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| The
Emergance of De Dannan |
2 of 3
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| In the
early 1970s he started playing at the sessions in the Cellar
Bar, Galway, with, among others, Alex Finn, the late Mickey
Finn, Johnnie (Ringo) Mc Donagh and Charlie Piggot. The sessions
moved to Hughes' Pub in Spiddal and in 1973 De Danann was
formed. This was the same year he received his Leaving Cert.
from the Bish in Galway, at the ripe age of seventeen. |
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His Currandulla connection came in useful when De Danann
were looking for a singer, and it was he who came up with
Dolores Keane from nearby Cahirlistrane. When De Danann
brought out their first album, her singing of The Rambling
Irishman gained a lot of airplay for the group.
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Although De Danann has had many highpoints
over a quarter of a century, particularly with the singing
of Dolores Keane and Maura O'Connell and the box playing
of Mairtin O'Connor, Frankie Gavin's fiddle playing has
always been a central feature of its repertoire.
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| Nuala O'Connor,
writing in The Irish Times in 1995, described him as a precociously
gifted traditional musician. "Gavin was drawn at an early
age towards the 78-rpm recordings of Irish American musicians
such as Coleman, Morrison, The Flanagan Brothers, John McKenna
and Joe Derrane. It undoubtedly had a liberating effect on
his own playing." |
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