Releases > Releases December 2025

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GADAN
May the Divil Tune Your Banjos
Own Label,  9 Tracks, 38 Minutes
www.gadanband.com
Mix Celtgrass with a dash of Italian sunshine, and you know it’s going to be good when a Mr Enda Scahill is a featured banjoist in this ensemble, which is made up of Jacopo Ventura: guitar, bass, Lorenzo Testa: tenor banjo, mandolin, vocals, Eric Long: claw-hammer banjo, vocals, Joan Gatti: fiddle, and of course our own Enda Scahill on tenor banjo. Yes, folks, a band with three banjos.
Celtgrass is a relatively new genre of folk music, a combination of Irish traditional music and bluegrass. Some would say they have the same ancient roots, others that the atomic bomb is older than bluegrass (Bill Monroe invented Bluegrass sometime in the 1940s). Gadan work those traditions into something special, setting up their stall on track one with  an Old Timey version of All Young and The Road to Malvern, with rasping fiddle and a thumping bass; it’s a new way to hear the tune.
The song You Were On My Mind This Morning, introduces Eric Long and he is the real deal. Wait for the instrumental break and see how easily his voice comes in as the mandolin picks up the pace; there’s a section near the end sung a cappella with hand claps to hold the beat. That’s two tracks in, and it stays this good throughout. For Irish trad lovers skip to Green Groves of Erin / Boys of Malin; beware you’ll need a seat belt for the second half of the tune.
I was struck by their choice of an Appalachian song, Across The Western Ocean, about emigration from Ireland to the US, and it works with its Celtgrass polish. Then there’s the old Appalachian favourite Shady Grove. Doc Watson is often the benchmark for the bluegrass version and it is here where you can see the genius of Gadan at work. They bring in elements of old modal mountain music, the drive of Watson and a very clever transition into an Irish fiddle tune at the end. It’s string band music on steroids.
Thanks to bands like Gadan, Celtgrass is now an established and exciting phenomenon. Tell your friends that Gadan bring phenomenal energy and musicality to the genre. Once in the know, they’ll be talking about this album as a classic for years to come.
Seán Laffey

DAMIEN O’KANE and RON BLOCK
Banjovial
Pure Records, 12 Tracks, 54 Minutes www.damienokane.co.uk/band
This is O’Kane and Block’s third album, following on from Banjophony (2018) and Banjophonics (2022), and like its predecessors it’s ear-to-ear happiness as they meld and merge the tenor and 5-string banjos into a dozen tracks. Ron Block is from California where he became a virtuoso of Bluegrass and Appalachian music; you may already know his work with Alison Krauss & Union Station. Damien O’Kane is from Coleraine and is a key member of the Kate Rusby Band. Here Ron and Damien are front and centre, with their banjos leading the action.
They are joined by a “house band” of Duncan Lyall on keys & double bass and Steven Byrnes on guitar. Additionally there are some stellar guests: Sharon Shannon on box, and Aubrey Haynie and Tim Crouch on bluegrass fiddles and mandolin. These backers invariably add a subtle accompaniment, often at half the speed of the banjo playing, which gives the album its characteristic sound.
The duo begin by taking a walk on the wild side with Anton’s Slide which shifts up a pace or two as the bass adds a thumping pedal to the Americana of I Asked for a Hamster. Quirky titles abound, as befits that word jovial that is packed in the portmanteau of the album’s name. Some of their tunes are playfully childlike, such as Mario Kart Rides Again; it rolls up to the sound of a first responder’s nee-naw before revving up as Ron shifts his bluegrass banjo into top gear.
There are two songs, Ron’s Love is Like That with its repeated refrain of Love Ain’t Like That, a reflection on the deeper meaning of love in a weft of relationships from romantic to parental. Damien expands on his love of Irish traditional music on The Loudest Word and its request to “play the tune we always knew”.
The duo visit the darker realm of Euro jazz on Pepe and Speedy (who are now considered controversial Looney Tunes characters). Here there’s a Django style guitar stitching the tune together with staccato riffs. They end with Alba, See You Soon, an easy going gentle coda to an album that brings each banjo into a sunlight-happy valley. Jovial by name and jovial by nature.
Seán Laffey

