Traditional Irish Music

Irish traditional music currently has the largest and richest collection of music, musicians, and instruments. Irish records dominate Celtic sections in most record stores. Suprisingly, the commercial interest in this music is relatively recent, and the current revival only started in the mid-1960s, led by groups like Planxty, the Chieftains and singers such as Delores Keane and Christy Moore.

Today, the traditional music scene is large and continuing to grow. Groups such as the Chieftains and Altan record on major labels and play major festivals and concert halls around the world. Many Irish musicians with strong traditional backgrounds find great success crossing over into other markets, including Mary Black, Maura O'Connell, Sinead O'Connor. The Chieftains record albums with guest artists such as Mick Jagger, Sting, Van Morrison, etc. Following close behind these established groups are young bands and artists with exceptional skill and enthusiasm including groups Solas, Dervish, Déanta, and individual musicians such as Martin Hayes and Sharon Shannon. Travel to Ireland in the summer, and the pubs and music classes are filled with musicians from all over Europe, America and Australia there to learn from the older musicians who are generously eager to pass on the tradition. It is a great time to be listening to Irish music.

There is a richness of musical instruments in Irish music compared to Scottish or Cape Breton music. Historically, most Irish music was played on the Irish harp, an instrument not frequently seen nowadays. However, the Chieftains have increased the popularity of the harp and it is a featured instrument in the excellent new group, The Bumblebees. Today, the lead instrument is usually a fiddle.

Irish music generally is played by relatively large groups (in contrast to duets or trios found in Cape Breton music). These groups will almost always include a guitar, and increasingly commonly a bazouki or two, a button accordion, a flute, and a bodhran (a goatskin round drum). Occasionally banjos, mandolins, and even harps can be found. The percussionist may put down the bodhran and pick up "bones" or spoons.

For many contemporary Irish musicians, the archtypal traditional instrument is the uillean pipes. "Uillean" means "elbow" in Gaelic, and these bagpipes are powered by a small bellows under the right elbow. They have a much softer and mellower sound than the more familiar Highland pipes associated with Scottish music. In the hands of masters such as Paddy Keenan, Liam O'Flynn, or Willie Clancy, this uniquely Irish instrument makes glorious music. These pipes can be played either with other instruments or solo. Highland pipes can also be found in Ireland, even marching pipe bands these are usually found in the north of Ireland. Because they are so difficult to play, the uillean pipes are relatively rare in Irish bands, although they too are enjoying a revival.

A word about singing. Until recently most Irish singing was done a capella. This style of singing is still relatively common, for example, on Arcady's album Many Happy Returns, the terrific singer Niamh Parsons does most of the songs solo. Increasingly, singers are singing with music, but this is a recent development.

The major record labels producing Irish music include Green Linnet, Gael-Linn, Ossian, and Celtic Note. For those with strong interests in traditional Irish music, I recommend Irish Musicmagazine. This is published monthly in Ireland, but one can subscribe in the States. For more info. e-mail them at slaffey@iol.ie or check out their new WWW site.

Finally, my greatest pleasure in this music comes from the ensemble playing of either established bands or impromptu sessions in pubs. Irish musicians play great together, and the energy and joy that come out of these sessions is magical. Listen to Altan, Solas, or Dervish and get carried to music heaven.

The Gasmen -- This wonderful group entertained the Bay Area as Órla and the Gasmen until 2002 when Órla and Richard Morrison moved back to Ireland.  The remaining members will reform a new group soon. The group's CD - Minding Mice at Crossroads (1998, Gas Men MUSIC) is highly recommended. The group consists Vinnie Cronin on flute and whistles, Cormac Gannon on bodhrán, Vincie Keehan on mandolin,  guitar, Jimmy O'Meara on octave mandolin, Colm O'Riain on fiddle, and Kenny Somerville on banjo. Accordian player Barry O' Connell joined the band in 2001. After playing with numerous bands in the San Francisco Bay Area , John Caulfield, fiddler, mandolin player and singer, found his home with The Gas Men in 2002..

