May Music: Day Two

I realize this post is about twelve hours late, but I got home last night and wasn't good for much else besides sleeping.

Yesterday was day two of Music May, and the featured listen of the day was this.

 Niamh Ní Charra is a fiddler and concertina player from Co. Kerry, Ireland. She's an utterly brilliant player; she's toured all over the world with Riverdance and really just blows you over with her playing. She just released this album a couple of weeks ago as a tribute to Terry "Cuz" Teehan, an Irish musician from Kerry to emigrated to the US (Chicago, I think) in the mid-20th century. The album has a little bit of everything, and for those of you familiar with trad albums, you'll know that's unique. There are dozens of guest artists, lots of jigs and reels. But the thing that makes the album interesting is it's "Kerry-ness". There are a lot of polkas, too! (Which are not played that often in trad recordings). And there's even a song or two. Throughout the tracks, Cuz himself hums a few ditties to get the recording artists going (his voice comes from a recording he left Niamh when she was young!). All in all, it's a great trad album.

Niamh actually ran a FundIt campaign in order to get the project going last year, and I contributed and received this lovely note from the artist herself!


Super fun!

Anyway, Happy May 2nd (3rd now... eep!) and happy listening!