DECEMBER 15TH, 2012 | JOHNNY'S 9-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

WGBH Remembers Silly Wizard

A CELTIC SOJOURN

Host Brian O'Donovan highlights an old recording made of this seminal band by WGBH engineers in one of their final concerts in the Boston area. Recorded at the Somerville Theatre in 1986, this features the late Johnny Cunningham with brothers Phil and Andy Stewart in rare form.

(Johnny and Phil do their own set about 140 minutes in)

Brooks Williams "Johnny's Farewell"

At the Minden Opera House, Brooks performed "Johnny's Farewell" on Valentine's Day, 2009.

Brooks Williams recorded "Johnny's Farewell" in Ellen Hamby's Atlanta home on August 5, 2009. The song (BMI Work #9509451; Red Guitar Blue Music (CAE/IPI #222917482)), was written by Brooks L. Williams (BMI, CAE/IPI #223038801) © Ellen Hamby (ellen's eyes).

http://www.MySpace.com/RedGuitarBlueMusic

http://www.MySpace.com/ellens_eyes

Trisha McCormick's Tribute to Johnny Cunningham, Lincoln Center OurLand Festival

Trisha McCormick accompanied by John Walsh sings 'The Ballad of St. Anne's Reel.' The song was written by singer-songwriter David Mallet, and this performance took place at the OurLand Festival, Lincoln Center, 2012.

Fellow Musician John McGann's Passing

by Earle Hitchner... Whether as lead or accompanist, John was a brilliant string player, encompassing mandolin (1985 Mandolin Champion), guitar, dobro, and electric bass, as well as a superb arranger, composer, producer, and transcriber... John performed and/or recorded with the Wayfaring Strangers, Rust Farm, Beacon Hillbillies, John Whelan, and the Celtic Fiddle Festival, among others... John McGann was one of a kind. His generosity and thoughtfulness matched his extraordinary musical skills... As I write this, I'm listening to my favorite tune by John, the magisterial "Canyon Moonrise," from his solo album UPSLIDE, for which I had the privilege of writing the biographical essay. (This magnificent melody also appears on the inaugural CELTIC FIDDLE FESTIVAL album.)

e. e. cummings, "In Memory of Bill Poten and Johnny Cunningham" by Sarah Poten

Caricature of Johnny Based on 1982 Wood's Hole Folk Music Society article, by Anna Freeman (13 yrs)

MEMORIES

Today I'm asked..."tell me a name of a fiddler that I have to hear..." "Johnny Cunningham"... thanks she says. Out comes some amazing fiddling, just a few feet away. "Is it amazing and damn near impossible, while at the same time being delightfully musical?" I responded. She chuckled. "Then that's Johnny!" Years after the loss of such a beautiful person, Johnny Cunningham is fixed in time for many of us who enjoyed his live shows, recordings and the times that were created around him. It is important that his name lives on and more people hear his spirit. ~ Chris

I have been a fan of Nightnoise for some time, and for past few years been trying to learn more of each artist. My daughter currently plays violin and is studying music in Louisiana, and I used to pay Nightnoise and she really enjoyed listenig to the violin of Johnny. I remember taking my daughter to the Renaissance Fair in Dallas, TX and she really enjoyed the Celtic music played there. And when I told her I had some at home, we went straight home and listened to Nightnoise. I just learned of Johnny's passing today (10/19/2012) and I wish I would have tried harder to find out more of the band members. I now have some of Johnny's other CDs and I can just imagine him smiling and enjoying life as he played. God bless you and please keep his memory alive. I know I will try. ~ Mike M.

RIP Larry Reynolds, 2012

Follow up on 2010 post: Robert Burns Widow, Jean Armour's Letter Discovered. Johnny's friend and colleague, Nancy Groce, tells the story of discovering Jean Armour's letter to Robert Burns. Its discovery and passage back to Scotland is chronicled in The Scottish Literary Review. Download here

Special Thanks to Johnny's Webmistresses. Thank you, dear person, whoever you are, who keeps Johnny's website up and running. I come here every so often just to connect with the man and his friends, again and again. I cry rivers of tears when I read the new articles and see new photos. Thank you so much for this. Sending love & peace & best wishes for the new year. Slainte mhath. ~ Dalriada

DECEMBER 15th, 2011 | JOHNNY'S 8-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Johnny Reads D.H. Lawrence on National Public Radio

Charlie McCormick: I heard Johnny on WFUV radio this morning as I was driving, reading this poem by DH Lawrence "God is Born".

The history of the cosmos
is the history of the struggle of becoming.
When the dim flux of unformed life
struggled, convulsed back and forth upon itself,
and broke at last into light and dark
came into existence as light,
came into existence as cold shadow
then every atom of the cosmos trembled with delight.
Behold, God is born!
He is bright light!
He is pitch dark and cold!
And in the great struggle of intangible chaos
when, at a certain point, a drop of water
began to drip downwards
and a breath of vapour began to wreathe up
Lo again the shudder of bliss through all the atoms!
Oh, God is born!
Behold, He is born wet!
Look, He hath movement upward! He spirals!
And so, in the great aeons of accomplishment and debacle
from time to time the wild crying of every electron:
Lo! God is born!
When sapphires cooled out of molten chaos:
See, God is born! He is blue, he is deep blue,
he is forever blue!
When gold lay shining threading the cooled-off rock:
God is born! God is born! bright yellow and ductile
He is born.
When the little eggy amoeba emerged out of foam and nowhere
then all the electrons held their breath:
Ach! Ach! Now indeed God is born! He twinkles within.
When from a world of mosses and of ferns
at last the narcissus lifted a tuft of five-point stars
and dangled them in the atmosphere,
then every molecule of creation jumped and clapped its hands:
God is born! God is born perfumed and dangling and with a little cup!
Throughout the aeons, as the lizard swirls his tail finer than water,
as the peacock turns to the sun, and could not be more splendid,
as the leopard smites the small calf with a spangled paw, perfect. The universe trembles: God is born! God is here!
And when at last man stood on two legs and wondered,
then there was a hush of suspense at the core of every electron:
Behold, now very God is born!
God Himself is born!
And so we see, God is not
until he is born.
And also we see
there is no end to the birth of God.

