Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Canadian musician Erin Leahy of Leahy Music group to the newsmakers line to talk about growing up in music.
(Leahy Music plays)
Leahy: And that beautiful voice belongs to Erin Leahy of the Canadian musical group, Leahy who joins us right now on our newsmaker line. Good morning, Erin.
Erin Leahy: Good morning, Michael.
Leahy: It’s so great to talk with you. You live in Montreal.
Erin Leahy: I do.
Leahy: And most of your family lives in Ontario. When last we met when first we met Erin it was here on February 28 last year at the Franklin Theater. You and the other members of the Leahy musical group gave a sold-out performance at Franklin Theater was a spectacular evening and everybody really enjoyed it. We’re trying to get you back down again.
Erin Leahy: Oh, that would be wonderful. I was just recently reading an article about the opening and closing of the border. So hopefully that all turns around shortly and we’d love to get back.
Leahy: Well, I was talking with your brother yesterday Frank. Frank Leahy the drummer of the musical group Leahy and we have a plan. and will enlist your aid in that plan. If you talk to the Canadian Prime Minister, (Chuckles) I’ll talk to the American administration and together I think the Leahy’s in Canada and the Leahy’s in the United States will help open that border again.
Erin Leahy: (Chuckles) Good plan.
Leahy: So Erin, tell us a little bit about growing up in the musical family Leahy. For those listeners here, we are likely distant cousins. The Leahy clan if you will, I think originated in Tipperary County, Ireland. Many of them and I think your branch of the Leahy family left Tipperary and went to Cork County for a bit. Then went from there in the 1820s with the Peter Robinson settlers in Ontario.
Your family has lived there ever since. My family my side stayed in Tipperary. And then in the 1840s ended up in Hemmingford, Quebec. They bought a farm there of about 100 acres, 60 miles south of where you currently reside. But tell us about what it was like growing up. How many brothers and sisters you have and how music came to play such a great role in your life.
Erin Leahy: Well, I have 10 brothers and sisters. So 11 in total. And I would be number 10 in that line. We grew up on a beef cattle farm and our parents were both musicians and they were very clever. At some point early on they decided to remove the television from the house so that would have been when there were four children. And that was a key component. So our lives were virtually working on the farm, going to school, learning music, and playing sports. And Lakefield is about two hours away from Toronto.
It has a really big center. But it’s a really nice area that allowed us to not only live on a farm and live in a small community, an Irish settlement but also have access to places like Toronto and the United States for our musical careers. We didn’t realize I guess at the time that it was a little bit unusual in our life, which was this combination between a musical career and farming rural life. But it was really a great one and has been.
Leahy: So you’ve been playing the piano and other instruments and singing since literally since you were born as part of a group, right?
Erin Leahy: Yes, because our parents not only do they play but they would have friends over to play at times. And they had a band. And so we grew up hearing them play. But also in my case hearing my older brothers and sisters play as well. And again not having that television in the house meant we had to create our own entertainment.
And so it really was an environment of osmosis in that you couldn’t avoid picking up music by hearing it and by feeling the rhythm. And by having to do it as a child in terms of profession too that was different but it was a good thing.
Leahy: When we come back, the American debut of Little Moon, a song I think you wrote Erin.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Erin Leahy” by Erin Leahy.
