Celtic Thunder (the East Coast-based band, not the “show”) played its first gig in 1977 before going on to become one of the most enduring US-based Celtic bands.
The current line-up of the band consists of original members Jesse Winch (bodhran, bouzouki, guitar, harmonica), Terry Winch (button accordion), and Linda Hickman (flute, whistle, vocals) along with 20+ year veterans Laura Murphy (lead vocals) and Regan Wick (piano, Irish step-dance).
In addition, other members of Celtic Thunder over the years have included Nita Conley (vocals, guitar, piano), Steve Hickman (fiddle, harmonica, vocals), Tony DeMarco (fiddle), Dominick Murray (vocals, guitar), Rob Thornburgh (fiddle, vocals), Marty Somberg (fiddle), and Patrick Orseau (fiddle).
Scottish Harp duo, Sileas, (pronounced She-less) comprised of Mary MacMaster and Patsy Seddon, remained the only musical companionship of its kind throughout the duet’s decade-long run. Sileas’s unique instrumental combination of a nylon-strung acoustic Celtic harp and a brass-strung electro-harp created a contemporary, lively sound that was complimented by the ladies’ soft, perfectly harmonized vocals.
Sileas debuted with Delighted With Harps (1986), an album that showcased the ladies’ English and Gaelic vocals along with their distinctive style of harping. Beating Harps (1988), acted as a continuation of the first album, and then in 1990, the duet added more electronic enhancement to their sound for Harpbreakers. In 1996, MacMaster and Seddon recorded with Clan Alba, Dick Gaughan’s Scottish band, titled Sail On. Then, six years after Harpbreakers, the duo released Play on Light (1998), with a return to their acoustic sound.
MacMaster and Seddon later joined the Irish band The Poozies, where they are consistently featured as a duet during shows.
Celebrating their 40th Anniversary this year, The Green Fields of America was the first group on either side of the Atlantic to bring together Irish vocal, instrumental and dance traditions on the concert and festival stage. The group continues to feature some of the most celebrated names in Irish American music and dance in including National Heritage Award Recipients Mick Moloney on Banjo, Vocals and Octave Mandolin, and Billy McComiskey on Button Accordion. The group also includes: legendary singer/songwriter Robbie O’Connell, Riverdance and Sharon Shannon Band alum Athena Tergis on 5-string fiddle, World Irish Step Dance Champion Niall O’Leary, acclaimed concertina player and singer Brenda Castles, Pianist and flute player Brendan Dolan and the riveting vocals and fiddle of Liz Hanley.
An evening with The Green Fields of America is an unforgettable experience. They perform a brilliant repertoire of Reels, Jigs, Barndances, Slow airs, and Hornpipes and Set Dances accompanied by exciting, virtuoso Irish dancing from World Champion step dancers, as well as a variety of traditional and contemporary songs in Gaelic and English. These include love songs, humorous songs, patriotic songs, songs of emigration and settlement, Irish American songs from variety theater and vaudeville and the myriad other themes that have made the Irish oral literature and song tradition among the richest in the Western world. All this is linked by the urbane, informative witty commentary which the group is renowned for. They have the rare capacity to appeal to folk and Irish music devotees and to general audiences of any age.
Quebec-based Ad Vielle Que Pourra (Daniel Thonon, Luc Thonon, Gilles Plante, Alain Leroux, Clement Demers) utilizes traditional French instrumentation and music and fuses it with elements of Gypsy polkas and Venezuelan waltzes.
Multil-instrumentalist, composer, producer, tv and radio presenter, director…the list goes on when discussing Phil Cunningham.
A founding member of Silly Wizard and Relativity (along with his brother, fiddler Johnny), the accordion/whistle/keyboard player, along with long-time collaborator Aly Bain (fiddle) Cunningham has performed at the opening of the devolved Scottish Parliament in 1999 and later the funeral of the hugely respected First Minister, Donald Dewar – the nearest thing to a state funeral that Scotland has seen in centuries.
Phil has also composed classical music and music for theater and television, with 1997 seeing the premiere of his Highlands and Islands Suite at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. In 2002, Phil was awarded the MBE for services to Scottish music.
In the years since its creation, Orealis has established a reputation as one of Canada’s most exciting and innovative Celtic Bands. Their fresh, evocative music, a magical blend of traditional and original material, has delighted concert and festival audiences across the country and in the US. Their varied Repertoire ranges from Haunting ballads and slow airs to driving instrumentals and songs performed with energy and enthusiasm. It is not surprising that the group has shared the bill with such diverse acts as Shane McGowan and the Popes, The Pogues, The Waterboys, Gypsy Kings, Runrig, Luka Bloom and Richard Thompson.
