Christie Hennessy

Irish singer/songwriter Christie Hennessy was born into a large family of five sisters and three brothers living in the busy Irish town of Tralee. Growing up with household jam sessions as a regular occurrence and his mother's colloquial storytelling, Christie was born to be a songwriter. Thanks to his mother and father's vocal and accordion duet, traditional Irish repertoire was standard fare in the Hennessy household. On the other side of the spectrum, Christie was apprenticed on drums as his first instrument by Henry Curtin, a veteran of Frank Sinatra's band. He developed a deep love for jazz and blues, weaned on Curtin's Robert Johnson records. Like his father and the rest of his brothers and sisters, Christie left early on for England in search of work. Playing gigs in Liverpool at night, during the day Hennessy did just about every manner of manual labor imaginable in order to make ends meet. Many years of songwriting, performing, and honing his craft later, Hennessy released his debut record in 1992. The 1992 release The Rehearsal outsold U2 in Ireland, eventually achieving double platinum status. The outstanding success of his first effort was followed by well-attended national tours and similarly popular follow-up releases. Beginning with A Year in the Life and ending with Box, Hennessy had a good run with Warner Music before switching to MVine, his inaugural release for the independent London label entitled Stories for Sale. Hennessy's work with the Irish charity Children in Crossfire inspired the hit single "A Price for Love," written after a trip to Kenya. To commemorate Hennessy's earning four platinum albums over the course of his recording career, MVine released The Platinum Collection in 2007. Christie Hennessy lives in London and continues to write and perform regularly. ~ Evan C. Gutierrez, Rovi