“No one has succeeded more in taking this once vital part of Irish American culture out of musty archives and moldering dissertations and placing it afresh on CD and concert stage than Mick Moloney.” – Earle Hitchner,The Irish Echo
Musician, singer, anthropologist and musical historian Mick Moloney celebrates the joyous and creative era in American popular song from the early 1890’s to the end of vaudeville and the start of the Great Depression on his new release If It Wasn’t For the Irish and the Jews. Each of the album’s 14 tracks is notable for having been created in a collaboration between Irish and Jewish lyricists and composers. Irish/Jewish Tin Pan Alley collaborations were commonplace in the heyday of vaudeville and Tin Pan Alley, and, though there were doubtless the usual business break ups and make ups, these collaborations represent a charming story of decades of good natured ethnic flux, competition and cooperation which left a lasting imprint on the history of American popular music. The end result is a fascinating and highly entertaining look at a historically critical point in American music.
Equally qualified as a musician and anthropologist, Mick Moloney brings the perfect balance of historical insight and musical relevance to these songs. Born in Ireland, Moloney came to America in 1973 and pursued a career that uniquely combines the roles of musician, folklorist, author, presenter, radio and television personality, and educator. He holds a Ph.D. in folklore, and teaches at New York University in the Irish Studies program. Mick Moloney has been featured on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, in the Village Voice and in Irish Music Magazine. He is also the recipient of the National Heritage Fellowship from the NEA, the highest honor a traditional artist can receive in the United States.
Departing from an Irish pub circa 1962 and passing through Hungary for a chance encounter with a blue-eyed beauty before stopping in the Virginias for an old-fashioned hoedown, Mozaik’s Changing Trains is a musical journey hindered not by genre, place or time signature. Recorded in 2005 in Budapest, Mozaik’s first studio album explores and celebrates the fusion of Irish, European and American folk music. While Changing Trains is a “unique cross-cultural exercise” (Irish Music Magazine), the strength of this album lies within each individual member’s deep respect and understanding of their own musical traditions.
Mozaik are Ireland’s Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny (both original members of Planxty), American born old-time musician Bruce Molsky, Dutch guitarist Rens Van Der Zalm, and Hungarian multi-instrumentalist Nikola Parov. Together they form the ultimate global stringband with a legendary lineage. It was on a lengthy drive through Australia that the great Irish singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Andy Irvine first envisioned Mozaik. According to Irvine, “The Muse said ‘Get a bunch of your favorite musicians together and do a tour of this beautiful country.’” He continues, “I pondered for not very long before emailing the suspects I had in mind. To my delight they were all into it and thus emerged Mozaik – a band to die for…”
ANDY IRVINE
Born to Irish-Scottish parents in London, Irvine began his artistic career as a young child, trying his hand in acting, acoustic guitar, and traditional music. He moved to Dublin to further develop his Irish trad musical talents, playing such instruments as the guitar, bouzouki, and mandolin. Irvine collaborated with several talented musicians, and formed such bands as Sweeny’s Men, Planxty, and Mosaic. After Mosaic, Irvine began producing music with fiddler Kevin Burke, guitarist/vocalist Gerry O’Beirne, and accordionist Jackie Daly as Patrick Street. Mozaik (a revamped version of the old name) is the most recent culmination of Irvine’s diverse musical experience and visionary propensity.
DONAL LUNNY
Irishman Donnal Lunny’s thirty years of musical prowess is the stronghold of Mozaik. He has been hailed by Irvine as one of the most innovative musicians that Ireland has ever produced. Multi-talented Lunny acts as not only a close friend to Irvine, but also as a professional musician and master arranger for the group. He hears each band member’s niche flavor and acts as the glue that holds the sound of Mozaik together.
BRUCE MOLSKY
Bruce Molsky and Irvine met at a house party Molsky was hosting in Atlanta, Georgia. Irvine first became aware of Molsky’s incredible talent when he first heard him perform “I Truly Understand.” Molsky’s talents with the guitar and 5-string banjo in combination with his old-time musical style contribute a unique zest to the group. Intricate string arrangements perfectly complement Molsky’s plaintive vocals.
