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Eleanor Shanley is an Irish Roots musician, from Keshcarrigan in County Leitrim in the North West of Ireland.
Shanley was born into a musical family and comes from a line of traditional singers. [1] After finishing school she moved to Dublin. During the day she worked in FAS, the state recruitment agency; in the evenings she studied drama with Betty Ann Norton and joined the "Leitrim Wild Roses" Tops of the Town group. She also sang in various sessions, mainly in Ned O'Sheas "Merchant". It was there that she met De Dannan. [2]
She made her first appearance as a singer with traditional group De Danann in 1990, and sang with them for five years [3] She went on to sing with Ronnie Drew. [4] She had also toured with Christy Moore and Sharon Shannon as a soloist both in Ireland and abroad.
Shanley has recorded with Ronnie Drew, Sharon Shannon, Eddi Reader, Tommy Fleming, Desmond O'Halloran, Dolores Keane, Christie Hennessy and The Dubliners.
Her cover version of the Thomas Moore classic Gorgeous and Bright was the most played track on RTE 1 Radio in the summer of 2015. [5]
Her current collaborators are Frankie Lane and Paul Kelly, with whom she has performed since 2002. [6]
Shanley lives with her partner Brendan Harding in Ballinasloe, Co. Galway. [7]
The Dubliners were an Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in personnel over their fifty-year career, but the group's success was centred on lead singers Luke Kelly and Ronnie Drew. The band garnered international success with their lively Irish folk songs, traditional street ballads and instrumentals.
Andrea Jane Corr is an Irish musician and actress. Corr debuted in 1990 as the lead singer of the Celtic folk rock and pop rock group The Corrs along with her three elder siblings Caroline, Sharon and Jim. Aside from singing lead vocals, Corr plays the tin whistle, the mandolin, the ukulele and the piano.
De Dannan is an Irish folk music group. It was formed in 1975 by Frankie Gavin (fiddle), Alec Finn, Johnny "Ringo" McDonagh (bodhrán) and Charlie Piggott (banjo) as a result of sessions in Hughes's Pub in Spiddal, County Galway, Ireland, with Dolores Keane (vocals) subsequently being invited to join the band. The fiddler Mickey Finn (1951–1987) is also acknowledged to have been a founding member.
Luke Kelly was an Irish singer, folk musician and actor from Dublin, Ireland. Born into a working-class household in Dublin city, Kelly moved to England in his late teens and by his early 20s had become involved in the folk music revival there. Returning to Dublin in the 1960s, he became a founding member of the band The Dubliners in 1962. The Irish Post and other commentators regard Kelly, known for his distinctive singing style and sometimes political messages, as one of Ireland's greatest folk singers.
Joseph Ronald Drew was an Irish singer, folk musician and actor who had a fifty-year career recording with The Dubliners.
Ciarán Bourke was an Irish musician and one of the original founding members of the Irish folk band The Dubliners.
"The Black Velvet Band" is a traditional folk song collected from singers in Ireland, Australia, England, Canada and the United States describing how a young man is tricked and then sentenced to transportation to Australia, a common punishment in the British Empire during the 19th century. Versions were also published on broadsides.
Sharon Shannon is an Irish musician, best known for her work with the button accordion and for her fiddle technique. She also plays the tin whistle and melodeon. Her 1991 debut album, Sharon Shannon, was the best-selling album of traditional Irish music ever released in Ireland. Beginning with Irish folk music, her work demonstrates a wide-ranging number of musical influences. She won the lifetime achievement award at the 2009 Meteor Awards.
Dolores Keane is an Irish folk singer. She was a founding member of the group De Dannan following which she pursued a solo recording and touring career.
O’Donoghue’s Pub is a historically significant drinking establishment located at 15 Merrion Row, Dublin 2, Ireland—near St. Stephen's Green on Dublin’s south side. Built in 1789 as a grocery store, it began operating full-time as a pub when purchased by the O’Donoghue family in 1934.
Eleanor McEvoy is an Irish singer-songwriter. She composed the song "Only a Woman's Heart", title track of A Woman's Heart, the best-selling Irish album in Irish history.
Live in Carré is a live album by The Dubliners. Recorded live in Amsterdam in October 1983, this album featured Luke Kelly's final recordings with The Dubliners.
A Couple More Years is an album by Ronnie Drew and Eleanor Shanley, released in 2000.
El Amor De Mi Vida is a 2006 album by Ronnie Drew and Eleanor Shanley, featuring traditional songs as well as compositions by Warren Zevon, Nick Cave, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Paul Brady.
"The Ballad of Ronnie Drew" is a single by U2, The Dubliners, Kíla and A Band of Bowsies. The single was recorded as a charitable project, with proceeds going to the Irish Cancer Society – owing to Ronnie Drew's cancer condition. It was recorded at Windmill Lane on 14 and 15 January 2008. "The Ballad of Ronnie Drew" is available as a CD in Ireland only. Ronnie Drew died a few months after the release of the single in August 2008.
"Spanish Lady" is a traditional Irish folk song, also found in England. The Bodleian Library has several broadsides of an English ballad with this name, one dating from the 17th century. Fragmentary or related versions from the US date from 1883. It is #542 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It should not be confused with "Spanish Ladies" or "Lady of Spain," both of which are entirely different songs. Spanish Lady is an etymological name for a female fairy, ie the little folk.
Alexander J. Phinn, known professionally as Alec Finn, was a British-born traditional musician who is famous for his unique style of accompaniment on the bouzouki.
Paul Kelly is an Irish multi-instrumentalist and musician from Tallaght in Dublin, Ireland. He has played Irish traditional music, bluegrass and country, and is equally at home in a variety of different styles of music.
The Late Late Show Tribute is an album & film by The Dubliners recorded in 1987. The album charted at No.31 in Ireland.