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Sleeve Notes
DANNY DOYLE was born on the banks of the Grand Canal in Dublin, at that time a somewhat Bohemian area populated by writers and artists. He had as neighbours the poet and author PATRICK KAVANAGH and the legendary BRENDAN BEHAN. Both of these famous men encouraged DANNY to sing, and it was in the school choir that he did his first serious singing. Dublin's first back lane theatre was built in a converted stable, behind the Georgian house in which the DOYLE family rented a basement. This was the very famous and controversial PIKE THEATRE, and very soon DANNY was involved as general factotum, assistant stage manager, ticket seller and collector, sweeper-upper, etc. At that time when Irish folk songs were most unfashionable he developed an insatiable interest in the songs and history of his country, acquiring a vast repertoire. When the folk revival blossomed in the late sixties in Ireland, his distinctive style and large store of little known songs ensured his immediate success.
He left school at age thirteen to go to work and help support the expanding DOYLE family. Never happy with a regular job, he drifted from one to another, eventually arriving in London. Here he spent two very exciting years, travelling the English and Scottish folk clubs.
1966 saw DANNY back in Dublin. The folk music boom, generated by the early successes of the CLANCY BROTHERS AND TOMMY MAKEM and the abrasive DUBLINERS and others, was about to reach its peak. He became an overnight success, with a song written by a Kerry man, Seán McCARTHY, that he had learned in a smoky back room behind a London pub. This was STEP IT OUT MARY and went to No. 2 in the Irish Hit Parade. Two more hit records followed that year and a great first album which has since sold more than one hundred and fifty thousand copies (an enormous figure in a country of three million people). In '67 DANNY recorded WHISKEY ON A SUNDAY, the story of one of the last of the street puppeteers. This was a No. 1 record for twelve weeks and stayed in the best selling lists for a year.
His travels in the following years took him to music festivals in France, Spain, Germany, Rumania, Moscow, Malta, Monte Carlo, Canada and Brazil.
Feeling the need to broaden his musical experience he formed a dance band in 1972. He toured through Britain and Ireland, very successfully, for the next four years. His abiding interest and love for Irish folk music promoted him to resume his solo career in 1976.
In that year he met and began to work with PETE ST. JOHN, soon to be a major songwriting talent, This collaboration has produced a bountiful harvest, THE FIELDS OF ANTHERY, RINGSEND BOATMAN, JAMES CONNOLLY, THE WORKER'S HERO, SOLDIER BOYS AWA', THE GALWAY ROVER and many more. The biggest of these THE RARE OUL TIMES undoubtedly the best song ever written about Dublin, has become DANNY DOYLE'S anthem. In recent years, DANNY has recorded two albums which he says were labours of love. These were RAISED ON SONGS AND STORIES and most recently THE HIGHWAYMAN, described by critics as one of the hest albums ever to come out of Ireland. DANNY utilised the talents of some of the most brilliant folk musicians in Ireland. The result is a milestone in his recording career.
Now sees 'the arrival of 'THE DANNY DOYLE COLLECTION' Vol. 1, a beautiful selection of DANNY'S best known songs and ballads.