An absolute stoater! A Great Session = 'The maximum fun possible, every night!' From Dundalk to Belfast, and finding freedom in Edinburgh. Hamish Henderson and the wild nights in Sandy Bell's. Mike One-Shirt and Luke Plumb; Deaf Shepherd and the great encouragers like Cathal McConnell. The consolations of music. House sessions in Venice Beach, meeting the daughter of the man who wrote Thíos Cois na Trá, and so much more. Awesome. In this episode Nuala plays and sings... Kitty Gone A...

'I could play reels all night if I knew enough of them.' Country Sligo in the '50s and '60s, to London then Sydney. Father, mother and uncle playing the fiddle, learning at country house dances and 'having a go myself.' Ceili House on Radio Athlone, and looking forward to Friday night house dances. Falling in love with the accordion. Listening to the greats of the London scene; learning the box, digging trenches and labouring; Kentish Town and Holloway Road. Plenty of work in Sydney, and...

From Cavan to Glasgow. Party houses and late night tapes. Finding your feet in sessions that suit. Creating your own space to play. The Navvy poet Patrick MacGill, The Road Across The Hill, Newcomer and The Children Of The Dead End. In this episode we play: The Road Across the Hills Newcomer By and By Atone To listen, stream or download simply click a link below: Our website: https://blarneypilgrims.com iTunes: https://apple.co/2A6tUPm Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/3cPTkis Spotify:...

Tin whistle with Marian Egan (Flannery) in Hulme. Touring New Zealand and Australia. First banjos and joining Curragh. Toss the Feathers and choosing work over the road. The social side of learning. Joe and Jack Cooley and the lost tapes from America. The Love of Lucia, Kitty’s Twelve Roses and The Gort Mile. In this episode Angela plays: Port Chuilinn / The Munster Buttermilk / Bobby Casey's (Banjo jigs) The Coalminers / Patsy Toughey's / Finbar Dwyais (Tin whistle set) Flat Water Fran /...

Irish Fenian rebellion prisoners and the songs of the last convict ship to Australia. Ned Of The Hill, John Boyle O'Reilly and Exile In The Kingdom. The Stardust Hotel and the birth of Drogheda Boxing Club. The London squat scene, Jamaican sound systems and the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. Secret Family Recipes and looking back at tradition with rose tinted glasses. No Bother. In this episode we hear: O'Niell's March Tast Rose Of Summer Freedom - Exile In The Kingdom Ned Of...

Buying your first guitar with your confirmation money. Playing 182 tunes in two hours. Winning Réalta agus Gaolta. Cutting your teeth in Florida. Finding a mentor in Kíla's Rónán Ó Snodaigh. Translating the craic. Avoiding the abyss of lockdown and a casual Disney Princess flex. Devil's Den Something Blue Feel Like Home Call On You Buy Maċa's new album 'Spiral' here: https://macaofficial.com/ Follow them on the socials...

Finding Michael Jackson in the Blue Mountains after ten years in a Buddhist Bush community. A year of four hour nights. Mozart with a Sligo lilt. Ten hour train trips for one hour lessons. Scottish baroque music, modal tunes, violin d'amore, and combining art music and folk music. Catch Shane Lestideau in Queenscliff during the Boxwood Festival from the 19th to the 21st of Feb 2021. www.boxwood.com In this episode Shane plays: Castle Kelly's / The Ivy Leaf / Unnamed / The Glass of...

Stiff Little Fingers, punk rock, rebel songs and finding your tribe. Getting your head shard. Good listening makes good music. An Achill Island session and a musical awakening. Losing good friends and finding solace in music. GameStop, countercultures, DIY creativity, Inflammable Material, and of course, The Irish Mandolin... 1-2-3-4! In this episode Aidan plays: My Singing Bird / The Bird In The Bush Junior Crehans / Nightcap McQuillans Hill (Original) Michael Gregory's (Original)...

