Previously traditional music editor at the great Journal of Music, I’m back where I belong in the blogosphere where I’m able to get thoughts down more rapidly and without having to reach the very high writing standards of that esteemed publication.
In the meantime, I’m doing regular programme notes work for Music Network, working with Tony MacMahon on a number of projects, and with Jack Talty on Raelach Records releases.
I’m still available for other writing/editing/ghost writing work, so do get in touch. I’m also available to help musicians/groups in the online world, so if you’re looking for a website or someone to manage your social media communications, give me a call.
For a guideline to the writing rates see the Association of Editors, Proofreaders and Indexers.
CONTACT Email music@penhire.ie or call 086-8135672 or post to 14 Deerpark Road, Blessington, Co Wicklow.
Comments:
- “It’s perfect, reads really well – thanks a million” – Donal Minihane of Doolin Folk Festival
- “Great stuff, Paul…. This amended version is perfect.” – Luka Bloom
- “Hi Paul, Great job. Many thanks for taking the time to do this so beautifully.” – Alasdair Fraser
- “just read this….it is excellent and well thought out” – Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
- “Sounds great to me! Well done Paul!” – Natalie Haas
- “I really enjoyed the programme notes and thank you for doing such a wonderful job with them with bits of information flying in so late in the game!” – Dirk Powell
- “I think that’s all great.” – Eoin Dillon
- “Nice one Paul – sounds fine.” – Rick Epping
- “It was great to have Paul do this write up. He was very well informed and had a curiosity that led to easy conversation and philosophical ponderings (speculations) about the music. His writing is poetic, informative and humorous.” – Máirtín O’Connor
- “I think it’s a brilliant piece.” – Dónal Lunny
- “I read it all and I think it’s great.” – Zoë Conway
- “Thank you so much for … your wonderful pieces … I will most definitely pass on your details to others when needing a good writer.” – Kevin Crawford
- “Great article, Paul, well done.” – Ian Wilson
- Hello, Mr. O-Connor—Just a note of appreciation for your work in getting the word out about recent events having to do with Irish traditional music. I discovered your *Last Night’s Fun* website in early spring of this year and found it indispensable reading—exciting news, well-presented, with incisive and truly thought-provoking articles. I discovered the *Journal of Music* about the same time and came to rely on it as well.
Although I’m sad to see the demise of *Last Night’s Fun*, I’m happy to the point of being overjoyed that you’ve become the traditional music editor of the journal. So much to read and enjoy (and print out and reread and talk about with music-loving friends and over the air) about “the music”—I’m greatly in your debt.
I am a dj (along with my husband, Erik Carlson) of a weekly radio program in the states. On *A Feast of Irish Folk* we play “Irish traditional music from the oldest recordings to the newest releases” every Monday from 5:00-6:30pm (at suppertime), broadcast on WHPK, 88.5fm, and streaming live online at <http://www.whpk.org/stream/>. WHPK is the campus and community radio station of the University of Chicago, on the city’s South Side in the Hyde Park neighborhood (also serving the Woodlawn and Kenwood neighborhoods). Chief O’Neill is probably Hyde Park’s most noteworthy resident (he made his home here for more than fifty years, according to Nicholas Carolan’s book *A Harvest Saved*), and, more recently, Liz Carroll lived, attended school, and learned to play the fiddle just up the street (well, about a mile) from the WHPK studio. Erik and I have been the djs of *A Feast of Irish Folk* for going on fourteen years now; our predecessor (and the founder of the *Feast*), Patrick Carr, was the show’s dj for six years before that—he’s now a professor of sociology at Rutger’s University in New Jersey.
The pieces you’ve been publishing have inspired many sets of music that Erik and I have put together to play on our show and have enabled us to spread the traditional Irish music news in our little corner of the world more vividly. Two examples: we’ve followed with interest bordering on compulsion your stories about The Gloaming (particularly riveting to us because Dennis Cahill is from these parts, and Martin Hayes used to be—they’ll be here again for a few days in November at Chicago’s Irish American Heritage Center for the annual IBAM festival—that’s Irish Books, Art, and Music), and we’re just about dying to hear their CD; and the story about Dennis Cahill & Martin Hayes’s performances with the Irish Chamber Orchestra makes talking about and promoting the performance of the Irish Chamber Orchestra here on campus later this month much more fun and attention-grabbing for our listeners who might not otherwise care about classical music.
You’re basically a godsend to music maniacs like me and Erik (who, incidentally, plays chamber music on piano with numerous amateur groups). Thank you so much for your good work! And please keep at it—your writing and energy are life-enhancing and alertness-raising for those of us way across the pond from Ireland. I imagine you have many, many avid fans like me—people you’ve never heard of or from before who are delighted every single time a new *Journal of Music* digest pops up in the e-mail in-box.—yours with wild enthusiasm, Mary B. Caraway on the South Side of Chicago
Trad Review 