Releases > Releases August 2026

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AIDAN CONNOLLY & BRYAN O’LEARY
The Groves of Gneeveguilla
Raelach Records RR027, 15 Tracks, 50 Minutes
www.raelachrecords.com
Jack Talty’s Raelach Records label is garnering a reputation for finding the pure drop amongst today’s traditional musicians, and here Jack has captured the angel’s share on this duet album from fiddler Aidan Connolly and box player Bryan O’Leary.
Both players have roots in the Kerry village of Gneeveguilla. Aidan, who was born in Dublin, traces his connections back through his mother’s Moynihan line. Bryan hails from Tureencahill, Gneeveguilla, County Kerry. His grandfather Johnny O’Leary was one of the key figures of Sliabh Luachra music in the 20th century and Bryan proudly continues his legacy. And legacy is in each and every track on the album, just fiddle and box, no accompaniment, as the pair celebrate over 20 years of playing the music of Sliabh Luachra together.
There are familiar tunes that have escaped the quiet pubs of the Rushy Mountain and became famous around the world, Denis Murphy’s Polka, Merrily Kiss the Quaker / The Dingle Regatta. Others that are new discoveries and are shared in musical conversations that run from track to track. Yes there are familiar staples cleverly reworked with some rare and unusual local tunes. The sleeve notes are informative and thorough, although you might take the lads’ explanation with a tablespoon of salt of the Polka’s provenance on track 5 The Cordal / Dark Girl Dressed in Blue / The Enchanted Hairo. The latter tune is a new composition from Bryan, an homage to his tutor Jimmy Doyle (RIP).
It’s not all dance tunes, Sweet Donaghmore is a slow air played on Bryan’s expressive accordion; the tune was recorded by RTÉ around 1960 from the fiddle player Pádraig O’ Keefe. Track 14 closes with another tune written by Bryan, this time for RTÉ’s Rolling Wave programme, Tranquillity in Tureencahill, marking the time when Kerry was locked down during the COVID 19 pandemic.
Don’t be fooled by the apparent familiarity of the final track, Merrily Kiss the Quaker / The Dingle Regatta. At first glance you might think they are two old saws. Listen and learn. They are versions taken from private recordings made nearly sixty years ago from the playing of Denis Murphy, Julia Clifford and Billy Clifford. A revelation.
Raelach have done it again, found riches in rural Ireland, and this album from Connolly and O’Leary is already a timeless classic.
Seán Laffey

PATRICIA CLARK, PAUL FINN & CILLIAN DOHENY
Come What May
Own Label, 11 Tracks, 41 Minutes
www.clarkfinndoheny.bandcamp.com
Fiddler Patricia Clark is joined by Paul Finn on button accordion and Cillian Doheny on stringed accompaniment for a selection of old-school Irish dance music which gets a gold star in my book. Reels and jigs are augmented by hornpipes, schottisches and marches with accents from Donegal to Dingle. Gems such as Drunk at Night and Dry in the Morning and The Old Chum come from the fringes of the Irish tradition, rarely seen but all the more welcome for that. More recent compositions are attributed to Siobhán Peoples and her late father Tommy, James Kelly, Ed Reavy, John Brady, Seán Ryan and other luminaries. Clark and Finn also contribute a pair of compositions each: I particularly enjoyed the slip jig Conlán Hill and the jig Halfway to Idaho.
Come What May is a sparky album full of energy and fun. The musicians circle round each other, never losing touch but claiming their own space in the mix, each with a distinctive voice. The combination really drives pieces such as Joe Liddy’s Journey by Train or the set of three quadrilles ending with an adaptation of the Scottish ballad Annie Laurie. There’s another borrowing from Scotland in the Charlie Hunter air The Hills of Lorne, played here as a march, before the final trio of reels which sees Cillian pick up the tenor banjo alongside his guitar to add extra oomph to an already strong melody line.
This collection rewards repeated listening; there’s so much good stuff tucked away here by Clark, Finn and Doheny.
Alex Monaghan