LES IRLANDAIS DE BRETAGNE
Histoire d’une migration (The story of a migration)
Own Label, 12 Tracks, 46 Minutes
www.lesirlandaisdebretagne.wordpress.com
Over the centuries, Brittany has been a land of welcome for populations such as migrants who came from across the Channel in the 5th and 6th centuries. But there was another wave of migrants, whose history is still little known in this region. In the 17th and 18th centuries, tens of thousands of Irish people, fleeing British colonisation and its abuses as well as poverty, came to settle in Brittany. Curiously, this wave of migration has long been forgotten.
During a chance encounter with the Irish owner of a pub in Rostrenen (Central Brittany), Véronique Bourjot, Brewen Favrau, Soazig Hamelin and Kevin Le Pennec discovered a little-known part of Breton history. Thanks to three historians who had researched the subject, the four Breton musicians found answers to their questions. They quickly developed an artistic project inspired by the uprooting of these Irish people to a country unknown to them, Brittany.
They set about building a project based on this history, composing melodies and writing original lyrics, as Breton and Irish musicians of the time might have done. Twelve tracks follow one another here, instrumentals and songs, combining the four languages of these two peoples: Breton, Irish, French and English.
Singer Véronique Bourjot, uilleann piper, flutist and biniou player Brewen Favrau, violinist Soazig Hamelin and harpist Kevin Le Pennec have pooled their talents to offer us a musical universe that has its origins in both countries. But as this is an original project, the colour and timbre of the various instruments, and above all the arrangements, create a fresh and innovative sound.
Throughout the tracks, we follow the journey of these migrants, from their eviction (The Moving On Song), the crossing (Crossing the Sea), their arrival (Ar Basion), their encounter with the Breton people (The May Morning Dew), their integration (Mem Bro, La Jument de Rostrenen), their poverty (Iliz Henbont), their trades (Kemenerig), their exchanges (Rileanna) and their memories (Dublin).
And since this talented quartet doesn’t do things by halves, they have chosen to publish their album in a magnificent book, which, in addition to recounting the genesis of this project and presenting each track with an introduction and the lyrics, also features superb illustrations, paintings and charcoal drawings by the artist Esteban Richard.
A truly high-quality work that allows readers to discover a piece of Brittany’s history.
Philippe Cousin

FIONA TYNDALL
Éinín an Cheóil
Own Label, 12 Tracks, 44 Minutes
www.fionatyndall.com
An album of beautiful Irish songs whose title translates as Bird Song, where the music migrates between worlds, connected to the past and firmly nested in the present. Recorded in Oakley Studios in Blackrock, Dublin and Shorefire Studios in Longbranch, New Jersey, the album was fully produced by Brendan Hayes and mixed/mastered in BAZ Studios, Portumna, County Galway.
The backstory is fascinating; Fiona’s father Buadhach Tóibín was a song collector, and on his passing the family were left with a handwritten archive containing the transcript of some 200 songs. Fiona determined that some of those songs would be recorded, keeping her father’s legacy alive and giving voice to songs that needed to be heard once again.
The joy of this album is its thoroughly modern working of the material. This isn’t archaic sean-nós, neither it is deeply melancholic unaccompanied singing. The title track will give you a feel for the whole album, a rewrite of Einin Cheoil where Fiona is joined by a sumptuous backing band. That band is; on lead vocal Fiona Tyndall, her daughter Aishling Tyndall (harmony vocals), Caoimhe Tyndall (choral vocals), Brendan Hayes plays guitar, bouzouki, bass and Fender Rhodes keyboards, Fergal Scahill doubles on fiddle and mandolin and Kieran Munnelly plays flute.
Tim Edey guests on nylon strung guitar and button accordion and there are appearances from Maire Egan on fiddle and James Blennerhassett on bass guitar on the lively track Beidh Ríl Againn where the versatile  Brendan Hayes plays accordion/tin whistle and dulcimer. Sean Whelan plays guitar on Turas Go Tir na N-og and An Mhaighdean Mhara. On Eibhlín a Rún Fiona’s deep alto voice adds gravitas to the song which is accompanied by Brendan Hayes on piano and is enhanced by harmony vocals. On track after track Fiona displays a wide vocal range and utter control of the emotional sweep of the lyrics.
When an authority on singing as revered as Niamh Parsons says: ‘so confident, perfect and solid. The music and production is fantastic…’ I could not disagree with her.
Seán Laffey

