Now She's Purring

Gerry Harrington and Billy Cliff ord have had a lifelong affi nity with the music of Sliabh Luachra and have been making the music ‘purr’ in its sweetest most lyrical form for many years. The fi rst time I heard Billy Cliff ord play was when himself and his mother Julia took to the stage in The Cork Opera House in the early 1980’s to play a set of slides in a concert celebrating the composer Sean Ó Riada. It’s a performance that still burns bright in my memory. Their music was delicate, sweet, full of personality and devilment and at times deceptively simple. What I heard in their music became a standard bearer in my own endeavours to learn the music of Sliabh Luachra.