JOANIE MADDEN (flute, whistle)
Daughter of button accordionist Joe Madden, was the first U.S.-born competitor to win the All-Ireland senior tin whistle title (1984) and is also an All-Ireland champion on flute. She has recorded a dozen albums with Cherish the Ladies, a group she co-founded in 1985 and still leads.
BRENDAN DOLAN (keyboards)
Son of pianist Felix Dolan, is one of the most respected and inventive keyboardists in Irish music today. He appears on Brian Conway’s Consider the Source and Billy McComiskey’s Outside the Box, as well as Live at Mona’s with Patrick Ourceau and Eamon O’Leary and the Irish American music projects of Mick Moloney.
BILLY McCOMISKEY (accordion)
The 1986 All-Ireland senior button accordion champion, has recorded three albums with the Irish Tradition (a trio featuring Brendan Mulvihill and Andy O’Brien) and two with Trian (a trio featuring Liz Carroll and Dáithí Sproule), as well as two solo CDs for Green Linnet / Compass.
BRIAN CONWAY (fiddle)
The 1986 All-Ireland senior fiddle champion, has several recordings to his credit. They include two solo releases, First Through the Gate in 2002 and Consider the Source in 2008, and two trio albums, The Apple in Winter (with Tony DeMarco and Caesar Pacifici) in 1981 and A Tribute to Andy McGann (with Joe Burke and Felix Dolan) in 2000.
“These girls inspire and motivate each other, which has enabled them to create a common musical idiom that crosses national borders. They seem to glow with their joy in playing and respect each other immensely.”
– Nordlys (Norway)
The String Sisters is a collaboration of the Celtic music world’s top female fiddlers; Annbjørg Lien from Norway, Catriona Macdonald from Shetland, Liz Carroll and Liz Knowles from the US, Mairead ni Mhaonaigh (Altan) from Ireland and Emma Härdelin from Sweden. Originally brought together for a special one-time show at Glasgow’s annual Celtic Connections festival to celebrate each of their region’s musical traditions, the results of this live recording contain some of the most brilliant fiddling heard in Celtic music. On Live, the String Sisters are joined by David Milligan (piano), Conrad Ivitsky (double bass), Tore Bruvoll (guitar) and James Mackintosh (drums).
“Jeremy Kittel has already established himself as a world class fiddler.” – SingOut!
“Jeremy is just too damn young to play as well as he does.” – Fiddler Magazine
“We’d call him a rising star, but he’s clearly already risen.” – Detroit Free Press
Jeremy Kittel is at the forefront of a new breed of fiddlers and violinists who easily navigate between a multitude of musical styles and traditions. Fluidly mastering this rich musical heritage, he also breaks exciting new ground while helping to redefine the role of his instrument.
Currently touring internationally with his name-sake group, the Jeremy Kittel Band, he leads audiences into exciting new-acoustic music territory. He also maintains an active schedule of collaborations with some of today’s most innovative and influential artists, from genres diverse as folk, jazz, classical, and pop music. Recently completing a five-year position as a full-time member of the Grammy-winning Turtle Island Quartet, he has also toured and recorded with such musical giants as Mark O’Connor, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, Paquito D’Rivera, the Assad Brothers, Stefon Harris, My Morning Jacket, Jars of Clay, Abigail Washburn, and Ben Sollee. He has appeared on the NPR radio show A Prairie Home Companion, has been a guest performer with multiple symphony orchestras, and has performed at venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Bonnaroo, and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.
His most recent solo recording, Chasing Sparks (Compass Records), clearly establishes Jeremy as a formidable composer and arranger as well as a violinist of the highest technical and musical sensibilities. This comes as no surprise given that his three previously released CDs span the musical spectrum from jazz to celtic, with a strong dose of originality and technical mastery.
