Can anyone give me a few names of some up and coming irish American tune players like Zac Leger and Issac Alderson, bands as well if you know any. thanks.
Where to start?!?!
In the NYC area: 'Girsa,' an all-female band based in Pearl River; Maeve Flanagan (fiddle ~ 3rd O-18 at 2008 Fleadh); Dylan Foley (fiddle ~ 1st U-18 at 2008 Fleadh); Katie Linnane, (fiddle); Martin Linnane (box); Dan Gurney (box); Bláithín Loughran (box); Conor McGuirk (multi-instrumentalist); Patrick McGuirk (same); there are many, many, many more!
In Baltimore & Philadelphia, Seán McComiskey (box); Caitlin Finlay (fiddle); Brendan Callahan (fiddle) and many, many, many more....
I know, I know...I have forgotten some great names...my apologies.
For the Chicago area, contact Sean Cleland and his school of music.
To what level should they have already come and how fast should they be coming up to be of interest to you? Are you looking for people with recordings or websites where you can hear them? People to look for at sessions on a possible visit? Names to store away for a few years to see if they've fulfilled their promise?
A few who have impressed me in sessions or videos (Comhaltas or youtube) are mostly teenagers or college kids without commercial recordings:
Dylan Foley
Maeve Flanagan
Caitlin Finley
Dan Gurney
Sean McComiskey and his younger brother whose name I don't recall
Erin & Blaithin Loughran
Alex Reidinger
The Killackey brothers (don't recall their first names & may be misspelling their last name)
Armand Aromin
Patrick Mangan
Kira Ott
and probably a bunch more whose names I don't know or am just forgetting
Yeah - mainly for things like youtube videos, myspace pages, websites, cds etc. Just thinking I need some more cds really and wanted to know any of interest over there
Oh. I think on my list only Patrick Mangan has a CD. Kira's on a CD from a couple of years ago with her band, whose name I forget. I don't know of any recordings of the others except on myspace, youtube, and websites.
Add Josh Dukes, from the Baltimore area, to the list. I saw him at Swannanoa a few years back and was very impressed by his playing. He's got a CD you can pick up from CD Baby.
The band Bua is a good one, all Irish Americans in that band. Buamusic.com has a link to their website where you can listen to tracks from their last CD.
I forgot to mention a couple of young musicians from Michigan: Allison Perkins (fiddle) and her brother whose name I forget (concertina and accordion).
Maybe wyogal and I have different notions of what "up and coming" means. I'm assuming it means just starting out and good enough to have a promising future. Colcannon has been around since 1984 and the Heatons have been performing for over a decade (including their Siucra days), with a half dozen albums each.
Have to agree about John Dahms who's a great young fiddler. John spent the Summer in Dublin a few years ago and regularly attended the Wednesday night sessions in Monkstown. Ceolagusrince already mentioned Seán Cleland and his young Chicago group of musicians and dancers. These are a phenomenally talented young group who came to the Cois na hAbhna Seisiún in Ennis some weeks ago on their way to Tullamore. I intended to start a thread on this night at the time as it was a great example of how well the tradition has been adapted overseas (no plastic paddyism here!). On the same night we were fortunate in having Mary McNamara and her highly talented young Tulla musians present but when the Chicago group also performed, their standard of musicianship was on a par with the rest. And as for their young male dancer "Michael Flatley eat your heart out" - somehow he had managed to combine the best of step dancing with Sean Nós. America Abú!
John Dahms is Canadian. It seems that the concept of being "Irish American" is a lot wider in interpretation than say "African American". The Gannons of Boston and the Gavins of Detroit are examples of traditional music being passed through Irish American families. While Bannerman has been the epitome of sensible posting recently it must be pointed out that plasticpaddyism is rife even in the hallowed corridors of ITM, right down to the capeen cocked right.
Really, there are too many examples to mention and one could do a disservice by omiting names but other prominent young Irish Americans would include Mary Rafferty, Sean McComiskey (previoused here), Damien Connolly, Marie and Martin O'Reilly, any other takers ? A number of these musicians have myspace pages with plenty of music up for offer clearly demonstrating the level of excellence that has been preserved and pursued in the States.
