Artist: Patrick Ball
Genre(s):
Celtic
Discography:
Celtic Harp III: Secret Isles
Year: 1985
Tracks: 12
The melodious sounds of the wire-strung Irish harmonica give been revived by San Francisco-born harpist Patrick Ball. Performing on a harmonica based on an antediluvian Celtic instrument and built by skipper harp detergent builder Jay Wircher of Houlton, Maine, Ball has become i of the leading interpreters of the medicine of Turlough O'Carolan, an 18th-century Irish harpist and composer. Although Irish music is the heart of Ball's repertory, his albums and performances give besides included traditional songs from Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Brittany, Belgium and England.
The son of an lawyer, Ball was bucked up to follow in his father's footsteps. Although he studied forte-piano and guitar as a tiddler, he continued to study law at college. His attention, however, became increasingly distrait by a development sake in the work out of Irish poets, songwriters and novelists. When his father died, Ball was freed from his debt instrument to become a attorney. Leaving school, he traveled to Ireland to feel the country's oral tradition. While there, he became hypnotised with the Irish harmonica.
Afterwards reverting to the United States, Ball enrolled at Dominican College in California, where he earned a master's level in story. Upon his graduation, however, he ascertained that at that place were few jobs usable in the field of Irish history. Hitchhiking around the United States, he landed at the Penland School of Crafts in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. He remained at the school for iI long time, working as a groundsman.
Following a moment trip to Ireland, Ball returned to California and sought out a jehovah of the wire-strung Celtic harmonica. After education himself to play, he launched his career as a instrumentalist.
Divine by the storytelling tradition of Ireland and the Appalachian Mountain region of the United States, Ball has systematically full-grown as a tale weaver. His vocable debut, Storyteller/Gwilan's Harp and Other Celtic Tales, standard a prestigious National Association of Independent Record Distributors' prize as the charles Herbert Best independently released spoken word recording of 1995. Two days later, Ball provided musical complement for Cher's narration of the children's story, The Ugly Duckling. In 1997, Ball released the twofold CD Finnegan's Wake, featuring his interpretation from James Joyce's 1939 novel accompanied by his Irish harmonica. Ball's up-to-the-minute project is a solo theatre piece, O'Carolan's Farewell to Music. The play was premiered in November/December 1997 at the Studio Theater in Sarasota, Florida and the Theatre Company in Wilmington, Delaware.
