Tom Delaney - The Lark's Call CD - Bouzouki: Alan Murray

 

I met Tom this summer several times in Dingle where he played together with his wife Caroline Keane in various pubs. Of course I bought this album from him on vinyl. The bouzouki player on the album is Alan Murray who at the time of recording was member of Fourwinds together with Tom, Caroline and Robbie Walsh. 

On the album you'll find a variety of tunes (jigs, reels, slow air) played so beautifully and with drive. 

You can get the album on bandcamp

Here's the website of Fourwinds

Here's a long comment on the album by Graham Brown

And isn't the cover beautiful? On the back you can see the "3 sisters" of Dingle. (Picture stolen from Custy's Music in Ennis where you can buy the album too)

Here are some clips of the album:

The Lark's Call - The Job of Journeywork, Dinny O'Brien's, The Pigeon On the Gate

Jim O'Connor's / My Former Wife / Kilglass Lake · Tom Delany

Aoibhneas Eillis Ni Chealaigh / Nora Crionna / Moss Martin's

Léna Descottes

Léna Descottes is a french concertina and bouzouki/Octave Mandolin player. There's not much information about her on the web. It seems she tunes her instrument in GDAE. She just released her latest video on youtube. Together with Camille Raibault on fiddle. They call themselves ÓRÓ. 

If you know more about her please write in comments!

Her YouTube Channel:

Here's the video. Tunes are: John O'Neill's reel & Hitler's downfall

Here's some more videos:

Alan Finn & Fionn O' Hanlon (UCC TradSoc Lunchtime Concerts, 5th of April 2023)

 The UCC TradSoc Lunchtime Concerts take place regularly and offer great concerts. Here is a concert with Alan Finn & Fionn O' Hanlon (Fiddle and Bouzouki)

Here's Simon Crehan and Fionn O'Hanlon at Crowleys Music Centre 

This is the youtube channel of Fionn O'Hanlon

'Twas Many a Wild Night, a CD by Alan Finn, Joanne Quirke, Paul Clesham & Fionn O' Hanlon

 

By chance I came across this CD on bandcamp a few months ago but forgot to mention it here on the blog. Fine bouzouki playing here. I especially like the polkas and slides.

I asked chatgpt to write a short text about the musicians, here's what came out (hope the information is correct ;)

Alan Finn, Joanne Quirke, Paul Clesham & Fionn O’Hanlon

This quartet brings together four of Ireland’s finest young traditional musicians, each with deep roots in the music of their home counties.

Alan Finn (Buttevant, Co. Cork) is a renowned button accordion player and founder of the Shandrum Céilí Band, celebrated for multiple All-Ireland titles and his lively, driving style. Joanne Quirke (Co. Cork) is a versatile multi-instrumentalist on whistle, flute, fiddle, piano, and harp, and a graduate of University College Cork who was awarded the prestigious Seán Ó Riada Prize. From Hollymount, Co. Mayo, Paul Clesham is an All-Ireland champion on concertina and a highly skilled accompanist, equally at home on fiddle, accordion, melodeon, and piano, with a strong academic background in ethnomusicology. Completing the group is Fionn O’Hanlon (Boherbue, Co. Cork), a bouzouki player whose roots in the Sliabh Luachra tradition bring rhythmic energy and harmonic depth to the ensemble.

Together, their 2025 album ’Twas Many a Wild Night captures the joy, drive, and spirit of Irish traditional music today.

Here's a video of them playing at Custy's in Ennis.

Here's the link to their bandcamp site

Piaras Ó Lorcáin - talented young bouzouki player and Singer

Piaras Ó Lorcáin is a 22 year old bouzouki player and sean nos singer and farm worker.  I just recently discovered him. What a voice he has! He did not make any recordings as far as I know but there are some videos on youtube and instagram.

