Passing of Mayo musician Gerry Carthy in Santa Fe
By Tom Gillespie
MULTI-TALENTED musician Gerry Carthy, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has passed away.
The Castlebar native played a variety of instruments, including banjo, guitar, tenor guitar, tin whistle, saxophone, fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki, and vocals.
Inspired by the folk revival of Irish music in the 1960s and '70s, he spent 10 years playing music at sessions around Galway.
He was one of the founding members of the traditional Irish session at the Crane Bar, the longest running session in Galway.
He held degrees from University College Galway, in English, French, and German, and in teaching education.
Gerry (75) made regular trips home and played at various venues around Mayo.
Son of the late Paul and Masie Carthy, who ran a drapery shop on Main Street, next to The Connaught Telegraph office, Gerry learned to play whistle in the fife and drum band at his childhood school, and his father's fiddle playing also had an influence on the young Gerry.
When he was 18 years old Gerry took the boat to England and worked on construction and in a steel factory.
He told The Connaught Telegraph, some years ago: “It was during these years in England that I developed a keen interest in traditional music and literature. In 1969, after three months in London, I moved to the West Country and lived in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, where, playing whistle and mandolin, I formed a folk music trio and got involved in the local folk clubs which were thriving then.”
But the west of Ireland and its 'Celtic Twilight' atmosphere was always calling and before long he moved back to Mayo for a year, now taking up the tenor banjo.
The following year, 1973, he enrolled at University College Galway and for the next 10 years he lived in Galway and played in traditional Irish sessions around the town.
His musical mentors and friends in Galway were the unknown characters who were the life and soul of the music scene in the ‘70s - Peter Galligan, Mickey Finn, Sean Tyrell, Jim Dillon, Jackie Small, Henry Higgins, Noel Sherlock, Seany Francis, Kevin Garvey, Johnny Keaney, Pat Broderick, Donal Staunton, Pat Broderick, Pat Conneely, Charlie Harris, Sean O'Conaire, Tommy Nolan, Eddie Maloney, Jimmy Cummins, Lar Kelly and Vincent Keegan.
“During the summer months,” he said, “I played with a friend from Castlebar, Brendan Fahy, a singer and guitar player, and we roamed around continental Europe playing on the streets and in the cafes.
“In 1981 I spent 10 months in America, mainly in New York City, where I played at Gurdy's Folk City on a St. Patrick's Day gig opening for a band called Touchstone - a band who mixed Irish and American music. Before long I was back to Ireland taking a teacher's diploma at UCG.
“However, the road called again and an old dream I had urged me back to America. That dream was to work my way from New York to San Francisco and see America with 'Jack Kerouac' eyes and I ended up in Santa Fe.”
Last August marked 40 years in the Southwest where he made his living playing Irish traditional music. He also played the banjo in a traditional Dixieland jazz band, The Red Hot Chiles, for 10 years.
In the early ’90s he was selected as an artist in residence in New Mexico for traditional Irish music. He had also been a long-standing member of the faculty in the Contemporary Music Department at the College of Santa Fe where he taught a Celtic Ensemble class.
Gerry played a variety of instruments. His repertoire includes the folk music of Northern New Mexico and American tunes and ballads. He touched on different strains of Irish music, traditional dance tunes - jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas and he had a particular fondness for slow airs; the old ballads brought to life first by the Clancy Brothers in Greenwich Village in the ’60s; the modern folk influence which started in Ireland with groups like Sweeney's Men, The Johnston’s, Emmet Spiceland and the electric folk band Steeleye Span who were based in England.
From the ceili bands of the ’50s to the polish of modern day exponents of traditional Irish music, The Chieftains, Gerry knew what he is doing.
Added to this, his appreciation and sensitive interpretation of the music of the old travelling harpers of Ireland make Gerry show an experience not to be missed!
Gerry lived in Santa Fe with his wife, Laura, and his late son, Michael.
He had been on faculty with the Music Department at the College of Santa Fe for up on 20 years, where he had taught classes and private lessons in tin whistle, banjo, guitar, and Celtic Ensemble.
In addition, Gerry was an artist in residence for the New Mexico Arts Commission and had taught tin whistle and Irish language at Santa Fe Community College. He performed at Celtic festivals around the United States and played regularly in the Santa Fe region.
His brother, John, still runs the family drapery business on Main Street. He is also survived by his brother Paul and sister Mary.