Flook is an Anglo-Irish band playing traditional-style instrumental music, much of it penned by the band themselves. Their music is typified by extremely fast, sometimes percussive, flute and whistle atop complex guitar and bodhrán rhythms. Flook is made up of Brian Finnegan, Sarah Allen, Ed Boyd and John Joe Kelly.
The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music, with the aim of raising the profile of folk and acoustic music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British radio station BBC Radio 2.
Aly Bain MBE is a Scottish fiddler who learned his instrument from the old-time master Tom Anderson. The former First Minister of Scotland Jack McConnell called Bain a "Scottish icon."
Karan Casey is an Irish folk singer, and a former member of the Irish band Solas. She resides in Cork, Ireland.
Lúnasa is a traditional Irish music group, named after Lughnasadh, an ancient harvest festival. They tour and perform internationally, and have recorded a number of albums of both traditional and contemporary Irish instrumental music.
John McCusker is a Scottish folk musician, record producer, and composer. He had a long association as a member of Battlefield Band beginning in the 1990s and was later a band member and producer for folk singer Kate Rusby. He has served as producer and arranger for various artists. He has also released several solo albums.
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.
Cillian Vallely is an Irish musician, born in Armagh, Northern Ireland. He plays traditional Irish music on the uilleann pipes and low whistle, and studied at the Armagh Pipers Club with his mother and father, Brian and Eithne, and then with the late Armagh piper Mark Donnelly. His brothers, Niall and Caoimhín, also play traditional music.
The Celtic Connections festival started in 1994 in Glasgow, Scotland, and has since been held every January. Featuring over 300 concerts, ceilidhs, talks, free events, late night sessions and workshops, the festival focuses on the roots of traditional Scottish music and also features international folk, roots and world music artists. The festival is produced and promoted by Glasgow Life. Donald Shaw, a founding member of Capercaillie, was appointed Celtic Connections Artistic Director in 2006.
Philip Martin Cunningham, MBE is a Scottish folk musician and composer. He is best known for playing the accordion with Silly Wizard, as well as in other bands and in duets with his brother, Johnny. When they played together, they would egg each other on to play faster and faster, and try, light-heartedly, to trip each other up.
Kevin Crawford is an Irish flute, tin whistle, low whistle and bodhrán player. He was born in England to Irish parents from Milltown Malbay, County Clare. He later moved to West Clare to improve his music and become more exposed to traditional Irish music.
Julie Fowlis is a Scottish folk singer and multi-instrumentalist who sings primarily in Scottish Gaelic.
Otherworld is an album by Lúnasa that was released 1999 on Green Linnet Records. It is the band's second major release. Although the album displays the band’s traditional Celtic sound, it features techniques and styles unusual to the genre, such as occasional double-tracking recording and occasional instances of instruments that differ from Celtic music, such as cello, electric bass and flügelhorn, leading Allmusic to say the album "yields a sound that is unique to the group and yet clearly in touch with tradition". The album has been described as innovative, with The Georgia Straight citing several tracks' usage of multiple woodwinds as an example.
Neil Yates is a British jazz and folk musician.
Kris Drever is a Scottish contemporary folk musician and songwriter who came to prominence in 2006 with the release of his debut solo album, Black Water. Drever is the vocalist and guitarist of the folk trio Lau with Martin Green and Aidan O'Rourke. He has worked with other British folk contemporaries, including Kate Rusby, John McCusker, Ian Carr, Eddi Reader and Julie Fowlis.
Heidi Talbot is an Irish folk singer from Kill, County Kildare, Ireland. Talbot is a former singer of Irish-American musical group Cherish the Ladies.
Ed Boyd is a guitarist from Bath, England. He is the current guitarist for Lúnasa, but is best known as a longtime member of the Celtic folk group Flook. He has also played in the group Red Ciel, and accompanied artists such as Kate Rusby, Karen Matheson and Michael McGoldrick.
Privateering is the seventh solo studio album by British singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Knopfler, released on 3 September 2012 by Mercury Records. The first studio double-album of Knopfler's 35-year career as a recording artist, Privateering consists of 20 original songs, and integrates blues rock with traditional folk and country genres. Recorded between March and December 2011, the album received generally positive reviews throughout Europe, and reached the number one position on album charts in Austria, Germany, Norway and the Netherlands, as well as the number two or three position in Belgium, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The album peaked at number eight in the United Kingdom. The album was released in North America a full year after its European release due to a contractual dispute between Knopfler and his North American distributors.
Transatlantic Sessions is the collective title for a series of musical productions by Glasgow-based Pelicula Films Ltd, funded by- and produced for BBC Scotland, BBC Four and RTÉ of Ireland. The productions comprise collaborative live performances by various leading folk, bluegrass and country musicians from both sides of the North Atlantic, playing music from Scotland, Ireland, England and North America, who congregate under the musical direction of Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas to record and film a set of half-hour TV episodes. The Television director is Mike Alexander and the producer is Douglas Eadie.
Usher's Island is an Irish folk band featuring Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny, Paddy Glackin, Michael McGoldrick and John Doyle. Their repertoire consists of Irish traditional songs and tunes, as well as songs written by Irvine and Doyle, respectively.
