Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, known mononymously as Enya, is an Irish singer and composer. With an estimated 80 million albums sold worldwide, Enya is the best-selling solo artist and the second-best-selling music act from Ireland overall after the rock band U2. Enya's music has been widely recognised for its use of multi-layers of her own vocals and instrumentation, lengthened reverb, and interwoven elements of Celtic music. Her career in music spans across four decades; Enya has been composing and recording music since the 1980s.
Clannad were an Irish band formed in 1970 in Gweedore, County Donegal, by siblings Ciarán, Pól and Moya Ui Bhraonáin and their twin uncles Noel and Pádraig Ó Dúgáin (Duggan). They have adopted various musical styles throughout their history. Beginning as an acoustic folk group mainly performing rearranged traditional Irish songs in Irish, they expanded their sound with original songs in English, vocal harmonies, electronic keyboards, and elements of rock, Celtic, new age, smooth jazz, and Gregorian chant.
Lucinda Gayl Williams is an American singer-songwriter and a solo guitarist. She recorded her first two albums, Ramblin' on My Mind (1979) and Happy Woman Blues (1980), in a traditional country and blues style that received critical praise but little public or radio attention. In 1988, she released her third album, Lucinda Williams, to widespread critical acclaim. Regarded as "an Americana classic", the album also features "Passionate Kisses", a song later recorded by Mary Chapin Carpenter for her 1992 album Come On Come On, which garnered Williams her first Grammy Award for Best Country Song in 1994. Known for working slowly, Williams released her fourth album, Sweet Old World, four years later in 1992. Sweet Old World was met with further critical acclaim and was voted the 11th best album of 1992 in The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of prominent music critics. Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it 6th on his own year-end list, later writing that the album as well as Lucinda Williams were "gorgeous, flawless, brilliant".
Nanci Caroline Griffith was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She often appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits starting in 1985 during Season 10. In 1990, Griffith appeared on the Channel 4 programme Town & Country with John Prine in a segment entitled "White Pants", where Nanci Griffith wore white pants at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee, along with Buddy Mondlock, Barry "Byrd" Burton, and Robert Earl Keen. In 1994, Griffith won a Grammy Award for the album Other Voices, Other Rooms.
Henry Campbell Liken McCullough was a musician and singer-songwriter from Northern Ireland. He was best known for his work as a member of Spooky Tooth, The Grease Band and Paul McCartney and Wings. He also performed and recorded as a solo artist and session musician.
Catherine Tift Merritt is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has released seven studio albums, two for Lost Highway Records, two for Fantasy Records, and three for Yep Roc Records.
Karen Matheson OBE is a Scottish folk singer who frequently sings in Gaelic. She is the lead singer of the group Capercaillie and was a member of Dan Ar Braz's group L'Héritage des Celtes, with whom she often sang lead vocals, either alone or with Elaine Morgan. She and Morgan sang together on the Breton language song "Diwanit Bugale", the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996. She made a cameo appearance in the 1995 movie Rob Roy singing the song "Ailein duinn".
Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh is an Irish fiddler and the lead vocalist for the Irish folk music band Altan, which she co-founded with her husband Frankie Kennedy in 1987. Ní Mhaonaigh is recognised as a leading exponent in the Donegal fiddle tradition, and she is often considered one of the foremost singers in the Irish language, her native tongue. She was part of the Irish supergroup T with the Maggies who performed in January 2009 at Temple Bar TradFest in Dublin their first ever two concerts under that name and who released in October 2010 their debut album. After nearly 22 years with Altan, on 28 December 2008 Ní Mhaonaigh premiered in Gweedore her debut solo album Imeall which was later released worldwide in February 2009. After 29 years with Altan, in October 2016 Ní Mhaonaigh released her alternate band Na Mooneys' debut album Na Mooneys.
Po' Girl is a Canadian music group whose style derives from folk, country and jazz. The band evolved from a series of jam sessions, in 2000, between Trish Klein of The Be Good Tanyas and Allison Russell, then of Fear of Drinking. The two met up again in 2003 and named themselves Po' Girl. Klein said at the time that the new group offered her the opportunity to write and perform her own songs. Po' Girl recorded their last album in 2010, but the members' musical careers have continued to develop, either as soloists or in other bands. Once based in Vancouver, Po' Girl is now back in the Eastern cities of Toronto and Montreal. The current band lineup is Allison Russell (singer/multi-instrumentalist), Awna Teixeira (singer/multi-instrumentalist), Benny Sidelinger (multi-instrumentalist) and Mikey "Lightning" August.
The Mollys were an American folk-rock quintet, influenced by Celtic and Tejano music, and based in Tucson, Arizona. For most of their run, their members were Nancy McCallion, Catherine Zavala, Kevin Schramm, Dan Sorenson and Gary Mackender. They self-released several albums between 1992 and 2011.
Margo is an Irish singer. She rose to prominence during the 1960s in the Irish country music scene and has had a long career since.
Malin is a village in County Donegal, Ireland, situated 6 km (4 mi) north of Carndonagh. A further 13 km (8 mi) north further is Malin Head, the most northerly point of the island of Ireland. It was a planned settlement plotted around a triangular green. Malin won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition in 1970 and 1991.
The Unthanks are an English folk group known for their eclectic approach in combining traditional English folk, particularly Northumbrian folk music, with other musical genres. Their debut album, Cruel Sister, was Mojo magazine's Folk Album of the Year in 2005. Of their subsequent albums, nine have received four or five-starred reviews in the British national press. Their album Mount the Air, released in 2015, won in the best album category in the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. In 2017 they released two albums featuring the songs and poems of Molly Drake, mother of singer-songwriter and musician Nick Drake.
Celtic Folkweave is a studio album by Mick Hanly and Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, released in 1974 by Polydor Records. Considered a seminal album in the traditional Irish music genre, the musicians involved in the recording would go on to found some of the most innovative and important groups to perform traditional Irish music.
Imeall is Irish musician Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh's debut solo album, self-produced on her own label "Moon" and released physically as a (numbered) limited edition in late 2008 / early 2009 and digitally available through her official website.
The Milk Carton Kids are an American indie folk duo from Eagle Rock, California, United States, consisting of singer-guitarists Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan. They began making music together in early 2011 and have recorded and released six albums. Their first two albums were released free of charge online. They were featured on the Peacock TV show Girls5Eva with their song, New York Lonely Boy. Their instrumental and vocal style has been likened to that of Simon and Garfunkel.
Malin GAA is a Gaelic games club based in Malin in County Donegal, Ireland.
The Widening Gyre is the twelfth studio album by Irish folk music group Altan and their eleventh studio album of original material, released in February 2015 on the Compass Records label. It was released to critical acclaim.
Birds of Chicago is an Americana/folk band founded in March 2012 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The band is led by husband and wife, JT Nero and Allison Russell. Russell is formerly of the Canadian roots act Po' Girl. The duo-fronted band refers to their music as "secular gospel".
The Gap of Dreams is the thirteenth studio album by Irish folk music group Altan and their twelfth studio album of original material, released in March 2018 on the Compass Records label to critical acclaim.
