LATEST NEWS:
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APRIL 2019: (EAGLE MUSIC "BANJO
12" EVENT, HUDDERSFIELD, UK)
I'm delighted once again this year
to be invited to this great event. This is one special event for all you
banjo and music lovers. The biggest collection of Deering banjos
to be ever available for test driving in any one place. This years event
is very special for me as 2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth
of the American folk legend that is Pete Seeger. Pete invented the
long neck 5 string banjo by initially adding 2 extra frets and then the
extra 3 fret version that we all love and play. Greg Deering, founder of
Deering Banjos along with his wife Janet will be in attendance as well
as their daughter Jamie.
Deering Banjos have been to the forefront in preserving the
traditional quality and tone of the banjo as well as being
sympathetically and boldly innovative in coming up with new tone ring
designs, alternative woods and not afraid to think outside the box.
Their White Oak Deering and Vega Series being a point in case. Greg is
also a big fan of the long neck banjo from his early interest in folk
music and Greg and I will be giving an onstage presentation on the "Long
Neck" 5 string banjo and Seeger at the event on May 11th 2019. Other
stage performances and workshops will be occurring through the day with
the wonderful staff at Eagle all round with instruments and accessories
for sale at special event prices. There will be a concert that evening
with the fabulous Kruger Brothers supported by
Damien O’Kane Irish tenor banjo ace, guitarist and singer with David
Kosky (Guitars) and Cormac Byrne (Bodhran) and Sheffield
singer-songwriter ‘Banjo Jen’ who will be on-stage to perform in the
afternoon
This is all happening
at The North Light Gallery (behind
Eagle Music Shop),
Brooke’s Mill, Armitage Bridge, Huddersfield, HD4 7NR …to celebrate
Eagle Music’s 12th consecutive year as the #1 world dealership for the
Deering Banjo Company, USA.
GREG DEERING WITH A DEERING VEGA
LONG NECK BANJO
PAT WITH HIS TRUSTY 1999 DEERING VEGA LONG NECK BANJO
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FEBRUARY 2019: (2019 CENTENNIAL
OF PETE SEEGERS BIRTH)
2019 is the centennial of the famous American folk singer/songwriter and
activist Pete Seeger (May 3rd 2019 toJanuary 27th 2014. He led a
coulourful long life doing what he believed in. He had a unique way of
including audience participation everywhere he performed, be they young
or old and made everyone forget their hang ups and join in. As he used
to cite something like this, "it's better to sing or play the wrong note
than not to sing or play at all". My initial connection to Pete Seeger
is through Irish folk music and listening to my older brothers LP
records of the Dubliners and The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. As
well as Luke Kellys voice, I loved the sound of the long neck five
string banjo that he played and getting the basics from my older brother
Tim who plays a standard scale five string, I self taught myself to play
the style of Luke and Tommy Makem. Researching the long neck banjo, I
soon found out that Pete had invented it first adding two frets at the
bass end of the neck in 1943 and eventually adding three frets in 1955.
This became the standard for commercial manufacturers of the long neck
banjos like the Vega Banjo Company who actually made the infamous model
the "Vega Pete Seeger". This banjo became a distinctive sound in
American folk music with groups like the Kingston Trio and contributed
to the sound of the Dubliners and The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.
AS a matter of fact, Pete played with the latter ensemble in both
recordings and live concerts while Tommy Makem learned to play the long
neck banjo from the famous Pete tutorial publication "How To Play The
Five Sring Banjo". Pete first heard the five string while visiting North
Carolina and attending square dances where the instrument was popularly
played.
There is hundreds of anecdotes attributed to Pete and one of my
favourite ones was:
"In the
1970s, Pete Seeger was invited to sing in Barcelona, Spain. Francisco
Franco's fascist government, the last of the dictatorships that started
World War II, was still in power but declining. A pro-democracy movement
was gaining strength and to prove it, they invited America's best-known
freedom singer to Spain. More than a hundred thousand people were in the
stadium, where rock bands had played all day. But the crowd had come for
Seeger. As Pete prepared to go on, government officials handed him a
list of songs he was not allowed to sing. Pete studied it mournfully,
saying it looked an awful lot like his set list. But they insisted: he
must not sing any of these songs. Pete took the government's list of
banned songs and strolled on stage. He held up the paper and said, "I've
been told that I'm not allowed to sing these songs." He grinned at the
crowd and said, "So I'll just play the chords; maybe you know the words.
They didn't say anything about you singing them." He strummed his banjo
to one song after another, and they all sang. A hundred thousand defiant
freedom singers breaking the law with Pete Seeger, filling the stadium
with words their government did not want them to hear, words they all
knew and had sung together, in secret circles, for years. What could the
government do? Arrest a hundred thousand singers? It had been beaten by
a few banjo chords and the fame of a man whose songs were on the lips of
the whole world.
