Releases > Releases March 2026

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GARY CURLEY & STEPHEN MCKEE
CHUNKY BUSINESS
Own Label, 12 Tracks, 44 Minutes
www.facebook.com/thechunkychiefs
An album to welcome spring, a debut from two Ulster traditional musicians, who share a long term grá for tunes they call Chunky. If their music was a snack, it would be a high-energy protein bar.
Gary Curley plays the button accordion and Stephen McKee the tenor banjo. They are joined by Eoin McKee (bodhrán), Ryan O’Donnell (bouzouki & tenor guitar), Rachael Masterson (keyboard), John McCartin & Gerry McMahon (guitars), and Murdoch McKibbin (fiddle). The album was recorded by Dave Sheridan at Surround Sound Bud Studios and mixed & mastered by Donagh Hennessy at Studio Mhic an Daill. First class collaborators and production crew bodes well for the album, and on hearing the work, the recording never disappoints.
For a taster, Paddy Cronin’s Own / Miss Johnston’s / The New Line To Loughaun are free to listen to on the duo’s Bandcamp page. Curley’s accordion pushes out the first tune here with vivacious verve, the backing is low in the register with an emphasis on the first beat of each measure. The button accordion shifts into the second tune, then the backing fills out; as it segues to the last tune, the accordion takes the high notes with ease.
There is some classic Irish bouzouki to kick off track 3: The Kerry Reel / An Ugly Customer / The Limestone Rock. Decidedly chunky on the middle tune which is anything but an ugly duckling, the final melody lasts less than 30 seconds and I can see it being given far more air time in a live setting. For my money the tunes of track 6 will be on repeat: The Boys Of Tandragee / The Fox In The Thatch / Finbarr Dwyer’s, Tandragee’s accompaniment will bring out the Alec Finn in any fan of the eight string Irish bouzouki.
Rannie MacLelan’s / McFadden’s Favourite / The Mohill sees the banjo once again to the fore; it’s so lively, even the feet of a chair would start tapping. Only those with lock jaw won’t smile as the Mohill brings a bubble of chunky business to the boil. The album ends with three reels: Lizzy In The Lowground / Pauline’s Place / Jerome Lacey’s, two Liz Carroll tunes sandwiching a tune composed by P.J. King from Clare.
Track after track of spirited playing, sensitive backing and impeccable musicianship makes Chunky Business a gold star debut.
Seán Laffey

AOIFE NIC DHOMHNAILL & LIAM LONERGAN
Mullach a’ tSí
Own Label, 14 Tracks, 65 Minutes
www.aoifeandliam.bandcamp.com/album/mullach-a-ts
A debut recording from two Dublin Northsiders, who were schooled at Clontarf CCÉ and are graduates of the DIT Conservatory of music. What we have here is an authentic recording of Irish traditional music, two instruments: Aoife on fiddle and Liam on concertina, captured in their magnificent rawness. You can hear the click of buttons and the breath of bellows, telling us we are in the presence of living music. They say their music is based on myth, legend and folklore, not as a casual Celtic curiosity, but as the inner soul reverberating in the sounds they are making.
The opening track is a bold move, a slow air, a tune learned from the singing of Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin, here played on fiddle. The mood lifts on the second track, Báthadh Bhroclaise / Sliabh Mis / Whiskey-O-Roudelum-Row with a sean-nós dancer Caoimhe Ní Mhaolagáin adding percussion to the middle tune. After that the album is left to Aoife and Liam.
The pace is almost hypersonic on a set of Sliabh Luachra tunes that would burn the lino off any floor in Dingle. They shift the music north to Donegal on track 6 which ends with Glasha Highland.
Liam’s concertina is often used to add percussive weight to tunes, with big growling chords on The Goat on The Green set. Aoife’s fiddle rises, lark-like, on O’Callaghan’s and Poll Ha’Penny and plumbs depths of despair and the hurt of grief on Caoineadh Uí Dhomhnaill.
It says on their Bandcamp page: ‘This album reflects the respect that the pair have for the tradition of Gaelic music and the old masters from all over the country, with tunes from all over the country heard throughout the album.’
I can add, this duo are something special, uncompromising, unfettered, unfiltered and totally true.
Seán Laffey

