22 October 2020, a live-streamed conversation between Martin Hayes and Liam O’Connor

Fiddle player Martin Hayes was born in Feakle, Co. Clare.. His father P. Joe was fiddler with the Tulla Céilí Band for fifty years. Martin began to play at the age of seven, absorbing the music of local céilí bands, and listening to Coleman, Morrison and Paddy Cronin on records from a young age. He learned much from such as Feakle concertina player John Naughton, radio programmes like The Long Note, and in Galligan’s bar at Crusheen he had the opportunity to hear performers like Séamus Ennis. Fiddlers Kathleen Collins and Tommy Potts were an influence too, the latter often visiting the family home; his uncle Paddy Canny was also inspirational. At fourteen he began playing with the Tulla band – in Ireland, England and America.

Meeting Johnny McGreevy, Liz Carroll, Michael Flatley and Seamus Connolly there drew him to the US to play in 1984, first traditional, then Celtic rock with guitarist Denis Cahill. Reverting to traditional he recorded with Green Linnet (Martin Hayes, 1992) and moved to Seattle in 1993, since then travelling constantly in Europe and the US. He considers fiddler and piper Martin Rochford to have been intensely in touch with what music is about, and felt similarly about Junior Crehan, Micho Russell, John Kelly and Pádraig O’Keeffe.

In his own music he minutely explores melody; his albums stick to one mood and his slow-fuse technique develops sensory structures in ornament and stylistic, melodic and dynamic variation. He teaches at the Willie Clancy Summer School each year, has several iconic solo albums and has contributed to many group recordings. His later recordings include Under the Moon (1995), The Lonesome Touch (1997), Live in Seattle (1999) and Welcome Here Again (2008). He was awarded TG4’s Musician of the Year Gradam in 2008.