Anyway, I am putting together a set list of his songs and anecdotes, and
will perform at festivals, concerts and events throughout 2019. My
passion for the long neck banjo lives on and I am delighted to be
participating in a Banjo event at the renowned Music shop, Eagle Music
Shop in Huddersfield, UK on May 11th 2019 where I will be joining Greg
Deering, owner of the Deering Banjo Company and responsible for rescuing
the Vega banjo brand and producing long neck banjos under the Vega and
Deering names. Here is a link to the event.
Banjo 12 Event at Eagle Music, Huddersfield, UK May 11th 2019
I was lucky
enough to have met all my long neck banjo heroes Luke Kelly (played his
banjo at Cork Opera House stage bar in July 1981), Tommy Makem and
visited Pete Seeger at his home in Beacon New York with my son Ricky in
July 2019 just after his 90th birthday.
Pat with Pete Seeger on Pete's
doorstep in Beacon New York 21st July 2009
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SEPTEMBER 2018
A big shout out to all our friends at this side of the Mississippi!
My wife Kathleen and I had a great time visiting no less than 6 states in
the USA this August and September and
enjoyed performing at festivals, concerts and house concerts as well as
attending our first US wedding and performing Johnny Duhan's epic song "The
Voyage" at the couples wedding ceremony in Pennsylvania. We also received a
warm welcome form my friend Joel at The famous Martin Guitar Company
receining a VIP tour of the factory and a surprise laid on by Joel in that I
got to play a 1942 D45 from the museum! Thank you friends, old and new!
Welcome to Long Neck Music, the home of multiple music
solutions. Hope you will find the service or product you are looking for or
that you will enjoy browsing the contents.
March 2021
COVID-19 Global Pandemic has stopped
us all in our tracks and I personally am missing the opportunity to perform
live like many other performers. However, since it first showed it's
unwelcome face, myself along with my wife Kathleen have been live streaming
90 minute concerts on Facebook entitled "From Our Living Room To Yours"
every Saturday at 8.30 p.m. Irish time since March 2020 now on our 50+
Episode .... who would have thought. We try to vary the setlist as much as
possible and incorporate themes occasionally. I have uploaded all the video
streams to date to my YouTube channel for folks to watch at their
convenience. Bear in mind that the quality may be mediocre from time to time
as it is a live broadcast. However the audio is normally good.
Here is a link to my YouTube
channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/longneckmusic
Here is a link to my Facebook
profile:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1413047173
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We are based in Dripsey, County Cork ,
Ireland concentrating primarily on
providing entertainment and products in the acoustic music genres,
especially Irish and other folk music, bluegrass and American Old Time
music.
Pat Kelleher has been
an accomplished musician for over 40 years and his first love is Irish folk
singing and song writing in recent times. He is also a renowned five string
banjo player with several different styles to his credit including folk
style, old time (clawhammer) and bluegrass three finger picking style. He
specialises in the long neck five string in particular. This long neck banjo
was invented by the American folk legend Pete Seeger (whom Pat was
privileged to have met). Pat's first inspiration was probably Irelands most
renowned commercial folk singer, Luke Kelly. Kelly is one of those
entertainers that you seldom hear, if ever, negative comments regarding his
singing in particular and will never be equalled. Pat once again at age 17
was lucky to have met Luke at the Cork Opera house in July 1981 and had a
little informal one to one session in the backstage bar where Luke, well
renowned for his generosity insisted on Pat playing his long neck Vega (Pete
Seeger) model banjo and singing a song. "The Travelling People" was the song
Pat sang and then Luke returned the compliment by singing "Raglan Road", a
memory to be cherished for ever. Luke had just retired his long neck Merlin
banjo and explained how his sister picked up the Vega long neck in the U.S.
for him.
Pat has been in
consistent demand as a session recording musician, particularly as a
banjoist over the years and has been continuously advised to become a
professional entertainer. He has befriended some of the great folk greats
including Tommy Makem, Bobby Clancy, Eric Bogle, Pete Seeger, Sean Cannon
(Dubliners) and many more.
He performs throughout his native Ireland at festivals, theatres and pub
venues and has toured in the USA, Germany, Switzerland, Canada and the UK. He has played support
to many of the international greats including The Dubliners, The Furey
Brothers & Davey Arthur, Christy Moore, Ryans Fancy, The Wolfe Tones, Bobby
& Finbarr Clancy, Jim McCann and Brendan Grace to name but a few
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Long Neck Music, Magoola, Dripsey, Co. Cork. P12 PK81 Ireland
Email: info@longneckmusic.com
Phone: + 353 (0) 21 7334667
Site constructed and maintained by Long Neck Music
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