FREYA RAE
Divergence
Own Label, 7 Tracks, 37 Minutes
www.freyaraemusic.com
This woodwind multi-instrumentalist follows in a 40-year Edinburgh tradition of combining Scottish and Irish music with jazz and classical influences. Divergence celebrates the possibility of playing traditional Celtic music on instruments more often associated with other genres - silver flute, clarinet, saxophone and a range of percussion. Along the way, genre boundaries blur and exciting new sounds emerge which suit whistle, harp and fiddle too. Starting from traditional melodies, Freya Rae has composed and arranged for her core trio of Boehm flute, clarsach (Siannie Moodie) and percussion (Tim Lane): some tracks are enhanced by Fraser Fifield on sax, and younger sister Eryn Rae on fiddle. As a side-note, the classical flute is now widely used for Irish music, and even the sax and humble clarinet are no strangers to céilí bands, so perhaps this album will bring them firmly into the body of Scottish music too.
Starting at the jazzier end of the spectrum, Alderbank coils around a flute riff before breaking into a contemporary Scottish jig. Owlets has more of a bal folk feel, ranging into electronic effects and extemporised variations. The slower Aye Yew continues the European pan-Celtic mood with sultry sax and fiddle, a memorable track. Willow puts me in mind of Burns songs, but is in fact a new composition: everything here is a Freya original except the traditional Watchmaker’s Reel and Matt Seattle’s reel for Willie Henderson which ends the album. Myrtle Terrace and The Dragon of Ortigueira are both highlights for me, true to the tradition but tickling its edges. Can Xaco is a step outside, perhaps drawing on Fifield’s Eastern European and North African experience - and of course you can’t have clarinet without that Balkan influence. Fluid and rhythmic, pin-sharp but spontaneous, all the performances here are delightful eye-openers.
The final Beetroot introduces a wildness, an openness to experiment which is fascinating in its own right: musicians pushing themselves to the edge and not holding back, joyous and scary at the same time. I’d love to see this live!
Alex Monaghan

THE HENRY GIRLS
Tracks in the Snow
Own Label, 12 Tracks, 36 Minutes
www.thehenrygirls.com
Tracks in the Snow was originally commissioned by The Ark in Dublin in 2015 with support from the Arts Council. The brief was to create a musical show to appeal to 4 -11 year olds. The Henry Girls succeeded, so much so, that the show still runs each winter.
Donegal’s The Henry Girls are sisters Joleen, Karen and Lorna McLaughlin, who together play: accordion, fiddle, piano, ukulele, and xylophone. They are joined on this recording by Rohan Armstrong and Dave Redmond (double bass), Liam Bradley (drums), Matt Jennings (tenor saxophone), Donal McGuinness (trombone), Robert Goodman (trumpet), and it was produced by Calum Malcolm. The ensemble’s originals are delivered with a late 1940s -swing vibe; if you know how The Andrews Sisters sang you are in the right territory.
There is an innocence in the song writing here. A polar bear says hello to a seal, songs reflect the magic of ice, the pleasures of snow. The first track, Aurora, sung a-cappella with splashy cymbals looks in wonder at the northern Lights. A xylophone conjures up the crackle and the sonic sparkle of icicles.
The opening words to songs are often repeated, such as Hi -Hi-Hibernate, immediately bringing in their young audience. Children can relate to Welcome to Winter where it is “too cold to get out of bed”. Snow Bear was inspired by Catherine Allison and Piers Harper’s 2002 children’s book; at the end of winter, a cub leaves its mother’s den and meets a thawing world.
Tracks in The Snow asks the children to think who or what might have left the footprint, where were they heading, and why? Things get a little more introspective in Where Will the Animals Go, winter is a time of food and water scarcity in the Frozen North. The final track Hot Chocolate is the most atmospheric with ambient winter winds whistling through trees before the song takes on that 1940’s swing again with a Jazzy fiddle, as if Peggy Lee’s Fever was set in Churchill.
Seán Laffey

MAGNUS TURPIE & FRIENDS
Hold On Tight!
Brechin All Records CDBAR042, 12 Tracks, 45 Minutes
www.brechin-all-records.com
They say love conquers all. Love of music, and the love of his friends and family, have certainly helped Magnus Turpie to overcome the limitations of Down’s Syndrome and acquire impressive skills on several instruments. I’ve had the privilege of playing with Magnus in many Edinburgh sessions, a fine musician and a thoroughly nice fellow who can turn his hand to fiddle, guitar, drums, button box and more. His band is well known on the traditional music scene, and his music will spread further with the release of this varied and entertaining CD. Magnus leads on the 3-row Scottish button accordion for Hold on Tight!: he’s joined by a generous dozen of his musical friends for a selection of Scottish dance music, slower pieces, and three familiar songs.
It’s all here - the poignancy of The Mothers of St Ann’s and The Lea Rigg, the pulse of I Bhi Ada and Murdo’s Wedding, the dark beauty of Roslyn Castle and Leaving Barra, the surprise of Your Cheatin’ Heart. Ceilidh favourites include The Dashing White Sergeant, Wild Mountain Thyme, The Bonnie Lass o’ Fyvie and several Gaelic waltzes. Pipe tunes feature strongly too: Teribus, Scotland the Brave, The Rowan Tree and the indispensable Corriechoillie’s Welcome to the Northern Meeting. All are played with passion, and neatly arranged for a line-up including fiddles, whistles, border pipes, guitar, piano, clarsach, bass guitar and cello.
Congratulations to all involved for putting this album together, so that more can share the love and joy in Magnus Turpie’s music, and full marks to Sandy Brechin for facilitating its release.
Alex Monaghan

