Re-Imagining Ireland

Featured Groups

The Green Fields of America

Formed in 1978 and still led by renowned musician and folklorist Mick Moloney (see below), The Green Fields of America were created to present and tour some of Irish America's finest musicians and dancers. The first group on either side of the Atlantic to bring together Irish vocal, instrumental, and dance traditions on the concert and festival stage, The Green Fields introduced Irish stepdancing to general American audiences. The Boston Globe has called them “Sparkling, innovative, exciting,” describing the musicians and dancers as “magnificent.” The Washington Post found the group’s performance “exuberant, moving, humorous, compelling,” saying “The Green Fields of America has it all.” Among those who got their start performing with The Green Fields are Seamus Egan, Eileen Ivers, Donny Golden, Jean Butler and Michael Flatley. The group has played such venues as Carnegie Hall, Wolf Trap, The Smithsonian Institution, The Festival of American Folklife, the Milwaukee Irish Fest, and The National Folk Festival. Five members of the band – Liz Carroll, Jack Coen, Michael Flatley, Donny Golden and Mick Moloney – have received National Heritage Awards. Radio Telifís Éireann, Ireland’s national broadcaster, commemorated the twentieth-anniversary of the group on St. Patrick’s Day, 1999, with a nationally televised documentary on their history and cultural contributions. Among the musicians joining Mick Moloney for the performance at Re-Imagining Ireland, will be singer-songwriter Robbie O’Connell, Jerry O'Sullivan (uilleann pipes), and dancers Donny Golden and Sinead Lawlor. Other featured musicians will be announced shortly. Old-time fiddler, guitarist, banjoist, and singer Bruce Molsky and singer-composer Tommy Sands (see bios below) will also guest briefly with the group.

De Dannan

Frankie Gavin of De Dannan
Photo by Fergus Bourke

One of the most famous and accomplished groups on the traditional, and sometimes not-so-traditional circuit, De Dannan is led by the fiery, virtuoso fiddle playing of Frankie Gavin. Recognized as one of the world's fiddle and violin masters, Gavin is responsible for much of the style and musical arrangements of the group which, The New York Post described as highlighting “tightly percussive melody lines set against a flowing, contrapuntal background." De Dannan has been featured on such nationally and internationally broadcast TV programs and series as Gael Force and Bringing It All Back Home. Gavin has appeared and recorded with Stephane Grappelli and Sir Yehudi Menuhin on PBS, as well as being featured on many European television programs. He also played with The Rolling Stones on their “Voodoo Lounge” album, with Keith Richards on “Wingless Angels,” and with bluegrass banjo legend Earl Scruggs. In 2002, he has twice performed in concert with The Rolling Stones, most recently at the Oakland Arena in California, where he special guested on “Sweet Virginia.” Among De Dannan's sixteen albums are “Half Set in Harlem,” “The Best of De Dannan,” “The Star Spangled Molly,” and “How the West Was Won,” which was voted Album/Band of the Year, 1999/2000 by the readers of Irish Music Magazine. De Dannan’s latest album is “Full Moon.” When the group was formed in 1974 in the Irish-speaking area of Spiddal, Co. Galway, the band consisted of Gavin, Alec Finn, Johnny McDonagh and Charlie Piggott. Dolores Keane joined the group for their debut album, becoming the first of many lead singers. Frankie Gavin and De Dannan have launched the careers of many of Ireland’s finest musicians, singers, and dancers, including Mary Black, Eleanor Shanley, Maura O'Connell, Tommie Fleming, Jackie Daly, Mairtin O’Connor, Aidan Coffey, and Derek Hickey. While consistently delivering the traditions of Irish music, the group can always be depended on to test limits and explore changing possibilities. De Dannan includes Frankie Gavin on fiddle, flutes, and whistles, bouzouki and guitar playing co-founder Alec Finn, accordion player Derek Hickey, vocalist Eleanor Shanley, Colm Murphy on bodhran, and Brian McGrath on banjo and keyboards. For the Re-Imagining Ireland program, the group will be joined by Rick Epping (blues harmonica), with American Gospel singer Ivan Leparr, and Indian sitar and tabla players Narin and Twomby.

