McGoldrick has been a member of several influential bands. In 1994 he was awarded the BBC Young Tradition Award, and in 2001 he was given the Instrumentalist of the Year award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.[1]
McGoldrick was a founder-member of the Celtic rock band Toss the Feathers while still at school.[1] He also competed at that time in the Fleadhanna with Dezi Donnelly (fiddle), whom he had met at local Comhaltas meetings.[1] He made appearances at various local and national festivals and ran whistle/flute workshops at the Cambridge Folk Festival and for Folkworks on their "Flutopia" concert tour.
McGoldrick formed the band Fluke! (later renamed as Flook) with Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen in November 1995. After one tour, he left to pursue other projects.[1]
He was an early member of Lúnasa from 1997 until roughly 2000 and played on their first albums. He also joined Capercaillie in 1998, playing on six albums (one live) to date.[2]
Between 1996 and the present, McGoldrick recorded five solo albums, all featuring an array of well-known supporting musicians: Morning Rory (1996) showcases his traditional skills. Fused, released in August 2000, explores several other musical genres including jazz;[3] although Wired, released in January 2006, takes the experimental approach of Fused even further, it was preceded by a duo album At First Light (2001), with award-winning uilleann piper John McSherry (also ex-Lúnasa) which goes back to traditional roots.[4]Aurora, released in 2010, features traditional as well as self-penned tunes, and a song (Waterbound) by a Louisiana master of old-time music, Dirk Powell.[5] McGoldrick's latest solo release is Arc (2018).
Between 2007 and 2013, McGoldrick played with the house band for the Transatlantic Sessions (Sessions 3-6) including performing some of his own compositions/arrangements.
In 2010 Michael replaced John McCusker, joining Tim O'Brien on Mark Knopfler's US leg of the Get Lucky Tour.[6] This being a success, he was invited (and accepted) to stay on for the remainder of the World Tour in Europe when John McCusker had returned. He went on to play on the next Mark Knopfler album, Privateering and played with the band for the subsequent World Tour. McGoldrick also recorded for the 'Ceol Tacsi' project with many other British and Irish artists.
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