Gerry O'Connor (born 21 July 1960 in

Nenagh Nenagh ( ; , or simply 'the Fair') is the county town of County Tipperary in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Nenagh used to be a market town, and the site of the East Munster Ormond Fair. Nenagh was the county town of the former county of Nort ...

, County Tipperary, Ireland) is a traditional tenor banjo player. As Earl Hitchener (music critic for the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'') said, Gerry O'Connor can be considered at the moment "the single best four string banjoist in the history of Irish Music". He also plays

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

fiddle A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Althou ...

, guitar and

tenor guitar The tenor guitar or four-string guitar is a slightly smaller, four-string relative of the steel-string acoustic guitar or electric guitar. The instrument was initially developed in its acoustic form by Gibson and C.F. Martin so that players o ...

. O'Connor released four solo albums and his third one, titled ''No Place Like Home'' was named by

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

as Number 1 Traditional/Folk album of the year in 2004. After the sudden death of banjo player

Barney McKenna Bernard Noël "Banjo Barney" McKenna (16 December 1939 – 5 April 2012) was an Irish musician and a founding member of The Dubliners. He played the tenor banjo, violin, mandolin, and melodeon. He was most renowned as a banjo player. Biograp ...

on 5 April 2012, he entered

The Dubliners The Dubliners () were an Folk music of Ireland, Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in pers ...

to complete the planned tour, until the final shows at Vicar Street in Dublin, on 28/29/30 December. Barney McKenna himself said, about Gerry O'Connor: "He's my best pupil ever". Together with Eamonn Campbell, Patsy Watchorn and Seán Cannon, Gerry O'Connor plans to keep on touring in 2013 as The Dublin Legends. In addition to his solo performances and recordings, O'Connor is a member of Four Men and a Dog. He also worked on Michael Flatley's '' Lord of the Dance'' soundtrack and guested over the years with many famous Irish artists such as

The Waterboys The Waterboys are a rock band formed in 1983 by Scottish musician and songwriter Mike Scott (Scottish musician), Mike Scott. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Britain and Ireland, with Scott re ...

Mary Black Mary Black (born 23 May 1955) is an Irish folk singer. She is well known as an interpreter of both traditional folk and modern material which has made her a major recording artist in her native Ireland. Background Mary Black was born into a m ...

, Arcady,

Moya Brennan Moya Brennan (born Máire Philomena Ní Bhraonáin on 4 August 1952), also known as Máire Brennan, is an Irish folk singer, songwriter, harpist, and philanthropist. She is the sister of the musical artist known as Enya. She began performing pr ...

, Luka Bloom, Sharon Shannon and performed for US President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

during his historic visit to Ireland. More recently he has guested on

Christy Moore Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore (born 7 May 1945) is an Irish folk singer, songwriter and guitarist. He was one of the founding members of the bands Planxty and Moving Hearts and has had significant success as a solo artist. His first albu ...

's new album ''

Folk Tale Oral literature, orature, or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung in contrast to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used va ...

'' from 2011. Gerry O'Connor was one of four musicians brought together by

blues rock Blues rock is a fusion music genre, genre and form of rock music, rock and blues music that relies on the chords/scales and instrumental improvisation of blues. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electri ...

singer/guitar player

Joe Bonamassa Joseph Leonard Bonamassa ( ; born May 8, 1977) is an American blues rock guitarist, singer and songwriter. He started his career at age twelve, when he opened for B.B. King. Since 2000, Bonamassa has released fifteen solo albums through his inde ...

to perform on a variety of instruments in an acoustic concert at the Vienna Opera House on 3 July 2012. None of the five had never worked together nor even met, until they arrived in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, where three days later they put on a live performance. The event was released on 12 March 2013 on CD&DVD/Blu-Ray, titled ''An Acoustic Evening At The Vienna Opera House'', and in 2014 was broadcast on a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

special. O'Connor mainly plays CGDA tuned tenor banjo, instead of the usual Irish tuning GDAE. He plays a David Boyle banjo on almost every tour since 1996, but usually records with an Epiphone Recording A banjo.

Discography

* ''Time To Time'', 1991 * ''Myriad'', 1998 * ''No Place Like Home'', 2004 * ''High Up – Low Down'', 2009

References

External links

Gerry O'Connor official websitePatsy Watchorn (Dubliners Homepage)
{{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Gerry 1960 births Living people Irish male banjoists Musicians from County Tipperary People from Portroe People from Nenagh 20th-century Irish male musicians 20th-century Irish banjoists 21st-century Irish male musicians 21st-century Irish banjoists