EMER NÍ SCOLAÍ
Aiséirí
Own Label, 12 Tracks, 51 Minutes
www.emerniscolai.bandcamp.com/album/ais-ir
Emer Ní Scolaí’s from North Dublin accomplishments include eight All Ireland medals for Harp and Harp Slow airs as well as Feis Ceoil and O Carolan Cup successes. In 2019 Emer was the Royal Irish Academy of Music’s Rising Star recipient and in 2020 a finalist in Comórtas Bonn Óir Seán Ó Riada.
Her debut solo album Aiséirí is a work of resurrection as befits the title, mixing old tunes resurrected for this project with new compositions. The opening hornpipes, Dapper’s Delight/ Blackbird, the former composed by Paddy O’Brien and the latter a classic traditional tune, offer a good case for combination, which lies at the heart of this record. Aistear offers a self-penned air and jig pairing that works due to her innate understanding of those tune forms and their creation. Realt Na Farraige/The Morning Star, more original jigs is a fun project which explores different aspects of Mariology and describes two particularly famous Marian images, the star of the sea and the morning star. Le Cheile Sna Flathais, a two-part reel was composed as part of a compositional project she took part in during her second year in UCD, overseen by the legendary Dónal Lunny. Students were tasked with composing a tune that could be taught in schools.
Aiséirí was recorded live in a single uninterrupted studio sitting at the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA), and it captures the emotional immediacy and interpretive depth of a solo performance rooted in the Harping tradition. The performances are sparking in their immediacy. The delivery is shot through with love for tradition and a keen ear for composition. Together it makes for an excellent debut.
John O’Regan

GERRY HANLEY
In the Middle of It
Own Label, 12 Tracks, 44 Minutes www.gerryhanleymusic.com
Old style tunes at an old style canter with great lift and character on the button box from Gerry and  top drawer backing from: Carl Hession on keyboards, Máirín Fahy on fiddle and Eimear Coughlan on harp.
Box player Gerry Hanley recruited Carl Hession for the simple reason that he prefers piano as the main accompaniment instrument for traditional music. A measure of his taste and vintage, but don’t expect the vamping of old time céilí bands, Carl Hession brings dynamics and tension with multiple transitions from major to the minor as the 10 Litre Bucket segues into Catherine’s jig. Máirín Fahy adds just the right amount of East Galway fiddling to set this album firmly west of the Shannon.
If you are looking or listening for the magic ingredient, then the fairy dust is in the fingers of  Eimear Coughlan. Eschewing the resonate bass of the harp for the more plangent high strings, her playing at times sounds like a hammered dulcimer, adding the shimmer and shine to the final selection in the reels Land of Sunshine/Mulhaire’s Number 9/Laura Mulhaire’s. Carl Hession takes up electronic keyboards to add a wash of bass chords to the slow air Eanach Dhúin.
There is a dash of something percussive, resembling the jingles of a tambourine on the final third of The Old Road to Garry/Carmel Mahony’s. The music becomes a lyrical swaggering sway on the hornpipes Slopes of Benbulben/The Swan on the Lake/The Showman’s Fancy.
That’s the detail, things you’ll notice with repeat playing. First impressions are often the most lasting, and there’s no doubt that on this album Gerry proves himself to be a master of his craft, his instrument and the tradition. And why not? He’s been in the middle of it for 50 years now.
Seán Laffey