NICOLA PAROV
Irvine first met Parov in Budapest twenty years previously, playing with his Balkan band Zsaratnok. Irvine has commented that Parov’s musical propensity is so extensive that an instrument that Parov cannot play has not yet been invented. When Irvine and Parov played together in The East Wind Trio, Parov wielded not only the gadulka, gajda, kaval, and other traditional Bulgarian instruments, but also the guitar, bodhran, and clarinet. As if Parov’s instrumental talents were not astounding enough, he was additionally involvemed with the finest Irish musicians through his performance with Riverdance.
RENS VAN DER ZALM
Rens Van Der Zalm and Andy Irvine first met in Slovenia on the road immediately after Van Der Zalm had graduated. Ver Der Zalm’s style is inventive and creative, incorporating such instruments as the mandolin, fiddle, guitar, accordion, bass guitar, tin whistle, and many other zany gadgets.
Gerry O’Connor, described by many as the best four string banjoist in the history of Irish music, lets creativity take him where it wants to. He’s been doing this for some time now, and in the process has collected a great army of admirers not only in Ireland but also around the world.
O’Connor’s first U.S. release and Compass debut, Myriad is a musical journey of sorts. O’Connor says, “It is really an album about where I’ve been musically over the past while and most importantly where I am at the moment.” The album contains a wide range of colors, textures and rhythms for the listener to experience. “I haven’t done a solo album in a while. That has given me time to feel and experience a great range of influences, ideas and emotions and they’re all sort of collected here.”
Myriad was recorded over a 5-year period, during O’Connor’s time as a member of the Irish band Four Men and a Dog. The band recorded three albums in that time and toured excessively throughout the U.K., U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe. During his off time from touring that O’Connor entered the studio and put down tracks for the album. “Myriad is definitely influenced by the music I’ve been exposed to on my travels. But I was also aware that I carried inside me the musical heritage of my grandparents, my mom and my dad. So that’s why the last track features tunes with my dad and brother. It’s my effort to give back something of myself to the tradition.” The album features many guest artists including Kevin Doherty of Four Men and a Dog on guitar and Manus Lunny on bousouki and bodhran.
Described by Irish Music Magazine as a “banjoist extraordinaire,” O’Connor has developed a phenomenal technique on the tenor banjo, which sometimes gives the impression that there are perhaps three or four clones of the man all playing at the same time, as is apparent on Cam a Lochaigh (Cam-a-luck-ig). “It just sort of happened. I have no conscious memory of, for instance setting out to develop a particular way of playing triplets. I suppose if you keep at it and it’s inside you sooner or later it will wriggle out from that part of your being where it has been hiding.” Indian Storm was composed in a hotel room in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. O’Connor explains, “I had just witnessed the biggest thunder storm of my life. It was awesome, as you say in America. We don’t get storms like that in Ireland. We have ’soft days’ as they say. I couldn’t help but wonder what it was like for people back centuries ago who didn’t have hotel rooms, or the comforts of the 20th century. I tried to capture that feeling in this tune.”
O’Connor’s family heritage has always played an important part in his love of music and to celebrate that, The GarryKennedy Set became a family event. “My father travelled over 100 miles from Tipperary to Dublin to play these tunes with my brother Michael and me. It was my wish to give something back to him for all the music and encouragement he gave me over the years.”
In the tradition of the O’Connor family, Gerry was presented with a fiddle even before he was old enough to hold it properly. His father and uncles were all fiddle players. “The fiddle I got was too big for me and I couldn’t manage it at all,” he says, “But there was more to it than that. I wanted to be a bit different, sure I loved the music but I wanted to make a sound that was different from the fiddle.” It was this desire that lead him to the banjo after hearing a player from Limerick play at the Barge Inn in GarryKennedy. O’Connor instantly fell in love with the bright, rippling sound and had at last discovered the vehicle that would allow him to make an enormous contribution to the development of Irish music.
O’Connor’s music has been featured on the BBC Series Tacsi and he has appeared as a guest on over 12 albums by such artists as Gordon Duncan and Niamh Parsons. Is he satisfied? “Well, I suppose it is the curse and the joy of the musician and the artist in general. You’re never quite satisfied. I suppose the day I’m satisfied is the day I’ll lay down the banjo for good.”
“…the hottest new guitarist in the Celtic Realm.”