PAUL CONNOLLY
A Moment in Time
Brechin All Records CDBAR040, 15 Tracks, 45 Minutes
www.brechin-all-records.com
Scottish concertina players are generally few and far between: outside of Edinburgh and Glasgow you’d be lucky to hear one, so finding this wee music box in the hands of a highlander from sparsely-populated Lochaber is a surprise indeed. Like most Scottish players, Paul Connolly plays an English system instrument (specifically a 36-key Müller reconfiguration) and sticks mainly to the Scottish piping repertoire and common fiddle keys. He’s joined by John Carnie on guitar, and by a number of well-known names including Cathal McConnell, Allan MacDonald and Ian MacLeod. There are a few unexpected tunes here, mostly this is good West Coast fare with a smattering of Irish and a strong Gaelic influence.
From the opening Wendel’s Wedding by Tony Cuffe, Connolly’s individual expressive style is evident. There are half a dozen slower pieces on A Moment in Time, alongside pipe marches and hornpipes, each taken at Connolly’s own pace. Technique isn’t an issue: the impressive rendition of Crossing the Minch or McNab’s presses all the right buttons on a challenging Donald MacLeod composition. Other favourites include The Battle of the Somme, Chì Mi na Mòr-Bheanna, Cullen Bay and the slightly quicker Humours of Tullycrine. There are a few local tunes which I hadn’t heard before, and the unusual Jacobite air Well May Charlie Wear the Crown. Paul finishes with Alba Mo Chridhe by the late Willie Haynes, who was a well-known concertina player in Edinburgh, a fitting finish to this eye-opening collection.
Alex Monaghan

LAURA TARGETT
The Road to Tpot
Own Label, 10 Tracks, 48 Minutes www.lauratargett.com
Globetrotting fiddler Laura Targett plays in many styles, but most of The Road to Tpot fits into the broad Irish music category, whether it’s the opening Knocknagow slide set or the Manouche sensuality of A Waltz for Anna Maria.
Perfectly backed by the likes of Tim Edey and Steve Cooney, Laura enlists the help of Mike McGoldrick, Nikola Parov (remember him from Mozaik?), Ross Ainslie and a few others here. Targett’s fiddle flies through favourites such as Jamaica Jam and Frank’s Reel. She adds one vocal number, her own Maybe, on the sultry side of this album along with Parfum de Gitane. The sadder Children of War is a slow air tinged with Middle Eastern or North African ornamentation: over a piano ground by Edey, the fiddle evokes hope and compassion in a melody which is both simple and deeply moving.
Parov adds an Eastern European touch on the Bulgarian kaval flute, making this a truly international work. In contrast, Five Pairs of Hands is a busy set of three original Targett tunes, all great fun compositions in popular minor keys: the first piece is very much contemporary pan-Celtic to my mind, while the second is a flute and fiddle duet, firmly rooted in the classic Sligo Roscommon style, and the third has echoes of the current Glasgow session scene - it even has four parts, a clear Scots feature!
Laura ends her debut CD with a title track that blends traditional and modern in a complex and satisfying piece, fine music from a sensitive composer.
Alex Monaghan

FERAL FOLK
The Price of My Pig
17 Tracks, 34 Minutes ngoshea@yahoo.com
From County Kerry, the Feral Folk recorded The Price of My Pig in Tony O’Flaherty’s studios in Killarney in 2008 and issued it fully mastered in 2011. At the time, the line up featured Dean Moriarty on fiddle and mandolin, Noreen O’Shea on fiddle, Sarah Roache on flute and vocals with Matt Griffin on guitar and Tony O’Flaherty on bodhran. Unfortunately, Dean succumbed to brain cancer in 2014, and his handiwork here not only attests to his musical ability composing two tunes Scarabhin and Cnoc and Ti, he also designed the attractive cover artwork.
Flautist and singer Sara Roache is a Cork woman by birth and Dean Moriarty heard her at the Gathering in Killarney and invited her to join Feral Folk. Fiddler Noreen O’Shea made up the core trio of Feral Folk with help from Matt Griffin on guitar and Tony O’Flaherty on bodhrán.
Musically they blend a sweet local sprightliness as best exemplified on polkas like Mrs. Crowley’s and slides Barrack Hill, their uninhibited flow both natural and loose as befits their source area. They play equally well as a formally arranged unit too, best found in The Rolling Wave and Donegal Reel, where flutes, fiddles, strings and percussion blend harmoniously, and Dean Moriarty adds supple mandolin to Scarabhin and Miss Noble. Sarah Roache’s three songs are an unexpected delight with The Banks of Sullane, Casam Araon na Geanna Romhainn, and Seachran Charn tSiail sung unaccompanied and flawlessly. The guitar and percussion work of Matt Griffin and Tony O’Flaherty is equally uplifting and subtly adds some extra luster and fire when needed.
This is music both sublime and unaffected, and it was a delight to hear it is now back in circulation.
John O’Regan

