Tony DeMarco

Location:
US
Type:
Artist / Band / Musician
Genre:
Folk / Acoustic / Folk Rock
Site(s):
Label:
Smithsonian Folkways Records
Type:
Major
TonyDeMarco is one of America’s finest folk fiddlers. A Brooklyn native of Irish and Italian decent, he is among the worlds leading exponent’s of the sophisticated County Sligo style of Irish fiddling. Tony’s playing has all the characteristics of great Sligo fiddling- swinging rythmic drive, a wealth of bowed and finger ornamentation, and a high degree of improvised melodic variation.



Sligo fiddling has been closely associated with the New York Irish musical trdition for many yesrs. Imigrant Sligo fiddlers in New York, notably the great Michael Coleman, James Morrison and Paddy Killoran, made hundreds of classic recordings in “the Big Apple” during the 78-rpm era. the influence of these discs back in Ireland made the sligo style, as played in New York City, the de facto national standard for decades thereafter.



In the early 1970’s, following a musical apprenticeship in American folk fiddling, Tony immersed himself in Sligo fiddling. In addition to listening intensively to the old 78’s, he absorbed tunes and techniques from leading Sligo style fiddlers in both the U.S. and Ireland. Paddy Reynolds, a Conty Longford-born New York fiddler and a protoge of the late Sligo fiddle great James “Lad” Obeirne, was a major influence on Tony’s music, He also learned a great deal from playing with and listening to the late Martyn Wynn, John Vesey and Johnny McGreevy.



Tony spent the summer of 1976 is Co, Sligo, playing with local musicians on thier home ground. Back in New York, he developed a musical partnership with Bronx fiddle standout Brian Comway, a callaboration that led to the 1981 recording- The Apple in Winter- a landmark album of fiddle duets.



Tony has recorded and perfomed with The Flying Cloud , the Kips Bay Cieli Band, Celtic Thunder and Black 47. He’s played for the Smithsonian Institute’s Folklife Festival and co-autored a fiddle tutor “ A Trip To Sligo” . He has been a featured performer at leading Irish music festivals in the U.S. and Europe and can be seen at Paddy Reilly’s Pub in N.Y.C. weekly.



Don Meade

N.Y.C.

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