– SCOTT ALARIK, BOSTON GLOBE
Innovation combined with tradition: that’s a hallmark of Clancy family musicians, and it’s one that guitarist Donal Clancy is carrying forward into the twenty first century with his first solo release, Close to Home.
The title is no accident, either. “These are songs I grew up with, songs I can’t truly remember learning,” Clancy recalls. The tunes include the slow air “An Buachaill Caol Dubh”, the hornpipe “Kitty’s Wedding”, and the jig “Ask My Father”. Donal did indeed ask his father, Liam Clancy of Clancy Brothers fame, to show him a few chords on the guitar when he took up the instrument as a young boy after starting out on the tin whistle and trying out the mandolin. He’d found a home. “Something about the the sound of the guitar, the plucked strings, just appealed to me,” he says.
That’s where the innovation comes in, too. The acoustic guitar adds many colors and textures to Irish music, but there’s no long history of it in Celtic tradition, as there is with the fiddle and the accordion. Donal Clancy is one who’s bringing the guitar forward to its rightful place as a strong part of Irish tradition. He’s been involved with the best bands in Irish music, starting out in Clancy, O’Connell, and Clancy with his father Liam and his cousin Robbie O’Connell, helping to found the band Danu and then moving on to become part of Eileen Ivers Band before taking a pivotal spot playing guitar with one of the hottest Irish and Irish American bands around, Solas. When it was time to make a change, he found his old band Danu in need of a guitar player again, and that’s still one of his main gigs. “It was like coming home again, bringing it all back home,” he says, laughing.
Band work isn’t the only thing he’s done, though: Donal is an in demand session guitarist and road warrior, supporting top Celtic artists including Kevin Crawford, Cherish the Ladies, Aoife Clancy, The Chieftains, Niall Vallely, and Cathie Ryan. That may explain why it has taken him a while to get aroudn to making a solo album, but it was worth the wait.
Close to Home is a chance to hear one of the finest guitarists of this generation in a quiet, intimate setting, just the man and his guitar. Donal produced the disc himself and “I just went into the studio and played. I just wanted to capture the way I played the tunes on that day, without a lot of editing and things that you often go through in recording,” he says.
Though the tunes are all traditional, he’s still the innovator: they are all melodies Donal heard first on other instruments and brought over to the guitar with his own arrangements. “ I just absorbed this music over the years,” he says. “This is a record I’ve always wanted to make.”
Master musicians Paul Brock and Enda Scahill accompanied by the brilliant piano playing of Ryan Molloy and percussion of Tommy Hayes have evoked the atmosphere and artistry of the Irish dance hall era in dazzling fashion with the first ever CD of Irish traditional music on the melodeon and tenor banjo.
PAUL BROCK
Paul Brock has been at the forefront of button accordion playing for many years. A multiple All-Ireland champion born in Athlone, County Westmeath, and now residing in Ennis, Paul pursued a solo career through the 60’s and 70’s. His collaborations with fiddle player Frankie Gavin during the 70’s and 80’s culminated in their 1986 Gael-Linn recording ‘A Tribute to Joe Cooley’, regarded by critics and fellow musicians as one of the outstanding traditional albums of the modern era. Paul’s solo album, ‘Mo Chairdin’ (Gael-Linn, 1992), was described in the Rough Guide to Irish Music as a ‘modern masterpiece of accordion music’. In May 1989, Paul co-founded the group Moving Cloud with fiddle player, Manus McGuire. This Clare-based group produced two albums for Green Linnet Records, including their 1994 self-titled release that was selected by well-known U.S. music critic Earle Hitchner as the best Irish traditional album of that year. Paul was recently voted as ‘Best Male Musician’ of 2004 by the Irish American News. He founded Brock McGuire Band jointly with Manus McGuire and the band continues to tour internationally.
ENDA SCAHILL
Enda Scahill comes from a very musical family from Corofin in East Galway and has long established himself as one of the finest exponents of traditional Irish banjo playing. His solo album Pick It Up (SUNCD 36. 2000) was widely acclaimed. Enda has been described as “just about the strongest banjo I’ve have ever heard” (Art Ketchin, Celtic Beat) and Irish American News in Chicago said “Enda does things on the banjo which should be impossible”. Irish Music Magazine has described his playing as “simply divine”.
