As a soloist, Maeve earned three All-Ireland fiddle titles. In 1976, she was the youngest of 25 musicians invited from Ireland to perform at the Bicentennial Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D.C. They then toured America, and Maeve, Cavan harmonica ace Eddie Clarke, and singers Maighread Ní Dhomhnaill and Seán Corcoran stayed on an extra week, allowing them to record Sailing Into Walpole's Marsh. Since then, Maeve has performed on Ed Reavy in 1979, Paul Brock's Mo Chairdín in 1992, Éigse Dhiarmuidín in 2001, Geraldine Cotter's Piano + in 2002, a new recording by Peadar O'Loughlin and Ronan Browne, and another new recording she made with Peadar. Maeve was also a founding member of Moving Cloud, the Ennis-based band with whom she toured and recorded Moving Cloud in 1995 and Foxglove in 1998, further boosting her international profile. That profile will surely rise with this solo recording. Brimming with standout performances, savory tunes, and superb accompaniment (pianist Geraldine Cotter, guitarist Steve Cooney, cellist Adele O'Dwyer, flutist Peadar O'Loughlin, button accordionist Dermot Byrne), it captures Maeve Donnelly's fiddling at full strength. Nothing she plays is diluted. Everything she plays is distinctive. It is string music that indeed "sings."
Earle Hitchner
Music Writer
The Wall Street Journal, Irish Echo
MP3 File: The New Road - Yellow Tinker - Delia Crowley's (Reels)