One of the leading improvising violinists of his generation, Jeremy has a master’s degree in jazz violin from the Manhattan School of Music, and he is the recipient of the 2010 Emerging Artist Award from his alma mater, the University of Michigan. He is also a National US Scottish Fiddle champion as well as a multiple winner of Detroit Music Awards and ASTA Alternative Style awards.
As a lover of song, and as a singer himself, Kittel enjoys collaborating with singers and lyricists from any genre. Most recently, he has arranged and recorded orchestral-style strings for several major-label releases: Abigail Washburn’s “City of Refuge,” My Morning Jacket’s “Circuital,” and an upcoming release by the Platinum-selling, Grammy-winning band Jars of Clay.
Kittel currently resides in beautiful Brooklyn, NY. When he’s not on tour, he often enjoys Monkey Conditioning and Ecstatic Dance.
The Chapmans are a family band from The Ozarks with contemporary bluegrass, Americana, and acoustic country roots. Together now for 20 years and with fans such as Rhonda Vincent and Chris Thile, brothers John, Jeremy, and Jason, and dad Bill possess “an abundance of major league talent” (Nashville Scene). After they signed to Compass Records, they released their album, Grown Up, in the spring of 2010.
Well-known as one of the greatest bodhran players of all time, Tommy Hayes has been at the forefront of traditional Irish music for over 30 years. In a career that has exemplified diversity he has performed and recorded with most of the great names in traditional music and beyond. Tommy has been a member of a number of ground-breaking groups during his career, including Stockton’s Wing, Puck Fair (with Brian Dunning and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill), Altan, Liam O Flynn and the Pipers Call Band and the Eileen Ivers Band. He was the original percussionist for Riverdance and has performed on more than 400 albums. In the world of film Tommy has played on numerous films amongst them Titanic, The Devils Own, Rob Roy, In the Name of the Father and The Field.
Formed in the mid 1970’s by Irish-American singer-songwriter Thom Moore, Midnight Well was composed of Moore, vocalist Janie Cribbs, guitarist Gerry O’Beirne (The Waterboys, Sharon Shannon Band, Patrick Street) and button accordionist Martin O’Connor (Boys of the Lough, De Danann). Midnight Well was similar to Moore’s earlier group, Pumpkinhead, in that they also combined Irish traditional music with country rock and folkloric influences from all over the world. Midnight Well’s unique sound is created by the variety of O’Beirne’s guitar styles, Moore and Cribbs’ vocal harmonies and O’Connor’s wistful accordion work.
Tommy Keane was born in Waterford City, Ireland in 1953. While in his early twenties, after playing tin whistle for a couple of years, he met local piper Tommy Kearney who encouraged him to take up the uilleann pipes. After attending the Willie Clancy Summer School where he developed his piping skills (with the help of pipers Pat Mitchell and Liam O’Flynn) he became much in demand as a session musician and worked with musicians including Elvis Costello, The Pogues, Clannad, Ralph McTell and more. He has toured with Liam Clancy, Tony McMahon and Seamus Tansey and has performed with The Irish Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra.
In a musical career spanning 35 years, from the heady days with Irish musical trailblazers Tir Na Nog, which landed him on the biggest stages in the world, to the truly fantastic Scullion, numerous solo albums, to his current incarnation with the band Radar, Sonny Condell is recognized as one of Irelands greatest songwriters. Originally released in 1977 on Mulligan Records, CAMOUFLAGE was Condell’s solo debut and is now regarded as a standard in Irish music. CAMOUFLAGE showcases Condell’s formidable abilities on the acoustic guitar, saxophone, percussion and as a vocalist and features guest musicians Paul Barrett (trombone), Greg Boland (acoustic and electric guitar, bass guitar), Fran Breen (drums, percussion), Ciaran Brennan (double bass), Brian Dunning (flutes), Jolyon Jackson (keyboards, cello), and Rosemary Taylor (backup vocals).