CLUMSY MAGGIE
Clumsy Maggie, 10 Tracks, 40 Minutes
www.facebook.com/clumsymaggie
Clumsy Maggie is a new Dublin band that plays folk and roots music with a refreshing authority and inventiveness. Individually Maurice Carty sings and plays guitar, and his gravelly vocals add a nice raw edge to the band. Drummer Peter Barker and bass/ keyboards players Constantin Buzdug and banjo/mandolin player Mick McGuire make up the quartet.
It’s an eclectic mix of Irish, American and European sounds with a dash of British folk–rock and reminds me of bands like The Permanent Cure, Spud and Jack the Lad in its good time atmosphere and musical dexterity. Old Dan Tucker opens the account with a blast of St Anne’s Reel adding an extra bounce, and while Another Brick in the Wall and A Whiter Shade of Pale are popular rock classics, they breathe well within these walls. The traditional Gravel Walks is given a brooding Gothic treatment while Clumsy Goes Cajun adds a blast of Delta swamp atmospherics. The folk classics The Mermaid and The Drunken Sailor are also given a fresh sheen. Maurice Carty’s vocals add to the dramatic auras of The Night Visiting Song and Grace. These along with Shane MacGowan’s A Rainy Night in Soho make for a worthwhile contrast to the up-tempo material, suggesting a band with potential a plenty.
The tracks recorded live in the studio are full of fresh enthusiasm and there is creative promise that deserves support and open ears. Clad in a superbly drawn cover art with the band on board a ship and a mermaid at the helm, Clumsy Maggie is a bright bold debut. This is a welcome breath of fresh, innovative musical air.
John O’Regan

AVOURNEEN
Way Stations
Own Label, 15 Tracks, 62 Minutes
www.avourneen.com
Avourneen is a trio based in Denver Colorado and this is their second CD to be reviewed in IMM. The core group consists of  Adam Goldstein (guitar, bouzouki), Cieran Morden (fiddle, mandolin, piano), and Alice Alister (bass). On Way Stations they are joined by Katie Burns (cello), John Lynskey (accordion), Rodney Sauer (accordion), and Marty Smith (bouzouki), Marty has become something of an online celebrity with his Sobell bouzouki playing. The inclusion of the guests here stamps the respect the traditional music community has for Avourneen’s work.
The songs on the album include the old standard Hills of Connemara, the modern classic, Ralph McTell’s Clare to Here and the Dave Mallet’s The Ballad of St Anne’s Reel, with an arrangement  featuring a riff from the bouzouki and a sweet break into the Irish style reel on the fiddle.
Adam Goldstein has a clear tenor voice, not unlike Peter Stanstead in its intonation and diction, which gives the album more of a European than an American vibe, (check his French-style Remy) and the easy on the ear Clasped to the Pig and Faro. Goldstein is no lightweight when it comes to song writing either and his Doolin Waltz deserves attention and consideration by singers on the Wild Atlantic Way.
Tune wise there has been some deep thought put into the arrangements, which are never too fast or muddy, with the lyrical slow air Seaglass Beach being ripe for inclusion into the tradition worldwide. Their Lark in the Morning set is a tour de force, with a duet of bouzoukis leading the melody, before the fiddle brings in a counterpoint, turning convention on its head.
Way Stations is a huge step up from Avourneen’s previous album Sparrow, which was a revelation in itself. The band prove that there’s great Irish music in the mile high city and this album has attitude to match the altitude.
Seán Laffey

