Gussie was the last surviving of the Russell brothers, he was pre deceased by his brothers Packie and Micho.
His death means in many ways the end of an era, he was one of the last survivors of his generation. In the Doolin area there's still John Killoughery playing the whistle, hale and hearty as ever .
Gussie was a quiet man, shy to the point of being reclusive. Yet he could be very talkative if you gave him time. One time he filled my ears with stories of Johnny Doran and the travelling musicians that came to Doolin while I was playing the pipes, it was easier for him to talk that way.
He wasn't the best known musician of his family, yet I rarely saw a tune come by he didn't have. He had a remarkably wide interest in music. During Willie Clancy weeks he'd come down from Doonagore on his motorbike and stand in the street, observing and listening to musicians from as far afield as Nepal and Japan, mesmerized and intrigued by their strange music.
Bill Ochs visited me last March, he had spent some time with Gussie earlier that day and he told me Gussie had been in hospital to receive treatment for liver cancer, that he was on the way out.
Last time I came across him was a few months ago on a lonely beach under the Cliffs of Moher on the Liscannor side. There had been a storm and he drove the bike down the coastroad to see, like myself, what had washed up. He looked old and not well, we greeted briefly and awkwardly as usual. Shy people on a lonely road.
It's sad he's gone.
his music will live on in many hearts