Digging into tunes. Paddy Jones. The Draoicht. Sports and music, and finding your place in both. Coaching basketball in Ireland and the Tralee Tigers. Carl Hardebeck, The Blind Bard of Belfast. The fiddle as an old person's instrument. Sliabh Luachra. Padraig O'Keeffe. Paddy on the Hardwood. Slow airs in sessions and New Mexico polkas. In this episode Rus plays: Westfort Gals The Pikeman's / Down The Glen (Marches) Farewell To Whiskey / The Dark Girl In The Blue Dress Leaving Lerwick...

The Liam O'Flynn Award. Digging into the Irish Traditional Music Archive. Ulster hunting songs and mummers. Hare coursing. Life in Lurgan County Armagh. The Ceili House and legend of Seamus Tansey. Prehistoric cairns and building on the tradition. The magic of the session and finding inspiration in the music. In this episode Barry Plays: The Holy Trinity Reels: Clancy from Clare / The Rambles of Ennis / Master Rowesome’s Of Sportsmen Bold The Chicken Gone to Scotland / Unnamed tune from...

We ARE the source.' John Kelly of Capel Street and Scattery Island. Hiding the fiddle under your jacket in Dublin in the rare oul times. Strange hornpipes, slip jigs, slides. Patsy Geary, Jimmy O'Donahue and Kilfenora's three bakeries. The memory palace and preserving a life. Ireland, Australia, Tommy Potts posters and the evocative power of seagulls. Searching out the music in Darwin. Sydney, Melbourne and going back home. Also, maybe young kids shouldn't listen to the intro of this ep....

A bit of beach time, and the third of our compilations from the year of 2020. Featuring Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Una Monaghan, Jason Rouse, Emma Lewis, Joanie Madden, Rita Farrell, Daithí Gormley, James Keane, Tara Howley, Sean Lally, Cathy Custy, Hajime Takahashi, Catherine McEvoy, Ciaran Kelly, Cameron Mather, Áine Tyrrell, Sean Mathews, Liam Thomas Bailey, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin, Tola Custy and Tola Custy live with Ado Barker. The tunes (I think we've got 'em all...) Caoimhín Ó...

A rattle bag of treats... Don Meade -The Haunted House and The Lark on The Strand Shannon Heaton - P. Joe Hayes Number 2, The Cottage in the Grove and The Mother and Child Reel (with Matt Heaton) Elaine O'Sullivan - Toss The Feathers and Grandpa Tommy's Ceili Band Caitlin NicGabhann - Slip Jigs: Na Ceannabhain Bhana, Bean Phaidin, Nead na Lachan Hajime Takahashi - The Mountains of Pomeroy Geoff McArthur - Free Trade Hill Liam Thomas Bailey - Two Bird Stone Jody Moran - The Road to...

All the best of the tunes and songs from the last year of Blarney Pilgrims Podcast. And by way of thanks, the conferring of titles on the Patron Saints who've supported the podcast over the last year and a half. 'Out of the blue, maybe thirty, forty birds come and they all start singing beautiful, that was the feeling it had like, you know...' Thank you, above all, to the musicians who were so generous to chat with us over the past year. Featured in this episode... Karen Dolan -...

The legend. 'We just kept climbing up that mountain.' The hardest working woman in folk music. Hearing Mary Bergin and the beginnings of a career in the entertainment business. New York, the drive to succeed and picking up the phone thirty times a day to get a gig. Balls, weddings, county dances, and the circuit. An American in Ireland. Tour(s), interrupted. 'It's a tough old racket.' Keeping going and being present for the opportunity. And the tunes! The Palm Tree (Billy McComiskey) and...

So much in here: piping as meditation and not setting fire to the old Ganley flute. Starting on the whistle but falling for the pipes despite the danger. The eternal conversation: reeds, drones and regulators. The session spaces of Belfast, open piping closed piping, Tommy Reck and saying 'I Love You' to Liam O'Flynn. Being a girl and running an all female session. A room tuned to G Minor, the Drogheda connection, the five string banjo and 'Lovely Leitrim.' Oh. And Robbie Williams and Graham...

