CosCos

CosCosFleadh2005

Festival Program | Map of Venues

Artists performing at Festival 2010

Declan Folan,
Junior Davey
Brian Cunningham, Connemara
Colm O'Donnell
Johnny Connolly
PJ Hernon
Bush Céilí Band
Meatí Jó Shéamuis Ó Fátharta
Misneach
Declan O’Brien
Spraoi
Dartry Céilí Band
Kenny Donagher
Tulla Céilí Band
Maura Gilligan

Andrew 'Junior' Davey

Junior comes out of a family deeply rooted in the musical tradition of South Sligo. The strongest musical influence on Junior has obviously always been his father Andrew (Andy) Davey, who was an authority in the Sligo fiddle playing. But also bodhran-inspiration was available in the family: Junior's uncle, Ned Keane from Culfadda, was a recognised handstriker (old hand style bodhran playing) in the local area.

When it comes to contemporaries Junior is highly influenced by Johnny 'Ringo' McDonagh , Maurice 'Mossie' Griffin, John Joe Kelly and Ronan Moloney. Bodhran player and -maker Seamus O'Kane from Lower Drum, Dungiven, Co. Derry, had- and still has a positive and constructive impact on Junior and his music.

Junior has won the All-Ireland Championship on the bodhran five times (1990, 1993, 1996, 1997 & 1999) and is the most winning bodhran player at the All-Ireland ever.

The most important companion in Junior's musical life is without any discussion fiddle player Declan Folan from Doobeg, Doocastle, Bunninaden, Co Sligo. They have been playing as a duet for many years and have a telepatic musical understanding.

In 1995 the two friends recorded a wonderful album titled "Skin and Bow".

In 2005 Junior launched his first solo-album titled "A Sound Skin" which is his latest contribution to Irish traditional music.

Over the years Junior has worked as a guest musician and has contributed to several albums. He is an experienced teacher and have taught for many years in Ireland and abroad.



Declan Folan

Declan Folan (fiddle) from just outside of Gurteen, Co. Sligo. An All-Ireland Champion fiddle player. Declan is regarded as a fine exponent of the Sligo style. Declan has been enjoying wide acclaim as a concert artist and session musician.



The Dartry Céilí Band

Piano: Kevin Brehony, is from Castlebaldwin, Co. Sligo. A former All-Ireland Champion in his own right, he features regularly at sessions throughout the northwest region and beyond. Kevin is frequently called upon to play with bands for set dancing at home and abroad and has featured on many CD recordings.

Concertina: Michael Rooney, is originally from Scotstown, Co.Monaghan. He plays harp, concertina and has composed a number of suites of music, including 'The Battle of the Books' in 2006.He teaches in Coola Vocational School, Co.Sligo. Michael is Musical Director of the band.

Accordian: Sean Carrol lis from Teesan, Drumcliffe, Co.Sligo and is older brother of band member Noelle Carroll. He was taught to play accordion by his father Michael, originally from Co. Leitrim who played with the well known Leitrim Ceili Group. Sean played for a time with Sligo Senior Gaelic footballers in the 90's.

Fiddles: Declan Folan, from Bunninadden, Co.Sligo. He has recently returned to South Sligo having spent 8 years playing in the Canary Islands. Declan, also a former All-Ireland winner can now be seen playing regularly in sessions in Tubbercurry Gurteen and Ballymote.

Philip Duffy,originally from Tubbercurry he now lives in Carney Co. Sligo. He is the founder member of the band and is a former All-Ireland winner. Philip also has a solo album on general release called 'Killin Clocks'.

Mossie Martin originaly from Keadue, Co. Roscommon. He learned his music from Longford fiddler, Seamus Thompson. Mossie has played extensively abroad in recent years in Australia,France and Spain. He is a tutor with FETAC and currently teaches a PLC course in Traditional Irish music in Drumshanbo.

John Kilkenny form Belcarra, Castlebar, Co.Mayo,comes from a musical family. He has been involved in playing, competing, teaching and promoting Irish traditional music at all levels .He presents his own Traditional Irish Music programme on CRC F.M. in Castlebar.

