Biography
Tony MacMahon (b. 1993) is an Irish button accordion player and radio and television broadcaster.
Born in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, MacMahon's chief early inspiration, accordionist Joe Cooley, was a frequent caller at the MacMahon home from 1949 until 1954, when Cooley emigrated to the USA. Other influences from the locality were piper Willie Clancy and fiddler Bobby Casey.
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In 1957 MacMahon moved to Dublin to train as a teacher, where he came into contact with accordionist Sonny Brogan and fiddler John Kelly. Travelling in 1964, in both New York and Dublin, he shared a flat with piper and singer Seamus Ennis, whom he credits as an important influence on his playing of slow airs.
MacMahon plays the accordion in the "press-and-draw" style of his mentor Joe Cooley. He is regarded as an exceptionally powerful performer, particularly of slow airs. In 1974 he was a founder member of the band Seachtair, which later became The Bothy Band.
MacMahon enjoyed a long career with RTÉ, first as a presenter of traditional-music television programmes, then as a radio producer (he initiated the long-running programme The Long Note), and returning to television with The Pure Drop and Come West along the Road. The Green Linnet was a 1979 television series documenting MacMahon's travels through Western Europe with banjoist Barney McKenna in a green Citroën 2CV van (nicknamed The Green Linnet). MacMahon retired from RTÉ in 1998.
MacMahon has frequently voiced strong criticism of modern trends in the performance of Irish traditional music, and of growing commercialism in particular.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.