Headline PerformersNTIF is proud to announce the following headline musicians for the 2009 festival. Liz Carroll & John Doyle
Liz Carroll has been amazing audiences since she won the Senior All-Ireland Fiddle Championship at the age of 18. She has been a huge and revered presence ever since, performing at festivals and concerts worldwide Liz’s compositions have most recently been covered by Irish groups Dervish and Four Men and a Dog, by soloists Sharon Shannon, Frankie Gavin, and Michael McGoldrick, and by Darol Anger’s American Fiddle Ensemble. Liz has twice been named one of Irish-America’s Top 100. John Doyle is one of the most talented, innovative, and in-demand musicians to come out of Ireland. With over 100 album appearances under his belt, John has soared to the top of Irish music worldwide. He is a founding member of the Grammy-nominated and twice Indie award-winning group, Solas. In 2000 John joined Riverdance star and friend, Eileen Ivers, for a series of tours, writing, and recording. Since then he has recorded two highly acclaimed solo records, Evening Comes Early, 2001, and Wayward Son, 2005. He is widely considered the finest guitarist in Irish music and in recent years has become highly regarded as a singer, songwriter, and producer. He has toured, recorded, and/or performed with such stars as English luminaries Linda Thompson and Kate Rusby, American bluegrass/Americana and Grammy winners Tim O’Brien and Alison Brown, as well as Celtic greats Cathie Ryan, Athena Tergis, Michael Black, Seamus Egan, John McCusker, Julie Fowlis, Karan Casey — the list goes on. Slide
Slide have braced many of the main stages & festivals at home and abroad; from the Cambridge Festival, England and from the headline act of the German Folk Festival Tour to the Inerceltic Festival of L’Orient, France. Formed with an all-star line up of award winners: Aogán Lynch, Daire Bracken, Mick Broderick, and Eamonn de Barra along with the powerful vocals of Andrew Murray, Slide are the living proof of how innovation need not compromise tradition. Be it a live performance or a carefully crafted recording slide will undoubtedly leave you on a high while taking you from sorrowful reflections to points of high spirited energy in between. From ‘best newcomers 2001’ to ‘Young Musicwide award winners 2006’ Slide continue to encapsulate and develop the ever growing, living tradition. With the recording of the new album ‘Overneath’ and the recent addition of powerful vocalist Andrew Murray Slide are set to become a tour de force on the world stage. Beoga
The bedrock of Beoga’s music lies firmly within the Irish tradition, but they are not afraid to incorporate other genres’ nuances into their music. Over the last couple of years Beoga have followed a busy European tour schedule, which included headlining various prestigious festivals, performing on the Guinness Irish Christmas tour of Austria, the German Irish Folk Festival tour along with Solas and Kevin Burke and the Irish Unplugged Tour of Holland, with the Fureys and Davey Arthur. The group have just released their 2nd eagerly awaited album ‘Mischief’ which has received excellent reviews across the board, including a 9.5/10 rating in Hot Press and has been tipped by Irish Music Magazine as a contender for album of the year. Beoga's US tour is sponsored in part by Culture Ireland www.cultureireland.gov.ie. Líadan
Irish music critic John O’Regan states, “Liadan’s rise
from local to national and international acclaim has been an inspirational
event,” and Irish Music Magazine says,” “The Liadan ladies are taking
the tradition in their hands and making it their own.” Vibrant,
talented, and engaging, Liadan joined The Chieftains on their 2007
World Tour, delighting audiences from Carnegie Hall to Kyoto! Ed Miller
In addition to his singing career, Ed is the host of a folk music program on Austin's NPR station, KUT-FM. Ed Miller is a performer who has learned his craft in musical venues on both sides of the Atlantic.... and a folklorist who brings his love of Scotland to every performance. Since 2000 he has led folk-music based tours to Scotland every summer. Ed will be joined at NTIF this year by Scooter Muse and Jil
Chambless. Johnny B. Connolly & Jeff Moore
Jeff Moore is a highly sought-after accompanist living in Austin, Texas and has performed with many of the foremost Irish and Scottish music ensembles and musicians in the Southwest. An accomplished guitarist and singer, Jeff has also accompanied international touring musicians such as Cape Breton fiddler Jerry Holland, Dublin-born Irish accordion legend James Keane, master Irish fiddler James Kelly and most recently Irish music icon Joe Burke. Jeff's solo recording "The Dove's Perch" released on Fleagull Records in 2006 was a long-awaited compilation of melodies and songs accompanied by some of traditional music's top players: James Keane, Brian McNeil, John Williams, and Mark Stone. Máirtin De Cógáin
