category at the Independent Music Awards!
www.templerecords.co.uk

We’re pleased to announce that Battlefield Band’s Alasdair White has won
the World Traditional Music category in the 7th annual Independent Music
Awards for his album An Clàr Geal. We initially thought this award was
voted for purely by the public but actually it turns out that various
esteemed industry judges made the final decisions - people like Joe Boyd,
Charlie Musselwhite, Ray Davies, Angelique Kidjo & Mavis Staples to name a
few - either way it’s a real honour to be singled out. Thanks to everyone
for your support!

Alasdair’s musicianship and tune making have had a great influence on the
Battlefield Band repertoire and continuing success, and playing with
Battlefield Band has given him that wider audience that his music deserves.
We’re all really pleased for him at Temple Records because we know just how
talented he is and it’s great to see him getting the acclaim he deserves.

“…exciting, stirring, fresh, moving… …brilliantly played and
arranged. I would rank this as one of my top albums of the year and I can’t
recommend it highly enough”
Shreds & Patches, Spring ‘07, reviewing An Clàr Geal

If you’d like to hear a track from An Clàr Geal and find out more about the
album at: www.templerecords.co.uk

www.battlefieldband.co.uk

UK, Swiss, Dutch & German dates coming up, US &
Canadian shows in Feb/March 2008

No rest for the wicked, and none for Battlefield Band either. The boys are
on the road right now with a tour which will take them to Switzerland,
Holland & Germany in January & February. In the middle of all that they’ll be heading back to the UK for a few English shows in February too, before flying back out to Germany to pick up where they left off. There’s not much chance to catch their collective breath at the end of all that before they set off at the end of February for the USA & Canada until late March.
(more…)

www.greenlinnet.com

Green Linnet to release Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill’s
Welcome Here Again on February 12, 2008
First studio album in over a decade

“Hayes has one of the most ravishing violin styles in all of Celtic music…Cahill’s gentle, supportive accompaniment adds precisely the right touch.”
- LOS ANGELES TIMES

Irish fiddle virtuoso Martin Hayes and Chicago-born guitarist Dennis Cahill possess a rare, almost telepathic musical kinship. The duo’s new album, Welcome Here Again, is a fresh departure; eighteen tracks, not one of them over seven minutes, but with that same burning intensity and depth of emotion found in their previous collaborations, The Lonesome Touch (1997) and Live in Seattle (1999). It was once common for Irish musicians to record one tune at a time, to make each one a self-contained masterpiece and in Welcome Here Again this tradition is revived. The mesmeric rhythms, the tantalizing slow release of melody, the extra tone from viola or tuned-down fiddle, all of that and more can be found on this album.

Welcome Here Again is the first release on Green Linnet  since it’s acquisition by the Compass Records Group in 2006. Beginning March 1, 2008, the Compass Records Group will kick off a year long Green Linnet re-launch campaign.

For Further Information Contact:
Stephanie Fields - Press & Promotion
+ 615.320.7672
Email:publicity@greenlinnet.com
www.greenlinnet.com
www.myspace.com/greenlinnetrecords

May 1st - 5th, 2008
www.feilenandeise.com

Dungarvan, Co Waterford is the only place to be this May Bank Holiday weekend for the annual Guinness Feile na nDeise. Beginning on Thursday May 1st with its Official Opening in the New Town Hall Theatre by its patron, An tUsuál O’Muirtheartaigh, followed by an intimate concert with the legendary Johnny McEvoy. Other concerts will follow over the weekend including George Murphy and The Whiskey Jacks.
The street pageant on Sunday afternoon re enacts the 1798 rising in full military costume and military vehicles. Celís and set dancing / Guinness Music Pub Trails and the now famous bucket singing competition on Bank Holiday Monday, it makes for a weekend with something for everyone.
Bar extensions all weekend. For further info telephone 058/45273 or www.feilenandeise.com

