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1893-1947
This project is co-funded by Ireland’s Department of Culture, Communications & Sport and Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade as part of America 250.
James Morrison was born in the townland of Drumfin near Riverstown in south County Sligo. He left school at fifteen and got work as a farm labourer, dancing master, dance fiddler and Irish language instructor for the Gaelic League. Morrison won numerous fiddle competitions before leaving Ireland in 1915 to join relatives in Boston. In 1918, he relocated to New York, where he married his Sligo sweetheart Teresa Flynn and launched a celebrated career as a fiddler, recording artist, band leader, dancehall and music shop owner and music teacher. Morrison’s recording career spanned the years 1921-1935 and included virtuosic fiddle solos as well as duets with flute great John McKenna, uilleann piper Michael Carney and button accordionist P.J. Conlon, as well as sides with a band that included Kerry button accordionist Tom Carmody. In his last years, Morrison focused on teaching music, passing on the techniques of Sligo fiddle style to hundreds of students, among them Jackie Roche, who would go on to his own career as a recording artist and band leader.
