Hammond organ player Liam Kealy has been entertaining music lovers for decades.
He’s played alongside some of Australia and the world’s best, but for him, it was never really a choice.
“I couldn’t do anything else; it keeps me alive, I guess,” Kealy said.
“Just for the soul… (music) is a massive journey. It’s just something I have to do.”
Growing up in Ballarat, Kealy picked up the bass guitar early, joining his first gigging band – art-punk band The Fat Thing – at age 12.
He moved to join the Melbourne scene as early as he could, living in sharehouses and playing bass with an Irish band.
“I’d never played Irish music before… but I didn’t want to get a job,” Kealy said.
“We toured Ireland, Singapore. We were working four nights a week, so I was making a fairly decent living out of it.
“But I was always fascinated by the Hammond organ. I had a family friend called ‘The Reverend’, Mick O’Connor, and I used to go watch him play.
“I got him to source a Hammond organ and pretty much taught myself from there. I joined a blues band and I’ve been on that journey ever since.”
Since then, Kealy has led his own combos and played as sideman and session player to some of Australia’s best artists, as well as the occasional international legend such as renowned bluesman Chris Cain.
Next weekend his band Burning B3 Trio return for their second date at The Green Room in Geelong West, after packing out the venue for their first gig there in July.
Featuring guitarist Sammy Owen and drummer Tony Martin, the trio brings a classic Hammond combo sound with a range of jazz, blues and funk tunes.
Kealy, who relocated to the Bellarine seven years ago, said more than a decade of playing together meant the trio’s music was “like a conversation”.
“It’s a trust thing, we just know each other,” he said.
“Even if someone makes a mistake, it goes somewhere special; it’s not really a mistake, it’s just a different road we take.
“When you get a good trio like this one, you can just get in the zone and it’s endless.”
Burning B3 Trio are at The Green Room on Sunday, September 21.