Tipsy House. Tipsy House is probably the longest running traditional Irish music group in San Francisco started in 1989 by Jack Gilder and Lief Sorbye (now of Tempest/Caliban). Tipsy House" has been recognized by folks in the San Francisco Bay Area as a band of excellent local musicians who are devoted to playing Irish traditional music. There's no fusion or cross over involved in what they do, but rather a total fixation and obsession for traditional Irish music. What that means is; rather than jazzing it up or fusing it with pop or any other sort of music, they simply love the music for what it is. Tipsy House has performed in concert halls, as well as pubs and cafes all around the greater Bay Area. They've been featured at some of the largest and most well known Irish music festivalsin the area, as well as opening for some of the hottest international touring bands today. Also, Tipsy House has built a reputation as an excellent dance band providing the music for Céilí and Irish set dancing. There have been numerous members of the group over the years with the current lineup consisting of Jack Gilder on concertina & flute, Kevin Bernhagen on fiddle, and Richard Mandel on guitar. Contacts: e-mail Jack Gilder at jgilder@jps.net, phone: (415) 931-9192,..

• Groups
• Collections
• Singers
• Fiddlers

• Pipers
• Accordions & Concertinas
• Flute players
• Live Albums at Pubs

Altan. Save your time and buy all their albums now. Sooner or later, you will get them all. Before the band formed officially, Mairéad Ni Mhaonaigh and Frankie Kennedy, both from Donegal, released two classic duet albums which remain among my all-time favorites: Ceol Aduaidh (1983) and an album simply called Altan (1987) (pictured). The expanded band "Altan" went on to record: Horse With a Heart (1988), The Red Crow (1990), Harvest Storm (1992), and Island Angel (1993). Three of these won INDIE awards as Celtic traditional album of the year. (These are all on the Green Linnet label.) The drive and passion of the reels, the passionate flute playing of Frankie Kennedy, and the haunting beauty of Máiread Ní Mhaonaigh's voice are stunning. Tragically, Frankie, one of the great musicians of the century, died of cancer in 1994. At his urging, the band has gone on.
   Altan is a totally class act. Great on their albums and awesome in performance, as they have been for more than a decade. Mairéad has become one very best fiddlers in Ireland, and a superb ambassador for the Donegal style of fiddling. More recent albums include: and have two new albums out-- Blackwater (1996) and Runaway Sunday (1997) (both on Virgin Records), and Another Sky (Narada, 2000). In building your Altan collection, I recommend starting with their earliest CDs with the remarkable Frankie Kennedy's flute playing, then slowly buy them all.

SOLAS-- This group achieved "supergroup" status with their first CD Solas (1996, Shanachie) that featured five incredibly strong individual musicians: John Williams (a fabulous concertina & accordion player), Winifred Horan (fiddle), John Doyle (a superb rhythm guitar player), Seamus Egan (on anything you blow through), and Karan Casey (a truly wonderful singer). They followed this up with two other superb CDs: Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers (1997, Shanachie #78010) (pictured at left), and The words that remain (1998 Shanachie#78023) which the readers of Irish Music Magazine voted the 1998 Album of the Year.

John Williams left after the first CD, John Doyle and Karan Casey left after the 3rd album. Their newest CD, The Hour Before Dawn (2000) is my least favorite. Get their first two albums first. You will not be disappointed.

Dervish-- At the End of the Day (Kells Music, 1996) This young group from Sligo is taking the traditional music scene by storm both in Ireland and the U.S. A great group of musicians, they are fronted by the superb young singer Cathy Jordan, and include Liam Kelly, a terrific flute player; Shane McAleer on fiddle; Shane Mitchell on button accordion; Michael Holmes on bozouki, and Brian McDonagh on mandola and guitar. Dervish plays together incredibly well. Other albums include: Harmony Hill, Playing with Fire, and a double CD set: Live in Palma (1997), and Midsummer's Night (1999, Whirling Discs), and a new "best of" album Decade. All of these are excellent, although the studio albums are more polished. Before Cathy Jordan joined the band, they released an all-instrumental album, The Boys of Sligo which is also very good. Don't miss a chance to see them live.

Craobh Rua-- No Matter How Cold & Wet You Are As Long As You're Warm and Dry (Lochshore Records) This relatively new group from northern Ireland is one of my favorites. It consists of Mark Donnelly on uillean pipes and whistles, Jim Byrne on guitar, mandola and vocals, Michael Cassidy on fiddles and viola, and Brian Connoly on banjo, mandonlin and Bodhran. Great singing in English and Irish and high energy instrumentals. Their other albums, The More that's Said the Less the Better (1992) and Soh it is (1997), and if ida been here, ida been there (KRL Lochshore, 2000) are excellent, although this one's my favorite.

