Big Walter Price born 2 August1914

Big Walter Price (August 2, 1914 - March 8, 2012) was an American musician (piano, vocals) and songwriter of the Texas blues. Though he never had a national hit, he is often referred to as a blues legend. Walter himself did not see himself exclusively as a blues singer, he considered himself more versatile than that. 

Walter Travis Price was born in Gonzales, Texas and brought up by his aunt, who would beat him when he didn't pick enough cotton. He described his childhood in Gonzales as "horrible". Around the age of eleven, he moved to San Antonio and lived in big cities ever since. "I never have fooled with cotton no more". He received very little schooling ("first grade is as far as I ever went") and worked at all sorts of low-paying jobs until he got involved in music in the 1940s. That's when he began writing songs (all of Price's recordings are his own compositions) and learned to play the piano in the key of C. 

His first musical experience was with a gospel group called the Northern Wonders. He started playing barrelhouse swag and jive-talking blues, and in San Antonio, Junior Moore and Spot Barnett were the original Thunderbirds who made up the group.  Price was already in his early forties when he made his first records, for Bob Tanner's TNT label in San Antonio. Three TNT singles were released in 1955, the first of which, "Calling Margie", sold quite well locally. They were credited to "Big Walter and his Thunderbirds". Soon Price would call himself "Big Walter the Thunderbird". 

                                   

Later in 1955, Walter moved to Houston and joined his friend Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown at Don Robey's Peacock label. Of the five Peacock singles that were issued in 1956-57, the first two are the best known and also the strongest sellers. "Shirley Jean" sounds like an early swamp pop song and was later recorded by several "real" swamp pop artists from Louisiana. On "Pack Fair And Square" (clearly inspired by "Flip Flop And Fly"), Price was backed by a few members of Little Richard's band, the Upsetters (Grady Gaines, Clifford Burks, Nat Douglas). The song was revived in the 1970s by the J. Geils Band and Nine Below Zero. 

In 1958, Price recorded two singles for Eddie Shuler's Goldband label in Lake Charles, LA, "San Antonio" and "Oh Ramona". John Broven calls these records "good rumbustious efforts" in his book "South To Louisiana", but they failed to sell. In the 1960s Price saw further unsuccessful releases on several labels, including Myrl, Global, Tear Drop, and Jetstream. Big Walter’s biggest fan base was in Europe, where he felt at home. Germany had always welcomed him, and his fans sang along with him while he belted out his songs. 

The 1980s saw three Big Walter LP releases with previously unissued material (on Lunar, Ace and P-Vine), but according to Price, he never received any royalties. Four CD's issued between 1994 and 2003 but were considered as bootlegs by Big Walter. During his career, he appeared in the zombie movie Sugar Hill as the preacher (1974). He also worked as a disc jockey at KCOH radio station in Houston, and he owned a music store and the Dinosaur Publishing Company. 

Big Walter received twenty-six proclamations from the city of Houston, and June 6, 1989, was declared “Big Walter Day.” That same year he was honored as Artist of the Year at the Juneteenth Blues Festival. In 1998 Congresswoman Shelia Jackson-Lee presented his family with one more proclamation to “pay tribute to one of Houston’s best-known blues legends” and stated that Big Walter “found music to be a consolation for the troubles of life and strove to bring gospel and blues to others as a gift of the spirit.” 

He was always very bitter about the way he was treated by record companies and had been involved in several lawsuits. In spite of his lack of education, Price was always supremely confident. At his 90th birthday party in 2004, he launched the release of the first of four CD's issued with his authorization, on the Sons Of Sunshine label. These four CD's (46 tracks altogether) contain more or less his complete studio recordings. 

He died in a Houston Nursing Home, Texas March 8, 2012 aged 94 (though he claimed to be 97). 

(Edited from Texas State Historical Society & This Is My story) 

Paddy Moloney born 1 August 1938

Paddy Moloney (1 August 1938 – 12 October 2021) was an Irish musician, composer, and record producer. He co-founded and led the Irish musical group the Chieftains, playing on all of their 44 albums. He was particularly associated with the revival of the uilleann pipes. 

