Traditional music meets jazz as Damien McGeehan hits uncharted terrainDonegal fiddle players’s new album Kin has a strong sense of people and of placeMon Dec 06 2021 - 05:00
Seamus McGuire with Steve Cooney: An Irish Viola review – A joyous collectionShining a spotlight on the viola in this redemptive selection is very welcomeFri Nov 19 2021 - 05:00
Garech de Brún, Paddy Moloney and the reinvention of Claddagh RecordsThe dying wish of label’s founder was to revive a company known for trad recordsSun Nov 14 2021 - 05:00
Emerging folk artists to renew vibrant traditional scene at the RTÉ Folk AwardsThere’s no denying it – the harp has come into its own in recent yearsTue Nov 02 2021 - 05:00
Laura Cannell and Kate Ellis: ‘We just play and see what happens’The musicians met only once, but the spark they felt has led to a fruitful collaborationMon Oct 25 2021 - 05:00
Eoghan Neff: Unrecalled – Traditional tunes given a darker edgeFiddle player’s last record on our relationship with memory is decade in the makingFri Oct 22 2021 - 05:00
In the Echo review: An album that burrows deep beneath the skinEight pairs of musicians come together in Field Recordings from Earlsfort TerraceFri Oct 01 2021 - 05:00
Culture Night 2021: Forgotten women musicians brought to lifeTara Breen and Nuala Kennedy search archive for recordings of women musicians from ClareWed Sept 08 2021 - 05:00
TG4 Gradam Ceoil 2021: ‘I think people value music more now’This year’s winners attest to the restorative power of music during a pandemicTue Sept 07 2021 - 05:00
Rónán Ó Snodaigh: Tá Go Maith review – Apt soundscape for these timesKíla guitarist’s sheer joy in the Irish language palpable throughout collectionFri Aug 13 2021 - 05:00
John Francis Flynn: I Would Not Leave Always review – solo flight soars with confidenceDebut solo album for Skipper’s Alley veteran is experimental and inventiveFri Jul 23 2021 - 05:00
‘Symbol of hope’: Light forms major part of Earagail Arts FestivalProgramme draws on Donegal landscape with blend of in-person and online eventsWed Jul 07 2021 - 00:00
Tradition Now: Place, home and identity explored through music at the NCHAfter over a year of lockdown, musicians are set for two days of live-streamed concertsSat Jun 12 2021 - 05:00
Tara Breen & Pádraig Rynne: Nasc review – A joy throughoutClare duo joined by guests Dónal Lunny and Jim Murray for this heart-thumping albumFri Jun 11 2021 - 05:00
‘My father was a dervish ... If you didn’t know them you would have thought they’d taken ecstasy’Tulca’s debut album is full of sweeping yet intimate music drawn from Irish and Persian traditionsMon May 10 2021 - 05:00
Atlantic Arc: Dónal Lunny steers a new Celtic musical courseThe new nine-piece band brings together a dizzying array of talent on a missionTue May 04 2021 - 05:00
Máirtín O’Connor: ‘The Earth still turns and we’re treating it so badly’Energetic musician on being commissioned to write The Mighty Ocean on climate changeWed Apr 21 2021 - 05:00
Luka Bloom: ‘I’ve made a career banging a good sound out of a cheap guitar’The musician’s new instrumental album, Out of the Blue, may be his most articulate yetSat Apr 10 2021 - 05:00
Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi: They’re Calling Me Home – An album for our timesThe duo’s new collection is shot through with a deep longing for homeFri Apr 09 2021 - 05:00
Bryan O’Leary: Tranquility in Tureencahill review – Gloriously fleet-footed solo debutAccordion player has a fine rhythmic sensibility and an ear for soaring melodiesFri Mar 12 2021 - 05:00
‘This year, for the first time in 25 years, I’ve just been rooted’Flautist Brian Finnegan found having to stay at home expanded his creative horizonsSat Feb 27 2021 - 05:00
The Goodman Manuscripts: Full of light and shade and an impish sense of adventureMick O’Brien, Emer Mayock and Aoife Ní Bhriain return to 19th century Kerry clergyman Canon GoodmanWed Jan 27 2021 - 05:00
Laura Cannell & Stewart Lee: These Feral Lands Volume 1 – A fevered collectionCannell and Lee engage in a ricocheting, jagged-edged conversationFri Nov 13 2020 - 05:00
Folk Awards: Steve Cooney revels in the achievement of a lifetimeThe Australian-born musician was exhorted to explore his Irish roots by Aboriginal eldersThu Nov 12 2020 - 05:00
Maeve Gilchrist: The Harpweaver review: Taking her harp to new horizonsThe Scottish harpist makes a journey from old to new in this beguiling albumFri Oct 09 2020 - 05:00