The Chieftains and Van Morrison -- Irish Heartbeat -- The Chieftains have been playing excellent traditional Irish music for more than 30 years and have lots of albums. Many of these are collaboration with pop or rock stars. This is my favorite Chieftians album. If you like Van Morrison, this album is classic. (Even if you don't like Van the Man, it's still classic.)

The Chieftains' Collection -the very best of the claddagh years (1999 Claddagh/Atlantic). Before The Chieftains were a world music phenomenon playing with the likes of Mick Jagger and Bonnie Raitt, they were a very, very good traditional Irish group. This album captures this period superbly. It consists of 12 instrumental tracks recorded betwen 1964 and 1975. The only complaint I have is about the extremely brief liner "notes". (Very highly recommended)

Another terrific CD with an entirely traditional flavor is the Chieftain's new one, Water from the Well, reviewed on my new CDs page.

Déanta-- Whisper of a Secret (1997, Green Linnet). This, the third album from this group, shows them emerging from the realm of precocious young musicians into one of Ireland's best young traditional groups. The highlight of the album is Mary Dillon's gorgeous singing.

Beginish -- Beginish (Inis Records, Ireland 1998) It's a gem. Brendan Begley is an Irish accordionist whose recent album, We Won't Go Home Til Morning, was widely viewed as one of the best traditional albums of the year. Also in this group is Paul O'Shaughnessy, a superb fiddler, and flute player Paul McGrattan. There is very fine traditional playing on this album. Beginish were great at the Sebastopol Celtic Festival in September 98. Available from Maureen Brennan if you can't find it elsewhere. E-mail: MBAgency@ix.netcom.com.

Lúnasa -- Lúnasa (1998 Grapevine Records) This is a very, very nice instrumental album. The group is Sean Smyth on fiddle and Swayne whistle, John McSherry on uillean pipes and low whistle, Mike McGoldrick on flute and low whistle, Donogh Hennessey on guitar, and Trevor Hutchinson (of the Sharon Shannon band) on double bass. This tends to give the group a more woodwind/pipes sound than the typical guitar/fiddle dominated Irish group. And a very nice sound it is. The arrangements are intelligent and really show the instruments off against each other well. The playing is terrific

The tunes on the album are mainly Irish, but there is a klezmer tune, a (French) Breton air and one set of Cape Breton tunes. There is a wonderful pipe solo of "Colonel Frazer". Several tracks were recorded live at Matt Malloy's pub in Westport, Ireland. A review in Irish Music magazine compared the band favorably to the legendary Bothy Band. I wouldn't go that far, but this is an excellent album that warrants a lot of repeat listening.

Skara Brae -- Skara Brae (Gael-Linn 1998). It is not often that a debut (and only) album made in a single afternoon in a studio is re-released 28 years later as a major event by a prestigous label. Micheál Ó Dhomhnaill, his two sisters Tríona and Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill, and Dáithí Sproule made a splash when they released this album, indicating their later musical contributions. Micheál and Tríona went on to play wih the Bothy Band; Dáithí still plays with Altan, and Maighread's album Gan Dhá Phingin Spré (Gael Linn 1990) is described immodestly by the label as "the high point of recorded Irish music in the 1990s"! This is largely a collection of Gaelic songs from Donegal, with a few instrumentals. A distinguishing feature of the group is the lovely harmony singing of all four members on interesting arrangements of voices, two guitars and an electric clavinet. This is a lovely, gentle album with good liner notes. Recommended, and not just for those interested in the beginning of traditional musical revival.

A Woman's Heart 2 This is a sequel to AWH 1. Both are very nice collections of songs by contemporary women singers and a non-singer (Sharon Shannon). I happen to like the sequel a little better, but both albums have lots of fans. On the album are many of Ireland's best women singers: Mary Black (3 tunes), Frances Black, Sinead O'Connor, Maura O'Connell, Sinead Lohan and Delores Keane.

Solas former lead singer Karan Casey has a solo album, Songlines (1997, Shanachie). Casey is my favorite Irish woman singer today, and I am not alone. Accompanied on this, her debut solo album by many of her friends from Solas, this is a superb album. Her 2d solo CD, The Winds Begin to Sing (Shanachie 2001) is also excellent, a very thoughtful, fascinating, poetic and highly effective exploration of human dramas of the heart and war through song both old and new.

