Paddy O'Brien

Button accordionist and musicologist Paddy O'Brien entered the world on September 13, 1945, in Daingean, County Offaly, Ireland. He devoted multiple years to roaming the Irish countryside, absorbing and gathering traditional songs and folklore, ultimately compiling over 3000 jigs, reels, airs, and marches across the decades. His professional start came in 1966 alongside the Ballinamere Céilí Band, after which he toured the eastern U.S. with Seán and Kathleen Ryan. During 1969, the same year he captured the first of four leading prizes in the Oireachtas Competition solo accordion contest, O'Brien moved to Dublin and performed regularly in pubs with fiddlers John Kelly and Joe Ryan. Through 1978 he remained a member of the Castle Céilí Band while also supporting Ceoltoiri Laighean. In 1975 he earned the title of All-Ireland senior accordion champion, and three years afterward he headed back to the U.S. to link up with fiddler James Kelly and guitarist Dáithí Sproule in the trio Bowhand. That ensemble launched its recording career on Shanachie with Is It Yourself?, followed by Spring in the Air in 1980; by 1983 O'Brien had made Minneapolis his permanent home. Teaming next with banjo player Seán O'Driscoll and singer/guitarist Tom Dahill, he helped establish the group Hill 16, which released a self-titled LP in 1984. His first solo album arrived in 1988 as Stranger at the Gate on Green Linnet. A 1994 National Endowment for the Arts grant enabled him to document roughly 500 traditional songs for the Paddy O'Brien Tune Collection: A Personal Treasury of Irish Jigs and Reels. The next year he assembled the ensemble Chulrua together with singer/guitarist Pat Egan and piper Michael Cooney.