The Valley of Knockanure live from Kinsale

Just Leo - Folk Pop with Irish Bouzouki

A young musicion from the Netherlands plays pop/folk with his Thomann Bouzouki. You can listen to the album here:

https://justleo.bandcamp.com/album/just-leo?fbclid=IwAR0YShxw-4USC2kv5jH50kO4Yoq_-9X-LWyZ7vh2ueH_F8HTkHIkSpunoD0

He now has released a youtube video of him playing the song "That's Alright" from his album. The tab for the song is in the video so you can play along with him if you like. He uses some nice chords, by the way. And the album is really worth a listen. 

Just Leo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justleomusic/

 

Some of the chords he uses in this video (without capo):

x113 D#sus2
x002 Asus2 or Dsus2
x010 BbM(no5)D
x057 D5
x335 Fsus2 or Csus4/F

I found the chord names with the app: Reverse Chord Finder Pro on iPhone.
https://apps.apple.com/de/app/reverse-chord-finder-pro/id379856345

Marty Smith

Marty Smith, a fine bouzouki player and Singer. Unfortunately I did not find lots of information about him. It seems he owns a lot of bouzoukis ;-)

McShane

The Close Shave

 

The Shepherd Lad 

The Mickey Dam

 

The Spanish Lady

  

Farewell To The Gold

 

The Foxy Devil

  

Clasped To The Pig

 

Some Reels

 

Some Jigs

Lucy Farr's Barndance

Trials of Cato

 For all lovers of odd rhythms and modern Folk here's a relatively new band from Finland. Alex, a reader of my blog reminded me of them, many thanks for that. I once listened to their album when it came out but forgot about them. So I gave it another try. Fantastic musicians. 

Here's their website: https://www.thetrialsofcato.com

And here are some live videos. Some songs of the EP are on youtube as well.

Bjarne Gregers Schmidt

Bjarne is a bouzouki player based in Denmark.

Allan Ricketts

Allan comes from Newfoundland. He's a traditional musician and visual artist. His instruments are octave mandolin, banjo, accordion and pedal steel guitar. He recorded two CDs in 2006 and 2009.

http://www.foleymore.com/allan-ricketts

https://www.ecma.com/members/allan-ricketts

Allan on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/allanricketts88

Here are some of his youtube videos:

As I roved out

The Lakes of Pontchartrain

The Hills of Glenswilly

The Orchard

Exile

The Queen Of Connemara

The Flower Of Magherally

Grace

City of Chicago

Corey Purcell and Genevieve Gillespie - Bouzouki and Fiddle

Some fine tune sets I found from these two great musicians on youtube. Corey is a dancer and accordion player who also plays cittern, guitar and bodhran. He also sings. He danced with supergroup Danu. He played with bands like Amárach and Poor Man's Gambit (together with Genevieve) and released a solo album called "Flying Solo". Check out his website to find out more.
https://coreypurcellmusic.com

Genevieve also played with "Burning Bridget Cleary".
http://www.burningbridgetcleary.com

More Maids

More Maids is a German Folk Group which plays Irish Folk for many years now.

Barbara Coerdt, Marion Fluck and Barbara Hintermeier are all well known musicians in the German Folk Scene. Until now they produced three CDs.

More information at: http://www.moremaids.de


Here is a video which contains two of the songs from their latest CD.






Here's another video from 2011

Tijn Berends Solo Gig @ Gluren Bij De Buren, Utrecht

Tijn is a multi-instrumentalist from the Netherlands. He plays with the band/Duo "Itchy Fingers". Don't confuse with the German Band of the same name.

I already postet some of his videos before. Here is a live gig filmed in a living room somewhere. Tijn plays Bouzouki, Guitar and sings. If you search for him on youtube you'll find lots more videos.




Here's another video from Tijn:




He writes about this tune:

Here's a tune I learned some time ago called "Escapade in A minor". I don't play it in A minor because of reasons. Suzanne created a really awesome bodhrán part to go with it and it sounded so cool that we decided to record it. So here you go!

Michael Chapman and Rino Eriksen

Lovely playing here by Michael and Rino on Cittern and Flute. Old Maid of Galway and The Green Mountain. Hope you enjoy it.

