Music and stories to live by

BEING part of the vibrant music scene in New York for the last few years, Christy McNamara knows the music of County Clare is a hard act to follow.
The musician, photographer and storyteller has been spending his time between New York and Clare over the past few years, however, he is still very much rooted in his home county.
“There’s always a sound of home in the music but it’s good to see outside of your own place, you look back in on it, you get a good perspective on it when you meet other kinds of people and different nationalities. It’s an experience that everyone should have,” he said.
Born in Crusheen, Christy’s late father Joe, who passed away in 1996, was a box player as was his uncle Paddy, who also played fiddle. The two brothers from Drumbanniff played with the Tulla Céilí Band in its formative years. Due to responsibilities to work and family, however, Joe had to step back from the music.
“He was the head night nurse [at Our Lady’s Hospital] and that meant that he couldn’t really continue playing with the Tulla Céilí Band when he was raising us. He was busy, as anyone would be with a house full of children.”
On his mother’s side, there’s plenty of music too with dancers, singers and well-known musicians, including the Hayes and McMahon clans. Christy notes the legacy continues in his nieces and nephews, who are also talented musicians.
Dancers are an important feature in Christy’s life and work and a few of his dancing images have made their way into Hollywood homes. “I’ve one picture of my two aunts dancing in the kitchen. They were my father’s sisters – they loved music. They were both widows and they used to spend time together and visit each other. On one of my visits to Bridie – she lived in Ruan – she asked, ‘Have you any accordion?’ and I said ‘yes, it’s out in the car’. So I went out, got the accordion and I played for them and they took off dancing. I opened my eyes and I said, I have to get a picture of this – how was I going to do it as I was playing music and trying to take pictures at the same time. So then we had a cup of tea or something and I went out and I got a cassette from the car. They were listening to it and after a while, didn’t they take up dancing again but I had the camera this time,” he recalls. A few years after this kitchen session, he exhibited the image at a show in Los Angeles where, he says, “Brad Pitt fell in love with my two aunties, Bridie and Kathleen. He’s not the first one, you know.”
Over a career spanning 30 years or so, he has photographed what he knows well, musicians, dancers and Spancilhill Fair,  as well as fragments of customs from the stark black and white of his ‘wake’ pictures to the escapades and merriment of the strawboys. For Christy, photography is another way of telling stories.
“I’ve been trying to find different ways of telling stories through images and through music and I think I am very privileged,” he explains. “I’m an old-school photographer really. I like to go into the darkroom and to print my work – I like mood, I like atmosphere but once I have done that, the picture is on its own but that’s where the story comes in,” he says.
Recently, Christy exhibited in Manhattan. From Clare to Here he says was “like having a bit of Clare in the middle of Manhattan. It was at the Irish Consulate and the Consular General is a man called Noel Kilkenny who comes from Kilrush.”
Such exhibitions, which incidentally Christy will bring to Dallas this year, are an opportunity for the Crusheen man to bring music into the gallery space to accompany the work. “By engaging with people through music and playing – it’s a way of explaining,” he says.
He has a number of projects in the offing. He’s just returned from Scotland, having recorded with singer Fiona Carmen and he’s planning second album soon. He has no intention of rushing into it though and is looking forward to recording some of his own compositions.
In the meantime, Christy’s work can be seen in homes and businesses throughout County Clare and beyond and an exhibition will run in Glór until the end of this year.
“It’s great to be doing what you love doing,” he says. “If you can survive and make your living from it and keep the show going, it’s nice – it’s not a lot to ask for really.”