Debut CD for harmonica duet

“GOOD, strong rhythmic Clare music on the harmonica.” That’s how Eoin O’Neill describes the playing of John Gavin and his daughter, Pauline Gavin-Callinan, on the their debut CD, William’s Pride.

John Gavin is the pivotal link between the generations in this story – learning from the former and passing on to the next generation – as it should be.
William, of the CD’s title, was John’s uncle from Lavalla, Ballynacally (from the same house where John himself lives) and it was from him that John learned his music. Then there’s Pauline, John’s daughter, who picked up her harmonica tunes from the playing of her father.
Now, it’s all come together as the Gavin duo capture a little of their tradition on an album that will be launched as part of the Ennis Trad Festival.
It is hard to believe that a brain haemorrhage brought John Gavin close to death’s door eight years ago.
“They said there was only a 50:50 chance of him surviving,” Pauline explains. “He’d lost all his music and speech but, believe it or not, it all came back to him three or four months later,” she says.
“The doctor said I’d made a miraculous recovery,” John adds.
These days, John is a well-known face around sessions in Ennis and his native Ballynacally. At this stage in his life, the music is very much his lifeblood – it gets him out and about meeting other musicians and playing a few nights a week in Brogan’s, The Old Ground Hotel and at Steele’s. “The music brings me out,” he says, “and only for the sessions, my music would be gone.”
But then again, music was always important in the Gavin household. He played the flute and accordion in his younger days at house and pub sessions in Ballynacally. “There was always music in my house,” he recalls, “Music and dancing. Seán Keane and James Keane used always come up to my house,” he says.
In 1954, at the age of 21, he left for London, where he continued to play accordion with bands at the Galteemore in Cricklewood.
When John came back to Ireland 12 years later along with his wife and young family, music had drifted to the sidelines for the Gavins.
“For a few years when we were young, he didn’t play that much,” Pauline explains. “When I reached the age of eight, I remember him taking me to my first fleadh ceoil in Toonagh.
“It was my first time amongst all these crowds and there was a massive crowd up in Toonagh Hall. So, myself and my father started getting very anxious about the fleadhs and we actually went almost every year since then to the fleadh ceoils at county, Munster and All-Ireland level. It’s going on since. He used to take me to the sessions with him,” Pauline says.
Since then, the Gavin father-and-daughter team have a proven track record in the fleadhs. John won the senior All-Ireland title on mouth organ in 1982 while Pauline clinched the same title in 2006. As an U-18, Pauline won 1978 and 1980 All-Ireland titles on mouth organ and, according to John, it was because of Pauline that he went back to music at all.
“I got back into the music because of Pauline. Later on, there used to be a lot of music at Daly’s – me and Pauline, Buddy O’Connell and John Hogan and Joe Sheehan, who’s in America now,” he says.
In fact, Pauline plays a number of instruments as well as the harmonica, including the accordion and tin whistle.
In the last two years, listeners to Eoin O’Neill’s Sunday morning show on Clare FM will have become accustomed to hearing the harmonica of John Gavin.
It was Eoin who asked John Gavin to record a few tunes having heard him playing at sessions in Brogan’s. As well as this encouragement, John explains that he’d been asked for CDs of his music over the years but it was Pauline’s gentle pushing that eventually persuaded her father to join her in finally recording William’s Pride at the Courthouse Studios in Ennistymon.
“She kept at me until I had to do it,” he laughs. “I enjoyed making it in the studio. I was good a few years ago but I’m not now.” Pauline jumps in at this point to say that her father is “very shy” about launching the album. But, John says, “I am looking forward to the CD launch. I’d have only a small few musicians there but there’s going to be a big crowd playing and that’s down to Pauline.”
The “big crowd” playing on the night of the launch includes Eoin O’Neill and Quentin Cooper, who were instrumental in the making of the CD and who both perform on it; Tim Collins along with Crusheen Comhaltas; the John Fennell School of Music; Tom Carey and Gerald Haugh and a host of other well-known musicians.
William’s Pride will be launched at the Auburn Lodge Hotel on Friday, November 6 at 7pm.