The Heart and Soul of Orealis consists of Kirk MacGeachy and Dave Gossage. Kirk, originally from Scotland and the founding member of the band provides the rich mellow vocals and rhythm guitar and Bouzouki-Guitar work, while Dave brings to the band his fiery flute and whistle playing and electric guitar pyrotechnics. Kirk and Dave are joined by Dave’s brother Bill, on bass and in some shows by another brother, Thom on percussion and Drums.
Folk singer/songwriter Andy Irvine found his true voice in traditional music when the 1960s folk revolution exploded in Western Europe.
After recording several singles and an album with Irish folk band Sweeney’s Men, Irvine left Dublin for a journey through Eastern Europe. Upon his return to Dublin, Irvine met and played with Donal Lunny for a while, but his world changed when established Christy Moore asked Irvine, Lunny, and uilleann piper Liam O’Flynn to play on the album, and afterward, the four musicians formed the band Planxty.
Planxty quickly became the premier Irish folk band of the early ’70’s after signing a six-record contract and touring extensively throughout Europe. After their third album, Moore left and was briefly replaced by Paul Brady before disbanding.
Brady, a self-taught pianist and guitarist joined Planxty in 1974. Between 1976 and 1978, he and Irvine played as a duo, a musical affiliation that produced the album Andy Irvine and Paul Brady, which even today is considered “one of the greatest albums ever of traditional Irish songs,” (All Music Guide)
The duo performed a reunion concert at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow in February 2008.
Unless you’ve heard them before, you’ve never quite heard anything like the Deighton Family. And if you are familiar with them, then you know that they really are a family of mixed South Moluccan/ English heritage who combine folk, Celtic, Cajun, bluegrass, rock, and everything else around to introduce some of the most refreshing and uplifting music this side of heaven.
Considered to be one of the most talented fiddlers in Ireland today, Sligo-style fiddler Oisín Mac Diarmada is the fiddler and founder of Teada, an Irish traditional band dubbed "one of the most exciting traditional groups to emerge in recent years,” (Irish World)
Mac Diarmada’s Sligo fiddling embraces the “Pure traditional fiddling, raw and unadorned and all the better for it," (Hot Press) and has a "lonesome magnificence," (Irish Times) that only the best Sligo fiddlers ever achieve.
In 2001, Mac Diarmada co-founded the traditional Irish band Teada (“strings”). Monaghan native Seán McElwain (banjo and bouzouki), Co. Laois’s Paul Finn (accordion), Dubliner Tristan Rosenstock (bodhrán), and John Blake rounded out the group, and in 2005, Blake left the group and was replaced by Sligo flautist Damien Stenson. Mac Diarmada described the creation of Teada as "really a very organic process… we wanted to capture some of that rawness and individuality of the solo artist within the dynamic of a full band.”
A graduate of Trinity College in Dublin with a degree in Music Education, Mac Diarmada has released several recordings, including acclaimed solo Ar an bhFidil on Green Linnet in 2003 and four with Teada. In 2001, he founded Ceol Productions, a management, booking, and consultancy agency for traditional Irish artists.
When describing Cherish the Ladies – the critics say it best…“It is simply impossible to imagine an audience that wouldn’t enjoy what they do”, the Boston Globe, “An astonishing array of virtuosity”, the Washington Post, “Expands the annals of Irish music in America…the music is passionate, tender and rambunctious”, The New York Times – and for over two decades, Cherish the Ladies have proven themselves worthy to live up to these accolades and in doing so have become one of the most engaging ensembles in the history of Irish music.
They have grown from a one-time concert concept to an Irish traditional music sensation, literally the most successful and sought-after Irish-American group in Celtic music. Organized by folklorist/musician Mick Moloney and sponsored by the Ethnic Folk Arts Center and the National Endowment for the Arts, they began as a concert series featuring the brightest lights in Irish traditional music.
Taking their name from the name of a traditional Irish jig, the group initially won recognition as the first and only all-women traditional Irish band. In a relatively short time, they soon established themselves as musicians and performers without peer and have won many thousands of listeners and fans of their music. With their unique spectacular blend of virtuosi instrumental talents, beautiful vocals, captivating arrangements and stunning step dancing, this powerhouse group combines all the facets of Irish traditional culture and puts it forth in an immensely humorous and entertaining package.
The past years have seen the group traveling all over North and South America, the United Kingdom and Europe, Australia and New Zealand performing in the finest concert halls and international festivals. They are equally at home in front of a symphony orchestra, a performing arts center, a folk festival or even at the White House.