NIALL McNAMEE
Glass and Mirrors
12 Tracks, 50 Minutes www.niallmcnamee.com
Niall McNamee has been based in London since his late teens, pursuing a career as both an actor and musician, and it’s fair to say that up to now, the acting has been to the fore. This is his debut solo album, and like many others of his generation, he’s been heavily influenced by the likes of The Pogues and Christy Moore, while also absorbing lots of other genres experienced in his adopted home. The result is a blend of Celtic folk/rock with traces of crossover artists like Paul Brady as well as mainstream pop and rock. Another Life has been released as a single, and features Niall in reflective mood; the song builds slowly from a piano and vocal intro – he has a distinctive vocal style that’s quite compelling, and he uses his life experiences to paint emotional and heartfelt pictures of a young Irishman exiled in a foreign city. He’s equally adept on acoustic guitar, and his lyrics are carefully crafted and very direct, which will appeal to so many of his fans who are dealing with similar issues in their own lives.
The opener, Clapham Wine, written for a friend recovering from a relationship breakup, shows his empathy for others in difficult situations, while he displays a lighter side on songs like Wokingham which has an infectious rhythm and sounds like a real live crowd-pleaser; Magpie With A Mullet is his take on a humorous Irish ballad. Rose Of Marylebone relates his experience in a brief relationship with a girl from a wealthy background.
He shows great variety in the various styles he uses, and overall, this is an impressive debut release from a man who has already experienced so much in his young life, but maintains a fresh and optimistic outlook. Recommended.
Mark Lysaght

ERIN RUTH
Traditions & Original Work
16 Tracks, 48 Minutes
www.erinruth.bandcamp.com/album/traditions-original-work
Erin Ruth has been based in San Francisco for a number of years and this album reflects the relationship she has had with the area’s Irish and Celtic musicians. A quick glance at the liner notes and you’ll see that there a number of cooperative songs where each collaborator is named in the credits. Erin comes from an artistic family, and indeed the cover picture of Erin in profile was painted by her mother Debbie.
Erin has amassed quite the team for this album: Kyle Alden (guitar, organ); David Brewer (whistles, bodhrán); Lawrence Bryant (engineering); Sean Daly (vocal); Tom Luekens (engineering, guitar, vocal); Kristoph Klover (engineering); Richard Mandel (guitar); Darcy Noonan (violin); Sara Remington (vocal); Autumn Rhodes (flute); Malcolm Robertson (flute); Duncan Stitt (engineering); Jesse Torre (guitar); & The Black Brothers (recorded from a live show).
Erin is a versatile singer and is as comfortable with the jazzy, folky original song Miles Away as she is with more traditional songs such as Down by the Salley Gardens, I’m a Man You Don’t Meet Everyday, The Wind That Shakes the Barley and The Lonely Woods of Upton.
It is just Erin’s voice and guitar on Down by the Salley Gardens, the guitar is reminiscent of the great Nic Jones in its simple melody and reverberating bass. On The Fields of Athenry, Erin’s voice soars above the piano and Irish flute backing, bringing the song back to its roots, a long way from the football chant it has morphed into over the years. There’s some jangly strings and an upbeat message on the great American classic Hard Times Come Again No More, recorded live with a chorus of voices from the Black Brothers, (yes Mary’s siblings).
Erin Ruth has created an album of Irish and other songs lovingly curated and cared for in California.
Seán Laffey

