Past House Concerts

An accomplished songwriter, Chuck’s songs have been recorded by John Denver, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Suzy Bogguss. Country fans know him best for writing, “Cadillac Cowboy”, recorded by the late Chris LeDoux, and “Jaded Lover”, recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker.

While fans love his recordings, they adore Chuck’s live performance. The first time he made an audience laugh, he was “hooked”. A nimble guitarist, critics say his sense of rhythm is more like a fine classical, or jazz, soloist, his songwriting musically sophisticated yet full of uncluttered space. The Chuck Pyle Finger-Style approach to guitar has distinguished him as a true original, earning him invitations to teach at such prestigious events as The Puget Sound Guitar Workshop and The Swannanoa Gathering. His music has made him a favorite of Bill & Melinda Gates who have had him play at their home in Seattle. Since writing the theme-song for a PBS series called Spirit of Colorado, he’s attained local fame, and even sings for the opening session of the Colorado State Legislature.

Chuck Pyle came from Iowa in 1965 when, “Boulder was mostly gravel streets”, and resides on the front range of Colorado. He does 100 dates a year all across the country, playing festivals and theaters, coffeehouses and house concerts.

His 11th CD, THE SPACES IN BETWEEN is twelve all-new songs, each with finger-style guitar out front of a crackerjack rhythm section. The embellishments are elegant, with everything from fiddle to uilleann pipes, grand piano to ukulele; each song’s a hummable melody guaranteed to make you tap your inner feet. In the middle of the night, Chuck began writing down the words to the CD’s opening song, called Dream Song, and the more awake he became, the better it sounded. Picking Out My Outfit is about Man’s need to look casual, Copper John is about the favorite nymph of fly-fisherman and Wide Open is about Wyoming’s bigness. The rest of the songs are classic Chuck Pyle truth-telling; one man’s outlook seen from a life-in-motion as he continues to gather traction and gravity.

“Gerry O’Beirne has written some of the best new tunes to come out of Ireland’s Celtic music scene. O’Beirne’s guitar playing is always a thing of wonder and his lyrics have become increasingly poetic and emotionally deep.” —Dirty Linen about “Half Moon Bay”

Born in Ennis, County Clare, along Ireland’s music-rich west coast, Gerry O’Beirne is a renowned singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist (6 and 12 string guitar, tiple, and ukulele, slide guitar among others). He grew up in Ireland and in Ghana in West Africa, and has since lived in England, California, and Mexico. His own compositions blend the passion found in traditional music with the freshness of contemporary song.
Gerry’s first solo album, Half Moon Bay, featured his own songs and instrumental compositions. Half Moon Bay was cited as one of the 12 best releases of the year by Performing Songwriter magazine and was chosen as one of Folkworld’s Top Ten Albums of the year. He has just released his second album The Bog Bodies And Other Stories: Music For Guitar, which was named CD of the Month on the radio showEchoes, and one of the essential albums of the year on the same show and which was featured recently on the Irish TV show Nationwide.
Many of his songs have been embraced by the contemporary folk community. Maura O’Connell recorded Half Moon Bay, Western Highway,Shades of Gloria, and The Isle of Malachy. Mary Black recorded The Holy Ground as a title track. Cathie Ryan recorded Shades of Gloriaand The Lights of San Francisco. Muireann Nic Amhloaibh has recorded Western Highway and The Isle Of Malachy on her album daybreak: fainne an lae.
Gerry has toured the globe as a solo artist and with the Sharon Shannon Band, Patrick Street, Midnight Well, Andy M. Stewart, Kevin Burke, Andy Irvine, and the Waterboys. He has performed at the White House, opened for the Grateful Dead, and played electric guitar with Marianne Faithfull. He composed and recorded the score to River of Dreams, an artistic response to the River Shannon commissioned by the Irish Department of Arts and Heritage, and he has written music for film and theater.
Gerry has appeared on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion. His performance of Western Highway was chosen as an audio highlight on A Prairie Home Companion’s website.
As a producer, he has a large number of albums to his credit, including Promenade by Kevin Burke and Michael O’Dhomhnaill (winner of the Grand Prix Du Disque at Montreux), Irish Times by Patrick Street, Man in the Moon and Donegal Rain by Andy M. Stewart, First Foooting by Anam, The Connaughtman’s Rambles by Martin O’Conner, Up Close by Kevin Burke, Lifting the Veil and Sacred Space by Fiona Joyce, To Anyone At All by Clandestine, Fine Small Storm by Jen Hamel, The Willow by E. J. Jones, Silver Hook Tango by Australian singer-songwriter Kavisha Mazella, When Two Lovers Meet and I won’t go home ’til morning by Sarah McQuiad and Lumina by Irish piper, low whistle player, and composer Eoin Duignan, which was hailed “a stunning achievement” by Hot Press, Ireland’s foremost music magazine.
Gerry has toured in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the USA, performed solo at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and has taught musical composition from visual art at Swananoa Music Camp. He recently played on the new Lunasa album and has just released a new CD with fiddler Rosie Shipley which features new songs as well as poems by Patrick Kavanagh and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill which he has set to music.