Johnny Gallagher

01Biography

Raised on it from day one.

Not everyone gets to be called Gallagher: his music does the talking for him.

The name Gallagher is one you have to earn. When you're a guitarist, a bluesman and Irish, the comparison is waiting for you at every chord. But the unflappable Johnny Gallagher couldn't care less: his music speaks for itself, loud and clear. Just listen to this collection, which brings together the very best of his recordings since his first album back in 1997.

Music ran in his blood from the start. His mother, a hairdresser, wrote songs in her spare time; his father, his absolute idol, had founded a band with his brother in 1959 that enjoyed its share of fame in Ireland. Solid foundations, and ones that have lasted to this day.

A drummer in the Bundoran brass band in County Donegal by the age of 9, he joined his father's group and was already touring the United States at 12. Mandolin, banjo, fiddle, cello: this restless all-rounder taught himself everything, long before the guitar and bass on which he is now a benchmark. Only singing held out, kept at arm's length for years by his shyness.

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02On stage