Remembering with the Raindogs

my brother johnny. to know him was to love him. the greatest times of my life was when i was with you. two many stories to tell slan mo chara till we drink a dram again then roll on the floor in laughter. jimmy reilly, belfast

Johnny Cunningham Loved the Poetry of Blake and Burns

By Earle Hitchner (printed with permission)

"Literally and musically, I tend to swim more in the runnels than the mainstream. As poet Philip Larkin once admitted, "I feel very much the need to be on the periphery of things." ...

A founding member of Silly Wizard, Johnny Cunningham (1957-2003) appears on all the band’s best albums, including the best of their best, So Many Partings in 1979. Track 5, “Donald McGillavry / O’Neill’s Cavalry March,” still gives me a head-to-toe thrill, especially the second tune powered by the Cunningham brothers, Johnny on fiddle and Phil on piano accordion.

This December 15 will mark the eighth anniversary of Johnny Cunningham’s death. A heart attack claimed him at age 46 in New York City. But I still take solace in an inscription he had on the back of his fiddle. The words appeared near the image of a tree, ostensibly the one from which the wood for his fiddle was taken: “In life I was mute, but in death I sing.”

The music and personality of Johnny Cunningham still sing in me. I know I’m not alone in feeling this way. Shortly after his death, I wrote two articles about him for the Irish Echonewspaper. Here, I’ve tweaked or truncated the article conveying my reminiscences about him and tucked in a few others.

I know what you’re thinking: Why not wait until December 15 to post this blog entry? My answer is: Johnny, who marched to a different bodhran beater, would not have minded, so why should I? Besides, I was rereading some verse by William Blake and Robert Burns yesterday, and it restirred memories of Johnny, who loved the work of both. I guess you could say this blog entry represents Johnny on the spot.

Click here to read my substantially revamped Irish Echo piece..."

Johnny's Tune, by Bill Morrisey

Born to the traveling life that is what we do
We use the whiskey and the wit
And the luck to pull us through
You look up to the gray sky

And tell yourself it's blue
You look for the famiiiar
When you have to face the new

And these days
The sun don't rise
As much as it goes down

Things look a little different

Now that Johnny has left town...

Requiem for Bill Morrisey, friend and colleague of Johnny's

By Barry Crimmins

... Bill's tongue was in cheek when he wrote his Letter from Heaven but I believe in his immortality. You see, Bill lived in and documented an age but he played to the ages, the destination for which he was truly bound. If I know Bill, his arrival was humble, unassuming. "Me? Live forever? Really?" ... "Yeah you, Bill Morrisey. Right through there. You're friend Johnny Cunningham is expecting you."

So he gently pushed open the door marker "reserved for those who made a permanent and positive impact" and carefully walked in to size up his new circumstances. Five minutes later he'd won over everyone. Next, the greatest writers and artists of all-time demanded a few numbers from the new guy. And with Johnny on the fiddle, Bill astonished them. And there, once and for all, he found true love, and it is perpetual, and you'd be wise to mention his name to the bartender. Read the full article here

Peter and Wendy

By Rohana Elias-Reyes, for nytheatre.com on May 8, 2011

Mabou Mines’ Peter and Wendy, now running at the New Victory, is a wonderful production to bring children to, but it is not a piece of children’s theater per se and you should definitely heed the recommendation that it is best for those eight and older. Its immensely beautiful theatricality is shot through with moments of deep sorrow for the loss of youth. You and your kids will recognize the basic story—the Darling children Wendy, Michael, and John fly off to have adventures in Neverland with Peter Pan, leaving their grieving parents and nursemaid, a dog named Nana, behind. However, here the focus is primarily on Wendy’s relationship with Peter and not on the amazing events that take place in Neverland. In this staging, based on J.M. Barrie’s novel Peter and Wendy, rather than his play Peter Pan of a few years earlier, the feeling is of childhood remembered from the distance of adulthood, rather than an experience of exuberant youthful adventures. The late Scottish composer Johnny Cunningham’s Celtic score (a nod to Barrie’s heritage), beautifully performed by live musicians and singers, adds to the feeling of nostalgic longing and loss. Click here to read more...

MEMORIES

Johnny Mooning. my wife Jill and I went to see the Celtic Fiddle Fest in Madison Wis. years ago. We sat at the far edge of the balcony, where our line of sight was down across the stage (the long way)... we could see backstage too. At one point, whilst Kevin Burke was doing his solo set, we saw Johnny and a friend backstage. Johnny had on one of those long duster coats. As we watched in amazement we saw Johnny remove that duster, turn around and drop his drawers... mooning Kevin and us. We broke up laughing and pointing while Burke struggled to keep his composure. Then the friend standing next to Johnny pointed up to the balcony and apparently told him we could see his "moon". Very funny and very unforgettable. I miss you Johnny. ~ J McNally

Hi Johnny! Nice music you did while in "Silly Wizard" band. Thank you for this! ~ Greetings from Republic of Moldova.

Your music lives in our hearts. Johnny you were one of the best. ~ Lots of love from Barcelona

Aye. Just missing you Johnny.I'm happy to still have the music. See you a very very long time from now. ~ Eamon

We still love and miss Johnny. Winter and Christmas greetings and hugs to his family and loved ones! ~ Ty