Irish Trad Music Blog

GORDON DEEGAN CLARE COUNTY Council’s high-tech chamber last night provided a platform for the Kilfenora Céilí Band to showcase its talents. In a forum that is more accustomed lately to hearing councillors quarrel over the growing size of potholes on the roads, the céilí band last night provided rich entertainment and some relief after the council’s recent battles with the floods and the freeze. One of Ireland’s best-known Irish traditional music bands, the Kilfenora Céilí Band was last night being honoured by the county council after celebrating its centenary in 2009. The céilí band, which includes a farmer, a carpenter, a social worker and a number of teachers from Co Clare, shared the limelight with music legends Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young at last year’s Glastonbury festival in England. The band is made up of three fiddle players, two flute players, a pianist, an accordion player, a drummer, a banjo player and a concertina player. The current line-up has been together by and la...

By Edward Ortiz, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Feb. 7--The music of Mexico is not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of the legendary Irish band the Chieftains. But Mexico is where this Dublin-based band has been living -- musically. In its soon-to-be released CD, "San Patricio," the group tastefully blends Irish and Mexican music. The band will perform songs from "San Patricio" (due out March 9) at UC Davis' Mondavi Center as part of its monthlong U.S. tour. "The reason this Celtic band is melding Irish and Mexican music has a lot to do with history," said Paddy Moloney who founded the Chieftains and plays Uilleann bagpipe and tin whistle. "Over a year ago, I was doing a music project on the Civil War, and that's when I came across the history of the 'San Patricios,' " said Moloney, who will be joined on the Mondavi stage by fiddler Sean Keane, bodhran drum player, vocalist Kevin Conneff and flutist Matt Molloy. The li...

Paddy Keenan and Tommy O'Sullivan will play at the Passionfruit Theatre in Athlone on Friday February 12 2010 For more info, see www.passionfruittheatre.com

If you are a follower of traditional Irish music, then this is an event not to be missed. Brainchild of well-known local traditional musician Richard Murray, this will be the first such event of its kind in Galway. Richard has enlisted the support of his friends and colleagues along the western seaboard and beyond to run a charity event, playing traditional music continuously for one full day in Galway hostelry, Tí Coilí, on Mainguard Street. Starting at 11am on Saturday Feb 13 the event will run until close on that night. With the concept in mind all that was left for Richard was to recruit a charity to benefit from this fantastic event. This was quickly resolved when Richard heard the words of Adi Roche CEO Chernobyl Children’s Project Intl (CCPI), while she was speaking from Dublin Airport last Christmas as she welcomed 70 children from Belarus to Ireland for the Christmas holiday. He was so moved by those words that it brought him to get in touch with Camp Claddagh about the idea o...

LET it freeze, let it flood, let the rest of the country grind to a standstill, but deep in West Kerry preparations are already well underway for one event that just keeps gaining momentum, despite the nationwide doom and gloom. It's the five-day traditional music festival Scoil Cheoil an Earraigh, now in its sixth year, and already a firm fixture in any traditional music lover's calendar. From February 17 to 21 the village of Ballyferriter is set to be gripped by traditional music fever, with visitors to the remote spot flocking to a host of classes on the harp, accordion, bodhrán, banjo/mandolin, uilleann pipes, flute, concertina, whistle, fiddle, bagpipes, mouth organ, sean-nós singing, and sean-nós dancing. There'll also be master classes on the concertina, fiddle, accordion and tin whistle, and two concerts featuring some of Ireland's finest traditional musicians on Friday and Saturday, February 19 and 20 in Ballyferriter Church. Deirdre Grainbhéal, Cillian Ó Briai...