Irish fiddle virtuoso Martin Hayes and American guitarist Dennis Cahill possess a rare musical kinship, ranking them among the most memorable partnerships of our era. Together they have garnered international renown for taking traditional music to the very edge of the genre, holding listeners spellbound with their slow-building, fiery performances.
Hayes is a master of the slow, lyrical County Clare style of fiddling which he learned from his well-known father, P Joe Hayes. He is regarded as one of the most extraordinary talents to emerge in the world of Irish traditional music. Cahill is a sublime guitarist whose spare, essential accompaniment is acknowledged as a major breakthrough in the Irish tradition. He was raised in Chicago by parents from the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry. The two met in Chicago in the 1980s, and after early years as an experimental Irish fusion group they formed their groundbreaking duo. Martin and Dennis have gone on to tour the world, appearing at major concert halls including Lincoln Center and the Royal Albert Hall, and have three acclaimed albums on Green Linnet/Compass Records.
After more than twenty years at the forefront of traditional music, Hayes and Cahill are still breaking new ground. As The Irish Times declares, “If your live music rations were limited to a single concert in the entire year, you’d be either crazy or foolish not to pass that precious time in the company of Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill.”
Barnstar! delivers an aggressively joyful and passionately positive musical experience that reflects the true mission statement of these mischievous music makers – a beacon of joy in a world that could use a bit more kindness.
The brainchild of bassist and impresario Zachariah Hickman, Barnstar! features some of the Boston area’s most dynamic seasoned musicians: Mark Erelli (vocals, guitar), Charlie Rose (banjo, vocals), Taylor Armerding (mandolin, vocals), and Jake Armerding (fiddle, vocals). Their music resonates with audiences who appreciate the artistry of traditional bluegrass as well as those who are drawn to the band’s innovative and boundary-pushing approach. The band continues to record and perform, while navigating solo careers and high profile side-person gigs (with the likes of Josh Ritter, Rodney Crowell, Lori McKenna, Elephant Revival, Ray LaMontange, ROSIN, and many more).
Building off the success of their previous efforts “C’mon” (2011) and “Sit Down! Get Up! Get Out!” (2015), “Furious Kindness” showcases the diverse songwriting talents within Barnstar! Featuring original compositions such as Jake’s soulful and plaintive “Anybody Got A Light?” and the collaborative effort “Believer” by Mark, Zachariah, and Charlie, there is a sense of hope and rebirth that underlies the whole project. Noteworthy co-writes with Chuck Prophet and Dinty Child add an extra layer of depth and creativity to the album.
Influenced by their musical peers, the band draws inspiration from the likes of Elizabeth and the Catapult, Dennis Brennan, and Dave Talmage, especially Taylor’s powerful reinvention of Brennan’s “Boulder On My Back.” The covers on the album pay homage to musical legends, with reinterpretations of songs by Elliot Smith and Van Morrison adding some unexpected new contributions to the contemporary bluegrass landscape.
Effervescent and engaging, Boston-based fiddler Hanneke Cassel’s fiddle music fuses influences from the Isle of Skye and Cape Breton with Americana grooves and musical innovations. She has performed and traveled across North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Hanneke’s music is a blend of the contemporary and traditional, described by the Boston Globe as “exuberant and rhythmic, somehow wild and innocent, delivered with captivating melodic clarity and an irresistible playfulness.”
The Hanneke Cassel Band features Keith Murphy on guitar/vocals and alternating string players Jenna Moynihan on 5-string fiddle/vocals and Tristan Clarridge on cello. Newfoundland-born guitarist Keith Murphy began absorbing his native musical languages – folksongs, ballads and dance music – from an early age. A proficient multi-instrumentalist, he has long applied considerable energy to the rhythmic side of music, becoming a valued band member and highly sought-after sideman on guitar, mandolin and foot percussion. Jenna Moynihan is regarded as one of the best in the new generation of fiddle players. Versatile and inventive, her fiddling style draws strongly from the Scottish tradition, but is in no way bound by it. An assistant professor at Berklee College of Music, Jenna performs as part of a duo with cutting edge harpist Mairi Chaimbeul and is the regular fiddler for the Seamus Egan Project.
Together, the Hanneke Cassel Band creates a cutting-edge acoustic sound that retains the integrity and spirit of the Scottish tradition.
It’s not classical music — it’s disreputable classical music.
We know what the rules are. We just like breaking them. We’re here to create art, and our one purpose is to move people, to change their lives a little bit in the way only art can, and we don’t let propriety get in the way of that. We shrug at labels. We throw aside convention for convention’s sake and relentlessly pursue the music that makes us shout, grin, laugh or cry. Everything else is just details.