April 18-20, 2008
www.feileathadachab.blogspot.com

Building on the success of its first year in 2007, the Féile Átha Dá Chab, annual traditional music, song and dance festival in Ballydehob, County Cork will take place again on April 18-20, 2008. Aimed firmly at genuine fans of traditional music, this festival provides an opportunity to watch and learn from masters of traditional music, song and dance within a picturesque rural setting in West Cork.
The program for 2008 includes a great selection of workshops in concertina, button accordion, flute, fiddle, sean-nós singing, and sean-nós dancing from Edel Fox, Bobby Gardiner, Harry Bradley, Jesse Smith, Eilís Ní Shúilleabháin and Ronan Regan. If you are not one for the workshops, these artists will also be performing in pub sessions and a festival concert. Set dancers are also catered for with a Sunday afternoon céilí with Jig Time Céilí Band, and younger musicians will get the chance to showcase their talents in their own music session.
For more information on Féile Átha Dá Chab, April 18-20, 2008, see
http://www.feileathadachab.blogspot.com
Phone +353 28 38973
e-mail: mbadjones@hotmail.com

Date: Tuesday, 22 January 2008
Venue:Bewley’s Café Theatre, Grafton Street, Dublin
Time : 6p.m. – 8p.m. (doors open 5.45p.m. )
Cost: €15 ( incl. complimentary nibbles ! )
Booking essential ( limited space ! ): 087-2547574
About the event: The first in a series of early evening gatherings ‘as Gaeilge’ hosted monthly by Gael Linn with Fergal Ó Murchú (button accordion/songs) and Conal Early (guitar/keyboard) from the internationally acclaimed show ‘RAGÚS’
Bar/tea and coffee available !

www.east-durham.org
The 14th Annual Catskills Irish Arts Week Summer School will take place from July 13-19th in the Irish American Resort Town of East Durham in upstate New York.   The largest summer school in North America devoted to traditional Irish music, song and dance attracted over 600 students last year from over 30 U.S. States including Hawaii and Alaska, 6 Canadian Provinces and Europe.  Hundreds more filled up all the local resorts feasting on the daily menu of lectures, concerts, ceilithe and multiple sessions scheduled around the Irish Catskill region.
(more…)

Mozaik’s first studio album available January 15, 2008
www.compassrecords.com

“It isn’t easy to select a favorite from this album of songs and tunes….an experienced and talented lot.” - IRISH MUSIC MAGAZINE

“Spirit-shocking, genre-bending music… sublime in execution…” - THE IRISH TIMES

NASHVILLE, TN (January 15, 2008) - Departing from an Irish pub circa 1962 and passing through Hungary for a chance encounter with a blue-eyed beauty before stopping in the Virginias for an old-fashioned hoedown, Mozaik’s Changing Trains is a musical journey hindered not by genre, place or time signature. Recorded in 2005 in Budapest, Mozaik’s first studio album explores and celebrates the fusion of Irish, European and American folk music. While Changing Trains is a “unique cross-cultural exercise” (Irish Music Magazine), the strength of this album lies within each individual member’s deep respect and understanding of their own musical traditions.
(more…)

www.bc.edu/gaelicroots
Gaelic Roots Music, Song, Dance, Workshop and Lecture Series
Series Director: Séamus Connolly, Sullivan Artist-in-Residence
Spring 2008 Calendar

Fulbright Scholar–Dr. Jim O’Brien Moran: Boston College is delighted to welcome Fulbright recipient Dr. Jim O’Brien Moran for the spring 2008 semester. A highly respected uilleann piper, singer, and tin-whistle player, Dr. O’Brien Moran has been studying and playing Irish music for over two decades. He participates in symposia all over the globe, and been a regular teacher at the Willie Clancy Summer School in Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare.
His doctorate from the University of Limerick focused on the music of the Galway piper Paddy Conneely (c.1800-1850). Dr. O’Brien Moran has lectured at both the University of Limerick and Waterford Institute of Technology. He has recorded solo albums and appears on group albums such as James Kelly’s The Ring Sessions for Claddagh Records. Jim O’Brien Moran will be presenting at three of the events listed below.
(more…)

‘Feile an Earraigh 2008’

Féile an Phobail will celebrate their fifth Spring festival ‘Feile an Earraigh’ between the 7 – 10th February 2008 with a striking new venue in the city centre.  For the first time ever Féile have secured a marquee to be placed in Bank Square for you to enjoy this year’s electrifying line-up. The return to a Marquee will accompany the more traditional venues such as the breathtaking Clonard Monastry, An Cultúrlann and Conway Mill among others.
(more…)