A SHARING OF TRADITIONS
This show sees the bringing together of Irish, Ulster-Scots, and Scots-Gaelic traditions.
Willie Drennan and his band will perform their spirited brand of Ulster-Scots trad on fiddles, flutes, accordion, big drums and bagpipes. This can include master musician John Trotter who might even bring out his green ‘Irish’ trombone for a New-Age fusion rendition of the Lambeg Rant Rap. Their performance has been described as “pure unadulterated raw Ulster Scotch”.
From the heart of the County Cavan Martin Donohoe and his merry band of talented musicians will complete the sharing of traditions. Virtuoso accordionist and raconteur Martin will deliver the pure Cavan version of pure Irish trad while blasting you with pure Cavan wit and wisdom. Martin doesn’t really have a band as such but has rather, a whole movement, of excellent Cavan musicians behind him known as NYAH.
Willie and Martin first shared a stage at a cross-border event in the Kilmore Hotel, Cavan in February 2010. Since then they have regularly performed together at events north and south of the border. Their shared stage performances have included the All Ireland Fleadh, Ballymena Arts Festival, Ranfurly Arts Centre, Castle Saunderson, St Patrick’s Day Festivals, Mullaghaboy Orange Hall, Dalriada Festival , Taste of Cavan, and onboard a River Bann cruise boat.
Their collaboration performance includes commemoration of the effects of World War One on both sides of the border. Willie and his Ulster Scots band have also collaborated with NYAH on their latest album entitled NYAH Culture Sharing: The Cavan Way Vol 1.
In 2010 Colum Sands from the famous County Down musical clan and harpist/Gaelic singer Maggie MacInnes, from the famous MacNeill musical clan of Barra, produced their much-acclaimed album ‘Seedboat’. They perform a stage showfrom this album: celebrating the ancient links between Ulster and Western Scotland while capturing the essence of that shared culture.
For larger auditoriums, and depending on availability, ‘Seedboat’ can be added to ‘A Sharing of Tradition’ - as performed at Braid Arts Centre in 2012
For more information on this show contact us here