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About Irish Music Forever
Recent Album: No Mermaid
Folksinger and songwriter Sin‚ad Lohan debuted in early 1995 with the album Who Do You Think I Am, scoring several major hits in her native Ireland with singles including "Sailing By" and the Bob Dylan cover "To Ramona." After touring the UK in support of avowed fan Joan Baez,
Lohan travelled to New Orleans to collaborate with producer Malcolm Burn; the resulting LP, No Mermaid, made the subject of an intense American major label bidding war, with the victorious Interscope issuing the record in mid-1998. ~ Jason Ankeny, All-Music Guide (From CDNOW
Biography)
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Recent Album: Affairs Of The Harp
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Recent Album: Otherworld
What started as a way to have some fun and stretch out their musical muscles has turned into a new career for the four men now known as L£nasa. The four musicians all knew each other from the Irish traditional music scene and "had enormous respect for each other's music,"
explains flautist Kevin Crawford.
Trevor Hutchinson and Donough Hennessy had played for years with accordionist Sharon Shannon, and Crawford had played with Moving Cloud. After "getting together now and again" to gig or record a tune, Crawford explains, the group began to
coalesce and gain recognition. For the members of the group, one of the main attractions of playing together was that "everyone has an equal shout. If one of us doesn't particularly like a piece, it doesn't get played. Consequently, we are playing tunes we all love."
One of their toughest tasks was coming up with a name for their unique group and new album. "It was much easier to record the album than it was to come up with the name," Crawford explains. When they realized that they needed a name, each member came up with a short list and
"L£nasa" -- the name of an ancient pagan feast held after the harvest -- made it onto two of the members' lists. Since they saw themselves as "a good-time band," Crawford says, "playing for our own enjoyment," "L£nasa" seemed to be a natural fit.
The members finally decided to give up their daytime jobs to pursue their musical career -- including fiddler Sean Smyth, who was a practicing doctor -- but the gamble paid off. "It really come good," Crawford recalls. "Especially on the release of the second album (Otherworld)."
One of L£nasa's distinguishing characteristics is its lineup of pipes, flute, and fiddle, which give it a "more flowing" sound than, say, an accordion-driven band. The group's desire to go beyond the canon of traditional Irish music is also reflected in their inclusion of a
klezmer tune on their first album and their explorations into the music of Cape Breton, Brittany, and Galicia.
"Everyone has an equal shout. If one of us doesn't particularly like a piece, it doesn't get played."
Crawford says the group wanted its second album to be slightly different from the first, so the band added more self-penned compositions and continued its iconoclastic ways. On "Miller of Drohan," the members slowed down a traditional tune and layered a flute and two cello lines
over the melody. Although it's a slow tune, it was included, Crawford says, because "you can't just keep throwing out really fast, high-energy music." Still, Crawford is quick to point out that "75 to 80 percent" of the group's music is based in local Irish traditions, "music that's
been played for centuries in kitchens and pubs."
Crawford says the members are always soaking in the tunes that are around them, looking for ones that will fit with the group's sound. "Sometimes you get surprised. Music is always very exciting like that ... That's why we're really excited to be in the band -- we don't see any
dead ends." (From CD-NOW feature article, "L£nasa Landing" By Marty Lipp)
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Celtic Heritage Article
Recent Album: Coolfin
Guitar and bouzouki player Donal Lunny is one of the pioneers of the Irish folk music revival. His first group, he told me, "was a very close imitation of The Clancy Brothers, [who] used to go to sessions every weekend in a pub called Pat
Downing's in Prosperous, where there were some traditional musicians. As there was no other accompanist, I had sort of carte blanche with my guitar. So I used to go there and play all night, play tunes, reels, and jigs, and whatever on my guitar. I'm sure I was dreadful at the
beginning. It improved as time went on, and I got involved in different groups in Dublin." One of those groups, Emmet Spiceland, also included Mick Moloney, now a champion of American-Irish music. In 1972, Christy Moore came home to Ireland to record an album. Lunny says, "He decided to collect musicians together. So he assembled whatever it was, eight or nine musicians, and we recorded Prosperous. And it just felt so good to everyone that we just
said,'Well, jeez, of course, yeah. Of course... let's form a band.' At the time, I was making jewelry, making a living at that, if you like, and it just stopped. Planxty started, and I never had time to do anything else since." In 1975,
Lunny left Planxty to join a group that never got off the ground. His career, however, bounced back nicely: "The Bothy Band was in existence at that point, not as The Bothy Band, but as an ensemble I think was known as 1691. I joined them, and we
became The Bothy Band, and off we went." Lunny toured with The Bothy Band and recorded four albums with them. When they broke up, it was back to Planxty and eventually to Moving Hearts: "Some of the most enjoyable moments I've had in the
last ten years have been with Moving Hearts. That did actually spring straight from the last version of Planxty. I wanted Planxty to sort of gear up, get a rhythm section in. Christy was interested in pressing on, so Moving Hearts started. That was an exciting time for me, both on
stage and in the studio, because it was the first time I had to deal with bass and drums on an ongoing basis." Since Moving Hearts, Lunny has been more active as a producer than as a musician, producing records by many of the top groups in Ireland and Scotland. Look for his name
as musician or producer, and you're sure to be buying an exciting, high-quality album. ~ Steve Winick, All-Music Guide (From CD-NOW Biography)
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