Seane Keane, Turn a Phrase (1997, Kells Music). Many consider Keane to be the finest male singer of folk songs in Ireland today. I am not quite so fond of him, but this album has two songs that are killer: "Tunnel Tigers" by Ewan McColl about Irish construction workers who emigrate to London to build the subway and the impacts of that emigration back in Ireland, and "Green Among the Gold" by Rosalind and Steve Barnes which is about Irish emigrants in their new land of Australia. Keane's choice of other songs is a bit too much like American country music for my tastes.

Martin Hayes. His first two albums -Martin Hayes and Under the Moon, (Green Linnet) are superb. These purely instrumental albums are deceptively simple and differ substantially from his more crowd-pleasing live performances.
His most recent CD (with Dennis Cahill) -Live in Seattle (Green Linnet #1195) is the recording that captures the magic of this duo in a live concert, . This is the 2d half of a concert in Seattle, just Martin and Dennis, and the boys were in their own rare form that night.
Hayes, a fiddler originally from Co. Clare, who grew up surrounded by great fiddlers, is a genius whose soulfulness and technical wizardry are applied to give vibrant life to any tune he touches. It is as if the muse were borrowing his body and fiddle to show us what these tunes are all about. One feature of the playing on this album is the driving effect of the rythms created by Cahill, and how Hayes uses that and builds on it. To me, this is the sound of a fiddler who played for dancers for years (as he did with ceilidh bands). The highlight is a 27 minute set of tunes ranging from Blasket Island airs to familiar reels to an Irish interpretation of Pachabel's Canon in D. It is a set they play a lot at concerts, and it is mesmerizing. This is traditional music with vision and breathtaking passion. The liner notes contain interesting comments by Hayes about his approach to playing at concerts, but little information about the tunes themselves. (Very highly recommended)

Frankie Gavin, perhaps best known as the fiddler of DeDanaan, has been making great music on fiddle and flute for several decade. None of DeDanaan's previous albums prepared me for how great Hibernian Rhapsody (1996, Shanachie) is. The singing Tommy Flemming is phenomenal and fiddler Frankie Gavin is at his best.

Paddy Glacknin-- Rabharta Ceoil/In Full Spate (Gael-Linn 1991) A truly fine fiddler from Donegal who has been an inspiration to many other Irish musicians. This is a superb album.

Paddy Keenan -- Na Keen Affair (Hot Conya Records, 1997). The Irish uillean ("elbow") pipes have a much softer and pleasant sound than the Scottish highland pipes, and they have become a signature instrument of Irish traditional music. Very, very hard to play, the uillean pipes are not for dilettante musicians. Paddy Keenan, original member of the legendary Bothy Band, shows off this instrument at its best. This new album is spectacular, and includes a couple of beautiful airs on low whistles. Paddy combines nearly unbelievable virtuosity on the pipes with a rare musical gift, and the combination is as good as Irish music gets.

Neil Mulligan-- The Leitrim Trush (Spring Records, N. Ireland, 1997). Voted "Best Traditional Album of 1997" by the readers of Irish Music magazine. Mulligan's playing is masterful, and quite different than Keenan's and has an intense, Gaelic flavor to it, much like the playing of his mentor Seamus Ennis. Mulligan's phrasing is heavily influenced by his interest in sean nós singing. For those not already addicted to uillean piping, be warned this album makes no concessions to commercial pop sensibilities. Excellent liner notes. For those not familiar with the exotic intonations and tunes of traditional uillean piping, this album may seem like a Guinness with a bit of peat added for texture!

Pipeline - Pipeline  (2003 The Celtic Connection)  This duo consists of Dermot Hyde on uillean pipes, small pipes, whistles, and lead vocals and Tom Hake on guitar, bazouki, harp, bass and backing vocals. This is an extraordinarly talented group with amazing diversity of skills on the various arrangements with exquisite arrangements of tunes and songs. Of all the great things on this CD (Hyde's whistle playing, Hake's harp, Hyde's singing), it is Dermot Hyde's brilliant uillean piping that should compel you to track this CD down and get it. I met them in Cape Breton at the Celtic Colours festival where they were the only group ever invited purely on the basis of this CD. As live performers, they were funny and great. (Very highly recommended)