One of Ireland’s true legends, Johnny McEvoy, has embarked on a countrywide tour. It is almost 50 years since Johnny McEvoy made his early impact on the folk and ballad scene with a song called Muirsheen Durkin.

Johnny McEvoy, the young Dublin lad who spent the first six years of his life in Banagher, Co Offaly, had well and truly arrived on the scene. The Boston Burglar and Nora soon followed.

Country songs like Those Brown Eyes, I Still Miss Someone and many more, became an integral part of the Johnny McEvoy songbook. The 1970s saw a massive boom in country music and Johnny recorded some wonderful classics.

Johnny and Gloria fronted a country band for two years and recorded a full duet album.

“Gloria had such a brilliant voice. She was great at doing the Dolly Parton songs but she always had such a distinctive voice anyway,” says Johnny reflecting on the era.

It was also the decade that saw him record Johnny McEvoy Sings Hank Williams. The lonesome steel guitar and Johnny’s incredible authentic feel for these timeless heart songs have long since made this a collector’s item.

“It was Hank Williams who influenced me more than anyone else in the beginning. I loved his songs, the stories, the way he sang them. Hank Williams, Bob Dylan and Liam Clancy were my top three influences,” says Johnny.

“I discovered Hank when I was about 15. Around 1975, I got the idea to do a tribute album of his songs. An American steel guitarist, Nick Nastos, who played with Bill Haley, played on that album. About four years ago, I wrote and recorded a song called Hank, reflecting my enduring admiration for him.

“The song is about the first time I heard him on an old radio my father had. He got it for the 1932 Eucharistic Congress so that he could listen to it at home in Co Galway. My father was from just outside Eyrecourt and my mother was from Clonfert. They moved to Banagher when they married. I was just six years old when the family moved to Dublin.”

Johnny was just 17 when he started as a duo with Mick Crotty.

“Mick was from Ferrybank where hurling loyalties are divided between Waterford and Kilkenny. He has lived in Blanchardstown for many years now. We were known as the Ramblers Two. Muirsheen Durkin came along and everything changed almost overnight for me. It was a song about the 1849 gold rush in California. Who wrote it, God only knows. Those Brown Eyes was the B side and I recorded the two of them in a half hour in Eamonn Andrews Studio. To this day, I have to sing those songs at every show I do.”

Johnny has also penned a string of magnificent songs, including Long Long Before Your Time and Going To California.

“My first serious attempt at songwriting was Long Long Before You Time. I was doing a cabaret show in Kennedy’s lounge on the Mayo-Sligo border and was down early that evening. I was sitting on a stone wall and feeling a bit melancholy when the idea drifted into my mind. I recorded the song in one take and it went to number one.

“I wrote a lot of songs in the back of the transit van. It is amazing the ideas and lines that came to me when travelling. I’m a lyric man. I love good lyrics and story songs. I think Paddy O’Brien did a lovely job on Going to California. Because of the success Paddy had with the song, I had to start singing it in my own shows.”

The Basement Sessions is the new 15-track album from Johnny.

“It is hard to believe it is almost 10 years since I recorded an original album. Some of the songs are newly written by me but others are re-recordings of older songs.”

The Planter’s Daughter is a love song dedicated to his wife. Saskatchewan and Boston Ladies are also new songs.

For a full list of venues where Johnny will be playing in the coming weeks, visit www.tomkellypromotions.com