Headline Performers

NTIF is proud to announce the following headline musicians for the 2009 festival.

Liz Carroll & John Doyle

Separately, they are exciting performers who take Irish music in daring, inventive new directions. Together, Liz Carroll and John Doyle are a tour de force … their music fiery and passionate, cutting edge, and altogether stunning. Their concerts are a feast of gorgeous tunes, songs, and striking musicianship served with a dash of good humor and aplomb.

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

"… named after the liveliest and most exciting of the tune rhythms from the South of Ireland. Consisting of the youngest acclaimed artists from bands that have stretched across a few generations, Dé Danann, Stocktons Wing, Liam Clancy's Band through to Danú, Slide collectively have honed an electrifying fresh sound building on their deep roots and teaching expertise in Irish Traditional Music and are taking Irish music to a new place.” --Dónal Lunny.

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

Beoga are a five-piece traditional band based in County Antrim. Their unique sound features the twin dueling accordions of Seán Óg Graham and Damian McKee, along with four times All-Ireland bodhrán champion Eamon Murray and pianist Liam Bradley. Extraordinary singer and fiddler Niamh Dunne completes the Beoga sound.

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

Called the "next major global force in Irish traditional music" (Earle Hitcher, Irish Echo) and "a treasured element of Irish culture," (Gno Mhaigh Eo) this "wildly talented" (Hot Press) all-woman sextet has won the Best Band award at Brittany's prestigious Festival Interceltique Lorient and Best Vocal Group award at Ireland's renowned International Pan Celtic Festival. These six music masters with Masters degrees in music are also accomplished singers and instrumentalists. In addition, each is a fluent Irish speaker, and sings in both English and Irish.

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

Ed Miller has been hailed as "one of the finest singers to come out of the Scottish Folksong Revival" and as "one of Scotland's best singing exports." Originally from Edinburgh, he has for many years been based in Austin, TX where he gained graduate degrees in Folklore and Geography at the University of Texas. He moved to the United States in 1968 to complete his graduate work in Geography, and later Folklore, at the University of Texas at Austin.

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

Johnny B. Connolly is well known as an exciting and accomplished button accordionist. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, Johnny has performed or recorded with such traditional greats as The Chieftains, Altan, Anam, and fiddler Kevin Burke. Now living in Portland, Oregon, he has toured with such artists as Kevin Burke and Ged Foley, Patrick Ourceau, Aidan Brennan, and Casey Neill. Johnny's CD, "Bridgetown," came out on Green Linnet Records in 2001 to universally glowing reviews. A sparkling collection of Irish tunes and French musettes, it was called "the most exciting solo debut from an Irish artist in years" by the Irish Herald.

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

Máirtín was found under a stone and brought up in a tree with many others! Of late he has been learning his trade from a little man named Larry the Leipreachán who is well learned in the ways of Éireann's past. Máirtín is a singing, dancing, story-telling bodhrán player! On the night of a full moon it is rumored he stands at the cross roads playing to the wind.

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 Crowley has been a central figure in the Irish folk scene since the enthusiastic reception of his debut album “The Boys of Fairhill” in 1977. With his band Stokers Lodge their mission was to present the street ballads of Cork city complimented by the ornate folk songs of the rural hinterland of Cork and Kerry in an exciting orchestration of uilleann pipes, concertina, autoharp, harmonium, mandolin, bouzouki and guitar in their native accent.

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

Seven Nations got their start in New York City in 1993 as the part-time project of then-bartender McLeod, under the name Clan Na Gael. Lead singer Kirk McLeod states that late 1993 "was the first time we added bagpipes to the show," and therefore the origin of the band as it is today. During summers, when McLeod was a kid, his folks sent him off to Scottish music camp to learn traditional bagpipe technique. Eventually, McLeod assembled a band from friends in Florida and recruits from Canada to play his songs.

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 a name for themselves with their eclectic and vivacious blend of traditional Irish music with a wide spectrum of other genres, including rap, Southern rock, jazz, blues, bluegrass, polka, country swing, and even salsa.

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

The Barra MacNeils are one of Canada’s premier Celtic groups from Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia. Steeped in Cape Breton tradition with strong Celtic roots and musical artistry, this diverse and talented family group continues to wow audiences around the world with their captivating vocals, harmonies, and extraordinary musicianship. Their much-anticipated new CD “All At Once” features the addition of siblings, Boyd and Ryan MacNeil, delivering an exhilarating and rejuvenated sound.

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.