Singer-songwriter Jim Sharkey is an Irish and Americana folk musician. Jim grew up in County Roscommon, Ireland, and came to the US in 1982 when he joined the US Navy in London, England. He spent five years as a photographer on the USS Dixon in San Diego, California, and ten years working in television and video production in North Carolina and Maine. Later he taught children with special needs but decided to pursue music full-time in 2014. He plays around Virginia, North and South Carolina, Maryland, and Washington DC, accompanying himself on guitar, harmonica, and bodhran (Irish drum). Jim's original songs blend Celtic traditional ballad influences with contemporary issues that are often set in the area he resides. The title track of his second CD “Sweet Anne's Road” deals with the effects of the war in Afghanistan on a young couple from the rural area of Copper Hill, Virginia. “The Campaign Song” also included on that CD was written after Neil Young asked Donald Trump to stop using his song “Rockin' in the Free World” for Trump's campaign. The Christy Moore influence is clear in the song with a nod to Christy's "Welcome to the Cabaret". “The Plight of the Yazidis” is a song to help raise awareness of the massacre of the Yazidis in Iraq who were mercilessly hunted down by Isis in 2014. Jim's third CD, “Misty Morning Rain” carries on the songwriting tradition in speaking to life's ordinary joys and travails that began on his last recording, "Sweet Anne's Road". Jim's other CD "Black is the Color" is the first he produced and is a recording of traditional Irish songs. It was released in 2015.
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