RÓNÁN Ó SNODAIGH & MYLES O’REILLY
Mise Tusa
Claddagh Records, 9 Tracks, 39 Minutes
https://claddagh.lnk.to/MiseTusa
This is Rónán Ó Snodaigh and film maker, composer cum synth genius Myles O’Reilly’s third album; their musical relationship is now telepathic.
Cúl an Tigh, a quiet beginning, a hint of fiddle, long notes on a droning keyboard and a distant repeated beat, then a sideways slip into a dash of jazz, a drop of audio-Tabasco. Rónán’s trademark repetition of phrases (Kíla anyone?) is employed on tracks that are softly delivered as on Nil Aon Easpa Orm (I have no lack, I don’t need for anything). Rónán’s vocals lay over a mix of keyboards and acoustic guitar, O’Reilly’s synth supplying the sonic equivalent of a water colour wash or invoking the bright lights of a busy night time boulevard.
There’s a wry look at cross-border smuggling with the phase:
“If you give a good turn you get a good turn” on We Don’t See Anything. In the same vein of helping out a friend against the weight of authority, Anseo i lár an Ghleanna is their setting of the poem by Seán Mac Fhearais, recalling the escape of a priest during penal times, when an old man surrendered to the red coats to save his religion for future generations.
Rónán finds a new melody and a new way of singing Pete St. John’s The Fields of Athenry, relocating it from the sporting terraces and placing it back in the darker days of dissent and desperation when a misdemeanour was the ticket for a free boat trip to Australia.
For a taster of what this duo are capable of, see their video of Reir Dé on YouTube. It is a shamanic spiritual prayer. Was this how Patrick converted King Aonghusa, religion stripped of ceremonial robes and speaking truth to hierarchies of power? I’ve a feeling our ancestors would have recognised both the sounds and the intentions on Mise Tusa and they would have been won over by its strange familiarity.
Seán Laffey

EMMA HYNES
Tell Me How
Own label, Single 3 Minutes, 38 Seconds
www.emmahynes.com
Emma Hynes is a multi-disciplinary artist from Dublin, whose music spans multiple genres to create a unique blend which she describes as her “own brand of ethereal longing”. She has played live at a number of prestigious Irish venues and festivals, and is also a noted writer and visual artist. Her previous trilogy of singles was highly acclaimed, being featured on local, national and international radio playlists, and this latest release immediately grabs the listener’s attention with its atmospheric vocal performance over layered guitars.
The melody is quite infectious, with her distinctive voice delivering lyrics which use a nautical motif to describe a life’s journey. The arrangement is cleverly executed, with different textures and rhythms being gradually introduced over the basic melodic themes. The production duties are expertly handled by Martin Quinn, who also plays guitars and keyboards, with his string arrangement delivered by The Leinster String Quartet, and drums and percussion in the capable hands of Andrew Quinn.
Overall, she emerges as a multi-talented and committed artist combining an impressive array of abilities, who really does have something to say. It’s an engaging and thought-provoking song, which will whet the appetite for Emma’s forthcoming debut album, due for release later this year.
Mark Lysaght

Ó hEARÁIN (KEVIN HERRON)
On My Mind
Own Label, Single 3 Minutes & 25 Seconds
Facebook: Kevin Herron Music
Kevin Herron is an experienced guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, composer and recording artist who hails from Donegal on the north-west coast of Ireland. He’s been playing guitar since he was eight, and since his teenage years he has been developing his musical capabilities both academically and professionally, to the stage where he is now a much sought-after player who can effortlessly cover a range of genres including pop, rock, country, jazz, blues, folk and traditional Irish music.
He is also a singer-songwriter using the name Ó hEaráin, and his new single On My Mind allows him to demonstrate his talents as a vocalist, composer and arranger. He blends various Irish and American influences, with slide guitar to the fore as the song explores love, memory and acceptance from the perspective of someone who is nearing the end of their life, remembering a lost love. It’s an accomplished performance with emotional vocal harmonies and a wistful slide guitar reflecting the pain of separation.
On this recording Kevin is joined by Gráinne Gavigan, with Nick Scott’s double bass, cello by Laura McFadden and Eamon Ferris on drums. Together they create an atmospheric piece which creates a real sense of loss, with a hope of reconciliation.
Mark Lysaght