Enda has been a member of the Brock McGuire Band since its inception in 2001; has performed with Sessions from the Hearth whose debut album was acclaimed by Hotpress as “the best ever live recording of Irish Music”; with the Furey Brothers and most recently with The Frankie Gavin Band in Ireland and Canada. He has been All Ireland Champion 4 times on Banjo and Mandolin and was finalist in the Celtic Note Young Musician of the Year in 1999.
“The most exciting new traditional band to emerge from Ireland this century.” —Wall Street Journal
“Super vocals, a terrific staccato beat to the rhythm with a real sense of style and wit. This is a major, major band to be reckoned with.” —The Chicago Irish-American News
“A heady, virtually head-spinning, sonic blend stamping Beoga as perhaps the most audacious Irish band rooted in trad today.” —The Irish Echo
Since forming ten years ago, Beoga has expanded the vocabulary of Irish music with a unique accent all their own, becoming one of the most celebrated Irish bands of the century. To commemorate a decade of musical innovation the band returned home to Ireland for a gala performance featuring material from their 4 critically acclaimed CDs. The resulting live concert DVD/CD project titled Live at 10 showcases the band at its virtuosic best.
Beoga, consisting of the twin dueling accordions of Damian McKee and multi-instrumentalist Seán Óg Graham, pianist Liam Bradley, four time All-Ireland bodhrán champion Eamon Murray and vocalist/fiddler Niamh Dunne are joined by special guests from among Irish music’s glitterati including Alan Doherty, Bríd Dunne, Brona Graham, Trevor Hutchinson, Martin O’Neill, Niall Vallely and Clodagh Warnock. Over the course of their 20 song, 93 minute performance, Beoga’s madcap instrumental prowess and gorgeous vocals shine, illustrating why the critics have called them one of the most influential ensembles in modern Irish traditional music. The concert DVD was mixed in 5.1 surround sound and includes over 80 minutes of extras, including highlights from Beoga’s debut concert in 2002 and five behind-the-scenes tour diaries filmed over several years.
Beoga (gaelic for ‘lively’) is based in County Antrim, in Northern Ireland. The bedrock of their sound lies firmly within the Irish tradition, however they are not afraid to incorporate other genres’ nuances into their arrangements. From bluesy riffs to Astor Piazzola-style jazz, to a raunchy New Orleans jamboree vibe, their music always returns to a wonderfully bouncy Irish sound. The result is traditional, with a huge sense of fun and adventure and it all works—wonderfully well.
Born of a long-standing partnership stretching back over a decade, Raven is an album of assured, fully-realized performances that confidently, nonchalantly distort and dissolve boundaries. Lesser musicians adhere righteously to the lines separating tradition from innovation, soloist from accompanist – but the duo of multi-instrumentalist John Williams and guitarist Dean Magraw interact so effortlessly, and draw from such a wide range of traditions and techniques, that existing borders cease to be relevant. With one listen, the insight and instrumental skill that went into creating Raven is immediately apparent. Repeated listenings reveal a host of subtle musical undercurrents that speak of Williams and Magraw’s profound empathy and endless musicianship.
John Williams and Dean Magraw first met in St. Paul, brought together by the city’s thriving Irish music scene. The twin cities area is home to Magraw, though he is often away performing for audiences around the U.S. and the world. While he has an extensive background in contemporary jazz, Magraw’s passions have lead him to perform in an extraordinary range of contexts, from Celtic and bluegrass to jam band and avant-garde. His solo guitar albums draw from those experiences, synthesizing them via his impeccable technique into soundscapes both moody and tranquil. Hailing from a musical Chicago Irish-American family with its roots in County Clare, John Williams is the first and only American to have won the All-Ireland concertina title. He was a founding member of the group Solas, a band whose unrelenting drive and precision reawakened musicians on both sides of the pond to the potential of Irish traditional music. Upon leaving Solas, Williams has released a series of acclaimed solo albums and served as the traditional musical director for the Dreamworks film Road to Perdition.
