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Gabriel Donohue was born in Athenry, a walled medieval
town in County
Galway founded by Meyler De Bermingham in the 12th Century AD. Small
wonder his music is filled with
a strong sense of history. Add to this
his love of storytelling through song which belongs to another time and
place.
By
age fourteen he was a member of the Leitrim Ramblers Ceili Band.
Many summers were spent in the Connemara Gaeltacht where
he played with
such local legends as Tomas Mc Keown and Tony Molloy. He then Joined a
showband called Magic which
had numerous Top-Ten hits in Ireland. Here
he got a taste of the entertainment side of music and appeared on Irish
Television.
America
was calling and a kind Uncle and Aunt in Darien, Connecticut,
made the young lad welcome. Thus began what was to be a
great love
affair with New York City. Here he sought out traditional music
legends like Andy McGann and Johnny Cronin
and saw the sun come up on
Second Avenue most Sunday mornings as the reels and jigs, as well as
the occasional song,
flowed. In New York he studied fingerstyle
guitar, musical theater and voice and honed his skills as a music
producer,
eventually openimg his own studio called Cove Island
Productions. Construction was completed by accordionist/carpenter
John
Whelan. He has embraced many of the new developments in non-linear
digital recording and editing while also
utilizing vintage tube gear.
He was for a time a part of the ensemble of Riverdance star Michael
Flatley, with
whom he shared an love of Flamenco which became part of
the stage show. He spent many Summers in Cape May, New Jersey,
and
performed regularly at the South Street Seaport in NYC and started a
group called called Jigsaw with musical
friends Eileen Ivers and Joanie
Madden.
In 1995 Eileen and Gabe, along with Joe Derrane and Felix Dolan,
performed
at the White House to celebrate the historic Good Friday
Accord. In the audience were Irish Prime Minister John Bruton,
Gerry
Adams and Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume.
In 1999 he began to tour with Irish music legends The Chieftains
and
added guitar piano and voice to their live performances in Spain,
France, Norway, Denmark, Italy, UK and many
tours of the USA. He has
performed five times at New York's Carnegie Hall.
To celebrate the new Millenium he boarded
a ship in Terra del
Fuego, Argentina, that would take an intrepid group of explorers to
Antartica. Inside a Volcano
called Deception Island on New Years Eve
he shared the ship's stage with Art Garfunkel, Dan Akroyd, Diana Krall,
Natalie
McMaster, and The Chieftains as they became the House band for
New Year's revelries. In the audience was F.W. DeClerk,
Robert
Kennedy Jr. and a thousand of America's top CEO's.
Now Gabriel is busy performing nationwide as well as producing, engineering and mastering cds at his studio
in Hawthorne NJ
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