Cherish the Ladies

Led by Joannie Madden (flute, whistle, harmony vocals), this six-woman Irish-American band produces music based on traditional Irish dance tunes and is accompanied by stepdancing. The group – which also features Mary Coogan (guitar, mandolin, banjo), Mary Rafferty (accordion, harmony whistle), Donna Long (piano, whistle, harmony vocals), Siobhan Egan (fiddle, bodhran, harmony whistle), and Aoife Clancy (lead vocals, guitar, bodhran) – have recorded seven highly acclaimed albums and have appeared on CBS This Morning, Good Morning America, Evening at the Pops, C-Span, PBS and National Public Radio in the United States, and on BBC and RTE radio and television overseas. Their latest album, “The Girls Won't Leave The Boys Alone,” is their third release on BMG. Originally organized by folklorist/musician Mick Moloney and sponsored by the Ethnic Folk Arts Center and the National Endowment for the Arts, the group has been named “Entertainment Group of the Year” by the Irish Voice newspaper. They received the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall's “International Group of the Year Award” at the Celtic Connections Festival in Scotland and have shared the stage with such noted entertainers as James Taylor, Joan Baez, Emmy Lou Harris, The Chieftains and dozens of symphony orchestras. “The Celtic Album,” their collaboration with the Boston Pops Symphony, led to a 1999 Grammy nomination.

Solas

Solas

Described in the Irish Echo as “one of the most exciting Irish bands anywhere in the world,” Solas cemented their reputation by garnering three consecutive “Best Celtic Recording” awards from the Association for Independent Music (AFIM) – for the albums “Solas” (1996), “Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers” (1997), and “The Words That Remain” (1998). The group is led by Seamus Egan (flute, banjo), who has won All-Ireland championships on four different instruments, scored the soundtrack for the film The Brothers McMullen, and is featured on the soundtrack of Dead Man Walking. Solas has won acclaim from such diverse sources as The Boston Herald (“…the best traditional Irish band in the world”), The Los Angeles Times (“…a five-member Irish American band of startling instrumental and vocal firepower”), People magazine (“…simply one of the best Celtic bands around”), and The Wall Street Journal (“…an Irish traditional band bearing all the marks of greatness”). The other accomplished members of the group include Mick McAuley (accordion, tin whistle), Winifred Horan (fiddle), John Doyle (guitar), and Deirdre Scanlon (vocals). Winifred Horan is a nine-time Irish stepdancing titlist and an All-Ireland champion fiddler. John Doyle composed the score for the Irish film In Uncle Robert’s Footsteps and the play Down the Flats. The band has appeared on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, NPR’s Morning Edition and Mountain Stage, as well as on CNN World Beat, CNN ShowBiz Today, and NBC-TV’s Weekend Today Show.

Individual Artists

Martin Hayes

Martin Hayes
Photo by Jayne Muir

This Irish traditional musician, a six-time All-Ireland Fiddle Champion, has been named “Traditional Musician of the Year” by Ireland’s National Entertainment Awards – the Irish equivalent of a Grammy. Named Best Traditional Act of 1995 by the Hot Press/Heineken Rock Awards, he is a former member of the famed Tulla Ceili Band. His albums include “Under the Moon” and “The Lonesome Touch;” his debut album, “Martin Hayes,” was named among the Top Ten Best albums of 1993 by the The Irish Times and the Irish Echo. He has appeared on radio, television, and at festivals around the world. Eamonn McCann of the Hot Press has called him “the most important individual musician in Ireland right now.” Hayes was voted "Best Traditional Artist (Male)" for 2001 in Irish Music Magazine's Readers’ Poll. He and collaborator Dennis Cahill have appeared internationally on television and radio, including NBC’s Nightwatch, Minnesota Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion, and the BBC’s Jools Holland Show. In 1997 they released “The Lonesome Touch” (Green Linnet), a recording that has helped take Irish music beyond the world music realm by exposing its inner meaning in an accessible way to listeners of classical, jazz and modern music. The duo has collaborated with Sinead O’Connor and Iarla O’Lionáird, among others.

Andy Irvine

Andy Irvine
Photo by Ingo Heine

Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist Andy Irvine has formed and been at the core of many of the great Irish traditional groups, from the groundbreaking Sweeney's Men to the classic Planxty and, more recently, Patrick Street. He has also had an extensive solo career and has collaborated with Dick Gaughan, Paul Brady, Davy Spillane and others. His recent albums include “Rain on the Roof” (1998), “East Wind” (1991), and “Rude Awakening” (1991). His first solo album, “Rainy Sundays... Windy Dreams,” was a critical success, containing a mix of traditional Irish and eastern tunes, along with his own compositions. After Planxty's demise, Andy briefly joined De Dannan before founding a new multinational band, Mosaic. He left Sweeney's Men in May 1968 to explore Eastern Europe, where he travelled Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia, picking up Balkan folk music and style along the way. In 1972, he played with Christy Moore on his album Prosperous. Four of the seven musicians on that album – Christy Moore, Andy Irvine, Donal Lunny and Liam O' Flynn – went on to form Planxty, one of the most celebrated of Irish folk groupings.