Stories of a life in music, so far. Ancient tunes and new ones, losing a loved one and finding her again through tunes. The Irish connection. Out of The Wind, Into the Sun: depression, loss, and the therapuetic power of psilocybin mushrooms. Recovery into music. All of everything in a single tune. 'Keeping myself in the air as an artist.' Country song-smithing, Darren's unending love of pop, Dom's unending love of neon COLD BEER signs. The road, the weight, a writer not writing. Bruce...

A chat to mark passing the 100K download mark, with Gerry McKeague of Belfast and Geelong. About what we've learned so far and where we're going. Seriously great fun, and a lovely chance for us to think out loud about what this all means to us. And to say thank to all of you who've travelled with us this far. Tunes: Darren plays Sandy River Belle and Morphine Dominic sings Please Tell My Brother and Gerry sings Sailing Southwards from Rathlin Island During the episode Darren spoke...

Kilfenora; the nervous you get playing in front of ten people, worse than playing in front of a thousand. Leaving your ego at the door. Being happy with what you're doing, being happy within yourself. First hearing the pipes and the trials of competition. Restless creativity, and finding your way to Riverdance. Managing social media and the inner self. (And a Burmese Mountain Dog called Saoirse). The tunes: The Cat's Meaow (Joanie Madden) and Ward's Jig The Three Kilfenoras A Slow Air... A...

" 'England gave me everything I ever wanted.' " The Quarehawk. Big Tom, Margo, the Manchester scene; Irish, English, and in-between. A love of England and making a whole out of two halves. Grieving, and crafting an album. Fathers, sons, boys, men. Asturias, the flute and identifying as one thing or another. Getting Kepa Junkera to play on your album. And so much more. Brilliant stuff. The tunes: Quarehawk (from Michael's album of the same name) The Boys of Bluehill and the Stockport...

Jig songs, syncopation and keeping away from the funky chicken tunes. Playing out til 4 in the morning with your dad on a Fleadh Saturday night. The magic of Donegal, chancing your arm for a Riverdance audition and not talking to Maria Carey at the pyramids. Finding your own musical voice. Battering, sets and the beauty of West Clare dancing. Youth trad Tinder, the elusive high G# and teaching the concertina to learners across the world. To listen, stream or download simply click a link...

From Ballsgrove to Dooley Gate. Drogheda singing group to Marcelo Bielsa. Innovating and finding your voice. Halloween, bonfires, fireworks, hash and Scrumpy Jack. Parochial Kavanagh, Jinx Lennon, Blindboy Boatclub and the rise and fall of the commuter belt. This is Sean Mathew's second appearance on the podcast and it's bloody good for the soul I tell ya! Most of the chat is based around Drogheda but really, everything that is said in here will apply to most large towns. In this episode...

Mitching classes to work on your music. Sean-nós: 'My granny would have just called them songs.' Tradition and change, art and technique and the soul of the thing. Writing in English, writing in Irish. Activism, collectivity and music as barriers against despair. The tunes: Two reels - The Green Bunch of Rushes and The Merry Sisters of Fate A song - (which we're still hunting down the name of) A song Eoghan learned from his father and grandmother - (which we're also hunting down the name...

The elusive nya! Making tunes your own, ornamentation and phrasing and the old East Clare style. Francie Donnellan, Seamus Bugler, Martin Woods and a tune by the stove. Learning, loving, leaving the music, and returning. 'Songs My Father Sang,' the journey, knowing yourself and the truth in music. The tunes Cli plays this week: The Corner House and The Glen Allen (two reels) The Binder Twine (Lifted from the 'Songs My Father Sang' album) Caisleán An Óir The Trip To London You...