A life lived with the company of song and the singing voice is how Christy Moore describes it and in this his 70th year he shares his journey with fellow singer The Gloaming’s frontman Iarla O Lionaird. Moore traces his vocal story from his childhood growing up not just in a singing family but in friendship with his boyhood friend Donal Lunny. This Vocal Chords special gives voice to Moore’s story, his music and his musical influence. In Conversation with Christy Moore aired August 14th 2015 at 7pm on RTÉ lyric fm and can be downloaded for free via iTunes.
For this compelling one-on-one interview, Iarla visits Christy Moore at his home in Dublin to talk about his relationship with the voice and songs, and what it means to be a singer. Sitting in the very room where Moore creates his music, he shares with Iarla the inspiration for his songs, his love of the folk tradition, and his many influences over the years including Ewan MacColl, The Clancy Brothers, and even being at singers’ clubs like ‘An Goilín’
The singing voice is one of Christy’s oldest and cherished companions, and for that he is “blessed, fortunate and full of gratitude”, but also knowing the remarkable power he has to share his voice with the world, he describes the relationship that the singer has with their audience, saying
“In order to project yourself out to hundreds or thousands of people, you got to open up, you’ve got to open up your chest, your lungs, your voice, your throat, your mind, and you have to reach out in a way that couldn’t do here now, it’s just impossible, I always think it’s a magic thread, that goes from the song and the singer out to the audience and comes back again and this special air is created, that allows us to listen in a certain way allows us to sing in a certain way, allows the work to breathe and shine and sparkle in a certain way.”
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