While "plasticpaddyism may be rife" in certain quarters, from my own experience I wouldn't blame the young musicians. I've yet to see any of these talented young people we're discussing here playing Molly Malone, The Wild Rover, Galway Bay, Phil the Fluter's Ball or other pieces of that ilk. No it's the older brigade who are more likely to be guilty in this area but then again who are we try and deprive these people of their enjoyment - surely everyone is entitled to their little bit of nostalgia.
I had heard about a great young fiddler from Chicago but forgotten his name. A glance at the website for Sean Cleland's school makes me think it's Devin Shepherd, who is an instructor there. He has a myspace page.
No recordings for these fine folk as yet (as far as I know), but keep their names in mind:
Amanda Cavanaugh (fiddle)
Heather Cole-Mullen (fiddle, accordion)
Catherine Joyce (fiddle, whistle)
James Hamilton (flute, whistle)
All are residents of the Greater Boston/Eastern Massachusetts area.
Canadian is good as well of course. i guess the point being, is that I hear alot about musicians from Ireland, England, Australia etc but no so much from the States or Canada. When i lived in Canada I never made it to the mainland so only met people who came over to Newfoundland, so I dont know much about tune players there.
Sean Cleland has a few up great young musicians. Siobhan Wojcik, a bouzouki player and Kevin Carey a flute player. There are others but I don't know their names. I heard that one of their groups placed in the grupai cheoil competition in Tullamore last week.
The grupa cheoil mentioned by AineM was Aisling Cheoil Chicago, from the Irish Music School of Chicago (directed by Sean Cleland). They placed 2nd in the 15-18 age group. Here they are performing at the Midwest regional fleadh in Detroit, where they placed first.
bb, Re: Egan, Grasso, et al. guess you didn't check your email, or maybe the email address you have through this site isn't the one you currently use. Being the proud the Bal-merian that I am, those were certainly names in my emails. Eh, I'm here, so also worth mentioning are Dan Isaacson (flute) who plays with Dave Cory and a host of others on the Magic Square CDs. Brendan Bell (flute), Peter Brice (accordian), Matt Mulqueen (piano), and Laura Byrne are four others in the Baltimore/Annapolis/DC area that are of top calibre (I think the entire Baltimore Ceili Band has been covered at this point). Don't think anyone has mentioned Cleek Schrey (fiddle) or Aaron Olwell (flute, concertina, fiddle, and I'm sure the rest of the instruments that are in existence ). There's also a piper named Brian who is now down working with the Olwells I believe, but his last name escapes me at the moment. It's possible his name may have already popped up here at some point. Also, Sean Ernest (guitar, bouzouki), originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania I believe, now spending time in Limerick, but a well known backer in Maryland and the other mid-Atlantic states. OK, guess you don't need to worry about those emails now
I can tell you two of the musicians in Clelland's groupai ceol. Siobhan McKinney on harp and Kelsey Lutz on fiddle, both from Detroit-Ann Arbor Michigan, both about 16. Siobhan has won in Ireland several times, as has Kelsey in the midwest. Both excellent young musicians.
Wow, saw my name mentioned in the first post and was stunned. Cool!
Isaac is a stunning player and a great guy. Other young up-and-coming young American Irish trad players I can mention:
Alex Redinger (concertina, fiddle, harp)
Sean Earnest (guitar, zouk)
Charlene Adzima (fiddle, vocals)
Julian Lambertson (fiddle)
Kelly Winter (piano accordion)
Joey Abarta (pipes, whistle, bodhran)
Amy Richter (bodhran)
Ben Jaber (pipes, flute)
Andrew Magill (fiddle)
Will MacMorran (guitar, zouk and has played pretty much everything else at one time or another)
Josh Dukes (bodhran, flute, guitar, zouk)
Duncan Wickel (everything under the sun!)
I know there are many more, but these are folks that I mostly know personally and I can attest that they are great people as well as wonderful musicians!
Irish American Musicians
Irish American Musicians
Can anyone give me a few names of some up and coming irish American tune players like Zac Leger and Issac Alderson, bands as well if you know any. thanks.
