“My father is a violinist who grew up in the west of Ireland and moved to the states after playing in ballroom bands in Manchester, UK and Galway.”
“After a couple of years in the US Army, he started his music career teaching traditional Irish music and gigging around NYC. Within a few years he was on the Ed Sullivan Show. And he was an avid vinyl collector and amassed an impressive collection ranging from classical, jazz, folk, country, big band, and of course, Irish traditional.
It was easy to move from Benny Goodman to Mahler to the great Irish tenor, John McCormick, to Jim Reeves in the course of a Sunday afternoon. I know this because my usual punishment for being what I’m sure was a hell of a brat, was that I would have to sit inside with my father on a Sunday afternoon and listen to music. Let’s just say I had many of those sessions.
And it was the greatest punishment a kid could receive. My father was proud of his collection, but his prize possession was his 1920s crank wound Victrola and his collection of platters including some Caruso recordings.
Years later I came home for Christmas and sat past midnight while the rest of house was asleep, shared a scotch with my father and listened to the old Victrola. Some fathers and sons have baseball or football. My father and I had stacks of vinyl.”
—Noel Kelly
The Hush Now’s fourth studio release, Sparkle Drive is available at their Bandcamp page.