Drums: Damien McGuinness from Dromore West, Co Sligo is 18 years old and the youngest member of the band. He also plays button accordion,bodhran and melodeon. Damien is PRO of Tireragh branch of Comhaltas and teaches Ceili drumming and bodhran in his local area.He was awarded first place in the 15-18 drumming competition in Tullamore.

Flutes: Noelle Carroll,from Teesan, Drumcliffe, Co. Sligo has just completed physiotherapy in UCD. Noelle has been involved in teaching the younger members at the Fred Finn CCE branch over the past 5 years and is also a member of the Fred Finn Senior Grupai Ceoil who received 1st place at this year's All-Ireland Fleadh in Tullamore.

June McCormack, from Ballintogher,Co. Sligo was recipient of the TG4 Young Traditional Musician of the Year Award in 1998 and has recently published an Irish flute tutorial entitled 'Fliuit'. She teaches in Scoil Naomh Bhride, Carns, Moneygold, Co. Sligo.

Cian Kearins comes from the Ballymote area, Co. Sligo. He is a school teacher by profession and has won senior all Ireland titles in Flute, Whistle and signing in recent years.


Declan O’Brien has been a frequent contributor of comic verse to Liveline’s Funny Friday on RTE Radio 1 for many years.

He won 1st Prize for Satirical verse at the Strokestown International Poetry Festival in 2005 and has been a judge in the same competition for the past couple of years. He has also been a prizewinner at the Bard of Armagh humorous verse competition and is He is a regular contributor and MC at the Baffle Poetry Festival in Loughrea, Co Galway.

Hailing from Dublin, Declan’s play “Saipan Summer” ran to critical acclaim in 2006 and he also co-wrote and directed the comedy sketch show “World Cup Me Arse” in 1994 which ran the Olympia Theatre. The album of the show reached number 4 in the Irish Album charts in 1995.

A CD of Declan’s monologues entitled “The Decalogues” was released in 2005 and plans are afoot for a follow up in the next few months assuming the country is still in business!



Johnny Connolly

After thirty-five years or so of playing the single-row melodeon, Johnny Connolly is an acknowledged master: Possibly the greatest Irish melodeon player ever, certainly the best of his generation, and the cause of renewed interest in the Irish melodeon style in Connemara and beyond.

The Connemara melodeon is a single-row diatonic instrument with ten treble buttons and two basses, the humblest of the free reed family that includes accordions, concertinas and bandoneons. In the various famines and depressions which have depopulated Connemara, when most valuables were either sold or exported by emigrants, the cheap little single-row melodeon was often the only instrument left behind to accompany dancers and singers alike. Two- and three-row melodeons are unknown in Connemara: all two-row instruments are chromatic (B/C, C/C#, or more recently D/D#), and are popular with younger players since the recordings of Paddy O'Brien, Joe Burke and others in the seventies and early eighties.

Johnny Connolly tried his hand at the two-row chromatic box for several years, but came back to the single-row because of its rhythmic qualities. The melodeon is an ideal instrument for dance music. The melody notes are well separated by the bellows action, and can be punched out as hard as you like because you don't have to keep moving your hand around the fingerboard. What's more, the basses are simple and reliable, providing just the right amount of accompaniment with a regular beat, provided you don't venture into foreign keys! Johnny Connolly's melodeon style makes the most of all these features: it has a very strong rhythm which comes from both hands, the ornamentation is restrained and well suited to the single-row box, and every note is clearly articulated on the right hand.

Johnny has made two recordings of melodeon music on the Spiddal-based Clo Iar-Chonnachta label, and both of them illustrate his deep understanding of the music and dance of Connemara. The first was released in 1991 ("An tOilean Aerach", CICD063, reviewed in LT3) to great acclaim throughout the traditional music world, and a mere seven years later we have the sequel, "Drioball na Fainleoige" or "The Swallow's Tail" (CICD127) on which Johnny is joined by accompanists Charlie Lennon and Steve Cooney who add even more bounce and lift. As well as the compelling dance music on melodeon, this recording features a slow air and a song plus a couple of tunes on the two-row button box, just for variety.

