With their Northern Ireland-style twin fiddling and accordion melodies accented by acoustic guitar and bouzouki, Altan has grown into one of the top traditional bands in Ireland. The inspiration for Altan was sparked when Donegal-born fiddler and vocalist Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh met Belfast-born flute player Frankie Kennedy. Ní Mhaonaigh had... [+] Read More

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Ashley MacIsaac is, in a sense, the musical representative of the pre-millennial generation of Atlantic Canada. An ardent traditionalist (and cousin of international Celtic performer Natalie MacMaster) with a penchant, nevertheless, for experimentation, this young Nova Scotian native has been taught to play the fiddle the working-class,... [+] Read More

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Not too many people could make an instrument as localized as the Northumbrian small pipes sexy, but that's exactly what Kathryn Tickell (who's also an accomplished fiddler) has managed. Along the way, in addition to many records under her own name, she's recorded with Sting and the Chieftains, and elevated her instrument to the international... [+] Read More

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Previously known as the Leahy Family, this Celtic-pop group hailing from Lakefield, Ontario comprised the nine Leahy siblings -- from oldest to youngest, singer/songwriter Julie, bassist Siobheann, fiddler Donnell, guitarist Maria, drummer Frank, pianist Agnes, fiddler Doug, pianist Erin and fiddler Angus. The family, along with their parents... [+] Read More

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The original traditional Irish folk band, as far as anyone who came of age in the 1970s or 1980s is concerned, is the Chieftains. Their sound, built largely on Paddy Moloney's pipes, is otherworldly, almost entirely instrumental, and seems as though it comes out of another age of man's history. That they became an international phenomenon in the... [+] Read More

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