He learnt his singing from many famous Irishmen such as Séamus Mac Mathúna , Danni Maichi Ua Súilleabháin, and Ciarán Dwyer. Story-telling has been in his family for generations, and when Máirtín's tales begin, his eyes move to the other world! Máirtín de Cógáin (pronounced MAR-teen day KOH-gan) performs in his native Ireland and all over the U.S…. and between and beyond, too! An infectious personality, he pleasantly commands the attention of any collection of people, as large as a concert hall or as small as a porch. The talents of the “Cork Kid” are boundless, having garnered recognition as a storyteller (the All-Ireland), singer (front man for the Fuchsia Band), dancer, and actor (most notably in the film The Wind that Shakes the Barley). A fluent speaker of Irish Gaelic and gifted teacher of Cork’s folk dances, Máirtín makes friends wherever he goes. In a very short time, Máirtín has made himself a regular at some of the most prestigious Irish festivals in the U.S. Jimmy Crowley
Jimmy is a living legend in Irish Folk music. He comes from Cork, in the south of Ireland, a city whose musical richness mirror's the city's diversity - a great trad music and song heritage as well as a legacy from music-hall vaudeville and high art musical traditions. Crowley draws on all of these traditions in fashioning his own unique performance style and repertoire and has collected extensively in the south of Ireland both as a ballad singer and as part of his academic degree. Jimmy Crowley has established himself not just as a tradition bearer, ethnographer and Gaelic language enthusiast but also as a stylish songwriter. His song about the sailing ship Asgard, My Love is a Tall Ship, was adopted as an anthem for sailors everywhere and was used in the documentary film on the Tall Ships’ Race made by the National Television service, R.T.É. Seven Nations
Individually, most of the band members grew up playing Celtic music as kids. They’ve only done their own music since the early ‘90s, late ‘80s even, but have always used our instruments, bagpipes and fiddle mostly. Seven Nations have toured in Europe, the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada. In Scotland, they played New Year’s Eve on the Royal Mile for about 40,000 people and additionally a National Trust-sponsored tour of Scotland. They also have the distinction of having played the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake for the Torch Lighting ceremony. The band regularly tours across the U.S., has appeared on ESPN, CNN World Beat, PBS and CBS, and has sold over 140,000 albums since 1996, without signing to a major label. The band is currently based out of Orlando, Florida. Four Men and a Dog
Four Men and a Dog made their debut performance as a band in 'Murphy's Bar', Dungiven, County Derry, in 1990 before going on to steal the show at the Belfast Folk Festival later that year, with a high-energy approach that combines furious traditional dance tunes with irreverant new music and inimitatible covers. “Barking Mad,” their debut album from Cross Border Media, snagged an award for Album of the Year from Folk Roots magazine in 1991, marking the first time that an Irish group had ever won the prize. Four Men & a Dog's music is enthusiastic and infectious. Four Men and a Dog are: fiddler Cathal Hayden, percussionist Gino Lupari, accordionist Donal Murphy, mandolinist and banjoist Brian McGrath, and lead singer Kevin Doherty. Barra MacNeils
Multi–award winners, the Barra MacNeils have released eight recordings including, Racket In the Attic (2002), Christmas Album (1999), Until Now (1997), The Question (1995), The Traditional Album (1994), Closer to Paradise (1993 – Certified Gold in Canada), Timeframe (1990), Rock in the Stream (1989), The Barra MacNeils (1986). In 2001, they released a DVD titled “Cape Breton Christmas” incorporating music from their live Christmas Concert Special (as seen on television), plus a visit to Cape Breton, interviews with the Barra MacNeils home at Christmas and music videos. Canada’s Celtic ambassadors, the Barra MacNeils continue to perform to sold out audiences throughout Canada, the United States, the Caribbean and the United Kingdom. From headlining major festivals, concerts, special guest appearances (Rita MacNeils CTV Christmas Special, performing with The Chieftains) television specials, film and television placement (Men with Brooms Soundtrack; Racket In The Attic) and their annual Christmas tour, they have set the course with a solid foundation for success. The Barra MacNeils one-hour Christmas Television Special (2000) continues to be broadcast on Country Music Television (CMT) and on the Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) network in the United States. |