BEARTLA Ó FLATHARTA CÉILÍ BAND
Amongst Friends
Own Label, 11 Tracks, 38 Minutes www.thebeartlas.ie
Winners of the Senior Céilí Band Competition at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2024, The Beartlas are from Leixlip, County Kildare. The band is named in memory of the late Connemara native Beartla Ó Flatharta, a piper, button accordion player and a Sean-nós singer. Two of his daughters, Róisín and Úna play accordion and drums respectively in the band. The other members of the band are: on fiddles: Colm Hanley, Colm Ó hArgáin, Finóla Lawlor, Seán Keane, on flutes: Elaine Clarke, Ann-Marie Grogan, on concertina: Gearóid Keane and on piano Declan Magee.
Céili band albums are rare commodities and it’s heartwarming  to see that the Beartlas have released this album to mark not only their All Ireland winning performance but their years of playing music together, many since childhood. As Céilí band albums go, this is in the top drawer, the sets here are ideally paced for dancing and the range of tunes will accommodate all levels of dancers. Their playing is both tight and lively and the piano accompaniment is very sensitive, and a model for any accompanist to learn from; less is more here and the tunes breathe freely because of it.
To give an idea of what is on offer they kick off with just over two minutes of reels: The Maids of Castelbar/ The Duke of Leinster with a butter-smooth shift from one tune the other. Richard Deasy’s March begins with a rattle on the snare drum, it’s not that well known and the Beartlas may give it a new lease of life. It’s a composition by the box player Paddy O’Brien (RIP) from Nenagh, County Tipperary. If you can measure, and indeed judge, a band by its handling of standards, then on the set The Sally Gardens/Rip The Calico/The Ashplant they pass the test with an A-plus rating, perfect for dancing and ideal for learning.
Songs are judiciously interspersed: Do You Love an Apple (which was learnt from Edel Vaughan). This is a dynamic arrangement; from a simple drone accompaniment it develops as more voices join in, backed by short runs on the piano, the final section brings the whole band into the part with lyrical fiddles and flutes taking the melody in a different direction. Its final verse is  pure acapella, it’s complete artistry in 3 minutes. The other song to note is Tommy Sands’ County Down, a modern emigration song from the perspective of a loved one left behind. The Beartlas bring its lonesome emotion to each line:
Oh can you hear me? Oh can you hear me
As you roam through lonely London town?
When evening’s falling you’ll hear me calling
“Come on ho-ome to  County Down”
Top marks for an excellent album from a top Céilí band, who dedicate the album to Máire Uí Fhlatharta, Patsy Magee and Mairéad Uí Argáin. Revealing the fact that you don’t get this good without a community at your back.
Seán Laffey

NOTIFY
Worlds Collide
Liosbeg, 9 Tracks, 46 Minutes
https://notify.bandcamp.com/album/worlds-collide
Like many others before them (Altan, Capercaillie, Lúnasa, Moya Brennan, Sharon Shannon…), the Notify band has chosen to try the experiment of playing with an orchestra. And this time they’ve gone one step further, inviting not one, but two orchestras: the Irish Concertina Orchestra, with its forty-odd musicians, and the MGCE Concert Orchestra, a little smaller in number, with “only” twenty musicians.
Notify is a sextet. It’s made up of concertina virtuoso Pádraig Rynne, who has had many musical adventures with Guidewires, Triad, Irish Concertina and others. Also on board are fiddler Tara Breen, Davie Ryan on percussion, Adam Taylor and Hugh Dillon on electric guitars and Rory McCarthy on keyboards as well as guitarist Jim Murray. Barely a year after their album Airneán, they return with their fourth opus, Worlds Collide. Nine tracks, each more beautiful than the last.
Notify’s opus is an astonishing fusion of knowledge and deep respect for tradition with innovative, not to say avant-garde, arrangements. Playing both traditional Irish music and jazz, this band has managed to strike the right balance between these seemingly different musical styles. Worlds Collide is the result of a concert recorded in Ennis in May 2024. One track follows another, all composed by that little genius Pádraig Rynne, joined on two tracks by R. McCarthy and H. Dillon. That’s how talented he is.
The concert opens with May’s Smile and Amber Spring, which immediately introduce keyboards before the concertinas take over. On Arty’s Words, Pádraig pays tribute to the talented guitarist Arty McGlynn, who persuaded him to turn professional in 1990. And let’s not forget the delicate pastoral beauty of Idir. And on La Grene, jazz merges melodiously with tradition. The album closes with The Strangest Thing, the longest track on the album, which, along with four other tracks on their previous CD, is a real highlight.
This magnificent album is truly stunning, and makes you wish you’d been in the audience at this one-shot concert.
Philippe Cousin