We love instrumental music. And too often, instrumental music is a beautiful and talented lady confined to a luxurious but dreary castle. Our mission is to storm that castle and rescue that lady, placing her beside us on a valiant steed and riding off to conquer someplace a lot more aggressive — say, the sweaty heart of Mexico City or the gritty streets of the Lower East Side. Her dress will probably get dirty, her hair might get messed up, she will whoop and cheer in decidedly unladylike fashion, and she will have the time of her life.
In the end, we love music, and we play it like someone’s going to take it away from us when the show is over.
Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki is a New Hampshire-based fiddler who specializes in Celtic music but often joins other performers and bands in genres ranging from folk to rock. He was awarded the title of “Master Artist” by the NH State Council On The Arts, and named “Best Fiddler 2016” by NH Magazine. He has toured nationally with various projects, written soundtracks for audiobooks and television, and appeared as a guest on over 60 albums. He currently performs about 200 shows each year, mostly with his own band, the Jordan TW Trio.
A Michigan native living in Boston, fiddler Rachel Reeds has immersed herself in the Cape Breton and Scottish musical traditions and has become a familiar face at sessions, camps, workshops, and house parties around New England.
Summer 2017 marks the release of her debut album, ‘Sparkjoy’. Produced by acclaimed fiddler, Hanneke Cassel, the album is rooted in the traditions of Cape Breton and Scotland and presents driving arrangements of original and traditional tunes. Joined on piano by Cape Breton fiddler and pianist Andrea Beaton, the album also features Hanneke Cassel (fiddle, piano), Natalie Haas (cello, Alasdair Fraser), Yann Falquet (guitar, Genticorum), and Katie McNally (fiddle, The Katie McNally Trio).
Rachel has played for dances at the Canadian American Club of Watertown and DEFFA, has performed at the Tamworth Lyceum, taught at the inaugural Cape Breton Weekend at Pinewoods Camp, and has been a session and workshop leader for the Boston Scottish Fiddle Club. She served on the organizing committee of BCMFest (Boston’s Celtic Music Festival) from 2011-2014, has been a frequent performer at BCMFest, and produced a Cape Breton feature for the 2017 festival’s Nightcap Concert. Rachel is the 2013 New England Regional Scottish Fiddle Champion.
Using Quebec’s vibrant living music tradition as a springboard for musical innovation De Temps Antan forms a power trio catapulting audiences headlong into the future French-Canadian music and culture.
It takes a special blend of musical talents to revisit and revitalize traditional music with equal measures of reverence, humor, Joy, natural ability and breathtaking turn-on-a-dime instrumental virtuosity. Welcome to the musical world of De Temps Antan!
Since 2003, Éric Beaudry, André Brunet (Celtic Fiddle Festival) and Pierre-Luc Dupuis have been exploring and performing time-honored songs and melodies been fine tuned and adapted to the needs of each generation. Using fiddle, accordion, harmonica, guitar, bouzouki and foot percussion (among a number of other instruments) these three virtuosos blend boundless energy with the infectious ‘joie de vivre.’ With De Temps Antan you will enjoy a musical event unlike any other.
Clara Stickney and Jamie Oshima are Joy Compass, a Maine-based duo known for their expressive and groovy music for contra dancing. Surrounded by traditional music all of his life, Jamie delights dancers with his genre-blending and dynamic use of rhythm instruments (guitar, piano, mandolin, and foot percussion). Drawing from her classical background and love of traditional tunes, Clara Stickney provides melody lines both playful and compelling on the fiddle and occasionally on the harp. Together they co-create a sound that dancers respond to with joy.
Alden Robinson learned to play the fiddle as a child growing up in coastal Maine. His earliest lessons came from Tamora Goltz, Katie Newell, and from the teachers at Maine Fiddle Camp. In college, he studied Irish fiddle in Ireland at University College Cork, and in several pubs.
For the past five years or so he has toured and recorded with The Press Gang, an Irish trad band from Portland. He also loves playing for contra dances and performs to several dance bands, including “Riptide”, which features Owen Marshall and Glen Loper. When he’s not playing with these groups, you can often see him carrying his fiddle around the streets of Portland to play in the city’s busy music scene.
Ryan McKasson, Eric McDonald and Jeremiah McLane are masters of tradition who purposefully explore the dark corners floating on its edges. Their individual artistry is enhanced when together. In short, the sum creates a greater whole. The result is an alluring complexity, full of spontaneous musicality.
Kalos is drawn to water. Every performance is like stepping into a river—they never play a song the same way twice. They make music inspired by the maritime traditions of Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia and North America. Their album titles—Harbour and Headland—honor the meeting point between the land and sea and they sing songs about shorelines, seafarers and drownings. They revel in the driving danceability of Irish tunes, but also take inspiration from the pastoral melodies and naturalistic metaphors of Scottish music. But while the music they write is forged in tradition, it is nonetheless cast and tempered in new and unexpected ways.
