Well Spring has sprung and we thought we'd let you know what the band have been up to of late....
We recently featured on TG4's Geantrai na Nollaig, alongside some
brilliant artists such as Dónal Lunny, Mairtín O'Connor, John Spillane,
The High Kings, Zoe Conway and more......
We played some tunes from our latest CD
Idir including John's composition
The Pipers of Roguery, Dónal's Reel
Ar Thóir an Donn. Ciara sang the great Ulster song
Aird Uí Chuain and we were joined by brilliant string players Michael McCague on bouzouki and Paul Meehan on guitar.
John Joe Maguire Weekend
We recently played the John Joe Maguire festival in Swanlinbar, Co.
Cavan and we were blown away by the entusiasm, musicianship, generosity
and warm response we encountered there. It was a great example of how a
rural community, decimated by emigration and economic difficulties, have
pulled together and developed a thriving branch of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri
Eireann, outstanding young musicians and a great annual festival.
It was a great honour for us to play in one of Ireland's premier venues in January - The National Concert Hall.
We had a ball and it was great to hear and have the craic with Mossie Nolan, Notify & Lau.
We're playing some concerts in France this March and John, Dónal & Paul Meehan will play in Derry as part of the
Trad Triangle Event on the 16th March, which will also feature Manran & Sontas.
More Tourdates click here>
Other News
Dónal & John have commenced work on a new CD. They're very excited
about the material that they have gathered up. It features a mix of
traditional Irish & European tunes and some new compositions. Keep
an eye on the
website and our
facebook page 
to hear of updates and release plans....
There is some industry talk that Ciara is being courted by a Major label
to take part in an exciting new project.....keep your ears and eyes
peeled.......you heard it here first......
The brilliant Monaghan bouzouki/guitar player Michael McCague, who plays
with us on a regular basis is releasing his long awaited solo CD 'The
Waylaid Man'. He will be launching with a concert in An Chulturlann,
Belfast on the 5th April. Guests on the night will include John
McSherry, Ryan O'Donnell and Dónal McCague. For more information check
out Michael's brand new website
here>>>>
In
November we decided to remove our music from Spotify. Each time one of
our tracks was streamed we recieved an income of $0.00046725.
Since we released 'Idir' in September 2011, our tracks have been streamed 44,922 times. 1055 people have played tracks from our CD on their Spotify accounts. For this we have earned the sum total of $20.99 .
We believe this to be absolutely inequitable and wrong.
Clearly there are people out there who have decided not to bother
buying or downloading the CD when they can continue to stream it on
Spotify for peanuts.
If you believe that artists should be paid for their work, please
desist from using Spotify, purchase artists music direct from their
website and spread the word.
John & Francis have started 'The Piping Hot Sessions' in the
Sunflower Bar, Belfast every Wednesday. It's a must for people who like
their music
pipe heavy !
Finally, we're very excited to be taking part in TG4's new flagship
music programme 'Bosca Ceol' which will be recorded live from Monroe's
in Galway and will feature all the top names in trad music. The show is
being produced by the team that brought
Fleadh Live to 850,000 viewers in August of last year and it promises to be very special indeed.....
So, that's all for now folks. We hope to meet up with you somewhere along the road.
No comments:
Post a Comment