A child’s death and the music that came out of itSilk Road Ensemble and composer Osvaldo Golijov drill deep into what makes us humanWed Oct 07 2020 - 05:00
Sufjan Stevens: ‘We didn’t just wake up with a celebrity president. It was cultivated’Stevens’s new album The Ascension is a seething commentary on life as he knows it nowSat Sept 26 2020 - 05:30
Tommie Potts: The fireman who lit the flame of traditional musicThe Coombe fiddler’s legacy is celebrated in a new concert film as part of MusictownTue Sept 08 2020 - 05:00
Thomas Bartlett: ‘It was self-soothing in the desolation of Covid’Gloaming pianist’s solo album, called Shelter, was composed during the early days of the pandemic but ‘pre-George Floyd’, he saysWed Jul 29 2020 - 05:00
Luka Bloom: Bittersweet Crimson review – Plaintive pleasuresThe sings on Luka Bloom’s 22nd album linger long after their final notes.Fri Jul 24 2020 - 05:30
Éilís Kennedy: So Ends This Day review – Fascinating look at life on the high seasThe west Kerry musician marks herself out as a songwriter and singer of deep humanityFri Jun 12 2020 - 05:00
The West Ocean String Quartet: Atlantic Edge – Music from the Wild Atlantic WayThe quartet celebrate 21 years with a tribute to the trad sounds of the westFri May 01 2020 - 05:00
Where traditional and classical music come togetherThe West Ocean String Quartet’s album Atlantic Edge celebrates the majesty of our west coastMon Apr 27 2020 - 05:00
John Sheahan: Flirting Fiddles review - a freewheeling, scampish delightThe fiddle player’s first solo album at 80 shows the merits of taking your own sweet timeFri Apr 24 2020 - 05:00
Folk singer and broadcaster Mary McPartlan dies at 65President Higgins leads tributes to producer who conceived of Gradam Ceoil TG4 awardsMon Apr 06 2020 - 16:33
Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh: Thar Toinn / Seaborne review – Dive right inLess is more on this six-track capsule project from the west Kerry singerFri Mar 20 2020 - 05:00
Conserving legacy of Liam O’Flynn: ‘He was like our State piper’Irish Traditional Music Archive will house the records left by the great piper Liam O’FlynnTue Mar 17 2020 - 05:00
Ríoghnach Connolly and Stuart McCallum: Mancunian blues by way of ArmaghThe Breath brings duo’s collective creativity to the Pepper Canister for St Patrick’s FestivalSat Mar 07 2020 - 05:00
The best trad gigs of the weekMuireann Nic Amhlaoibh and Donal Clancy are among the highlightsSat Mar 07 2020 - 05:00
The best trad gigs this week: From The Gathering to KernPlus Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh in Cobh and An Góilín Singers Club in DublinSat Feb 29 2020 - 05:00
Martin Hayes: ‘Retirement is a terrible disaster if it’s something you love doing’The Gloaming fiddler continues eternal musical quest with The Common Ground EnsembleSat Feb 22 2020 - 05:00
The week’s best trad gigs: Andy Irvine to Aileen LambertCatch Planxty veteran Irvine, Wexford singer Lambert and Chieftains fiddler Seán KeaneSat Feb 15 2020 - 05:00
The best traditional gigs between February 23rd and 29thGet tickets for Dónal Lunny, TG4 Gradam Ceoil Awards, Ímar and KernFri Feb 14 2020 - 13:23
The best traditional music gigs in Ireland this weekFour Men and A Dog in Derry, West Kerry meets Cork GaeltachtSat Feb 08 2020 - 05:00
The Bonny Men: The Broken Pledge review – Pioneering trad progressionA refreshingly diverse selection of songs with big sound and expansive themesFri Feb 07 2020 - 04:58
The best traditional gigs in Ireland this weekSt Brigid’s Day celebrated, The Fiddle Case atDC Music Club, and plenty more to keep your feet tappingSat Feb 01 2020 - 05:00
Gig of the Week: the Spike Cello FestivalBoutique weekend festival lures lovers of classical, contemporary, traditional and folk musicSat Feb 01 2020 - 05:00
The best traditional music gigs to go to this weekTradfest Temple Bar, Galician gaita piper Anxo LorenzoSat Jan 25 2020 - 05:00
Steve Cooney: Ceol Ársa Cláirsí review – A glorious celebration of an ancient heritageCooney conjures up a finely honed collection of tunes for guitar from music originally written for the harpFri Jan 24 2020 - 05:00
Gig of the Week: TradFest in Temple BarHeadliners abound in this winter festival with plenty of opportunity to hear emerging trad musiciansSat Jan 18 2020 - 05:00
