Music Matters: Sabrina Fallon
The annual Concert for Carers in support of Family Carers Ireland takes place at the end of March in the Greville Arms Hotel, Mullingar. Sabrina Fallon, one of the performers, answered our ‘Music Matters’ questions.
What is your favourite album?
I suppose it would be Neil Young – he is my all time favourite artist in the world so, Silver and Gold by Neil Young, that would be my first. Probably the most profound album for me that changed my life was Alannis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill.
What song do you wish you had written?
I wouldn’t really think that. There’s no song I wish I’d written because the artists that wrote those songs are what made them magic. I could say I’d love to write all the big hits to make all the money, but that’s not the case. I’ve written a few songs and I’m happy with them.
I don’t really wish that I wrote anybody else’s special music because it comes from their artistic heart, so no I wouldn’t take from that, no.
What song are you most proud of?
That’s easy yeah, We Walk with Love. I wrote it for my parents. They’re madly in love. I wrote it for their 50th wedding anniversary. They still hold hands and dress in the same colours and they’re madly in love… that’s 55 years on now.
Which band from any era would you love to have been a member of?
I’m always going to revert back to Neil Young. Leonard Cohen’s band as well – Leonard Cohen, Neil Young.
What’s your guiltiest musical pleasure?
When I’m pumping it in the gym, it’s always 70s and 80s. It depends on my mood, I’ll put on Lyric FM a lot at home when I’m looking to chill, it depends on what I’m doing.
If I’m on a road trip with my daughter, we’re blaring out the tunes as well. We love Fleetwood Mac. So I’m not just stuck on country, I would appreciate all genres.
Most memorable gig you’ve ever been to?
Neil Young, I’m totally obsessed with him. I went to his ranch in California and tried to hop the gate and get in to him because I wrote a song and I wanted him to put a melody to it.
I was at Garth Brooks lately in Ireland and that was profound. That was magic – and Bruce Springsteen, so concerts, if we’re talking huge ones, you know, Garth Brooks and then I was at Smokie one time with my mammy and we just had a ball.
What is the most memorable gig you’ve ever played?
There’s been a few but you know what touched me in my soul, it hasn’t happened often but when my little daughter came up on stage and sang with me, that would be very special.
And also when I sang at a concert, I sang the song I wrote for my parents and they were in the audience and my dad had been really unwell for a couple of years, so it was really profound.
What is your biggest musical inspiration?
My Daddy, he’s amazing. All my family are musical, they’re all in bands and they all play. My brother would drum with Joe Dolan and my dad would have drummed with Larry Cunningham.
When I see my daddy, and I see him listening to music still and watching it, and he’s just constantly watching instruments, and watching bands.
He knows every guitar player way back in the 70s, where they’re from and who they are. He has such a passion for it.
Who is Westmeath’s greatest ever musician?
Joe Dolan. Definitely. He’s 100 miles away from anyone.
I got to meet him a few times and when you saw him get on the stage, I mean there’s something that some people have and other people just don’t have, and Joe had it in bulk.
If you could only listen to five songs for the rest of your life what would they be?
You see, I latch on to a song and I’m obsessive about listening to it.
So, Old Man, By Neil Young and Secret Life by Leonard Cohen, that just gives me goosebumps.
Silver and Gold by Neil Young as well.
I love Let the Mystery Be by Iris De Ment.
Mississippi by Bob Dylan, I guess. I love singing that.
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