# Posted on August 31st 2008 by bb
Re: Irish American Musicians
I don't know those folks, but could you clarify? Irish playing American tunes or Irish Americans playing Irish tunes?
# Posted on August 31st 2008 by wyogal
Re: Irish American Musicians
Where to start?!?!
In the NYC area: 'Girsa,' an all-female band based in Pearl River; Maeve Flanagan (fiddle ~ 3rd O-18 at 2008 Fleadh); Dylan Foley (fiddle ~ 1st U-18 at 2008 Fleadh); Katie Linnane, (fiddle); Martin Linnane (box); Dan Gurney (box); Bláithín Loughran (box); Conor McGuirk (multi-instrumentalist); Patrick McGuirk (same); there are many, many, many more!
In Baltimore & Philadelphia, Seán McComiskey (box); Caitlin Finlay (fiddle); Brendan Callahan (fiddle) and many, many, many more....
I know, I know...I have forgotten some great names...my apologies.
For the Chicago area, contact Sean Cleland and his school of music.
# Posted on August 31st 2008 by Ceolagusrince
Re: Irish American Musicians
Americans playing Irish tunes.
# Posted on August 31st 2008 by bb
Re: Irish American Musicians
To what level should they have already come and how fast should they be coming up to be of interest to you? Are you looking for people with recordings or websites where you can hear them? People to look for at sessions on a possible visit? Names to store away for a few years to see if they've fulfilled their promise?
A few who have impressed me in sessions or videos (Comhaltas or youtube) are mostly teenagers or college kids without commercial recordings:
Dylan Foley
Maeve Flanagan
Caitlin Finley
Dan Gurney
Sean McComiskey and his younger brother whose name I don't recall
Erin & Blaithin Loughran
Alex Reidinger
The Killackey brothers (don't recall their first names & may be misspelling their last name)
Armand Aromin
Patrick Mangan
Kira Ott
and probably a bunch more whose names I don't know or am just forgetting
# Posted on August 31st 2008 by GaryAMartin
Re: Irish American Musicians
Colcannon
Matt and Shannon Heaton
# Posted on August 31st 2008 by wyogal
Re: Irish American Musicians
Yeah - mainly for things like youtube videos, myspace pages, websites, cds etc. Just thinking I need some more cds really and wanted to know any of interest over there
# Posted on August 31st 2008 by bb
Re: Irish American Musicians
Oh. I think on my list only Patrick Mangan has a CD. Kira's on a CD from a couple of years ago with her band, whose name I forget. I don't know of any recordings of the others except on myspace, youtube, and websites.
# Posted on August 31st 2008 by GaryAMartin
Re: Irish American Musicians
okay - I'll have a look, thanks.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by bb
Re: Irish American Musicians
Add Josh Dukes, from the Baltimore area, to the list. I saw him at Swannanoa a few years back and was very impressed by his playing. He's got a CD you can pick up from CD Baby.
J
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by jeff_willner
Re: Irish American Musicians
The band Bua is a good one, all Irish Americans in that band. Buamusic.com has a link to their website where you can listen to tracks from their last CD.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by m_gavin
Re: Irish American Musicians
I forgot to mention a couple of young musicians from Michigan: Allison Perkins (fiddle) and her brother whose name I forget (concertina and accordion).
Maybe wyogal and I have different notions of what "up and coming" means. I'm assuming it means just starting out and good enough to have a promising future. Colcannon has been around since 1984 and the Heatons have been performing for over a decade (including their Siucra days), with a half dozen albums each.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by GaryAMartin
Re: Irish American Musicians
Alison's brother is Asher Perkins...See Frank Edgley's website for some of Asher's playing. John Dahms is another great young player from Ottawa.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by Splendid Isolation
Re: Irish American Musicians
Re: Kira Ott (fiddle, vocal) - she's on
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/1530
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by kkrell
Re: Irish American Musicians
Have to agree about John Dahms who's a great young fiddler. John spent the Summer in Dublin a few years ago and regularly attended the Wednesday night sessions in Monkstown. Ceolagusrince already mentioned Seán Cleland and his young Chicago group of musicians and dancers. These are a phenomenally talented young group who came to the Cois na hAbhna Seisiún in Ennis some weeks ago on their way to Tullamore. I intended to start a thread on this night at the time as it was a great example of how well the tradition has been adapted overseas (no plastic paddyism here!). On the same night we were fortunate in having Mary McNamara and her highly talented young Tulla musians present but when the Chicago group also performed, their standard of musicianship was on a par with the rest. And as for their young male dancer "Michael Flatley eat your heart out" - somehow he had managed to combine the best of step dancing with Sean Nós. America Abú!
