RONNIE MOORE

Born in Letterkenny, Co.Donegal. Mother Irish, father American – family returned to USA while I was a baby (my sister was born in New York 4 years earlier). Family returned to Donegal when I was seven. I started playing guitar at about age 16 with some guys who lived near me at the ‘foot of the town’ in Letterkenny.

My mother was a good artist and as a result, I spent a lot of time drawing, painting and making things. My father had been in the American army and was on a veterans pension so this is what we lived on. I went to boarding school in Dominican College, Eccles St., Dublin. This was like landing on an alien, hostile planet run by nuns. Suddenly there was absolutely no art, no music and I was subjected to rules and regulations that I never knew existed.

After secondary school I would like to have gone to art college but as I had not done art at school, I did not think this was an option. Little did I know at this time that later on I would spent over twenty years of my life working as a professional watercolour artist, self taught. Instead I went to UCD and completed a degree in Psychology and also a higher diploma in Education. I was interested in career guidance but could not afford to do another year. (four years ago I fulfilled this ambition by doing a post grad diploma in guidance counselling at the university of Limerick).

I met and married Gerry and we lived in Dublin, then Kildare and finally moved to Kerry in the 80’s. We have two daughters, Julianne and Katy. It was only after Julianne was born that I began to move towards a career as an artist. Beginning part time, I eventually moved towards full time and exhibited in various galleries in Dublin, Galway, Cork and Kerry. Although I always played my guitar and wrote bits and pieces of songs, it wasn’t until moving to Kerry that I met other people involved in playing music. Getting more and more into song writing, I began to win various awards – the Sean Mccarthy Ballad writing competition and the Dunlaoghaire song contest. Then I met Joan Greene. She began a singing club and it was here that we met Brighid. We have since used the analogy of three rivers that had been running underground finally coming together in a deep well.

BRIGHID DALY

My earliest memories of music was of my father turning the handle on an old gramaphone on the windowsill of our kitchen. I imagine it was either Bridie Gallagher or Josef Locke. My first singing lesson was a joint effort between my parents: my father in the role of teacher providing the song, the encouragement and the enthusiasm; and my mother provided the key. Music was the glue of our home, the one shared love without exception.

My next teacher was the headmistress of my boarding school. Her commitment to the advancement of her all Irish speaking school, was seconded only by her passion for Irish music. She conducted a choir and I had both the fortune and misfortune of being chosen to play the lead solo in Sean 0'Riada's mass. Apart from the ear piece to my forbidden pocket radio which connected me to Radio Luxembourg top 20 twice weekly, music remained my secret medicine, but
singing itself became a frightening and stressful part of life.

Art College followed boarding school and my singing surfaced in a new and liberated community of artists and performers. Singing became part of life as did the late night pubs.

New York City became home to my twenties, where a little band called closing time took form for a short spell as a method of saving money to travel. During this time, the full feast of american folk, country, blues and rock became one of the delights of living there.

I returned to Galway Ireland in 1992, where I trained as a psycho-therapist and supervisor, and joined a singing trio simply to keep singing as part of my life. All through the years as a practicing therapist, I have used singing as a technique for changing my mood when necessary between sessions. If a client's session left me with feelings of sadness or frustration, the power of song enabled me to clear my mind in order to prepare for the next client session.

In my on-going journey of healing and discovery, it became clear, on my return to Kerry, that one of the greatest losses of my life was the ability to sing in the presence of others without fear. I elected this as my next adventure in my journey to personal fulfillment. The Milltown Cafe was my next port of call where Joan and Ronnie were beginning a singer's club.

The rest is collective history and continues to be the amazing story, exciting story of Deeper Well.

JOAN GREENE

Joan  Greene is from Killarney. The eldest of five, she was born into a busy restaurant/B&B. Her passion for music and singing saw her in the backyard of her family's High Street premises with empty bisciut tins, kazoos, spoons and anything else that could possibly create sound. Joan and her siblings, as a kind of family band, often provided entertainment for visitors and tourists, much to the collective embarrasment of all.
 
Joan's father had a beautiful baritone singing voice, while her mother had gifts as an actress who often entertained the rest of the family with her one-woman impromtu performances, which had everybody howling with laughter or shaking with fear. Not so amusing was her insistence that the children all learn the Foxtrot, Quickstep and Two-Step to the sounds of Glenn Miller!   
    
Today the biscuit tins are gone, replaced by congas, bodhran, and a voice that glides effortlessly from jazzy blues to folk, trad to opera. Although Joan's career has been mainly in the  hospitality industry, with cooking and food a passion that simply will not go away, singing is and always has been a major source of joy and pleasure for her: from the Friary choir, Tops of the Town, to Sister Rupert, to the Kerry Chamber Choir, Rachel Dempsey's Global Harmonies, the Kerry Mantra Choir, solo one-woman shows like "The Last Concubine". One of Joan's most memorable shows was singing at the launch of artist Pauline Bewick's exhibition in Dublin.
 
Joan's travels to the far corners of the world have fed her passion for World Music of all kinds. She has found singing to be the easiest way to communicate with all the cultures she encountered, and she continues to maintain a strong interest in ethno-musicology. 

Perhaps best known for her  year's at the Deenagh Lodge, Killarney, where she created a thriving cafe and Arts space, with theatre performances, art exhibitions and music shows. Later moving to Milltown, she established the well-known "Caife Beag", combining her love of cooking with establishing a regular Singing Club. It was there that the seeds were sown which lead to the emergence of "Deeper Well", with the beautiful  music and singing of Ronnie and Bridget.
 
The journey continues......

Jimmy Canty

Born in Hammersmith, London, moved to Tralee, Co.Kerry in the early seventies. Self taught,music career began playing electric bass with Victor McCulloch ( brother of Henry McCulloch who played with Paul McCartney & Wings and founder member of Stagalee ) in The Abbey Inn in Tralee.

In 1985 formed Crescendo with local jazz musicians including trombone and guitar player Joe Boylan. Left in 1989 to join guitarist Junior Coffey in rock group Shaving Moses, supporting among others Emotional Fish and The Dixons in the famous Baggott Inn, Dublin. In 1992 joined Draiocht with vocalist Mary Regan. Signed in 1994 to CBM records, Draiocht recorded two albums, both selling well in Europe and America.

Played many times with Irish world renowned jazz guitarist Louis Stewart, aswell as other Irish jazz greats such as pianist Noel Keelahan, pianists Phil Ware and Jim Doherty, tenor sax player Richie Buckley and pianist and drummer Miles Drennan. Joined Deeper Well in May 2008, playing on their first album ''Deeper Well Live''

Karolien Verhayn

Karolien is a professional freelance percussionist who accomplished her training at the Muziek Conservatorium, Mechelen, Belgium, where she studied classical pieces for drums, marimba and timpani since the age of 10.

In Belgium she played in orchestra’s, percussion ensembles and later set up her own rock band where she played drums.

In 2000 she moved to Ireland where she has been playing with singer/songwriters, latin bands, rock bands and traditional musicians ever since. In 2001 she bought her first set of bongos and travelled to Cuba in 2007 to extend her knowledge on this instrument. She worked with Dancer in Residence, Maggie Harvey in 2004 and with Danny Houlihan for The Rose of Tralee in 2007.

Apart from playing with ‘Deeper Well’, she also plays drums, percussion and does backing vocals with ‘Coney Joe’ and leads the community samba band ‘Cé-Samba?!’ in Cahirciveen.