Barry Egan

3 weeks ago | independent.ie | Barry Egan

‘It is devastating to lose a partner that you’ve had for 57 years’ – Ralph McTell on the death of his wife‘I have very dark periods,’ he saysMusician Ralph McTell with his late wife Nanna Solveig May“I’ve had a slew of bad luck,” says singer Ralph McTell, now 80. “I try to measure it against all the good luck I’ve had in my life.”The toll of recent events has made the weighing of the good with the bad in his life less easy.

4 weeks ago | independent.ie | Barry Egan

The Dublin singer talks about the transformative process of recording ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ for ‘The Commitments’Try a Little Tenderness was written by Jimmy Campbell, Reg Connelly and Harry M Woods, and first recorded in 1932 by the Ray Noble Orchestra. Among many versions of the song, including by Frank Sinatra, one recorded by Andrew Strong in 1990 for The Commitments film and soundtrack album, stands out…Thirty-five years ago, you were 16 and on your summer holidays. What happened next?

1 month ago | independent.ie | Barry Egan

When a stranger on a train told Gerry Hussey that he wasn’t a fan of his last book, the performance coach was inspired to write a new one. It has just one theme: silencing the inner critic that causes anxiety and ill healthGerry Hussey believes we can free ourselves from the emotional and psychological shackles that bind us. In 2023 he wrote a book about it, The Freedom Within. Not everyone liked it.

1 month ago | independent.ie | Barry Egan

Also featuring Hoagy Carmichael, Cole Porter and Johnny MercerIn a piece he penned in Vanity Fair magazine in 2000, Elvis Costello named 500 albums and songs essential to a happy life. He named Ron Sexsmith’s Wastin’ Time next to Cello Concerto No 1 by Shostakovich, Never Mind The Bollocks by The Sex Pistols, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon by Paul Simon, In The Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra and Nina Simone’s Greatest Hits. That was just the ‘S’ category.

1 month ago | independent.ie | Barry Egan

The musician on his upbringing in Offaly, and then Dublin It was starting to feel like that song by Little Richard, Keep a Knockin’ (But You Can’t Come In). At the appointed time of noon, I knocked seven or eight times on the door of Johnny McEvoy’s fifth-floor apartment in Greystones. Through the wooden door I could hear the voice of Long Before Your Time and The Boston Burglar talking to someone.