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by Bannerman
Re: Irish American Musicians
Alison and Asher Perkins' music (with their family's band) can be heard at
http://www.finvarraswren.com/music/index.shtml
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by Sol Foster
Re: Irish American Musicians
Daniel and Michael Stribling
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by wvwhistler
Re: Irish American Musicians
John Dahms is Canadian. It seems that the concept of being "Irish American" is a lot wider in interpretation than say "African American". The Gannons of Boston and the Gavins of Detroit are examples of traditional music being passed through Irish American families. While Bannerman has been the epitome of sensible posting recently it must be pointed out that plasticpaddyism is rife even in the hallowed corridors of ITM, right down to the capeen cocked right.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by Patkiwi
Re: Irish American Musicians
Really, there are too many examples to mention and one could do a disservice by omiting names but other prominent young Irish Americans would include Mary Rafferty, Sean McComiskey (previoused here), Damien Connolly, Marie and Martin O'Reilly, any other takers ? A number of these musicians have myspace pages with plenty of music up for offer clearly demonstrating the level of excellence that has been preserved and pursued in the States.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by Patkiwi
Re: Irish American Musicians
While "plasticpaddyism may be rife" in certain quarters, from my own experience I wouldn't blame the young musicians. I've yet to see any of these talented young people we're discussing here playing Molly Malone, The Wild Rover, Galway Bay, Phil the Fluter's Ball or other pieces of that ilk. No it's the older brigade who are more likely to be guilty in this area but then again who are we try and deprive these people of their enjoyment - surely everyone is entitled to their little bit of nostalgia.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by Bannerman
Re: Irish American Musicians
I had heard about a great young fiddler from Chicago but forgotten his name. A glance at the website for Sean Cleland's school makes me think it's Devin Shepherd, who is an instructor there. He has a myspace page.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by GaryAMartin
Re: Irish American Musicians
No recordings for these fine folk as yet (as far as I know), but keep their names in mind:
Amanda Cavanaugh (fiddle)
Heather Cole-Mullen (fiddle, accordion)
Catherine Joyce (fiddle, whistle)
James Hamilton (flute, whistle)
All are residents of the Greater Boston/Eastern Massachusetts area.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by sts
Re: Irish American Musicians
Colm Gannon: http://www.myspace.com/cgannonmusic Obviously, he lives in Connemara now.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by slainte
Re: Irish American Musicians
"Young" musicians ~ Under 20? Under 30? Under 40?
It appears that one's interpretation of "young" musicians is all relative!
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by Ceolagusrince
Re: Irish American Musicians
As proven by Junior Crehan and Young John Naughton.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by GaryAMartin
Re: Irish American Musicians
If you go to the irish fest n Milwaukee Im sure youll see plenty there
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by Odog87
Re: Irish American Musicians
young musicians wasnt really what I meant - more like non professional musicians....
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by bb
Re: Irish American Musicians
I dont live in America - so I thought it would be cheaper to get names and look them up on myspace rather than fly across the world to Milwaukee fest
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by bb
Re: Irish American Musicians
Canadian is good as well of course. i guess the point being, is that I hear alot about musicians from Ireland, England, Australia etc but no so much from the States or Canada. When i lived in Canada I never made it to the mainland so only met people who came over to Newfoundland, so I dont know much about tune players there.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by bb
Re: Irish American Musicians
Have you looked up Irish-American musicians on myspace using the "browse" mechanism? It's quite handy.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by wyogal
Re: Irish American Musicians
Yes - but so much stuff comes up and I dont have the time to be trawling through it all, so I just wanted a list of favourites.