They have been chosen Best Musical Group of the Year by the BBC, Top 100 Irish Americans by Irish America Magazine, Entertainment Group of the Year by the Irish Voice Newspaper, selected as the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall’s International Group of the Year in Scotland and voted the Top North American Celtic act by NPR Radio’s “Thistle and Shamrock”.
They have shared the stage with such noted entertainers as James Taylor, Joan Baez, Emmy Lou Harris, The Clancy Brothers, Tommy Makem, The Chieftains and dozens of symphony orchestras. The “Celtic Album”, their collaboration with the Boston Pops Symphony led to a 1999 Grammy nomination.
The Ladies have recorded eleven highly acclaimed albums. Their last two albums on Rounder records were released to rave reviews. “On Christmas Night” was chosen as one of the top Christmas Albums of the Year by The New York Times, Washington Post, The Village Voice and many other nationally syndicated Newspapers and their latest release, “Woman of the House” is heralded as their best album to date and hit Billboard Magazines’ top 10 world music Charts.
Cherish the Ladies have appeared on CBS This Morning, Good Morning America, Evening at Pops, C-Span, Imus in the Morning, PBS and National Public Radio in the United States and on BBC and RTE radio and television overseas. At the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, they were chosen to represent Irish music and culture at the Official Cultural Olympiad.
The girls continue to blaze forward and continue to enchant audiences worldwide.
Dáithí Sproule of Derry, whose first group was the legendary Skara Brae, has lived for many years in Minnesota. He is one of Irish music’s most respected guitar accompanists, and one of the first guitarists to develop DADGAD tuning for Irish music. He is also a fine singer in English and Irish. Dáithí has performed and recorded with two highly influential traditional music trios: Bowhand (with James Kelly and Paddy O’Brien) and Trian (with Liz Carroll and Billy McComiskey), as well as providing accompaniment for recordings by Tommy Peoples, Seamus and Manus McGuire, Liz Carroll, Paddy O’Brien and others. He has performed around the world with the Irish supergroup Altan, and continues to tour and record with Altan, Randal Bays, and James Keane (under the name Fingal), and several Minnesota-based musicians including Laura MacKenzie and Jode and Kate Dowling. Dáithí’s original compositions have been recorded by Skara Brae, the Bothy Band, Altan, Trian, Liz Carroll, Aoife Clancy, and others. He is known for his innovative arrangements of traditional songs, and in 1995 he released his first solo album, A Heart Made of Glass, with songs in English and Irish. In addition to performing and recording, Dáithí is a sought-after teacher and lecturer in subjects ranging from guitar styles and song accompaniment to Irish traditional music, language and literature.
“The finest Celtic ensemble this country has ever produced…combines a deep empathy for the wild grace of traditional music with a savvy understanding of modern arrangement, creating a remarkably contemporary and timeless sound that led them immediately to Celtic superstardom…uniquely fluid, warmly melodic and robust.” – The Boston Globe
“Solas has electrified crowds everywhere it has played; it’s an Irish traditional band bearing all the marks of greatness.” -The Wall Street Journal
“One of the most exciting bands anywhere in the world.” – Irish Echo
Solas stepped out onto the world stage in 1996, when Irish music was poised at the brink of a new era of innovation and popularity. The five young musicians who made up the band at the time had no idea that they were to be a galvanizing element in the Irish music scene – a lightening rod of talent and inspiration that set new standards for musicianship, repertoire, and intensity. “We thought we were doing a one-off project,” says multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan with a smile, ten years after the fact. Egan and fiddler Winifred Horan have remained with the band through a decade that has encompassed seven albums and endless international touring and critical acclaim. Inspired by an off-hand comment that 2006 marked ten years as a band, Solas reached out to past members (including John Doyle, John Williams and Karan Casey) to join them in a celebration concert in Philadelphia. After the almost impossible task of coordinating the schedules of touring musicians, the show went off without a hitch and the result became the CD/DVD Reunion: A Decade of Solas, one of the most highly praised Irish music outputs of 2006.
In 2008 vocalist Deirdre Scanlan made the difficult decision to step away from the road and Solas. With tours still on the books, Solas was joined by a myriad of the best folk and Irish vocalists on the scene today including Aoife O’Donovan (Crooked Still) to handle lead vocals until a final decision was made. Solas is excited to officially announce the discovery and addition of Kilkenny vocalist Mairead Phelan. Phelan is an All-Ireland champion on flute and whistle and has studied at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. Beautifully filling the role carved out by founding vocalist Karan Casey, Phelan brings to Solas an enlivened sense of purpose and a new shine to Solas’ entire vocal repertoire. With Phelan, Solas is putting the finishing touches on a new album, For Love and Laughter due out on Compass Records September 2008.
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