full bio

TERRY BOYLE  - Singer, songwriter, entertainer, guitar/mandolin player,

 THE SINGER:

Terry Boyle comes from Dublin, Ireland where he grew up playing guitar and singing during the folk boom. As a member of the successful folk band “Tipsy Sailor”, Terry made numerous radio and television appearances and played at some of the biggest festivals in Ireland including Lisdoonvarna and Ballyshannon. The band also toured in France, Germany, Belgium and Holland.

 Terry then took his talents to North America where for six years, mostly in the Boston area, but also in New York, Vermont and Austin, TX., he continued as a solo artist as well as with the infamous band “The Buskers”. During a return home to Ireland, Terry was captured and taken as a souvenir to Canada and now lives in Ladysmith, B.C.

Terry has appeared numerous times on local TV and radio, played Butchart Gardens, Duncan’s music festival “39 Days of July”, been the feature performer at Sooke Folk Club, Cowichan Folk Guild, Nanaimo Folk Connection as well as performing at many house concerts up and down Vancouver Island.

 THE SONGS:

Terry has a large repertoire of mostly Irish folk songs with several in Gaelic, a language he began learning at age four and which he speaks quite fluently. His folk influences are varied and include The Dubliners, The Clancy Brothers, Planxty, Bothy Band, Moving Hearts, Christy Moore, Leonard Cohen, Martin Carthy, Neil Young, Paul Simon and many more.

 His original songs tell stories of lives and loves lost and sometimes regained, of quirky adventures and situations some with a catchy chorus, which invites the audience to join in. One music writer has compared his song writing and delivery to Al Stewart (“Year of the Cat”, “Time Passages”). There is a mixture of folk, blues, country, - a touch of something for everyone.

 2004 Terry’s song “Ladysmith-Jewel of the Island” was chosen in competition as the town’s official song for it’s centennial celebration.

 2016 he was also commissioned to write and perform a song for the Saltair area to coincide with a major community initiative. It was cleverly titled “The Saltair Song”.

THE RECORDINGS:

Terry has an album “Doolin” of traditional folk songs, which he will re-master and release in Canada in the near future.

The eponymous “Terry Boyle” CD of original songs featuring artists such as John Reischman, Pat Coleman, Bill Hicks is available through CD Isle or by contacting Terry directly.

”Life’s Too Short” recorded in 2018, an EP of 7 original songs featuring the fiddle excellence of Ceilidh Briscoe (Riverdance World Tour 2017-2018) is mixture of madness and sadness, containing Celtic and world music influences.

 THE ARTIST:

I’ve always been singing. As a kid I used to sing myself to sleep, sometimes late into the night when I would get shushed by my parents. Nowadays, (mostly) to the amusement of my wife or the (definite, eye-rolling) dismay of either of my sons, I’m liable to break into song at any moment, at home or in public. So again, I get shushed fairly regularly.

There always seems to be a song floating around in my head, which explains my somewhat erratic gait, once described as that of a farmer walking through a ploughed field in over-sized wellies. Whatever… I walk to the beat.

 When I was about fourteen I took up guitar and simultaneously gave up hurling. (Not that sort of hurling - check out the field sport on YouTube). I decided I needed my fingers intact if I was to make any progress. By that time I also decided that I didn’t fancy dressing up in women’s clothing and singing Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Gondoliers” in broken falsetto, as part of my Boys Only secondary school career.

There was a vibrant folk club scene in Dublin at the time where songs, tunes and guitar cords were generously exchanged, transformed and presented anew. I loved walking all over Dublin to the various pubs and late house sessions. I played in a four-piece ballad group and later as a duo, before joining Tipsy Sailor.

Then I moved to Doolin, a tiny fishing village on the west coast of County Clare with more sheep than people. I played music and sang seven nights a week, and did commercial fishing for crab and lobster during the day as well as playing for the local Gaelic Football team. The village and area was a mecca for Irish traditional music and that was when I recorded my first album of songs. The rest, as they say, is a story unfolding.

I sing every day … somewhere. I try to write everyday… somehow. I would love to perform for you… sometime.

Sweet music roll on.