andy irvine

Featuring  Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny, Paddy Glackin, Mike McGoldrick and John Doyle, the mighty Usher’s Island announce UK dates for November 2021.

So summing up, the long and the short of this review is a hearty, unqualified recommendation for this impeccably packaged disc – a seriously uplifting set from Andy Irvine and his chums. Bravo and encore!

Strings that Nimble Leap is a collection of the highest quality, with beautiful instruments being played by some of the very best musicians in the game. 52 artists including Martin Simpson, Martin Carthy, Andy Irvine Nic Jones, Charlotte Carrivick, Lisa Hannigan and more.

The fire and fury and commitment of Planxty as a hell of a performing unit is there in full force. Live sets are by their nature usually best aimed at the converted, but for someone outside of the established Planxty fan-base One Night In Bremen certainly steers closer into the “worth acquiring” category than the majority of live releases.

Uilliann piper Liam O’Flynn has died after a long period of illness. To most, he will best be remembered as a founding member of the groundbreaking Irish traditional group Planxty in which he played alongside  Christy Moore, Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny.

One of the highlights of this year’s FolkEast Festival was Ushers Island whose lineup reads like an Irish traditional music hall of fame: Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny, Paddy Glackin, Michael McGoldrick and John Doyle.

We head back to the Embankment, Tallaght, Co.Dublin 1976 for today’s Song of the Day, a great horse-racing classic – ‘Plains of Kildare’. It’s performed by Andy Irvine, Paul Brady and Dónal Lunny.

Glenn Simpson is an artist from the north of Ireland whose main instrument of choice is a gazouki. By way of introduction we spoke to Glenn about his musical past and his influences from Cohen to Planxty

Masters of Their Craft is a new compilation CD from Tara Music, a label that was set up in 1972 to license the release of Christy Moore’s Prosperous Album. This release picks some of the cream of the crop!

The second in our Tradition mixes. It features both new and old from an old pub session from 1967 featuring Bobby Casey to Christy Moore, Kris Drever, Kate Rusby, Gavin Davenport and more!

In this week’s Friday Folk Music Club we have Emily and the Woods, Sam Brookes, Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Karine Polwart, Battlefield band, Andy Irvine, The Webb Sisters and Walking with Ghosts. Enjoy!

The following videos are from the Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2010 which featured a host of names I’m sure many of you are familar with including Bellowhead, Dervish and Andy Irvine, Genticorum, Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, Boo Hewerdine and Heidi Talbot to name just a few.