# Posted on September 1st 2008 by bb
Re: Irish American Musicians
I'm surprised no one mentioned Eliot Grasso, Jimmy Egan et all.
# Posted on September 2nd 2008 by bb
Re: Irish American Musicians
Eliot Grasso was on the tip of my ...er, fingers. Great pipes player.
Also, David Corey on banjo.
# Posted on September 2nd 2008 by ayedbl
Re: Irish American Musicians
Sean Cleland has a few up great young musicians. Siobhan Wojcik, a bouzouki player and Kevin Carey a flute player. There are others but I don't know their names. I heard that one of their groups placed in the grupai cheoil competition in Tullamore last week.
# Posted on September 2nd 2008 by AineM
Re: Irish American Musicians
The grupa cheoil mentioned by AineM was Aisling Cheoil Chicago, from the Irish Music School of Chicago (directed by Sean Cleland). They placed 2nd in the 15-18 age group. Here they are performing at the Midwest regional fleadh in Detroit, where they placed first.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dCNsj0WL3ZU
# Posted on September 2nd 2008 by fiddleplayer01
Re: Irish American Musicians
bb, Re: Egan, Grasso, et al. guess you didn't check your email, or maybe the email address you have through this site isn't the one you currently use. Being the proud the Bal-merian that I am, those were certainly names in my emails. Eh, I'm here, so also worth mentioning are Dan Isaacson (flute) who plays with Dave Cory and a host of others on the Magic Square CDs. Brendan Bell (flute), Peter Brice (accordian), Matt Mulqueen (piano), and Laura Byrne are four others in the Baltimore/Annapolis/DC area that are of top calibre (I think the entire Baltimore Ceili Band has been covered at this point). Don't think anyone has mentioned Cleek Schrey (fiddle) or Aaron Olwell (flute, concertina, fiddle, and I'm sure the rest of the instruments that are in existence
). There's also a piper named Brian who is now down working with the Olwells I believe, but his last name escapes me at the moment. It's possible his name may have already popped up here at some point. Also, Sean Ernest (guitar, bouzouki), originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania I believe, now spending time in Limerick, but a well known backer in Maryland and the other mid-Atlantic states. OK, guess you don't need to worry about those emails now 
# Posted on September 2nd 2008 by Jason G
Re: Irish American Musicians
I can tell you two of the musicians in Clelland's groupai ceol. Siobhan McKinney on harp and Kelsey Lutz on fiddle, both from Detroit-Ann Arbor Michigan, both about 16. Siobhan has won in Ireland several times, as has Kelsey in the midwest. Both excellent young musicians.
# Posted on September 2nd 2008 by m_gavin
Re: Irish American Musicians
Rud eile from boston
# Posted on September 2nd 2008 by stevequincy
Re: Irish American Musicians
Can't forget about Rachel Stribling! Martin Byrnes FTW!!
Cheers,
Armand
# Posted on September 2nd 2008 by armandale
Re: Irish American Musicians
Wow, saw my name mentioned in the first post and was stunned. Cool!
Isaac is a stunning player and a great guy. Other young up-and-coming young American Irish trad players I can mention:
Alex Redinger (concertina, fiddle, harp)
Sean Earnest (guitar, zouk)
Charlene Adzima (fiddle, vocals)
Julian Lambertson (fiddle)
Kelly Winter (piano accordion)
Joey Abarta (pipes, whistle, bodhran)
Amy Richter (bodhran)
Ben Jaber (pipes, flute)
Andrew Magill (fiddle)
Will MacMorran (guitar, zouk and has played pretty much everything else at one time or another)
Josh Dukes (bodhran, flute, guitar, zouk)
Duncan Wickel (everything under the sun!)
I know there are many more, but these are folks that I mostly know personally and I can attest that they are great people as well as wonderful musicians!
Zac Leger
# Posted on September 3rd 2008 by Flute_boy
Re: Irish American Musicians
Ce: http://cemusic.net/
# Posted on September 3rd 2008 by mcswiss
Re: Irish American Musicians
Check out Girsa they sound amazing..great talent!
http://girsamusic.com/
# Posted on March 4th 2009 by PR.RX