Charlie Arkins has called it a day from touring after more than 50 amazing years on the country music circuit. The gentle and legendary fiddle player from Meath has been an institution on the scene and it is little wonder that plaudits have been pouring in from all over the island of Ireland wishing Charlie all the best in the times ahead.
From the days on Hughie Greene’s famous Opportunity Knocks with the Cotton Mill Boys to an appearance on The Benny Hill Show in 1978, Charlie has been down all those trails to remember. For the past 13 years, he has been an integral part of the Jimmy Buckley Band.
Country music aficionados will readily concur with the sentiment that Charlie Arkins, along with Billy Condon, have been the two most enduring fiddle players on the Irish country circuit for the last half century.
“I had a good chat with my wife Mary some weeks back and I came to the conclusion that now was the time to end all the long travelling. Coronavirus focused our minds in a special way. We don’t know when things will return to any kind of normality, so I decided now is the time to take things easy,” says Charlie.
It has been an amazing journey for Charlie from Athboy who is a wonderful ambassador for his home county of Meath. “I trained as a psychiatric nurse in Dublin from 1966 to 1969. During the last year of my training, I gigged with some musicians around Dublin and north Kildare including the Hitching Post in Leixlip.
Charlie Arkins on stage with Jimmy Buckley.
“I formed a small group called the Arkansas Travellers and Johnny and Des Kelly from Galway, formerly of the famous Capitol Showband, approached me one night when looking for a fiddle to join a band called The Virginians.
“Des had a great love for country and folk music and was the first manager of Planxty. I was faced with the option of continuing a career as a psychiatric nurse which paid £12 a fortnight at the time or taking a job in the band at £25 a week. With the choice being a wage between £50 and £12 a fortnight, I made up my mind on the spot and started out on the music journey.”
Charlie spent a short time with The Virginians which were fronted by Dermot Henry from Sligo (who is still a popular artist over in New York) but they broke up a short time later and Dermot went on to front The New Virginians.
After a time with The Nashville Ramblers, a true country band fronted by Terry Mahon and Gregory Donaghey, Charlie was approached by Gerry Madigan (a brother of Lorna Madigan of RTÉ Radio) to join the Cotton Mill Boys.
In 1976, the Cotton Mill Boys won the massively popular Opportunity Knocks talent show, presented by Hughie Green and produced by Thames Television in the UK, for three weeks in a row. It catapulted the “Cottons”, as many referred to them, into the top league.
Two years later, they made a rare guest appearance on The Benny Hill Show which was drawing incredible audiences. “Benny Hill was huge in that era. We got a massive response to it at the time. It was unheard of for an Irish country band to have a part in one of those English comedy classics. It was as good as Eurovision at the time, we were all very young and we loved it,” recalls Charlie.
The Cotton Mills Boys, like The Hillbillies and The Smokey Mountain Ramblers, were regarded as the three most authentic country bands on the Irish circuit back in those times. Their albums sold in huge volumes and their front singers were Des Wilson, Tony Hughes and Gerry Madigan.
The Cottons had run their course by 1988 and the arrival of the pirate radio stations in the mid-1980s introduced a whole new era of singers to an audience who had been hugely neglected by radio stations in those times.
“John Hogan from Offaly came on the scene at that time and I spent 10 good years with John. After that, I worked with Jimmy Buckley for six years before spending two years with Robert Mizzell’s band and a year with Liam Mannering who lives nearby here in Athboy.
“Jimmy Buckley got back to me to see if I would rejoin his band and I have spent the last 13 years with Jimmy touring all over Ireland, the UK, and the annual trips to Spain.”
Charlie has been to Nashville and counted the late George Hamilton IV as among his special friends. “I played in Tootsie’s and Leonard’s Corner in Nashville and featured with George on the Make Mine Country series on BBC Northern Ireland. He brought me backstage at the Opry and gave me a few lovely tours around Nashville.”
Charlie Arkins meets country legend Buck Owens.
The famous Gertie Byrne Caribbean cruises have also been a special part of Charlie’s life. “I was just back from the February one a short time before the lockdown got underway. I did around nine of those with Gertie as well as several of her shows in the Catskill Mountains in up-state New York.”
Charlie’s most requested instrumentals over the decades have been The Orange Blossom Special, The Devil Went Down To Georgia, Faded Love and The Maiden’s Prayer. “I have never gone on stage without playing some of those four tunes.”
Jimmy Buckley says Charlie is not only an incredible musician but a true gentleman. “Charlie has now decided to retire from the band and take things a bit easier. Thank you for all the wonderful years and we wish you good health to enjoy your retirement.”
Demand for Charlie’s services remains high in the recording business and he is kept busy in his own studios doing tracks for many artists. He also plays harmonica and banjo. His son David operates another studio in Navan.
“There is no shortage of studio work at all and I am also working on an all-instrumental album of my own. I intend to do a small bit on the local scene when things get back to normal again but my days on the long road journeys are at an end.”