“Irish music is our common ground, and the fiddler Martin Hayes was a mutual friend of ours,” explains Magraw. “About ten years ago, Martin and I were doing a show at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. We had John come out and do a 45 minute encore – a 45 minute tune set, one after another!” The audience’s reaction was overwhelming, encouraging Williams and Magraw to pursue their partnership, setting aside a few weeks each year to perform as a duo. “We recognized that the possibilities of playing as a duo were intriguing,” says Williams, “and we always get a huge response, year after year. As time went by, there was a lot of pressure from audiences and presenters to make a recording.”
Recorded outside of Chicago, the eleven core tracks of Raven “either took four days or ten years to record,” says Williams, “depending on how you look at it.”
They chose to not bring in outside musicians, keeping the focus on the duo’s well-honed interplay and an intriguing range of original, traditional, and outside material drawn from their concert sets. “You can get more textures the more people you have, of course,” Magraw explains, “but the duo is a special combination that fully exploits each member, yet you really have to listen closely to the other guy. In the future we may bring in guests, but it was really great to explore the sounds we make together…”
Magraw and Williams delight in attacking the material on Raven from a variety of angles. Some tracks find the duo stating the melody straightly in a fine, traditional fashion. Others feature them approaching it more expansively, letting the song arise gradually from the mists of their improvisations. Williams’ work in film-scoring comes to the fore on several cuts, particularly the evocative “Perdition Piano Duet,” which derives from Williams’ contributions to Road to Perdition. A slow-smoldering intensity, such as heard on “Lianna” and the haunting title track, betrays the influence of master Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzolla.
Far from merely accompanying Williams (who contributes whistles, flute, and piano in addition to accordion and concertina), Magraw is an equal partner in the music – engaging in tight unison passages, shaping the tracks’ unfolding with deft counter-melodies and chord voicings, and taking exhilaratingly fleet solos.
The importance of the live experience to their collaboration is apparent in the album’s coda – three songs recorded live at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. “The Cedar was the first place we played together,” Magraw says, “and a place we play together every year. They have always been very supportive of our whole musical journey.”
“We originally sequenced the album to conclude with ‘The Raven,’ which is a very smoky, atmospheric track,” says Williams, “but then we decided it needed to end on an exclamation point. Luckily our shows had become popular with a Grateful Dead, newgrass audience, and were being recorded and traded among those fans. So we went back through all the live tapes people had given us, and found that set.”
With the release of Raven, Magraw and Williams plan to expand their annual duo tours and continue to cultivate their rewarding partnership – a partnership whose range Williams feels is well-documented on the album. “A lot of Irish CDs,” Williams concludes, “linger on the same vibe through the course of the entire program. This album unfurls – it doesn’t stay on one flavor for very long. That said, we didn’t feel the need to reinvent the wheel every time. But we do want to take it for a good spin.”
In a heartwarming display of international musical cooperation and human solidarity, scores of artists from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and the United States have joined hands to create Compass Records’ Hands Across The Water. Produced by Andrea Zonn and John Cutliffe, the CD’s proceeds will go to programs assisting Southeast Asian children whose lives were uprooted by 2004’s devastating tsunami. Yet beyond its tangible contribution to disaster relief, the project gives another rare gift to those who hear it—an entire set of unprecedented, compelling collaborations between some of the finest performers of Celtic and American roots music.
There is no “short list” of Hands Across the Water contributors, for all are among the most respected and preeminent artists in their fields: the 16-track CD features Darrell Scott with Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Oisin McAuley and Paul Rodden; Jim Lauderdale with Maura O’Connell; Karen Matheson with Donald Shaw, The Duhks and Bryan Sutton; Jon Randall with Máirtín O’Connor and Alison Brown; Tim O’Brien with Lúnasa; Sharon Shannon with Jackson Brown; Solas with Mindy Smith; John and Fiona Prine with Dermot Byrne; Beth Nielsen Chapman with Christina Quinn, Bonnie Raitt, Michael McGoldrick and Donald Shaw; Paul Brady with Rodney Crowell; Blue Merle with Pauline Scanlon; Altan with Vince Gill; Cerys Matthews with John Jorgenson and Stuart Duncan; Andrea Zonn with Flook and Bill Shanley; John Cowan with the Brock McGuire Band; Jerry Douglas with Ciaran Tourish—and adding still more depth to the album depth is an equally lengthy and stellar array of backing musicians.
