Letterkenny Trad Week got off to a great start last weekend with two wonderful evenings of music, enjoyed by capacity audiences, at the Regional Cultural Centre.
No Crows from Sligo and Special Consensus from America served up a blistering double bill on Friday night. Magical music and song was served up by Kris Drever and Julie Fowlis from Scotland and Aoife Ní Bhriain and Padraig Rynne from Ireland on Sunday night.
It’s a case of two down and there to go with three more great concerts taking place this weekend.
There is a wonderful double-bill on Friday 27th at RCC Letterkenny of musical siblings with leading Donegal traditional music family group Na Mooneys and the Rheingans Sisters from Sheffield.
The ‘A Family Affair Gala Concert’ at An Grianán Theatre on Saturday January 28th has an incredible line-up led by father and daughter Martin & Eliza Carthy and brothers Lynched. Letterkenny Trad Week finishes on a high note at An Grianán Theatre on Monday 30th with Billy Bragg & Joe Henry.
All concerts start at 8pm and tickets can be booked at An Grianán Theatre on 00353 74 9120777, or online at www.angrianan.com
Na Mooneys and the Rheingans Sisters
Na Mooneys was formed in 2014 by the TG4 Gradam Ceoil / Traditional Musician of the Year 2016 Mairead Ní Mhaonaigh (Altan) and her siblings Anna Ní Mhaonaigh and Gearóid Ó Maonaigh along with Ciarán Ó Maonaigh (Gearóid’s son). They recorded their debut album ‘Na Mooneys’ in late 2016. The Na Mooneys line-up will also feature Manus Lunny (guitar & bouzouki), Caitlín Nic Gabhann (concertina) and Nia Byrne (Mairéad’s daughter on fiddle). This is the first ever Irish performance by the highly acclaimed fiddle-singers Rowan and Anna Rheingan from Sheffield – 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Winners (Best Original Track), and Folk Award Nominees (Best Newcomers). They have released two critically acclaimed albums to date. fRoots described their debut ‘Glad Gold Hearts’ as “vocal harmonies to die for on an album performed with compelling conviction and disarming warmth”. Their second album ‘Already Home’ was nominated in the ‘2015 fRoots Critics Poll Album of the Year’ and was awarded a Songlines ‘Top of the World’ album.
‘A Family Affair, Gala Concert’
Legendary singer and guitarist Martin Carthy and his multiple award-winning daughter Eliza Carthy joined forces to record their first duo album ‘The Moral of the Elephant’ in 2014.
This brilliant recording won fROOTS Album of the Year 2014 and was nominated ‘Best Album’ at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2015. Martin & Eliza Carthy perform songs from ‘The Moral of the Elephant’ and other material as part of the ‘A Family Affair, Gala Concert’ at An Grianán Theatre this Saturday January 28th.
Even though it’s only January, the concert promises to be one of the musical highlights of the year in Donegal. It features an amazing line-up, with hour-long sets by Martin & Eliza Carthy and Lynched and short opening performances by the Rheingans Sisters and young Letterkenny musicians Coirm. Martin Carthy “the greatest English folk song performer of them all” (Q Magazine) and his twice Mercury nominated daughter Eliza, will share the bill with brothers Lynched “the most convincing folk band to come out of Ireland in years” ★★★★★ (The Guardian).
Lynched have gone from playing small venues in Ireland to being invited to perform on ‘Later with Jools Holland’ and appearing at international festivals like Edmonton, Sidmouth and Cambridge along with rapturously received sets at Electric Picnic and Castlepalooza.
Billy Bragg & Joe Henry
In March 2016 Billy Bragg and Joe Henry, guitars in hand, boarded a Los Angeles-bound train at Chicago’s Union Station looking to reconnect with the culture of railroad travel and the music it inspired. On the ‘Shine A Light’ tour, they’ll be playing songs from the journey, along with favourites from their own considerable back catalogues.
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