Dennis Cahill – Litir ó do Chara, which will be screened on TG4 this Sunday night is an intimate portrait of the master guitarist from Chicago, who died last year.

It explores Dennis’s work with legendary fiddler Martin Hayes as well as his role in the ground-breaking supergroup The Gloaming.

Opening with a poignant letter from Martin to his late fried, the film examines Dennis’s roots in jazz and rock and explores how his accompaniment style helped shape the course of Irish music.

Interviews with Dennis’s wife, Mary Joyce, and his musical friends reveal a shy and considered man with a sharp wit, a deep understanding of music and a special love of photography. Martin Hayes brings viewers on a musical voyage to East Clare and to his family home outside Feakle where Dennis based himself during European tours. Iarla Ó Lionáird is in Corca Dhuibhne in the West Kerry Gaeltacht to discuss emigration, loss of language and Dennis’s connection with this spectacular landscape through his parents, who had emigrated from there. Iarla also braves the wild weather to sing Ar Éirinn Ní Neosfainn Cé Hí.

The documentary has performances from guitar legends Steve Cooney, Séamie O’Dowd and John Doyle, while American fiddler and composer Liz Carroll gives a flavour of Chicago with a high-tempo performance of her compositions, alongside Seán Óg Graham of the group Beoga.

There are also contributions from fellow Gloaming member Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Kerry concertina player Cormac Ó Beaglaoich, and a tribute from singer Niamh Parsons with guitarist Graham Dunne, performing Andy Irvine’s song West Coast of Clare.

Born in Chicago in 1954. Dennis identified himself as an American, not an Irish-American. But this guitarist with passion for jazz and popular music eventually tuned into Irish music.

Chicago fiddler Liz Carroll who met Dennis while they were in college, describes him as “a kind and gentle soul . . . . a friend for what seems like my entire musical life.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

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