While some of these collaborations bring together masters of a particular genre, the CD also features many top artists working outside their usual styles and formats. Vince Gill’s English-language version of a traditional Irish song reworked by Altan is one such highlight; as is “An Occasional Song,” a traditional Welsh number performed by European rock star Cerys Matthews with help from Stuart Duncan and John Jorgenson.
Hands Across the Water was born in a phone conversation between Zonn and Cutliffe last December. Cutliffe, a transatlantic presence in the Irish music world, both behind the scenes and as a player, was horrified by the destruction caused by tsunamis in Southeast Asia. Zonn, an accomplished solo artist and one of Nashville’s busiest fiddlers (regular player with James Taylor, Vince Gill, Alison Brown, Lyle Lovett), suggested that between the two of them, they knew some “pretty good musicians” who “wouldn’t mind helping out if we were to set something up to ease the suffering caused by the Tsunami.” Both remarks turned out to be vast understatements. Cutliffe emailed Garry West of Compass Records, who responded from vacation within an hour, throwing his full support behind the idea. In under a year, Hands Across the Water brought together many of acoustic music’s biggest names, all of whom gave very generously of their work, making time in homes, buses, and hotel rooms to contribute to the project.
Recording the album was truly a trans-national effort, employing the services of 27 studios, 29 studio engineers, and over 100 musicians from Nashville to Sydney, Australia. As Cutliffe wrote, “I myself have driven more than 10,000 miles and we can’t even begin to count the thousands of emails and hours of phone calls that have kept lines buzzing worldwide. We have uploaded and downloaded gigabytes of session tracks and mixes.” Contributing artists chose their own tracks, offering songs and
pieces for Cutliffe and Zonn to mould by adding additional collaborators. The resulting collection is a unique blend of the very best in American roots and Celtic music, an achingly beautiful soundscape that affirms the spirit of working together which made it possible.
FEATURING: Altan • Blue Merle • Paul Brady
• The Brocke McGuire Band • Alison Brown
• Jackson Browne • Dermot Byrne
• Beth Nielsen Chapman • John Cowan
• Rodney Crowell • Jerry Douglas
• The Duhks • Stuart Duncan • Flook
• Vince Gill • John Jorgenson
• Jim Lauderdale • Lúnasa • Oisín McAuley
• Michael McGoldrick • Karen Matheson
• Cerys Matthews • Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh
• Tim O’Brien • Maura O’Connell
• Máirtin O’Connor • Fiona Prine • John Prine
• Jon Randall • Paul Rodden
• Pauline Scanlon • Darrel Scott
• Sharon Shannon • Donald Shaw
• Mindy Smith • Solas • Bryan Sutton
• Ciaran Tourish • Andrea Zonn
The resurgence of traditional Irish music has been called a renaissance – awakening a yearning for identity with a deeply rooted culture of oppression, war, courtship and love, liquor worship and emigration stories honored through song. Dublin-born guitarist and singer-songwriter John Doyle has honored this tradition even as he cultivates it on his latest release Shadow and Light Compass Records.
Doyle was exposed to music at an early age through his family. A dare from a childhood friend and lack of formal training allowed him to develop his signature left-hand finger picking style – a style that informed the sound of the first Irish-American super-group Solas. Since then, Doyle has continued to hone his craft on the road and in the studio, earning a Grammy nomination for his collaboration with fiddler Liz Carroll in 2010 on Double Play (Compass Records). He has also collaborated with some of the most revered names in the genre including Heidi Talbot, Tim O’Brien and fellow Solas founder Karan Casey and, from 2008-2010, served as band leader for folk icon Joan Baez on her worldwide tour.
On Shadow and Light, Doyle pays tribute to Irish musical tradition while forging a path of his own on a set of largely original songs characterized by his rhythmic and harmonic genius. History and stories pervade the album’s eleven tracks from the first lyrics of the album opener “Clear the Way” – a translation from the old Gaelic “Faugh A Ballagh” which was the rallying cry of the Irish Brigade in the American Civil War. The song tells the story of the “Fighting 69th,” and their tragic battle at Fredricksburg, Virginia where their numbers were reduced from over 1600 to less than 300 by another predominantly Irish Confederate Regiment.
