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 Tommy O’Sullivan A voice in tune with past and present According to the Irish Music magazine the voice of Tommy O’Sullivan resembles the quality of a Waterford crystal glass filled with finest Irish whiskey. It is a unique and firm tenor voice with a hint of Blues. Tommy is passionate about more melancholic songs. He likes to sing about those who are not on the sunny side of live. The heroes of his songs are beaten boxers, compulsive gamblers and other lost causes. He is a master of soft melancholy which is seeping from every corner on a rainy day in his native Dingle and lingering to find its victims. However with his warm energetic guitar playing and witty introductions, you will not feel bluesy for too long. Tommy strikes a good balance between songs from here and the other side of the Atlantic, past and present. Very much like the Irish weather contains sunny spells and scattered showers. The Irish Folk festival fans will remember Tommy from the tour with the legendary travelling piper Paddy Keenan. Then in 2003 his energetic guitar playing was in high demand to back Paddy’s gung-ho-style of piping. This year the focus will be on songs and his recent album “A song ablaze”. This is a fine selection of carefully picked songs and polished arrangements. The amount of respect the Celtic World is paying to Tommy can be detected from the serious line-up of artists guesting on his solo album. From Scotland, David Robertson from Capercaillie, Chris Stout and Catriona McKay from Fiddlers Bid. From USA the Bluegrass legend Alan Grant und Grammy winning Tim O’Brien. From Ireland James Blennerhassett and Eilis Kennedy. Tommy is one of the very few who is in touch with the solitary singer/songwriter legend Jimmy McCarthy. Jimmy wrote some of the classic songs such as “Ride on”. Tommy collected some of Jimmy’s finest songs at first hand and has the masters blessing to perform and record them. It is impossible to get the man himself into a studio to record, but at least there is Tommy who makes the great repertoire of Jimmy’s songs available to the public. Photo:
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