Jimmy Faulkner

Who was Jimmy Faulkner?

Jimmy Faulkner was one of Ireland's top guitarists, who in a four-decade career played with many of Ireland's leading rock, blues, folk and jazz musicians.

He was born in Dolphin's Barn, Dublin to a musical family. He started playing music in the 1960s when he formed the Jangle Jangle band. He later played in Freak Show with Pete Cummins and vocalist Ditch Cassidy. In the 1970s and 1980s he had a residence with Red Peters in the Meeting Place in Dorset Street in Dublin and played with the Floating Dublin Blues Band, Christy Moore, Dónal Lunny, Mary Coughlan, Paul Brady and Luka Bloom. At the end of the 1980s he went on to play with the Fleadh Cowboys, Hotfoot and regularly accompanied Kieran Halpin.

He could play in a number of styles: blues/rock, folk, traditional, country or even in the jazz style of Django Rheinhardt. His main instrument was a red 1967 Fender Stratocaster but he also played a Gibson ES335 which he got in California.

Before his death from cancer in 2008 he was playing weekly in Jj's in Aungier St. and in the DCC venue in Camden Row, among other venues.