Another stand out track is “The Arabic,” named for the ship Doyle’s grandfather boarded to immigrate to America. A German submarine attacked the SS Arabic and Doyle’s grandfather was plucked out of the flotsam by a rescue boat and sent back to Ireland. “It’s all true, as far as I know,” smiles the boyish Doyle. Another family ode, “Tribute to Donal Ward/ The Curraghman” is an instrumental homage to Doyle’s rustic uncle Donal Ward and serves as the perfect showcase for Doyle’s virtuosic finger picking style. Family is a recurring theme; the album also includes “Little Sparrow,” a song for Doyle’s daughter that has been regularly featured in his live set. Throughout the album Doyle is accompanied by a cast of some of the most stellar players in acoustic music including Tim O’Brien (vocals, mandolin), Alison Brown (banjo), Kenny Malone (percussion), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Todd Phillips (bass), John Williams (accordion), Pete Grant (lap steel) and Michael McGoldrick (uillean pipes and flute).
When not at home in Asheville, NC, Doyle tours globally, and has appeared frequently at many of the taste-maker festivals in acoustic music including Celtic Connections in Glasgow, the Dublin Irish Music Festival in Dublin OH, MerleFest, Milwaukee Irish Festival, Sebastopol Celtic Festival, and the All-Ireland Fleadh. In addition to his work as a solo artist, he also performs regularly with other starts of the genre Andy Irvine, John Williams, Karan Casey, Liz Carroll and others. Doyle has also appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows including Prairie Home Companion and Mountain Stage and, in 2009, performed for President Obama in honor of St Patrick’s Day.
Ciarán Tourish, best known as the nimble fiddler from Altan, is one of East Donegal’s most celebrated musical exports, recognized by fellow musicians worldwide as an unusually gifted player. To be singled out amid the hotbed of traditional music that is Donegal is no small accomplishment. Tourish grew up surrounded by Irish traditional music’s best, including fiddler Dinny McLaughlin, who shared his hometown of Buncrana. If his upbringing provided plenty of competition, however, it also facilitated Tourish’s own musical development. McLaughlin began teaching the young fiddler, wooing his protégé away from an early start on the whistle, and grounding him in a mastery of the Irish dance music tradition.
Tourish, who continues to play whistle as a second instrument, is now recognized as
one of the premier contemporary Irish fiddlers, an integral member of one of Ireland’s most beloved trad supergroups. His quick ear and a love of harmony and counterpoint have also led to several collaborations on non-Altan (and even non-Irish music) projects with a wide range of musicians and singers. He has worked with the likes of Matt Molloy, Mary Black, Maura O’Connell, Martin O’Connor, Dolores Keane, De Danann, and American musicians Jerry Douglas and Tim O’Brien.
Down the Line, Tourish’s first solo album, draws on this transatlantic cast of collaborators, as well as the musical versatility of its producer/artist/arranger. Tourish showcases both his fiddle and whistle, demonstrating his ability to play them as solo melody instruments, accompanying textures, or components of a dynamic ensemble sound. The ten-song CD includes five traditional instrumentals, including one which Tourish identifies in the liner notes as “one of the first ‘big’ reels I learnt from my teacher – Dinny McLaughlin.” Tourish also features two of his own compositions, as well as three guest vocals. Tim O’Brien and Alison Krauss sing the Carter Family’s “Are You Tired of Me My Darling?” Maura O’Connell delivers the traditional “Slan Le Mhaigh,” and Paul Brady performs his own original, “Dreams Will Come.” Brady also contributes keyboard and guitar parts on several other tracks. Musicians on Down the Line include Jerry Douglas on dobro, Phil Cunningham on accordion, Neil Martin on cello, Darrell Scott and Arty McGlynn on guitar, Percy Robinson on pedal steel, Viktor Krauss on bass, Jim Higgins on percussion, and Kenny Malone on drums.
