Celtic Music Biographies C

Jackie Daly
Daly is one of Ireland's top accordion players and has been a member of De Danann, Buttons & Bows, Arcady, and Patrick Street. Steve Winick, All-Music Guide

Shaun Davey
Shaun Davey is a classical composer from Belfast whose work frequently features traditional motifs and instrumentation. He is best known for several compositions that feature the Uillean bagpipe, perhaps the only bagpipe refined enough to sit in with a symphony orchestra. Steve Winick, All-Music Guide

De Danann
De Danann began by producing vibrant arrangements of the traditional music of Galway and Kerry, two of Ireland's musically rich counties. Influenced by both the instrumental sound of the Chieftains and the more vocal-dominated sound of Planxty, this band built up a name for itself in the wake of the Chieftains' rise to international fame. Its members, especially the support singer, have come and gone with dizzying regularity, so that many of the greatest musicians in Ireland, including Frankie Gavin, Johnny Moynihan, Johnny McDonagh, Jackie Daly, Martin O'Connor, Dolores Keane, Mary Black, and Maura O'Connell have passed through its ranks. They've also changed the spelling of their name over the years; they go by either De Danann or De Dannan. Stephen Winick and Bruce Eder. Steve Winick, All-Music Guide

Joe Derrane
The Boston-born son of Irish immigrants, Joe Derrane is ranked among the finest button accordionists in the history of Celtic music. Although he recorded a series of Irish tunes on 78 rpm in the 1940s and '50s, he disappeared from the traditional music circuit until performing at the Irish Folk Festival at Wolf Trap Farm Park for Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia in 1994. The performance followed the release of Irish Accordion, reprising 16 tracks that Derrane recorded as a teenager. Since his return, Derrane has recorded three albums -- Give Us Another, in 1995, with accompaniment by Irish pianist Felix Dolan, and Return to Inis Mor, in 1996, which featured pianist Carl Hession of Moving Cloud and a string quartet. The title track, one of four original tunes on the album, referred to Derrane's ancestral home on an island in Galway Bay. The Tie That Binds, released in 1998, featured Derrane playing a new 23-key, two-row button accordion that he helped design, plus accompaniment by Frankie Gavin, Zan McLeod, Seamus Egan and Jerry O'Sullivan.

The oldest of three brothers, Derrane grew up in a musical home. His father played accordion and melodeon and his mother played violin. A daily listener of Irish radio station broadcasts in Boston, Derrane became so enchanted by the playing of Jerry O'Brien, a melodeonist who had played with Joe O'Leary's Irish Minstrels, that his parents sought O'Brien out to instruct their son. Derrane began lessons with O'Brien at the age of ten and continued to study under him for two years, playing the single-row accordion for five years. At the age of fifteen, Derrane studied piano accordion and learned to read music; he became a fanatic of Brooklyn-born diatonic accordionist John J. Kimmel, "The Irish Dutchman," and learned to play much of his repertoire.

During his senior year at Mission High School in Roxbury, Derrane recorded 16 solo tracks with pianist Johnny Connor. In 1948 and 1949, he recorded ten duets with O'Brien, his former teacher. Although he lived in New York for two years (1952 and 1953), he returned to Boston and became a regular performer on the ballroom dance circuit. During the late 1940s and early '50s, he performed with such bands as Johnny Powell's Irish Dance Band, the Stars of Erin, the Galway Bay Band, the Irish All-Stars and the All-Star Ceili Band.

After studying harmonics and arranging at the Schillinger House (later the Berklee College of Music) for six months, Derrane performed with numerous bands that specialized in Jewish and Italian music. Craig Harris, All-Music Guide

Dervish
Dervish is one of Ireland's most exciting tradition-rooted bands. With its combination of virtuosic instrumentation, high-energy arrangements and the ultra-sweet vocals of Cathy Jordan, Dervish continues to weave its own path in Ireland's great musical heritage. Although the group formally came together in 1988, the roots of Dervish trace back much further. Flute and tin whistle player Liam Kelly and accordion player Shane Mitchell first collaborated at the age of seven and nine, respectively. Within three years, the duo was playing regularly at a pub owned by Kelly's father. During high school, the two musicians formed a band called Pointin. Although the group placed first in a contest at the Ballyshannon Folk Festival and appeared on popular Irish television program The Late Late Show, the group failed to record. While attending college in Sligo, Kelly and Mitchell performed with a rock band called Who Says What. The band also included Michael Holmes, a bass player and songwriter who later added guitar and bouzouki to the band's sound. A turning point in Dervish's history came when Kelly, Mitchell and Holmes were joined by mandola and mandolin player Brian McDonagh, a founding member of Oisian. After recording three albums with Oisian, McDonagh had left the group and moved to Sligo. Although the musicians were temporarily separated into two camps in the mid-1980s, with Kelly and Holmes moving to London and Mitchell and McDonagh remaining in Sligo, they reunited when Sligo-based label Sound Records sought to record an album of local musicians. The resulting all-instrumental album, The Boys of Sligo, was released in 1988 and featured Martin McGinley on fiddle, and helped to establish the group as a working ensemble. Following the album's release, the group added Jordan on vocals and adopted the name Dervish. McGinley was subsequently replaced by Shane McAleer, a fiddler from County Tyrone who had won the All-Ireland Championship in 1990. Due to technical problems, Dervish's second album, Harmony Hill, released in 1993, was recorded twice. Two years later, Dervish released two albums (Playing with Fire and At the End of the Day and toured in the U.S. Live in Palma, released in 1997, is a 22-track double CD, recorded during a concert in Palma, Majorca. Although the majority of their repertoire consists of traditional tunes, Dervish has been increasingly performing original tunes by Kelly and Holmes. The duo's songs have been covered by Irish bands such as Capercaille. ~ Craig Harris, All-Music Guide

Dubliners
Irish musician and folklorist Mick Moloney calls The Dubliners "the bearded Bohemians of the Irish folk scene." They had a gritty, urban image that contrasted with some of the prettier origins of other bands. Although they're still around today, their great recordings were made years ago, with singer Luke Kelly and banjo player Barney McKenna. Steve Winick, All-Music Guide

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