Mick Moloney

Co-founder of the The Green Fields of America touring group, this Philadelphia-based academic folklorist, musician, and recording artist has been named Best Tenor Banjo Player in the U.S. by Frets magazine. Since 1973, he has produced and/or performed on more than 50 recordings for such labels as Rounder, Green Linnet, and Shanachie, and has acted as advisor for scores of festivals and concerts all over America. His book Far From the Shamrock Shore was released by Crown Publications in February 2002, with an accompanying CD from Shanachie Records. With a Ph.D. in folklore and folklife from the University of Pennsylvania, Moloney has taught ethnomusicology, folklore, and Irish studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, New York University, and Villanova. He has hosted three nationally syndicated series on folk music for American Public Television and was a consultant, performer and interviewee on the BBC Television special on Irish music, Bringing It All Back Home. He was also a participant, consultant and music arranger for the PBS documentary film, Out of Ireland and a performer on the 1998 PBS special The Irish In America: Long Journey Home. In September, 1999 he was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts - the highest official honor a traditional artist can receive in the United States.

Len Graham and Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin

Len Graham
and Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin

Graham and Ní Uallacháin are two of the foremost exponents and authorities on the Ulster song tradition in the Irish and English Languages. They have often appeared on Irish TV and Radio, as well as at international festivals. Len Graham is featured on some 17 albums and has provided songs for such high-profile artists and groups as Altan, The Battlefield Band, The Chieftains, De Dannan, and Dolores Keane. Ní Uallacháin has recorded four albums of songs, including a comprehensive collection of children's songs in the Irish language. Graham received the Sean O'Boyle Cultural Traditions Award in recognition of his work as a song collector and performer. His discography includes “Do Me Justice” and “You Lovers All.” Working together, Len and Pádraigín have recorded a collection of children's songs in English from the Irish tradition.

John Campbell

John Campbell with Len Graham

At Re-Imagining Ireland, Len Graham will present a special performance with John Campbell, one of Ireland's finest storytellers. Campbell has represented Ireland at many international festivals in Europe, Australia, and North America. A shepherd who lives in the village of Mullaghbawn, County Armagh, he is steeped in the tradition and folklore of the area around Slieve Gullion, called by some Ireland's most mystical mountain.

Bruce Molsky

Outstanding old-time fiddler, high-spirited guitarist, banjoist and singer, Molsky’s music melds the archaic mountain sounds of Appalachia, the power of blues, and the rhythmic intricacies of traditional African music. Sing Out! says his fiddling “combines precision and abandon so perfectly that it raises the hairs on the back of your neck.” The Minneapolis Star-Tribune calls him “old-time music's answer to Ry Cooder – a commanding musician with a voracious appetite for traditional music styles.” Darol Anger has dubbed him “The Rembrandt of Appalachian Fiddling.” At Re-Imagining Ireland, he will perform with accomplished dancer Amy Fenton-Shine. Bruce's new solo recording “Poor Man's Troubles” (Rounder) won a 2001 "Indie" award for Best Traditional Folk Recording and has received high praise from the Washington Post, Washington Times, Bluegrass Unlimited and others. His “Lost Boy” (Rounder) and “Bruce Molsky & Big Hoedown” (Rounder) have become staples for traditional music enthusiasts everywhere. Molsky has been featured on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion with Fiddlers 4, with Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, and with Big Hoedown. Bruce tours with the acclaimed new band Fiddlers 4 (Bruce, Darol Anger, Michael Doucet and Rushad Eggleston).

Tommy Sands

Northern Ireland singer, songwriter, and storyteller, Tommy Sands is widely known for his songs about the violence in Northern Ireland. He was songwriter for the Irish folk group The Sands Family in the sixties and seventies and is best known for such songs as “There Were Roses,” “Daughters and Sons,” and “All the Little Children.” His first solo album, “Singing of the Times,” released in 1985, is now regarded as a classic. Ireland's Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney has spoken of “the airiness and heartsomeness” of Sands’s work: “You feel you can trust the singer as well as the song,” says Heaney. “His voice is at ease, …[and]for that very reason it demands attention naturally.” His subsequent albums include “Down by Bendy's Lane,” a collection of songs and stories; “Beyond the Shadows,” including “Dresden” and “The Shadow of O'Casey;” and “The Heart's a Wonder,” including the “The Music of Healing,” co-written and performed with his friend Pete Seeger and featuring the accompaniment of Sarajevo cellist Vedran Smailovic. In 1997 Sands recorded the title track on “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” – a tribute album for Pete Seeger, also featuring Dolores Keane, Liam O'Flynn, Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, and Nanci Griffith.