Big fiddle took Billy to the top!

IT has been a life of fiddling for musician Billy Condon who has played with some of Irelandâ€â„¢s biggest Country stars and now that he has joined young Gerry Guthrie in his band Bill has also re-released his album from 17 years ago Me and My Fiddle. Fans of stars such as Ray Lynam and the Hillbillies, Daniel Oâ€â„¢Donnell, Jimmy Buckley, Shawn Cuddy, Robert Mizzell and more recently new Country singer Gerry Guthrie will be familiar with the bearded face of Billy on stage and his flailing fiddle sounds. While Billy is a classically trained fiddle player the material on this album is a mixture of his favourite Country, Traditional Irish and Scottish tunes. The tracks vary from The Marino Waltz, written by John Sheehan of The Dubliners to the old Western Swing classic Faded Love and A Maidenâ€â„¢s Prayer popularised by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys decades ago. Indeed Billy has been around the Irish music scene for decades since he became an integral part of Ray Lynamâ€â„¢s band The Hillbillies in the late 1960s. When they disbanded Billy diversified into Folk and Trad music for a while as a member of the group Napper Tandy before travelling the world for 12 years as a member of Daniel Oâ€â„¢Donnellâ€â„¢s band. After taking a temporary break from music he got back into the Country music business and played with all the other bands listed at the start of this story. It is only in recent weeks that he joined the backing outfit for new Country singer Gerry Guthrie. This album was originally released in 1996 and as it has long since been deleted from the catalogue of the recording company that launched it back then Billy decided to have it re-released on his own Mascot Music label. â€Å“In recent times I had many people coming up to me after the gigs when I was with Robert Mizzell or Jimmy Buckley or Shawn Cuddy and asking if it was possible to get the CD now. â€Å“Some of them might have bought it back then in cassette tape format and as others may never have got it, or their copy from 1996 might have been mislaid we decided to have it re-released,â€Â says Billy. Apart from being much in demand as a respected session fiddle player for many top recording artists, Billy also plays many other stringed instruments including the double bass, which looks like a bigger fiddle! â€â€ TG.