Art Form: Irish fiddling and melodeon playing

Location(s): Redford (Wayne County)

Mick Gavin

Mick Gavin

Mick Gavin with his 2018 Michigan Heritage Award at the Lansing Eastside Folklife Festival, photo by Eat Pomegranate Photography

Mick Gavin playing the fiddle

Mick Gavin performing at the 2018 Lansing Eastside Folklife Festival, photo by Eat Pomegranate Photography

Mick Gavin was born in Meelick, County Clare, Ireland, in 1945. His musical education started early, beginning with learning the melodeon from his father Tom and later the fiddle from local players Con Foley and Jim Sullivan. He moved to the United States in 1974 to be part of the burgeoning folk music scenes in Boston and Chicago, eventually finding a home in Detroit the following year. Mick got right to work enriching and promoting the Irish scene in the area, becoming involved in the Gaelic League of Detroit. He started multiple jams in the region, including the longest running session in the state at Conor O’Neill’s in Ann Arbor.

Aside from opportunities for locals to come together and play, Gavin organized concerts with Irish music luminaries from around the country, including fiddlers Liz Carroll and Martin Hayes. He has mentored many young musicians who now perform themselves, like his sons Michael (tenor banjo and fiddle) and Sean (flute, Uillean pipes). His students have gone on to win national and international contests, and include GRAMMY nominated artists Tyler Duncan and Jeremy Kittel. Gavin brings students and family together each December for two nights of performances at the Ark in Ann Arbor, an event called Crossroads Ceili.

As nominator Steve Rohs writes, “Mick is either a host or guiding light at many of the sessions in southeast Michigan, where a wide range of players perform informally… Mick’s skill as a fiddler and melodeon player is outstripped by the influence he has had among Irish musicians in Detroit and around the state.” Gavin was inducted in the Midwest Region Comhaltas Ceoltiori Eireann Irish Music Hall of Fame in 2003, and the Michigan Irish American Hall of Fame in 2019.

- Micah Ling, 2018