BROWN BOOTS BOOGIE BAND
Dancing Boots
Own Label, 9 Tracks, 40 Minutes www.brownbootsmusic.com
Martin Clarke on fiddle and Will Allen on button box perform as the duo Brown Boots. When asked if they ever played for Ceilidhs, it gave them an idea, and subsequently they invited Will Chamberlain on piano and Paul Quarry on drums to form, the Brown Boots Boogie Band. The result is an Anglo-French style, Ceilidh band with a big dollop of umph in their playing and fun at every strip of a willow.
What an opening on track one. Childgrove and Jer The Rigger. The former an old tune, it was old when it appeared in John Playford’s Dancing Master of 1702, almost a bourée in its lively audacity (and that Francophone accent is heard on a number of other selections on this album too). Jer The Rigger is sounded with an unmistakably English brogue emphasising the higher notes of the accordion to give the tune its forward propulsion.
The interplay between accordion and fiddle on J.B Milne/Old Grey Cat, reminded me of the first tune of Jimmy Shand’s Blue Bell Polka, whereas Old Grey Cat adopts an Irish tone, although its origin is Scottish, having appeared in Kerr’s Merry Melodies of 1880. The Brown Boot is a waltz, where the piano adopts an anchoring role as the fiddle and accordion take turns to run with the melody, while the alternate plays a sympathetic and simple accompaniment; it ends with a single note on the piano.
A tune well-known in Scottish country dancing clubs, Petronella is the first out-of-the gate on the final set. It has had a patina in print since Ryan’s Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes in the 1880s. Paired here with the French tune La Sansonette, the brace bringing this delightful album full circle. That last tune is hidden; wait for a moment as the music fades and the sound of a happy audience breaks through, listen as the band decides on La Sansonette as an encore.
It is fresh, frivolous and fervent. Full marks for an album of ancient tunes that never gets old when they are played by the Brown Boots Boogie Band.
Seán Laffey

AMIT DATTANI
Wrong Kind of One
Own Label, 9 Tracks, 30 Minutes www.amitdattani.bandcamp.com
Wrong Kind of One is the eagerly awaited second album from Amit Dattani. Described as folk music, it is that, with something else, an intangible, hard-to-fathomness about it. There are spiritual undertones, meditative sounds, mesmerising lyrics and vocals, with finger-style guitar playing that wraps it in rhythmic packaging.
The title track Wrong Kind of One, singing the hurt of those who feel targeted because of birthplace, migrants, the marginalised: “they say I’m unwelcome, and they turn out all the lights, twisting away from, all the troubles, I’m a moth in the night.” Perhaps speaking from experience, the writing cathartic, sad, the need to be accepted, the poet’s voice praising the place he wants to be adopted into: “I see butterflies in your hallway, open windows, setting sun”. A heartbreaking story, “where’s my home now, dust and rubble”, tragic, man’s inhumanity, but beautifully created.
Gathering Acorns is a delightful tune, captivating, percussive, could be lilted, a lively jaunt.
Golden Days, a love poem to a child, juxtaposed with the title song, the definition of parental love, the wonder of creation, lyrics of love, caring, nurturing, outstanding imagery, the child being nourished: “I’ll feel pride, deep inside/when I see you tomorrow”, a delightful melody, intricate guitar playing, a lullaby for a blessed child, “hand in hand, we’re a marching band”. Most unusual, vocally, his range and timbre, pure balm.
Just a Closer Walk With Thee to finish the album, bookending the sad opening, cascading notes, thoughtful, distinctive, a signature sound. Now I Can Play On, a poem about the vitality music brings to his life, his self-reliance, “I’ll play a part in my own art/and keep playing on”.
Having to adapt his playing style and instrument because of a neurological condition, Amit Dattani used his gift, his art, as physical therapy. This album celebrates resilience, hope, self-belief, determination.
Anne Marie Kennedy