Biography
Johnny Cunningham channels the intensity and drive of classic Scottish fiddling through his blistering technique. As a founding member of Silly Wizard, he helped ignite enthusiasm for contemporary Celtic music grounded in tradition. His solo releases, along with those recorded as part of Relativity and Nightnoise, carried those traditions forward. Yet his musical range extended well beyond folk forms. Cunningham served as producer for several singer-songwriters of the modern era, among them Fred Small, Brooks Williams, and Bill Morrissey. He cut two albums with the alternative rock outfit the Raindogs and shared stages with Hall & Oates. Later endeavors included a tour and accompanying live album, Celtic Fiddle Festival, alongside Irish fiddler Kevin Burke and Breton fiddler Christian LeMaitre, as well as the original score for an adult retelling of J.M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy staged by New York’s Mabou Mines Theater Company. He also partnered with author Thomas Moore (Care of the Soul) on the double-CD holiday set The Soul of Christmas.
Born the eldest of three siblings, Cunningham began on harmonica at five, performing with the Grand Lee Old Age Pensioner Harmonica Band. Though he experimented with accordion and piano, his true instrument emerged when his grandmother gave him a fiddle just before his eighth birthday. At fourteen he quit school and home, settling into dilapidated flats in Edinburgh. His path shifted after encountering Gordon Jones and Bob Thomas, the musicians who ran the Triangle Folk Club. He moved into their unheated, bathless communal flat and helped launch Silly Wizard. Following early local shows, the group took a long residency in Liverpool, England, where they composed music and acted in productions at the Everyman Theater. Back in Scotland they recruited Cunningham’s younger brother Phil on accordion and traditional singer Madeline Taylor. An album they cut for Transatlantic Records remains unreleased.
Following their self-titled 1972 debut, Silly Wizard underwent lineup shifts as Taylor departed in favor of Andy Stewart and bassist Martin Hadden, late of the dissolved band Puddock’s Well. After the second album, Caledonia’s Hardy Sons, Bob Thomas exited, leaving the ensemble a five-piece. Their inaugural American tour featured a decisive set at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Cunningham relocated to the United States in 1980. Although fiddler Dougie McLean temporarily assumed his role, Cunningham contributed to the group’s final release, A Glint of Silver, in 1986 and rejoined for its farewell tour two years later. He maintained periodic collaborations with his brother, including the duo album Against the Storm, and in the early 1980s united with Triona NiDomhnaill and Michael O’Domhnaill, siblings from the Bothy Band, to create Relativity. He also performed with the pair in the new age Celtic band Nightnoise. Cunningham died of a heart attack in December 2003 at age 46.
Born the eldest of three siblings, Cunningham began on harmonica at five, performing with the Grand Lee Old Age Pensioner Harmonica Band. Though he experimented with accordion and piano, his true instrument emerged when his grandmother gave him a fiddle just before his eighth birthday. At fourteen he quit school and home, settling into dilapidated flats in Edinburgh. His path shifted after encountering Gordon Jones and Bob Thomas, the musicians who ran the Triangle Folk Club. He moved into their unheated, bathless communal flat and helped launch Silly Wizard. Following early local shows, the group took a long residency in Liverpool, England, where they composed music and acted in productions at the Everyman Theater. Back in Scotland they recruited Cunningham’s younger brother Phil on accordion and traditional singer Madeline Taylor. An album they cut for Transatlantic Records remains unreleased.
Following their self-titled 1972 debut, Silly Wizard underwent lineup shifts as Taylor departed in favor of Andy Stewart and bassist Martin Hadden, late of the dissolved band Puddock’s Well. After the second album, Caledonia’s Hardy Sons, Bob Thomas exited, leaving the ensemble a five-piece. Their inaugural American tour featured a decisive set at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Cunningham relocated to the United States in 1980. Although fiddler Dougie McLean temporarily assumed his role, Cunningham contributed to the group’s final release, A Glint of Silver, in 1986 and rejoined for its farewell tour two years later. He maintained periodic collaborations with his brother, including the duo album Against the Storm, and in the early 1980s united with Triona NiDomhnaill and Michael O’Domhnaill, siblings from the Bothy Band, to create Relativity. He also performed with the pair in the new age Celtic band Nightnoise. Cunningham died of a heart attack in December 2003 at age 46.
Albums