“…a voice as distinctive as a thumbprint…if only more songwriters—and more people—had his balance of wit and fortitude.” – Jim Farber, New York Daily News
“One of the best songwriters and record makers I’ve heard in a very long time.” – Randy Newman
“…aphoristic folk-rock songs packed with sly, joking wordplay. Keen social observation is tinged with a hipster’s sarcasm.” – Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“…appealing, unassuming acoustic pop colored with shades of folk, country, blues and jazz.” – Chuck Arnold, People
Richard Julian began releasing albums in 1997 on Billy Lehman’s (son of the infamous Wall Street trader Ivan Boesky) label, Blackbird. During that time he recorded Richard Julian and Smash Palace and toured Europe with Suzanne Vega. When Blackbird folded, the label-less (and broke) artist made his third record, Good Life, with Brad Jones (Smash Palace), who let Julian record in his home. Julian then released and promoted Good Life on his own to rave reviews and was invited to open Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me” tour in North America. Slow New York, his EMI/Manhattan debut, cemented Julian’s reputation as one of the keenest voices in songwriting and, in 2008, was followed by the critically-acclaimed Sunday Morning In Saturday’s Shoes also on Manhattan. Richard Julian lives in Brooklyn, plays Santa Cruz guitars, and loves good tequila. He is currently filming and starring in an upcoming television and web series about the best food, drink and music finds in NYC.
Richard’s latest album, Girls Need Attention is a musical atonement: vulnerable, honest, and painfully direct as it chronicles a break-up. “I don’t know how to not write confessionally… the songs always feel like a shopping cart that veers in that direction no matter which way I try to steer it.” Recorded at Norah Jones’s home studio, the record features stellar accompaniment from Nels Cline (Wilco) on guitar, Jolie Holland on box fiddle, and Sasha Dobson on vocals. The backing band, who was “essentially paid in fine tequila”, says Julian, a self-professed food and drink aficionado, contains such luminaries as Lee Alexander (who also produced the album), Tim Luntzel (bass) and Dan Rieser (drums), and is sparingly augmented throughout with keyboards (Dred Scott), baritone guitar, (Steve Elliot) french horn (Louis Schwadron), tuba (Marcus Rojas), and bass clarinet (Doug Wieselman).
Compass Records is particularly proud of our long association with Irish musician, John McSherry, founding member of the seminal Irish band Lunasa, and one of the foremost composers and performers on low whistle and uilleann pipes. John is widely regarded as a premier contemporary torch-bearer of the uilleann pipes, a venerable instrument with a storied history comparable to the blues in America, but even more mysterious and mythological in character. John’s new album THE SEVEN SUNS follows the recent release of a comprehensive, 610 page examination of the art form that he co-authored with music writer, Colin Harper, The Wheels of the World: 300 Years of Irish Uilleann Pipers, described as “an epic tale of triumph and survival, where the soulful heart of a nation has been kept alive across ages by a slender thread of guardians.”
While John is well known on whistles, in particular the low whistle—familiar to mainstream ears by its omnipresence on soundtracks such as Rob Roy, Braveheart and Titanic—he is also both a guardian of the piping tradition and its most profound boundary pusher. This album doesn’t disappoint on either score—in the words of Donal Lunny, legendary founder of The Bothy Band, John “embraces the ancient strangeness of music passed on to us from centuries before while also possessing the harmonic and rhythmic sensibilities of the best of rock and contemporary music.”
In McSherry’s words: “I’ve been fascinated by the ancient megalithic monuments of Ireland since I was a boy. Shrouded in mystery, these magical monuments have inspired so many artists over the centuries and continue to spur the imagination today. They are the remnants of an ancient civilisation that stretched all along Europe’s Atlantic coast and into the Meditteranean, from The ‘Ring of Brodgar’ in The Orkneys to the Menhirs of Mzora in Morocco. The Irish monuments, in particular those of Brú na Boinne (Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth), Loughcrew and Carrowmore, are truly awe inspiring and invoke a deep sense of the spiritual. The music on this album has been inspired by these marvelous sites and the stories that go with them. Hope you enjoy!”
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