Tony Reidy to launch new album

BALLADEER Aughagower-born singer/songwriter Tony Reidy.

Ciara Moynihan

Popular Mayo musician and raconteur Tony Reidy, is launching his new album, ‘Round Tower Blues’ in Matt Molloy’s Yard Bar, Westport, on Thursday, December 10, at 8.30pm. The singer/songwriter (whose brother, poet and author Ger, is interviewed on page 57) will be joined by a cappella group Coda and, intriguingly, the Clew Bay Cobblers.
Reidy’s previous albums, which include ‘Hayshed Days’, ‘A Rough Shot of Lipstick’ and ‘The Coldest Day in Winter’, have won him praise at home and further afield, including folk album of the month in the prestigious MOJO  Magazine (“… heartfelt story songs of quality … invariably offset by a keen ear for melody and chorus,” wrote Colin Irwin).
Fans might ask whether Reidy is changing direction with this new album. “Thematically not so much, but musically yes,” he tells The Mayo News. “This album is more homely – it’s all myself really; a home production. It has a nice feel to it. Restricted in instrumentation – me with the guitar, mandolin and harmonica.” That homely feel is echoed in the album’s cover, which was designed by his son, Martin.  
“The idea was to keep it simple, bring it all back home. The songs are all folk songs, songs that people can sing any time, anywhere – they’re not big productions. The recording process was stripped back to allow that. There’s so much music out there on the internet, but the only music that makes sense to me is music that you can play with and to people. Music is a communal thing. And I believe a song should stand up on its own, and not need to be over produced, it it’s any good.”
Reidy is strongly influenced by folk singers of the past who also sang and played their own instruments without a need for the bells and whistles of modern production techniques – timeless singers like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie.
With a view to fostering this genre of music, Reidy, along with fellow musician Tim Rogers, set up the lively Clew Bay Folk Club, which offers a forum for local musicians singers and writers to perform in an appreciative atmosphere. ‘Not a gig, not a session, a space to play and to listen’, the club meets monthly in Matt Molloy’s Yard Bar, the venue for the launch this Thursday.
The name of the album, ‘Round Tower Blues’, is also the name of a song on the album, Tony explains. “The song’s about living in Aughagower and feeling the urge to get out every now again; about growing up there in the ’60s and thinking of far-off worlds, like San Francisco and free love,” he chuckles.
Like those adolescent thought wanderings, Reidy’s music has travelled far, carried on local and national airwaves, here and overseas. As BBC Music Magazine wrote, Tony Reidy has ‘a keen compassionate eye for human frailty … His songs have a pungently poetic sense of place’.
Tony Reidy’s captivating live performances have a sense of intimacy that brings his audiences on an emotional journey too, one that can move seamlessly from laughter to pensive poignancy, and back again in the twinkle of an eye. And it sounds like that intimacy and sense of place will also permeate his new album, bringing listeners on enriching journeys new.   

Admission to the launch of Tony Reidy’s ‘Round Tower Blues’ in Matt Molloy’s Yard Bar this Thursday is free. Copies of the album (€10 each) will be available on the night. It will also be available from Downtown Records and Christy’s Harvest, Westport. For more information on the Clew Bay Folk Club, visit its Facebook page.