Love of Celtic music driving force for Hooley

The motto of the band Hooley is to bring the music they love to as many people as they can and have a lot of fun doing it. The Hoover-based group has done just that for over 20 years, playing Celtic music in Alabama and around the Southeast. 

Their band chose the name Hooley because it means an Irish party, usually with music. The band features four members who all sing and play instruments including the uilleann and highland pipes, guitar, fiddle, whistle, bodhran and Irish bouzouki.

It was 1996 when Trent Bradford, a music teacher in Birmingham City Schools, met Paul Merryman, who worked with the strings department at BCS. They then met Rick Cunningham, an accordion player, who also knew fiddle player Darci Jones. The group, originally named Craicers, played together for a year and a half before parting ways. 

“I took Paul to the side and told him there seemed to be a lot of work in this town for people wanting to hear Irish and Scottish music,” Bradford said. “He was reluctant, and I told him I was going to do this with or without him.” 

The rest is history. Working steadily together since playing their first gig in December 1999, the band has been through marriages, divorces and births of children, and they have stuck together through it all. 

“The reason the band has stayed together is because musically, none of us are really pushy,” said Bradford. “We all have ideas and we present them and are pretty open to doing whatever we want to do, musically speaking. It’s our love of Celtic music that drives everyone.”

Over the years, as band members have moved away and returned, other musicians have filled in when needed, but the original four eventually found themselves back together in 2010. 

“Darci moved to Alaska, Rick came back into town,” Bradford said. “It was me, Paul and Rick for about a year and Rick left about the time Darci moved back and we added Mickey Hicks. We were a three-piece band until 2016 when Mickey got involved.”

Now playing around 20 to 25 shows per year, their busiest time is definitely the week of St. Patrick’s Day, followed by Christmas. Birmingham is home to several Scottish societies, and Hooley plays regularly for their events, along with local spots like Brennan’s on Southside. The band also plays weddings, funerals, home concerts and more. In addition to their traditional Irish songs, Hooley incorporates some pop tunes from artists like Prince, Weezer and Tom Petty. 

“The Celtic community is thriving here in Birmingham, most everyone knows everyone and there’s always a party or event happening to keep the music going,” Bradford said.

Hooley has played all over the Southeast and traveled as far as the Highland Games at Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina. They’ve also played other Highland games, as well as the Kentuck Festival, City Stages and numerous festivals around Alabama and the Southeast. 

For their day jobs, Bradford is still a music teacher in Birmingham City Schools and plays bagpipes with a group at Ross Bridge, Mickey works for Blue Cross and in music ministry in his church, Paul is an instructor with the Strings Opportunity Program and Darci is a full-time fiddle instructor. 

For any band, 20 years is a huge accomplishment.

“We rehearse every other week and work on ideas outside of rehearsal,” Bradford said. Most of our rehearsals aren’t really intense. “We do all the work outside of rehearsal and then put it together. We don’t see each other all the time and don’t get on each other’s nerves.”

While many traditional bands sit in chairs for their performance, Bradford had the idea for Hooley to stand up while they played. 

“I felt like it presented more energy to our audience and gives us more energy to keep them engaged,” Bradford said. “The audience can only take so much of jigs and reels, and I think being able to adapt and change as the years have gone by has helped us to stay relative and keep people’s interest.”

Over St. Patrick’s Day, the band got around 2,000 new likes on their Facebook page. Bradford said technology is one of the reasons they have been able to reach out to so many people. 

Their upcoming events include a show at Brennan’s on Southside on May 4 and an event in Springville on June 6. Visit their website or social media for more information: hooley.online and facebook.com/hooleymusicbham.