ÀIRDAN
Cosmic
Own Label AIRCOSCD001, 10 Tracks, 42 Minutes
www.airdanmusic.com
Contemporary Northern European folk music on fiddle and accordion, this debut album combines Celtic, Balkan, Scandinavian and I would say Anglo-French influences on ten tracks of dance music mainly written by fiddler Paul Sinclair and accordionist Coll Williamson. Nicely backed by guitarist Dave Lennon and drummer Ewa Adamiec, the tunes are executed with skill and precision - so much so that the occasional timing glitch comes as a surprise. There is one track of traditional tunes here, a pair of fine Kerry slides, but otherwise it’s pretty much new material in traditional style.
There are several memorable melodies on Cosmic - Williamson’s The Triple Hundred, Sinclair’s Loopy Paddlers, Angus R Grant’s Delighted, and a couple of slower devotional tracks by Sean Paul Wood. One or two pieces take accordion and fiddle out of their comfort zones, but the band keeps it together and it all adds to the liveliness of this recording. The final track sums this all up with two complex contemporary jigs, one by the band and one not, a fitting finale for a very promising debut from a young Edinburgh ensemble.
Alex Monaghan

SOME ONE’S SONS
The Chance to Feel Alive
Own Label, Single, 3 Minutes www.someonessons.ie
The Mullingar based quintet Some One’s Sons have released two albums to date and now issue this single, The Chance to Be Alive. A cautionary tale of the shadowy hinterlands between emigration, staying home with its rising costs and the saving grace, albeit with some of the social stigma of alcoholic bliss offering a chance to feel alive.
It is the story of many caught in this situation, where social decline presents a modern equivalent of Hades with slim hopes of escape or improvement. A mid-paced song with a big chorus and classy production, recalling both Christy Moore’s balladry and Mumford and Sons music in its employment of a banjo against a bass-deep sonorous backdrop.
World-weary vocals are delivered in a fashion which befits the dread atmosphere, the plunking banjo recalls the Dubliners and Dublin City Ramblers placing Some One’s Sons between the Irish 60s ballad boom, interlaced with 2000s pop folk and Americana strands.
Their original material is highly promising, should this be a typical example of their work, and their rootsy take on folk themes is suitably contemporary. On the evidence of The Chance to Feel Alive, Some One’s Sons have excelled themselves. Mark this one under ‘one to watch’; their future progress has the potential to interest many.
John O’Regan

CHARLES JAMES & THE RISE
About a Cow
Own Label, Single 3 Minutes
www.charlesjamesandtherise.com
The words of this song by the Donegal singer and songwriter Charles James O’Donnell paint a world view from a cow’s perspective: eat grass, stay useful, supply milk and do your best to avoid the inevitable:
Here I am, alone at home,
I’m at the centre, beyond the edge,
I give you mine, so you have yours,
My sacrifice, gives you life…
Taken from the album Crossing the Bar which was released in October 2025, you can consider the song’s message as a metaphor for the underlings and drones of society. Music raises the bar of its simple words, thanks to the spirited soul flowing through the song. And that soul might be found in the Waterboys, once denizens of Spiddal on Galway’s west coast. The connection? The trademark fiddling of Steve Wickham. Here adding musical flesh and muscle to the bones of the lyrics, ably helped by Catherine O’Donnell’s piano and the cello of Laura McFadden.
Charles James’ vocals too, are not a hundred miles from Mike Scott, and like the Waterboys’ front man, James is eager to be heard and he has something to say. The fiddle swirls its way into the song with a revolving riff, the vocals step to the centre of the stage, James’ voice stands alone, backed only by drums, until the music whirls around again. The song ends on a crescendo with the words ringing out “We’re going down”.
Prescient music for our modern world, where people in the margins, like the cow, daren’t look up.
Seán Laffey