Charles O’Hegarty

From the liner notes of O’Hegarty’s recently released album, The More I Travel:

“In the early 1960’s a young British folksinger from London read about the budding folk boom in the USA and wanted a piece of the action. As he and his wife already had travelled through Europe, the Middle East and Africa they didn’t hesitate to pack up and go. So, this folksinger added an “O” to his name and became Charles O’Hegarty.  Charles and Anna arrived in Canada in 1963 and stayed until early 1965. Then they entered the USA, lived in San Francisco and Los Angeles before they crossed the whole country to go to New York. By then it was early autumn of 1965 when Charles became part of the Greenwich Village scene – and continued to do so until 1970.

“This is a very brief sketch of Charles O’Hegarty’s life in the 1960’s – and if you have a “in the right place at the right time”-notion you’re absolutely correct. Charles connected to several important folk scenes in Canada and the USA, played the Berkeley Folk Music Festival and many famous folk clubs of the day, recorded a folk-rock single for Verve-Folkways and became a singer-songwriter with his own repertoire.

“But nowadays only a few people remember Charles O’Hegarty (who died in 2010). And he’s not a household name in the annals of 60’s folk music – obviously due to the lack of available recordings. Through our association with John Townley we here at the Lollipoppe Shoppe got to hear three unreleased songs by Charles, recorded by John at his Apostolic Studio in 1969. These wonderfully written and sublimely arranged originals cried out to be released – so we started to dig deeper in the hope of finding enough material for a whole LP. Now, after two years of work we can present a retrospective LP+CD-set of 60’s studio- and live-recordings by Charles O’Hegarty, gathered together from six different sources, recorded between 1964 and 1970. Of the 16 tracks on the LP only one has been previously released – and the CD includes seven additional tracks (also unissued).

“With this release – organized in collaboration with Anna and Marika Hegarty – we hope to set the record straight and put Charles O’Hegarty back on the map of 1960’s folksingers/singer-songwriters.”

From a Facebook post by John Townley:

“Ah, perfect timing, out today at last an album of my dear friend and sometime bandmate, Isle-Of-Dogs-born Charles O’Hegarty. A former Royal Marine, Charles made his way to the States as a traditional singer and remarkable songwriter, and despite a long career on both sides of the Pond, as a solo, and part of The Apostolic Family and of maritime groups The Starboard List and The Press Gang, never gained the renown he deserved during his lifetime. Now Lollipoppe Shoppe in Berlin has released an LP/CD/booklet package to document and celebrate his work. He was a jewel then and the intimate urgency of his songs still abides – go listen to the first three tracks, recorded at Apostolic Studios, and you’ll see what I mean.”

The YouTube video, linked below, features him live at Tom O’Reilly’s on Lexington Avenue & The Eagle Tavern on W. 14th St. NYC in 1980.