Damien’s music is heavily influenced by the great accordion/melodeon players from the 1920s right up to the modern day players. . He immersed himself in the music of P.J. Conlon, John J. Kimmel and also the Flanagan brothers. Musicians from the North Clare area like Paddy Mullins, Austin Tierney, Jimmy Ward, and Gerry Lynch all had a significant impact on Damien’s style. From a young age he has had a keen interest in fiddle music, paying particular attention to Michael Coleman, James Morrison, Paddy Killoran, the Clare fiddle giants of Joe Ryan, Bobby Casey, Junior Crehan, John Kelly and Patrick Kelly. Various music form the 1950s onward with musicians like Joe Cooley, Paddy O’Brien and the Kilfenora Céilí Band have left on impression on Damien. Bands like De Danann, the Bothy Band, musicians Noel Hill, Frankie Gavin, Tommy Peoples, Matt Molloy and Seán Keane (to name a few) all recorded music from the 70s and 80s that Damien couldn’t get enough of. The accordion players which have had a great influence on Damien’s playing include Martin McMahon (Clare), Tony McMahon, Paul Brock, Finbarr Dwyer, Joe Burke, Paddy O’Brien, Jackie Daly, Máirtín O’Connor, Colm Gannon and Derek Hickey. Coming from North Clare, the region has been imprinted in his accordion playing and one can hear the strong rhythmical connection to North Clare whenever Damien plays.
Damien is a regular contributor to RTE and TG4. During the autumn months Damien was filmed playing for “An Snug” and also “Ceolaireacht”. Damien has countless appearances on RnaG and RTÉ Radio also.
Damien has been composing music and these compositions draw inspiration from his native North Clare. The compositions are in recognition of the music which has influence him, the fond musical memories he has or the landscape of the unique place of his upbringing. This composing has led Damien to being involved in a project, “The Last Set”, which was awarded the Frameworks funding scheme, and also in ITMA commissioning 5 tunes as part of their Saothar series.
Damien recently launched irishbuttonaccordionlessons.com which is a tuition based site with pre-recorded lessons to teach anyone, to play the B/C system of accordion playing to a very high standard. The site can bring a musician from complete “scratch” level of competency to a very high level of playing. The site has over 50 lessons at the moment and plans are in place to reach over a hundred. Damien maintains contact with the subscribers throughout their learning experience.
In 2019, Damien launched his solo album Dúchas to critical acclaim. He launched the album via a national tour and is widely accepted by the traditional music community as a stellar album. According to Adrian Scahill of The Journal “make its own impact on the next generation of accordion players”.
