/songwriters like Warren Zevon, Randy Newman and John Hiatt. Up till then I d only listened to people like Cat Stevens and James Taylor. I just didn t know any better!
A member of the well-known Cork operatic and literary dynasty, O Tuama has lived in Manhattan since the late 1980s, where he moved after graduating from UCC. He had already started writing songs before leaving for the Big Apple, but found the relative anonymity of New York much more conducive to baring his soul through his tentative songwriting efforts before a live audience.
It was definitely much easier getting up before total strangers, O Tuama says. Besides, New York audiences are very receptive to new artists, which also helps.
Today, O Tuama cites influences as diverse as Counting Crows, Alanis Morissette and REM. The 11 songs on his debut album, Down With A Smile, reflect this diversity of inspiration; Rusty Cars and Texaco Town evoke similar urban streetscapes to Springsteen s epic Darkness On The Edge Of Town, while others like Beautiful Plans and Spin Me Round veer towards the more personal and introspective side of things in their subject matter.
Though he s based in New York, Down With A Smile has been released on CBM in Ireland, with plans to eventually license it back into the US market. O Tuama clinched the CBM deal by a tried-and-trusted method and one which is often overlooked by bands and artists, as he explains.
The last time I was home, I simply picked up a copy of the Hot Press yearbook and sent some tapes around to various labels in Ireland. Cross Border Media s Oliver Sweeney picked up on it and he got in touch.
Unbeknownst to O Tuama, however, Sweeney had already come across the ex-pat Corkman in Dirty Linen, the folk/roots magazine where his cassette demo had been positively reviewed. I read the review, recalls Sweeney, and I said to myself, what s the betting that I get a copy of that tape in the post? . Sure enough, about five days later it arrived. I listened to it and was totally blown away I phoned him that night and said I wanted to do a recording and publishing deal straight away.
The album was recorded in New York with a stellar line-up of session musicians, including Charlie Giordano, former keyboard player with Pat Benatar s band, and multi-instrumentalist Greg Anderson, one-time member of Celtic Rock band The Clan.
I ve done a lot of work with Greg, O Tuama says. Even though he s an American, he s quite heavily involved in the Irish music scene in New York. He performs with Susan McKeown and The Chanting House, he s in a band called Whirligig and he also plays with an avant garde jazz band called Dr Nerve.
A host of Irish players also feature on Down With A Smile, including pipe and whistle player Seamus Egan, fiddler Winnie Horan from Sharon Shannon s band and button accordion player James Keane. It s not a traditional album, O Tuama concludes. But it has a strong Irish feel, which is what I wanted to achieve. n