By E.C. Hartley

Paddy O’Brien, master of the two-row button accordion, has spent the better part of the last 35 years performing jigs, reels, hornpipes, airs and marches to those with an ear for Irish music.  He has performed across Europe and the United States and recently returned from a 12-city tour through Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Kansas, and Missouri.

This afternoon, though, he sits in the kitchen of his Minneapolis home looking as comfortable as his surroundings.  He has short, unkempt hair, a reddish beard shot with gray, and a plaid shirt with sleeves rolled to the elbow, exposing the muscular forearms you would expect from an accordionist.

There is a friendly warmth in his face and the sadness in his eyes that one might expect of an Irish poet.  More likely, it may be the look of a man who knows too much of the pain that is loose in the world. 

“I came from County Offaly in the midlands of Ireland.” O’Brien begins in a quiet voice full of the rhythmical lilt of his homeland.  “When I was 8 years old, my father took me to a concert.  When I saw them play the two-row button accordion, when I heard the music, I knew I could do that. Right then I understood the rhythms of the reel, the jig, and the hornpipe.”

O’Brien proved his skill by winning the All-Ireland accordion championship four times.  He was named the All-Ireland senior accordion champion in 1975.

Three years later, on a visit to New York to perform in a concert and record an album, O’Brien met guitarist Daithi Sproule, who encouraged him to visit St. Paul.  The two of them soon became regulars at McCafferty’s on Grand Avenue, now Lyon’s Pub.

It was there that he met Erin Hart, a writer and singer from Rochester, Minneapolis.  They married and settled down in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis.

O’Brien makes the better part of his living as an entertainer, but he may well be remembered as one of the leading authorities on traditional Irish music.  As a scholar and musician, he has played a paramount role linking centuries of Gaelic tunes to the present. 

He recently recorded 500 reels and jigs—just a fraction of the repertoire he knows—as a resource for other musicians.  It was time-consuming work and only partially funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Minnesota Folklife Society and the Irish Music and Dance Association.  However, it was a job he felt he had to do.

“I made the recordings for posterity as well as to teach younger musicians,” said O’Brien, who plays a Paolo Soprani accordion that was made in southern Italy nearly a half century ago.  “It would be a tragedy to lose any more of this important part of Gaelic culture.

Irish tunes have always been handed down from one generation of players to the next.  We’ve never really bothered with sheet music.”

That was how O’Brien picked up all his music over the years.  He figures that his brain is the repository of more than 3000 Irish tunes he has learned since he was a boy.  He does not read music himself.

He has, however, recorded “The Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection,” a package of 12 audio cassettes of traditional Irish music.  The collection includes a book of background notes and the history of the music.  Information about the collection is available by calling the Irish Music and Dance Association at 721-7452.

It seems incongruous that one of Ireland’s most prominent musicians should make his home in the Twin Cities.  “Well, it’s home now,” O’Brien says, “And I like the good give-and-take attitude of local musicians.”

He pauses for a moment to reflect, smiles and adds, “There’s the Twins, of course, and Tom Kelly.”  So what of the Emerald Isle?  A wistful look comes to his face.  “There are things I miss, of course,” he said.  “There’s the marvelous pub atmosphere, the characters you find, the Irish wit.”

O’Brien brought his own wit and musical virtuosity to bear during the second annual IrishFest celebration held on March 13, at the Basilica of St. Mary.  Also performed that evening was Guthrie Theater artistic director, Joe Dowling, step dancer Brenda Buckley, the Macha Tri music group, tenor Bill Bastian, poet Ethna McKiernan and the Mooncoin Ceili Dancers.

Special thanks to the Highland Villager of St. Paul, Minnesota and E.C. Hartley for contributing this article to Mahler Music Center.

Talent is what you possess; genius possesses you.  –Malcolm Cowley