Aoife Scott - What you do with what you got

Fine backing for a wonderful song. Aoife Scott, born into the legendary Black Family, her mother is Frances Black, her aunt Mary. In spring she started working on her solo cd, in summer she became singer of the band "The Outside Track", a fantastic band, currently touring with the Irish Folk Festival 2013. Yesterday I saw them in Karlsruhe, fantastic show.

http://www.aoifescott.com
http://www.theoutsidetrack.com



  qrcg

James Fagan

James Fagan plays a guitar shaped bouzouki most of the time. On the first video he plays the bouzouki of Andy Clarke, which was made by Andy Manson. On the website of his Project "The James Brothers" you can find his bio, which I include here: (I hope you don't mind, James)
  http://www.thejamesbrothers.co.uk/bio_jamesfagan.php

 • Born Canberra 1972, son of Margaret and Bob Fagan. Younger sister is Kate Fagan. Together they are "The Fagans", one of Australia's best-known folk bands for 30 years.

 • Met Nancy Kerr in 1995 and formed a duo that has become on of the most popular and respected duos on the UK circuit, winners of BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Duo (2003 and 2011). Together they have toured in the UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

 • Main instruments - Vocals (Spiral Earth Male Vocalist of the Year in 2012). Bouzouki - James plays a Sobell guitar-shaped bouzouki.

 • Current projects: Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, The James Brothers, Melrose Quartet, Cara Dillon Band, The Fagans, Kerr Fagan Harbron, Glorystrokes

 • Record labels: Fellside (1997-2008) Navigator (2010-present) • Main musical interests: Singing, arrangement, composition, accompaniment

 • James is a sought-after session player and has appeared on albums by Martin Simpson, Eliza Carthy, Cara Dillon, Brian Finnegan, Spiers and Boden, Andy Irvine, John Kirkpatrick, Alistair Hulett. *

James teaches voice and bouzouki to undergraduate students on the Newcastle University Traditional Music Degree course.

 




One of his projects is the duo Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, where James sings and plays bouzouki and Nancy plays fiddle and sings, too. I post some of the many videos you can find on youtube.

 



http://kerrfagan.com

qr code

Andy Clarke - Bonny Irish Maid

I already posted a video from Andy some time ago (look here): http://irish-bouzouki.blogspot.de/2013/05/andy-clarke.html Now he wrote me an E-Mail in which he suggested to put up his new video. So it's a pleasure for me to have it here on my blog. Fine singing and playing. Love this song.

Andy Clarke

Andy's father was a folk singer way back in the 1960s. He took his son to many folk song clubs in his native Devon. Soon Andy discovered a passion for traditional song. Later he became involved in folk bands in and around Torbay.
In recent years Andy performs as a solo artist in clubs and on festivals all around the country. In addition to his solo work he collaborated with Jackie Oates & Steve Turner (The Eelgrinders) as the trio Wistmans Wood and he plays in the Mooncoin Ceilidh Band. He also plays as a Duo with Hurdy Gurdy player Steve Tyler.
Look at: http://www.myspace.com/stevetylerandyclarke
and http://www.myspace.com/andyclarke382 
and: http://www.flaxey-green.co.uk/AndyClarke.html 

I really love the way he plays his bouzouki.
article on his bouzouki: http://www.andymanson.co.uk/news/bouzouki_for_andy_clarke/

Here's a video together with Steve Tyler

Wreck off Scilly

Andy solo: Hunting the hare

Ruth & Andy Clarke - Da slocket light

Behind the haystack

This is one of my favourit jigs. I already posted several videos by Kyle25rs. This is his interpretation of this tune he learned from a video of Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny here on youtube. Infortunately I wasn't able to find it here. Maybe someone can post the link to it?

Foxhunters and Bucks of Oranmore

Kyle Borley (Irish concert flute) and D'Arcy Stearns (Irish bouzouki), from Winnipeg, Canada. website: http://www.borleyandstearns.ca