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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