Read more
Country Sound: missing the music, but the people too
Country Sound: ‘My heart has always been in traditional country music’
Charlie Arkins has called it a day from touring after more than 50 amazing years on the country music circuit. The gentle and legendary fiddle player from Meath has been an institution on the scene and it is little wonder that plaudits have been pouring in from all over the island of Ireland wishing Charlie all the best in the times ahead.
From the days on Hughie Greene’s famous Opportunity Knocks with the Cotton Mill Boys to an appearance on The Benny Hill Show in 1978, Charlie has been down all those trails to remember. For the past 13 years, he has been an integral part of the Jimmy Buckley Band.
Country music aficionados will readily concur with the sentiment that Charlie Arkins, along with Billy Condon, have been the two most enduring fiddle players on the Irish country circuit for the last half century.
“I had a good chat with my wife Mary some weeks back and I came to the conclusion that now was the time to end all the long travelling. Coronavirus focused our minds in a special way. We don’t know when things will return to any kind of normality, so I decided now is the time to take things easy,” says Charlie.
It has been an amazing journey for Charlie from Athboy who is a wonderful ambassador for his home county of Meath. “I trained as a psychiatric nurse in Dublin from 1966 to 1969. During the last year of my training, I gigged with some musicians around Dublin and north Kildare including the Hitching Post in Leixlip.
Charlie Arkins on stage with Jimmy Buckley.
“I formed a small group called the Arkansas Travellers and Johnny and Des Kelly from Galway, formerly of the famous Capitol Showband, approached me one night when looking for a fiddle to join a band called The Virginians.
“Des had a great love for country and folk music and was the first manager of Planxty. I was faced with the option of continuing a career as a psychiatric nurse which paid £12 a fortnight at the time or taking a job in the band at £25 a week. With the choice being a wage between £50 and £12 a fortnight, I made up my mind on the spot and started out on the music journey.”
Charlie spent a short time with The Virginians which were fronted by Dermot Henry from Sligo (who is still a popular artist over in New York) but they broke up a short time later and Dermot went on to front The New Virginians.
After a time with The Nashville Ramblers, a true country band fronted by Terry Mahon and Gregory Donaghey, Charlie was approached by Gerry Madigan (a brother of Lorna Madigan of RTÉ Radio) to join the Cotton Mill Boys.
In 1976, the Cotton Mill Boys won the massively popular Opportunity Knocks talent show, presented by Hughie Green and produced by Thames Television in the UK, for three weeks in a row. It catapulted the “Cottons”, as many referred to them, into the top league.
Two years later, they made a rare guest appearance on The Benny Hill Show which was drawing incredible audiences. “Benny Hill was huge in that era. We got a massive response to it at the time. It was unheard of for an Irish country band to have a part in one of those English comedy classics. It was as good as Eurovision at the time, we were all very young and we loved it,” recalls Charlie.
The Cotton Mills Boys, like The Hillbillies and The Smokey Mountain Ramblers, were regarded as the three most authentic country bands on the Irish circuit back in those times. Their albums sold in huge volumes and their front singers were Des Wilson, Tony Hughes and Gerry Madigan.
The Cottons had run their course by 1988 and the arrival of the pirate radio stations in the mid-1980s introduced a whole new era of singers to an audience who had been hugely neglected by radio stations in those times.
“John Hogan from Offaly came on the scene at that time and I spent 10 good years with John. After that, I worked with Jimmy Buckley for six years before spending two years with Robert Mizzell’s band and a year with Liam Mannering who lives nearby here in Athboy.
“Jimmy Buckley got back to me to see if I would rejoin his band and I have spent the last 13 years with Jimmy touring all over Ireland, the UK, and the annual trips to Spain.”
Charlie has been to Nashville and counted the late George Hamilton IV as among his special friends. “I played in Tootsie’s and Leonard’s Corner in Nashville and featured with George on the Make Mine Country series on BBC Northern Ireland. He brought me backstage at the Opry and gave me a few lovely tours around Nashville.”
Charlie Arkins meets country legend Buck Owens.
The famous Gertie Byrne Caribbean cruises have also been a special part of Charlie’s life. “I was just back from the February one a short time before the lockdown got underway. I did around nine of those with Gertie as well as several of her shows in the Catskill Mountains in up-state New York.”
Charlie’s most requested instrumentals over the decades have been The Orange Blossom Special, The Devil Went Down To Georgia, Faded Love and The Maiden’s Prayer. “I have never gone on stage without playing some of those four tunes.”
Jimmy Buckley says Charlie is not only an incredible musician but a true gentleman. “Charlie has now decided to retire from the band and take things a bit easier. Thank you for all the wonderful years and we wish you good health to enjoy your retirement.”
Demand for Charlie’s services remains high in the recording business and he is kept busy in his own studios doing tracks for many artists. He also plays harmonica and banjo. His son David operates another studio in Navan.
“There is no shortage of studio work at all and I am also working on an all-instrumental album of my own. I intend to do a small bit on the local scene when things get back to normal again but my days on the long road journeys are at an end.”
Read more
Country Sound: missing the music, but the people too
Country Sound: ‘My heart has always been in traditional country music’
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