Irish Accordion

Johnny 'Og' combines two box styles - by Fred Johnston

The accordion is probably one of the most familiar instruments in any traditional music line-up. No session is complete without one, it may well be argued, and the instrument has its major exponents.

The "Og" distinguishes Johnny from his father, also Johnny Connolly, who is a master of the melodeon. Johnny 'Og' was born in Preston in England in 1969. His parents had married there and the family moved back to Ireland in 1976, his father being from the Lettermore area of Connemara.

Johnny 'Og' recalls that "the only type of box playing in Connemara was the melodeon, a "one row" system. The term melodeon sometimes can be used to mean any type of box playing, but generally it distinguishes between the one and two row systems. Johnny 'Og' listened a good deal to the playing of Joe Burke and now combines both systems of playing. He believes that back in the Seventies, Burke's influence would have meant that there were more "two row" players in traditional music than there are today. Although he started to play at a very early age, Johnny 'Og' was still in his early teens when he started to play with the group, Na hAncairi. He remained with them for about eight years, playing in and around Connemara, occasionally doing the Irish clubs in London.

It was while he was in the Unites States with his father and John Beag O Flaithearta that he received a call from Sean Keane to play with him at the Irish Folk festival in Germany which is sponsored by Guinness. He teamed up with Sean's band more or less at the beginning of 1995, and has played with him ever since.

Johnny 'Og' is considering an album of his own. He has, he says, about 'Thirteen or fourteen tracks in my head' and hopes to make a start on it by the end of the summer. After this, he will be busy with the band.

"Perhaps," he concludes, "I can record a few tracks at a time." It could be an album well worth waiting for.

August 1996