The sound of the dulcet tones of recently deceased Askeaton based singer and musician is set to live on following the recent release of a ten track CD. ‘Buddy Dalton’ featuring the late Michael Buddy Dalton was launched recently and is on sale in outlets locally, with the entire proceeds going to the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, Adare Day Care Services.
Buddy Dalton passed away last Christmas Eve following a seventeen year battle with dementia.
Produced by Sony, the CD features Buddy in his heyday with some of the country’s leading showbands doing such numbers as ‘All Shook Up’, ‘The Wonder of You’, ‘That’s Alright Mama’ and ‘Hucklebuck’ among others.
Michael ‘Buddy ‘Dalton was born into a Listowel musical family and started to learn the piano at the age of five. He got his first guitar at the age of 15 and within a short time he was on stage as a member of his father’s well known and popular Bunny Dalton Showband.
The big time beckoned quickly for the rising star and in 1969 he was invited to join one of the country’s leading showbands, the Capital which at the time featured among others Paddy Cole. It was the start of almost a decade with some of the iconic names in the showband business at the time. After a couple of years with the Capitol, the now Dublin based Kerryman played up and down the country with Pat Ely and the Smokey Mountain Ramblers, Dermot Henry and the Virginians and the Paddy Cole Superstars, a band that included Twink as lead vocalist.
In 1977 Michael Buddy Dalton turned his back on the big band scene and returned to Askeaton near the former home of his wife Noelle who is a native of nearby Ballysteen. There he purchased the Castle Grill in the town which he was to run for fifteen years.
He first formed the Buddy Dalton Trio and quickly became popular in the local music scene. Following the emigration of two of the trio, he formed a local quartet Flashback which again became very big on the local scene. Buddy, Willie McCarthy, the late John McCarthy and Eddie O’Shaughnessy made up the quartet.
In 1997 at the age of 53, Buddy was diagnosed with alcohol related dementia. “It was the second time going for treatment and after about a week, the doctors were able to tell that there was a major problem with his memory loss, they hoped that he might recover but he did not and that was the beginning of a long sad journey for me and his family,” Noelle explained. He continued to play music entertaining patients at the Alzheimer’s Day Centre in Adare and at Abbott Close Nursing Home, Askeaton where he was to become a full time resident in 2010.
“Caring for a loved one with dementia is very difficult if it is a parent in later years or if it is your spouse as with me. You are dealing with losing the one you love and coping with the anger and frustration that is part of dementia. When losing the one you love little by little getting help was my main focus,” said Noelle who lovingly cared for Buddy for seventeen years during his battle with the condition.
The entire proceeds will go to the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland, Adare Day Centre which offers a wide range of services to patients including day care services, where patients are brought to the centre and returned home, seven hours a day, Monday to Friday and are cared for in a warm friendly and safe environment. The centre also provides home care services all around west Limerick.
Noelle, her son Mike, daughter Yvonne and grandchildren Amy, Nathan and Callum would like to thank all the businesses who have agreed to sell the CD, which is on sale for just €10.
It is available at Centra, Top of the Town, Shana-hans, Sheahan’s Corner Shop, Kate’s Kloset and Mags Hair Salon in Askeaton, at Reidy’s Centra, Kelly’s Super-market and the Foynes Inn in Foynes, the Coach Inn, Kilcornan, D.& M Garden Centre, Croagh. They can also be purchased in Newcastle West at Eilo’s Kitchen, Sheahan’s Super-market, and Marguerite’s Bakery and Restaurant, in Shanagolden at Costcutters and Mace Supermarkets, in Adare at the Alzheimer Day Care Centre, in Rathkeale at the Black Lion Bar in Abbeyfeale, at Scanlon’s Decor Pallas-kenry Costcutters, in Glin at Costcutters and also in Kildimo.