Jackie Daly

Jackie Daly (born 22 June 1945, Kanturk, North Cork, Ireland) is an Irish button accordion and concertina player. He has been a member of a number of prominent Irish traditional-music bands, including De Dannan, Patrick Street, Arcady, and Buttons & Bows.

Music career Born and raised in the area known as Sliabh Luachra, Jackie Daly is one of the foremost living exponents of the distinctive music of that region. Among his early musical influences were his father, a melodeon (one-row accordion) player, and local fiddler Jim Keeffe, under whose tutelage he began playing at "crossroads dances".

After working in the Dutch merchant navy for several years, Daly decided to become a professional musician on returning to Ireland in the early 1970s. In 1974 he won the All-Ireland Accordion Competition in Listowel, County Kerry.

Daly's musical career is notable for partnerships with several fiddlers, beginning with Séamus Creagh. Their 1977 album, Jackie Daly agus Séamus Creagh, brought Sliabh Luachra music to a wider audience and, with its tight unison playing, set the standard for future accordion and fiddle recordings.

Between 1984 and 2015 Daly recorded four albums with fiddlers Séamus and Manus McGuire, as Buttons & Bows. He also collaborated with fiddler Máire O'Keeffe, notably on the album Re-Joyce: Tunes and Songs from the Joyce Collection (2003).

In 2005, Daly was named Ceoltóir na Bliana (Musician of the Year) in the Gradam Ceoil awards of the Irish-language television station TG4.

In 2009, Topic Records included in their 70-year anniversary boxed set Three Score and Ten, "The Rising Sun" / "The Pope's Toe" from Jackie Daly - Music from Sliabh Luachra Vol. 6 as track one of the third CD.

In 2010, Daly and fiddler Matt Cranitch released The Living Stream, a recording of chiefly Sliabh Luachra music, followed by Rolling On in 2014.

Legacy Since the mid-1970s, Daly has been an influential figure in traditional music, widely credited with having rehabilitated the image of the accordion and establishing it as an acceptable instrument for inclusion in the line-up of concert groups.

Discography

Solo Jackie Daly: Music From Sliabh Luachra, Volume 6 (1977) Many's a Wild Night (1995)(With Maire O'Keeffe, Paul de Grae & Garry O'Briain.)

Duets Jackie Daly & Séamus Creagh (1977) Eavesdropper (Kevin Burke & Jackie Daly) (1981) The Living Stream (Matt Cranitch & Jackie Daly) (2010) Rolling On (Matt Cranitch & Jackie Daly) (2014)

With De Dannan Mist-Covered Mountain (1980) The Star-Spangled Molly (1981) Song for Ireland (1983) Anthem (1985)

With Buttons & Bows Buttons & Bows (1984) (as Jackie Daly, Séamus & Manus McGuire) The First Month of Summer (1987) Grace Notes (1991) The Return of Spring (2015)

With Arcady After the Ball (1991)

With Patrick Street Patrick Street (1986) No. 2 Patrick Street (1988) Irish Times (album) (1990) All in Good Time (1993) Cornerboys (1996) Made in Cork (1997) Live from Patrick Street (1999) Street Life (2002) On the Fly (2007)

Other The 3rd Irish Folk Festival in Concert (1976)(Live, with Séamus Creagh and other artistes) Sail Og Rua (1983)(With Dolores Keane & John Faulkner) An Bodhrán/The Irish Drum (1996)(Colm Murphy, featuring Jackie Daly, Mairtin O'Connor and Aidan Coffey) Re-Joyce, Tunes & Songs from the Joyce Collection (2003)(with various other musicians)