AENGUS

 

AENGUS

Tara, 1978, Tara 2001

Aengus was an Irish trio with brothers Tony and Jackie Small and Gary O'Briain. This was their first and only album. Tony and Jackie are from Galway and Gary was from Dublin but settled in Co. Clare. Tony died in 2013. They are joined by super fiddler Maurice Lennon who had won an All-Ireland title in 1977.
Tony was the singer and he sings 4 songs including the Card Game with double entendre about a sexual encounter. The tunes are played by Jackie on uilleann pipes, fiddle and mandolin, Gary on mandocello (and fiddle on some songs). Maurice doesn't play on the songs; track B3 is the reel with which he won the fiddle competition at the age of 17.
The trio seems to have been influenced by Planxty but shortlived. Aengus was part of the Irish revival nevertheless.
M. Lennon joined the famous band Stockton's Wing and is presently living in Toulouse (France). J. Small is currently on the staff of the Irish Traditional Music Archive (www.itma.ie); he was also a producer for the RTE and published CDs about musicians from the past.

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