Biography
Born in Northern Ireland during 1946, Jackie McAuley grew up immersed in traditional Irish music as the younger sibling of drummer-to-be Pat McAuley and displayed early mastery of the piano. His instrumental range soon expanded to include guitar, while his tastes broadened toward American R&B by the dawn of the 1960s. The brothers relocated to London, where seventeen-year-old Jackie encountered Gene Vincent, the American rock-and-roll veteran then recording extensively in England; McAuley later credited Vincent’s example with sparking his own emergence as a songwriter. Both siblings passed through the ranks of the Irish-formed R&B outfit Them, although Pat remained longer amid the group’s ever-shifting membership. After leaving Them in the mid-sixties, Jackie performed on Dublin’s folk scene, where he encountered the Dubliners, and later joined forces with future Planxty member Paul Brady in the blues-oriented Cult. Around 1966 or 1967, Pat appropriated the Them name and assembled a band that ultimately became known as the Belfast Gypsies, featuring Jackie on lead vocals. Producer Kim Fowley oversaw a pair of unsuccessful singles and a posthumous album, Them Belfast Gypsies, cut in Copenhagen and issued by Sonet; despite its tangled association with the original group, the record highlighted McAuley’s command of blues and rock styles through a striking version of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and performances echoing Bo Diddley and Howlin’ Wolf. McAuley next partnered with former Fairport Convention singer Judy Dyble in the duo Trader Horne, recording for Pye Records until Dyble withdrew from music in the early seventies. McAuley’s self-titled solo debut appeared on the same label in 1971 but met with scant commercial response. Throughout the seventies and eighties he thrived as a session musician, his versatility benefiting artists such as the Heptones, Jim Capaldi, Rick Wakeman, and Rebop. He also served as sideman to skiffle pioneer Lonnie Donegan and, in tandem with bassist John Gustafson, co-wrote Status Quo’s U.K. Top Ten hit “Dear John.” In the mid-eighties McAuley formed the Celtic-rock ensemble Poor Mouth. A 1988 kitchen accident nearly severed his left hand and threatened to curtail his performing career, yet intensive rehabilitation allowed him to resume work, although his next solo album did not arrive until the nineties. McAuley has remained active into the twenty-first century, and the first authorized reissue of the Belfast Gypsies material in 2003 brought renewed attention to his early recordings.
Albums
