Cé hé Eoghan O'Reilly?

Eoghan O'Reilly

Eoghan, can you tell us a little about yourself?

I’m a singer-songwriter and musician living in Šumperk in North Moravia. I’ve been part of the Celtic music scene here since its emergence in the nineties and I’ve played concerts and festivals all across the Czech Republic as well as in Poland and Slovakia, mostly with a band (Happy to Meet, The Bottlewash Band, Ceol Flies and now Bar Fast the Door) or occasionally as a guest or soloist.

Before moving to the Czech Republic I was a teacher in Northamptonshire. Northampton has a strong Irish community, so I used to play céilís and set dances for Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann as well as the Irish pubs and clubs. Through a couple of friends I also got roped into various other ventures. I joined a rock band as a harmonica player and ended up as the singer. I played in a Tex Mex band on the accordion and from that got involved in a western swing band. That was a great experience. You never knew who was going to turn up - sometimes professionals with a night off (eg. Des O’Connor’s drummer or a guitarist from the Glitter Band) or various colourful local characters such as a guy that used to turn his trombone into a kind of metal puzzle and then quickly reassemble it in time for his solo. It was a gas! We would play the same set one night with pedal steel and cowboy hats for country fans and the next night with gritty guitar sounds and blues harp at a bikers club or rock venue. They could then also turn up with a sax or trombone player for a Sunday lunchtime jazz session, still playing the same songs!

My final band in England was a rock group called Love in Exile. Myself and the guitarist wrote all the songs, we gigged, sent off demos, travelled down to London to play auditions for record companies but, despite all the praise and tentative offers, fame (and a contract) alluded us. Then the drummer left for another tour of the US with Howard Keele (Clayton in the series Dallas) and that pretty much finished it. So I decided to pack up and move to Europe.

How did you become involved in traditional Irish music?

My mother’s parents were Dubliners so they loved a good party. Everyone sang and my grandfather played the melodeon. My parents used to go to dances run by the Green Velvet Ceili band and when I was about 10 they took me along. The music and the atmosphere just swept me away! Myself and my brother Pat started learning the tin whistle and subsequently joined the band, myself on accordion and Pat on flute. My father was a painter and he loved the rugged landscapes of Connemara so we spent our summer holidays out in Carraroe. There was a great box player, Kevin Coyne who used to play in Realt na Maidne pub there. He was a great influence on me. We also got to see acts like the Shaskeen and Makem & Clancy at Teach Furbo.

When we were older we got into the session scene, then Pat got himself a bouzouki and we started playing the folk clubs as Himself and the Brother. Many of the musicians we met and played with in those days are well known names now. (There are also a good few others that took the Guinness Road to heaven). Pat has stuck to the tradition and is still very active on the Manchester Irish scene. He recently appeared on TG4 with Kevin Madden.

Eoghan's recent CD - A Hungry Feelin'

Tell us a little about your new CD - A Hungry Feelin'

Irish trad is great... but the blues-rocker inside me was still kicking to get out. This was originally intended as a collaboration but when it came round to contributing even ChatGPT claimed it had lots of things on at the moment. So like the Little Red Hen, I decided to do it myself. This wasn’t such a bad thing in the end as I was able to experiment more and I learned a heck of a lot from it. My daughter Ailish did help out on two songs though, bless her.

The album’s title comes from the first line of Brendan Behan’s The Ould Triangle, reimagined here as a prison blues. This was an old favourite of my father’s and it happens to link in nicely with the cover painting he did years ago. It opens just with voice and raw slide guitar before kicking in with a bluesey riff on electric guitar, drums and bass. The other Irish song on the album, She Moved Through the Fair, uses tin whistle to give it a haunting atmosphere along with a bit of Mississippi voodoo from the drum loop and harmonica. Wake Up is an American version of The Seven Drunken Nights originally played by Sonny Boy Williamson. Rather than compete with such a master harmonica player I decided to record it with Cajun accordion instead. Ailish started echoing the last word of each line just for a joke but I decided to leave it in. It changes the whole tone of the song to being about a squiffy-eyed dad rather than an adulterous wife, which is a bit more cheerful! St. James infirmary and You Belong to Me are two songs heavy with nostalgia that I never get tired of playing- great for jamming to as well. Five Below Zero arose out of an online collaboration inspired by Cab Calloway and A Toast is a tribute to all those musicians I played and drank with over the years. The album signs out with Cowboy Christmas ‘69, inspired by an old photo of myself and Pat standing in the snow with cowboy suits and popguns.

As with that western swing band, it’s not just what you play but how you play it and how you make it your own. The challenge was how to draw these different strands into a coherent whole. My initial concept was a kind of skiffle set but it gradually evolved and took on an identity of its own.

So if you want a copy you can pick one up at one of our gigs or contact me through my website.

Bar Fast the Door

What is Bar Fast the Door?

Bar Fast the Door is a trio playing traditional Irish music. I first met fiddle player Ondřej Volčík at a gig in Letovice more than 20 years ago and we’ve been together ever since. Ondra’s an ethnomusicology archivist at the university in Brno and a trad fanatic. He’s hugely knowledgeable on the subject and often dredges up tunes from old manuscripts and field recordings. Tomáš Vomočil, a conservatory-trained trombonist who switched to guitar, also from Brno, joined us a few years ago.

The trio’s name comes from the title of one tune which may have come from an old Scottish song Get Up And Bar The Door. There’s also an American expression “Katy, bar the door!” which means “Lookout! Here comes trouble!”

How do you explain the large interest in Celtic culture in the Czech Republic?

Czechs love dressing up! As cowboys, medieval knights, Vikings, angels and devils, Irish dancers, ancient Celts…… (I don’t have to dress up as an ancient Celt, I already am one.) There is a strong connection with these lands though. I was at an exhibition of Celtic archeological finds in Národní muzeum when I first came over and it completely took me by surprise. Even the name Bohemia apparently comes from a Celtic king called Boi. So if you ever needed a reason to jump around in a kilt and drink whiskey, there you have it!

What is the best way for people to get in touch with your music?

You can find gig dates, sound and video clips and other info at www.barfast.cz and on FB and Instagram., or at my own website: www.eoghan.cz

What are your plans for the future?

The main thing is to keep playing. Ondra’s always sending me new tunes so I’ve plenty to be working on with Bar Fast. I also enjoy doing solo gigs where I get to play a wider range of songs and sometimes jam with local musicians A Celtic-blues band would be great! I’m currently toying with the idea of a café style project – blending Irish-American vaudeville with French musette and chanson maybe? Who knows! There’s always something new to work on.

Bar Fast the Door will be back on the road from June. These dates have been confirmed so far:

• 19th June Forea Music Bar, Lanškroun

• 26 June Library Šumperk, courtyard

• 10th July Autocamp, Hranice na Moravě

• 1st August Lughnasad Nasavrky