Fiddler Aly Bain and accordionist Phil Cunningham are two of the most celebrated musicians on the Scottish traditional scene. By the time they began working together in 1988, they were already renowned for their previous accomplishments. Bain was a founding member of the Boys of the Lough, a group whose repertoire includes both Scottish and Irish influences. Cunningham became a member of the infamous Silly Wizard at the age of sixteen, launching a prolific and diverse musical career. The duo first worked together on a television series in 1988, and embarked on their first tour shortly after. They were so well-received that they have been touring together ever since. Their two previous duo recordings, The Pearl (1996) and The Ruby (1998), have been met with high acclaim.
Phil Cunningham was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1960. His musical career began with accordion lessons at the age of three and violin a few years later. His initial training was in classical music but his deep love of traditional Scottish music developed simultaneously. In 1976, he joined his brother Johnny in the highly acclaimed Scottish band Silly Wizard and was a full-time member until 1983. Cunningham contributed many of his own compositions to their mostly traditional repertoire, adding to the musical heritage of Scotland and keeping the tradition alive.
Cunningham left Silly Wizard in 1983 to pursue a solo career, as he found himself in demand as a composer and performer for television, radio, film and stage. Between 1985 and 1987 he toured and recorded with supergroup Relativity, with his brother Johnny, and Irish brother and sister, Michael and Triona O’Domnaill. During this time he also produced two solo albums, Airs and Graces (Green Linnet, 1984), and Palomino Waltz (1989).
Cunningham has produced albums for many popular traditional artists, including Dolores Keane and Altan. In 1990, he wrote the music for Bill Bryden’s spectacular theater productions The Ship (1990) and The Big Picnic (1994). In recent years, he has worked as music director and composer for various BBC Scotland series, and also wrote The Highlands & Islands Suite, an orchestral work which was performed at The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. He has recently toured with Bonnie Raitt and Kepa Junkera, in addition to running CAP recording studios.
Bain hails from Lerwick, a small, enchanting town in the Shetland Islands. He began learning fiddle at the age of eleven. Tom Anderson, his teacher, is acknowledged as one of the true masters of Shetland music. Bain developed a highly dramatic style of playing, matching his great tone and technical ability with genuine emotion. Alert to the musical potential of the dynamic interaction between Irish and Scottish traditions, he helped establish the Boys of the Lough. The group is now recognized as one of the best in the tradition.
Simultaneously, Bain pursued his solo career. Since 1986, he has been working with Pelicula Films on various television series dealing with folk music. The first series, Down Home, traces fiddle music from its roots in Scotland across the Atlantic to the United States and Canada. The second, entitled The Transatlantic Sessions (1995), featured many prominent artists such as Emmylou Harris, Iris DeMent, Kathy Mattea, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Mary Black, Karen Matheson, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, Donal Lunny, Dick Gaughan, and of course, Phil Cunningham.
Bain has released two critically acclaimed solo albums, First Album (1984), and Lonely Bird (1996). He has also recorded numerous albums with the Boys of the Lough, as well as with Hue and Cry, Eddi Reader, Fish, Richard Thompson and Runrig. In 1993, his autobiography Fiddler on the Loose, co-written by journalist and editor Alastair Clark, was published. Bain continues to tour extensively with the Boys of the Lough in addition to his collaborations with Cunningham.
As seen on public television.
Absolutely Irish! brings together the brightest stars of traditional Irish music for a once-in-a-lifetime concert that will leave folk music fans stunned by the virtuoso performances. In April 2007 at the Irish Arts Center in the fabled Hell’s Kitchen area of New York City, film maker Paul Wagner and musician and producer Mick Moloney brought some of the finest Irish musicians, singers and dancers in America together for a special one-off concert. All the artists had known one another and played together in various combinations for years, but this was a chance to meet up in an informal situation and simply have fun, make music and dance together. For two days they rehearsed and then put together a magical performance that was filmed for American Public Television and recorded for Compass Records. Absolutely Irish is the product of this astonishingly brilliant, exuberant and joyful celebration of the very best of Irish music, song and dance.
Featuring Mick Moloney, Susan McKeown, John Doyle, Séamus Egan, Eileen Ivers, Karan Casey, Liz Carroll, Joanie Madden, Athena Tergis, Robbie O’Connell, Niall O’Leary, Darrah Carr, Jerry O’Sullivan, Billy McComiskey, Brendan Dolan, Rhys Jones, Tim Collins, Mac Benford, Mike Rafferty and Jo McNamara.
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