Moloney was born in Donnycarney, north Dublin, to John, an army sergeant and Catherine (nee Conroy), both of them were musicians, as were countless family members, especially those living near his maternal grandparents in Co Laois. Almost before he started at St Mary’s school, his mother recognised his musical talents and bought him a tin whistle. Paddy soon persuaded his parents to buy him a practice set of pipes, costing a whole week’s wages, and he enrolled at the school of music run by the master piper, Leo Rowsome. 

He made his public debut, aged eight, with fellow musicians in Phoenix Park, and was soon winning prizes at competitions. Still in short trousers, he played alongside piping greats such as Séamus Ennis and Willie Clancy and was soon a regular performer at Dublin’s Pipers’ club. After finishing school, Moloney accepted a position as an accountant for a major building firm, Baxendales. Music remained an important part of his life, however, as he balanced his accounting career with collaborations with such stellar Irish musicians as Sean Potts, Michael Tubridy, and Martin Fay. 

                                   

In the late '50s, Moloney began playing with Sean O'Riada, who subsequently formed a band, Ceoltoiri Cualann. In 1962, Moloney assembled several of the band's musicians, including Sean Potts, Mick Tubridy, Martin Fay, and Peadar Mercier to record an album entitled The Chieftains for Garech Browne’s new Claddagh record label, with Moloney arranging all the music. Intended as a one-time project, the album was so well received that the musicians agreed to continue as a more-formal ensemble. It was later followed by The Chieftains 2 (1969), then The Chieftains 3 and so on, right up to number 10 in 1980. There was a turnover of band members, but the central and dominating figure of Moloney ensured that the Chieftains’ winning style continued. 

The band did not perform in public until 1964 and only turned professional in the mid-1970s, so their initial reputation was based almost entirely on the recordings. The first album achieved almost cult status when featured by John Peel on his BBC Radio 1 Top Gear broadcasts, and when they did perform live, sometimes at pop festivals, their suits and ties made them unlikely targets for hippy adulation. But they and their music captivated audiences of all types and ages. 

Paddy with Paul McCartney

Browne enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and Moloney often performed at his parties, where he impressed friends such as Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger. During the post-production of Chieftains 2 at the Abbey Road studios, Moloney gained another Chieftains fan in Paul McCartney, who later invited Moloney to play on a couple of album tracks. Over the years, Moloney was sought after as a session or guest musician by artists such as Jagger, Dolly Parton, Stevie Wonder, Luciano Pavarotti and even The Muppets. 

Moloney continued to work at Baxendales until 1968 when he was hired to work for a new record label, Claddagh. During the five years that he worked for the label, he produced or co-produced more than four dozen albums by such Irish musicians as Paddy Taylor, Maire Ni Dhonnchadha, and Denis Murphy. The decision to turn professional came after a widely acclaimed concert in the Royal Albert Hall, London, on St Patrick’s night 1975. The same year, Moloney arranged numbers for the soundtrack of Stanley Kubrick’s film Barry Lyndon. Further film work included The Grey Fox (1982) and Treasure Island (1990), and Moloney also arranged the music for live performances by the band of a ballet version of The Playboy of the Western World. In 1988, Moloney received an honorary doctorate in music from Trinity College in Dublin. 

In 1979, the Chieftains played for Pope John Paul II and a million people in Phoenix Park, Dublin, and, with substantial international touring, it was no surprise that they became Ireland’s honorary musical ambassadors in 1989, later performing for the Queen and President Mary McAleese in 2011. Moloney received the Ohtli Award, Mexico's highest cultural award, on 13 September 2012. On 28 June of the following year, he and the other members of the Chieftains received the Castelao Medal by the Government of Galicia, Spain for services to Galician culture and society. He was named a Commander of the Order of Civil Merit in Spain four years later. 

The Chieftains’ last show, according to NPR, was an early St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Philadelphia in 2020 before the pandemic led to them canceling the rest of their tour. Moloney died suddenly at a hospital in Dublin on 12 October 2021, at the age of 83. His funeral was held on 15 October at St. Kevin's Church in Glendalough, followed by a burial at the adjoining cemetery. 

(Edited from Derek Schofield obit @ The Guardian & Wikipedia)