Barney used GDAE tuning on a 19-fret tenor banjo, an octave below fiddle/mandolin and, according to musician Mick Moloney, was single-handedly responsible for making the GDAE-tuned tenor banjo the standard banjo in Irish music.
He gained early fame as a member of Irish group The Johnstons and The Emmet Spiceland but has since performed and recorded with a variety of groups and individuals, including Eugene O'Donnell and Séamus Egan, and Marie & Martin Reilly; he also worked closely with The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem.
Mick Jagger | Mick Taylor | Mick Ronson | Mick Molloy | Mick Foley | Mick Doohan | Mick Veivers | Mick Goodrick | Mick Anglo | Paddy Moloney | Mick Napier | Mick Karn | Mick Harris | Mick Channon | Mick Scott | Mick Rock | Mick Mercer | Mick McCarthy | Mick Harvey | Mick Pearce | Mick Mixon | Mick Martin | Mick Garris | Mick Cornett | Mick | Ed Moloney | Ryan Moloney | Mick the Miller | Mick Talbot | Mick Sullivan |
In 2009, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, an arm of the Smithsonian Institution, America's national museum, released "Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea," which features many of Irish America's foremost musicians and singers, including John Doyle, Joanie Madden, Susan McKeown, Mick Moloney, Brian Conway, Gabriel Donohue and Robbie O'Connell.
Playing such venues as Carnegie Hall, Wolf Trap, The Smithsonian Institution, The Festival of American Folklife (now the Smithsonian Folklife Festival), the Milwaukee Irish Fest, and The National Folk Festival, the Five members of the band – Liz Carroll, Jack Coen, Michael Flatley, Donny Golden and Mick Moloney – have received National Heritage Awards.