What's New in Irish Fiddling

It's all in the family as brothers Manus and Seamus McGuire are added to the site
along with Father and son fiddlers Gerry and Donal O'Connor!

The West Ocean String Quartet creates a magical mixture of traditional and classical music that is getting rave reviews in all sorts of situations and performances.

Read a Here's a recent review of theirdebut CD from the Irish Echo (2004)

Dezi Donnelly Interviewed on NPR
Dezi Donnelly came through Philadelphia again and gave a few excellent performances! While he was here, he was interviewed on National Public Radio's show "Radio Times." For roughly one hour Dezi answers questions, plays tunes and talks about music and life in general.

Gerry O'Connor's October CD release, "Journeyman" will focus on his 40 years of playing and the great master players he learned from along the way. More info and MP3's coming soon to his updated website at gerryoconnor.net

Brock McGuire Band
The Brock - McGuire Band toured recently promoting their new CD. I caught up with them in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and they gave a great show. This band is a great mixture of the veterans and the younger players, or, as they say in Jazz, the Old lions and the young lions. Paul Brock and Manus McGuire were founding members of "Moving Cloud" and Manus also founded "Buttons and Bows" and recently won Irish Musician of the year. The young lions are Enda and Fergal Scahill; two brothers with All-Ireland credentials: Enda on Tenor Banjo and Mandolin, Ferhgal on Fiddle.
You should see this band and check out their CD.

Brendan Taaffe
Farmer, Fiddler, and Gentleman
Yes, the author of MANY of the interviews found on this website, courtesy of Fiddler Magazine, has a very nice website all about his writing, playing, teaching, farming, and even has original tunes.
Brendan is spending a year in Ireland and using his site as an online journal. Check it out at Brendantaaffe.com

Favorite Links - coming soon
After 4 and half years of remaining quiet, I'm finally going to add some of my opinions! I'll soon be posting some links to what I think is worth visitng on the web.

See what was new in The Summer of 2004 from:
Paintings of Irish Fiddlers from Catharine Kingcome - Fiddler Magazine Interviews of John Carty and Siobhan Peoples - Addition of webpages for Zoe Conway and Nollaig Casey - Video "hello" from Martin Hayes - Andy McGann 1928 - 2004 - A new website from Sligo, Ireland about James Morrison

See what was new in The Spring of 2004 from:
Patrick Mangan's Solo Cd release - The addition Live unreleased tracks from Andy McGann, Summer 1992 - New release from Teada - Dervish given the keys to the city of Sligo - Sligo Fiddler Phillip Duffy CD release - Mick O'Brien and Caoimhín Ó'Raghallaigh - CD release - New Interviews from Paddy Glackin, Brendan McGlinchey, And Matt Cranitch - and more!

See what was new in The Summer and Fall of 2003 from:
Dervish - Siobhan Peoples and Murty Ryan - John Daly - Denis Liddy and Michael Hynes - The Barefield Ceili Band - Gerry O'Connor - Donal O'Connor

See what was new In the Summer and Fall of 2002 from:
Maeve Donnelly; Brian Conway; Seamus Quinn; Manus McGuire; A Live CD from The Philadelphia Irish Festival; Interviews from Winnie Horan; Frankie Gavin; and Seamus Connolly