As a master of his instrument, Johnny Connolly moves happily between G, D, A, Bm, Em and other keys. He reckons to fit most tunes onto his ten buttons: the trick is to start in the right key! Most of the tunes he plays are in D, though: fitting a reel like "The Bucks of Oranmore" onto a melodeon is hard enough without trying to play in awkward keys. The fact that Johnny Connolly successfully plays most of the Irish repertoire on such a deceptively simple instrument has awakened considerable interest in the humble melodeon. The fact that Johnny plays this stuff stunningly well has inspired admiration and emulation wherever Irish music is played. The availability of two superb recordings of this master musician should spread his influence even further.



The very talented Colm O'Donnell is the founder of the Band (the Border Collies). Colm has not only established himself as being one of the finest traditional singers today, but has many all Ireland credits to his name on concert flute, tin whistles, as well as singing. He has toured with Comhaltas many times, and Music Network and has taught Traditional music and song all over Ireland and abroad.



Brain Cunningham
The Connemara native performed to huge acclaim in Korea recently while accompanying President Mary McAleese on a State tour and is a three-time winner of the Irish Oireachtas and a World Fleadh Champion. His new show ‘Fuaim Chonamara’ (Connemara Sound) which was a headline act at the hugely successful Volvo Ocean Race in Galway has just completed a sell out Nationwide tour including performances in the Cork Opera House, The Helix Theatre in Dublin and the Royal Theatre in Castlebar.

He has performed with Sharon Shannon, The Chieftains, De Dannan and Altan and now Ireland’s most talented and best known Sean Nós dancer Brian Cunningham is coming to Sligo to teach an exclusive Sean Nós workshop at the Cos Cos Music Festival on May 8th.

Sean Nós dancing, which started as a pastime for Brian Cunningham after being handed down as tradition from his grandparents in the days of house to house dancing, is now Brian’s full time profession.

Sean Nós dancing is highly improvisational, low to the ground, rhythmic dancing in which the performer is free to interpret the music. It is believed that American tap and Appalachian Clog Dancing can trace their heritage back to the Sean Nós dancing steps and styles of west Galway.



Meatí Jó Shéamuis Ó Fátharta is from Na hAille in Connemara, Co. Galway, and is a well-known and respected figure in music circles throughout this country and further afield. He is an acclaimed sean-nós singer, and won Corn Uí Riada, the All-Ireland sean-nós competition, in 2001. He is also a skilled instrumentalist, and plays flute and uilleann pipes.

Meaití's singing is very personal and he is almost at odds with other well known practitioners of this craft but this is what makes sean-nós so great, it is wide open to interpretation.



Spraoi's approach to traditional music is new and distinctive with great harmonies and dynamic arrangements of both old and new compositions.

Unique to the group is the playing of Paddy Hazelton who with his variety of percussion instruments produces a wonderful textured rhythm to the groups sound which is punctuated with explosive drumming techniques reminding us of his native Ugandan music. In contrast are the velvet sounding fiddles of the Leitrim girls Lillian Harris and Lydia Warnock, they weave intricate harmonies through the music and can move between traditional and classical styles with ease. Strong rich tones are the hallmark of Niamh Farrell and Elsa Kelly’s flute playing, Niamh’s vocals are stunning to say the least, her voice is recognized as potentially one the most promising in the traditional idiom. Elsa’s harp playing is the heart beat of the group marking their unique trad style. Jos Kelly on accordion and Ted Kelly on banjo and mandolin are the driving “ midfield “ of the group, with precision timing they bring a whole new energy to traditional music performance. All members of the band have received All Ireland medals and in 2007 were winners of the U-18 Grupa Cheoil as members of the Fred Finn C.C.E. branch and in 2009 were the winners of the prestigious Siansa Gael Linn competition which is recognised as the most important forum for young up and coming bands.

  • Paddy Hazleton (Percussion and vocals)
  • Elsa Kelly (harp, flute and vocals)
  • Niamh Farrell (lead vocals, and flute)
  • Jos Kelly (accordion, piano and vocals)
  • Lillian Harris (fiddle and vocals)
  • Lydia Warnock (fiddle and vocals)
  • Ted Kelly (banjo, tenor guitar, mandolin and vocals)


 


                        
CosCos 2010